For CD...

[DonRico1967]

But yet still others WILL express their opinions too-- You cannot dominate EVERY THREAD can you???

[Dormouse]

Roman,

I really hope you see what kind of mess CD is making of this forum!

[Dormouse]

[Dormouse]

[freakmeout]

You're both idiots.

[Dormouse]

Yes, well everyone has there moments.

[DonRico1967]

I am not trying to argue with ANYONE.

Posts speak for themselves.

However, I do think or believe that we should all be able to say WHATEVER WE WANT (within reasonable limits, i.e : don't be mean, etc....)
WITHOUT the omnipresent spectre of ONE single member who jumps on everybody who does not agree with him.
On his good days he is a valuable and totally cool member who does post lots of great stuff.
On other days he is just mean and threatening and perhaps a little bit closed-minded.

Sorry, CD... But it IS TRUE.

[graceslick]

Hello, my strange friend.

I am going to say that I think your dislike of drugs is understandable, however I do tend to agree with others on here in saying that if you hate drugs and disagree with anyone taking them, well...you must have some sort of negative feeling towards the Airplane, surely.

I am perhaps an idiot, but I don't hate drugs or even consider them especially bad...

Here are my experiences with them...

1. My cousin died of a heroin overdose when she was 15 years old. I was 18. What a total waste of a life.

2. My best friend's step sister is 35 years old. She was on heroin for 20 years and has Hepatitis C and who knows what else. She stole from my best friend and her dad for years. She had a drug dealer boyfriend who beat her up. She made my best friend cry on numerous occasions. She was a prostitute and brought weird men into their house, and exposed me to all of this as well. Several times we'd go back to my best friend's house to find an ambulance in the driveway, with paramedics trying to revive the dealer boyfriend from yet another overdose. I used to wish he'd die sometimes to save my best friend all of this trouble. I used to plan to somehow lace his heroin with battery acid, but obviously never went through with it (I was about 17 at the time)

The step sister is not on heroin anymore, but instead now lives (oh sorry, EXISTS is a better word) on a cocktail of pretty much every other drug you could think of.

3. My partner who I have been with for 7 years, has Hepatitis C. Nobody knows this. Not my family, or any of my friends. She was on heroin for 2 years when she was 20 years old. She's 46 now and seems healthy, but I live in constant fear of her dying early from this condition. She did every drug under the sun but hasn't touched anything for so long, and yet...she still has this health problem and always will. I hate that. I can't stand that because of 2 years of being reckless and stupid, her life may be cut short and I may lose her.

4. I myself have never had a negative experience with drugs. I was lucky I guess. I'm pretty laid back and just went with it and enjoyed them on a social and fun and curiosity-based level.

One time though, my best friend and I were smoking pot and drinking tequila with another (younger and very naive) friend, and she freaked out completely on the pot. She tried to strangle us, was seizuring, saying she saw swirls, demanded we call an ambulance, etc. It was a total nightmare. I kept wishing she'd just relax. If she saw swirls, so be it. They won't hurt her, etc. (I think it was for attention mainly. I've never ever had any hallucinogenic experiences on pot and I don't think she really was either)

Anyway, my best friend had to go with the paramedics and this friend (now ex-friend) to the hospital cause she was a minor (the friend was 17, we were 20 at this point) and tell her parents what had happened. I had to stay behind the tell my best friend's dad what had happened. Mortifying.

Later on, I learned that that night I had chosen to be at my best friend's house getting stoned and potentially "poisoning" my other friend with pot she'd never tried before, I could have been at home spending quality time with my grandma...she was over at my family's house for dinner and it was the last time before she died. But I instead was getting stoned. Of course I don't blame myself as how was I to know I wouldn't see her again? But I wish, looking back now, that I'd have just stayed home.

So. All these bad experiences with drugs. And yet do I hate drugs? No. Of course not. How can you HATE a substance that on its own is nothing but powder, or bits of leaf...? It's what people do with drugs that cause the problems and pain.

[DonRico1967]

Chasin' Destiny-- YOU are the one who is OUT THERE my erstwhile friend...

Sometimes folks such as I disagree with you... On drugs... On religion...

Yet we both agree 100% about not eating dead animal flesh (meat)...

Maybe I have said something that inflamed you, but I was careful to never attack YOU personally.

YOU, my friend, went WAY OUT with personal invective, insults, erroneous allegations, slander

--YOU got unnecessarily NASTY, "bro"--

...and worst of all, the insane term:

"DRUGKIDDIE"

I am somewhat almost certain that such a decriptively-entitled creature does in fact exist, but it does not apply to a person such as 40-year-old vegetarian me.

Drugs? Yes I have done them. Some are good, some are VERY BAD...

Now I do not do drugs anymore.

But I did just smoke a fat bong of the righteous green bud!

[graceslick]

Ok, CD, I can accept that we're all different...

Maybe I'm stupid for being so relaxed and tolerant about drugs considering my experiences...

I just am totally of the opinion that every single situation is different and you can't place total responsibility on a SUBSTANCE. Or religion for that matter.

There would BE no problems with drugs or religion if people didn't exist to cause these problems. You see?

There would be no religion at all actually, since religion is a totally man-made construction designed to keep us all living in denial about what's actually important in life.

Spirituality is good, but I find religion screws it all up in a lot of people. It contradicts its very purpose, with all its rules and practices. It causes segregation and isolation and judgement. All very detrimental to individual and societal happiness, I believe.

Drugs to me range from aspirin and children's cough medicines to heroin and ice, with many in between. Are all bad? No. They're all exactly the same. It's what we do with them that counts.

[graceslick]

Oh, Roman, you're actually employed on this site by the Airplane?? I didn't know that. *gotta get with the times* Have they mentioned me? lol Am I a trouble maker here cause I got into that thing with CD?