Blunt Force Trauma

Has anyone ever tried to reason with a marijuana addict about the destructive nature of marijuana? Wow it can be akin to something like watching the movie “Must Love Dogs”, long and frustrating.

Although denial exists to an extent in most addictions it seems to be somewhat of a religious right for the marijuana addict. You don’t really run into too many meth addicts that will defend meth. Most marijuana enthusiasts have spent a great deal of time convincing themselves of the many benefits of marijuana use. My personal favorite is that it is “all natural”, or that God made it and so he meant for us to use it. No joke I get that quite a bit and it always makes me laugh. The bird flue is also all natural and is of the most basic structures found in nature, yet few people are looking to contract it.

Another favorite marijuana rationalization is that they are not hurting anyone. If this all sounds familiar it is probably because all marijuana addicts attended the same seminar called, “Relieving Those Pesky Pangs of Conscience.”

One thing that any addict needs to understand is how their conscience works. Conscience is a good thing and we all, I mean, most of us have one. Let me ask a question. What is the most solved crime in the United States? Any guesses, if you said murder you would be correct. An interesting bit of trivia but more important is why murder is the most solved crime in the US. No it is not because the Police spare no expense or resource in solving a murder, although this is true in most cases. The reason murders are solved is because of conscience. Murder apparently can be very offensive to the human conscience and when a murder is involved people more readily confess any information pertaining to the murder. The hardened criminal may have a conscience immune to robbery, rape etc. but the taking of a life sometimes does not sit well.

Although your conscience may cause you some psychological torment, be glad you have it. If you didn’t have a conscience you would be in the same boat as the serial killer, the only thing keeping the serial killer from committing atrocities is fear of being punished.

An extreme example to be sure, but what do we do when we are faced with that uncomfortable feeling that tells us that what we are doing is wrong. Of course we immediately begin to rationalize what we have done, we make excuses for our behavior. The other thing people do, the psychologically healthy thing to do is to admit you made a mistake and decide to not repeat it.

Let me explain the danger of rationalizing away your guilt. All of us have a moral code of ethics that is indelibly etched on our consciousness, although the moral code may very from person to person we all have one and we on a daily basis compare moral choices we make to our own moral code. The trouble begins when we make choices that do not comply with our personal moral code. When we do this we are forced to ether re-write the code to exempt the previously offensive conduct or we have to feel bad and admit that our actions were bad according to our own measure.

If we choose to rationalize our actions and re-write the code then we have opened the door to question a myriad of our ethical standards. I have conversed with many methamphetamine addicts who tell me that meth is the Devils drug. They call it the Devil’s drug because they continually do things that are contrary to their moral code. Their code is in such a state of constant reformation they don’t really know what they are or are not capable of, and this is a scary place to live.

More often than not the code is not changed drastically overnight. For example, let me relate a story I was told by an associate. This individual growing up had some very strong moral values concerning illicit drugs. He was very much against using drugs of any kind. I am not sure of the circumstances but this individual was offered a puff of a marijuana joint. He was told that if he took one puff he could at least say that he had tried it and if did not ever smoke it again that was fine. Well he did take one puff however once he crossed that line each subsequent line became much easier to cross until in a relatively short period of time he had moved on to try cocaine and heroine.

When you tell yourself that you will just try it this once you are saying much more than that. You are also telling yourself, “I have no hard and fast rule where drugs are concerned I have changed my stance from never partaking of any drug too. I will take it on a case by case basis, or in other words maybe I will maybe I won’t.”

Now that we understand why we justify lets look at the effects that marijuana produces. There are some great studies out there about how marijuana tends to widen the gaps between the synapses in the brain and causes short term and long-term cognitive degeneration. But I am not going to discuss the physical damage caused by marijuana nor will I further belabor my point about it being a gateway vehicle to other drugs, because I believe there is something intimately more sinister about marijuana use.

Marijuana is a social and psychological retardant. When I was teaching general outpatient substance abuse classes I would inevitably have one of the marijuana addicts pipe up and inform the class that they did not belong in the class because they only smoked marijuana. I had this happen quit frequently so I usually followed the same procedure. I would ask the person how old they were. Then I would tell them I bet I can guess how old you were when you started smoking marijuana. Inevitably they would accept the challenge. I could always guess within a year. When they would ask me how I knew I would respond thusly. (Question) “Where do you live?” (Answer) “My parent’s house.” (Question) “How did you get here?” (Answer), “I rode my bike.” (Question) “What is your favorite pastime?” (Answer) “Playing x-box.” (Question) “How old are you again?” (Answer) “I am 35.” Then I would say no you are 15 the same age you were when you started smoking weed. .



The catastrophic symptoms of marijuana use in my opinion although severe are not the physical symptoms. The marijuana addict’s social and mental development grinds to a halt shortly after the addiction begins and although time passes this now 35 year old marijuana user instead of being concerned with adult issues is functioning on the level of a 15 year old. If you question this just find you a 35 to 45 year old pothead and ask him/her what their goals are, what they hope to accomplish and what they consider to be their greatest accomplishments.

The Bible Dictionary in the King James Version of the Bible defines damnation as a condition devoid of progress or an inability to move on. Marijuana is in more ways than one a gateway drug and in a very real sense it is the gateway to hell.

Shackled by Deeds in My Jail Made of Choices

I have personally spent a great deal of time working professionally with individuals who struggle with addictions, more specifically addictions to controlled substances. I have given presentations to many parent groups, school groups, government entities and addicts. I have taken occasion to pick their brain so to speak in an effort to understand how one arrives at complete slavery to a particular drug.
There is in every case a string of choices, decisions that have led to other decisions, which in turn led to other decisions, each choice locking them into a pattern of conduct difficult to break.

Let me be more specific and use the life of an actual person, who for our purposes we’ll call Jim. Jim grew up in a typical middle class Utah household and was raised by loving religious parents who, no doubt did their best to give Jim the tools he needed to make good decisions. Jim married a nice girl, and was able as a young father to start his own business, which became very successful. Eventually Jim was able to build a big house in a nice neighborhood. He stayed active in church, in his children’s lives, and was always attentive to his wife. Jim at a point in his life made the choice to use methamphetamine. No doubt that this decision was reached through another string of bad choices. The meth use at first seemed to help Jim cope with his busy schedule. Each time Jim made the decision to use he forged another iron bar for his personal prison cell. With each use Jim’s dependence on the drug grew making the next choice to use or not use many times more difficult. In a short period of time, his work began to suffer as his attentions turned toward his new taskmaster. Jim’s loving wife struggled as she watched her once loving and attentive husband become abusive to her and their children. She watched as he lost the business that they had worked so hard to build up, then the house. Finally when the ultimatum was given he chose the master that he was serving over his family.

Jim spent the next couple of years in and out of jail as he racked up several felony charges for possession of Meth and theft, having been reduced to steeling construction tools and pawning them to buy his next fix. Jim’s string of choices culminated in a jail cell. The reason I know so much detail about Jim’s life is because I read all of this in a suicide letter as I was investigating Jim’s death. Jim had hung himself in his jail cell just one week before his release date. The last sentence in the letter stated something like this “ I have no choice but to kill myself, when I get out I will use again”.

Let us take a close look at Jim’s level of personal freedom. Before his decision to use meth, his options were almost without limit. He could have decided to do a million different things with his life. Jim’s personal freedom left a myriad of doors open to him, including the most important, the opportunity to raise and have a positive impact on his children, not to mention the opportunity of a loving and lasting relationship with his wife.

Perhaps you can see where I am going with this story. Each time Jim made that conscious decision to use he also gave up some of his personal freedom literally enslaving himself. Like a sinister game of chess, the pieces of Jim’s life were given away the loss of each piece making it that much harder for him to win until Jim’s prison cell was complete and emotionally he was trapped in a cell forged of a million choices. Unfortunately Jim used the only bit of freedom he felt he had left to perpetuate all of the other bad choices, he chose to give up.

D-Nile Not Just a River in Egypt

If you are a parent or you have a significant other whom you think may have a substance abuse problem, or if you think there is no problem - take just a moment and read this self-help guide for enablers.

The first step is to determine if you have a problem with enabling a loved one who is careening down the road of addiction. The most tell-tell sign that you have a problem is that you will not want to read further. Please keep reading and do your best to answer honestly.

• Have you ever avoided talking about the problem because it makes your loved one mad?

• Have you ever found what you thought was drug paraphernalia in you house and just threw it away and pretended like you didn’t know what it was?

• Have you ever threatened the police with a lawsuit for arresting a loved one for drug or alcohol issues?

• Have you ever suspected that your loved one was high and been too afraid to confront them?

• Have you ever threatened a Doctor with a lawsuit because he refused to prescribe your loved one pain medication?

• Do you keep track of all of your loved ones court dates and fine payments for them?

• Do you lie for your loved one when they fail to comply with court orders and or treatment recommendations?

• Do you lie for your loved one when they have a dirty drug test?

• When people notice peculiar behavior about your loved one do you make excuses?

• Do you cave into manipulation because it is easier to believe the lie?

• Do you buy varieties of alcohol so your loved one will drink at home?

• Have you ever told your loved one that it was not their fault?

• Have you ever blamed legal problems on over zealous police?

• Have you ever smelt marijuana smoke on your teen and believed them when they said that they were just with some one who smoked it?

• Have you ever called your loved ones work and lied because they were too hung over to come in?

• Have you ever justified your loved ones actions saying, “Everyone experiments when they are young.”

• Do you ever watch programs with drug related content and feel worm and fuzzy inside when they minimize and joke about drug use?

• Do you ever drive your loved one to their heroine dealer because they are sick?

• Do you hide excessive alcohol containers from friends and family?

• Do you apologize to your loved one when they suffer consequences from their addiction?

• Have you ever read an obituary of a youth and the parents wrote that they died of sleep apnea, but you know better because the deceased is a friend of your loved ones and you know they died of an overdose? If so read it carefully chances are you will be writing the next one.

Fine and Punishment

If you have ever been on the receiving or the giving end of the criminal justice reform machine and you are honest with yourself you have probably, “although under your breath” ask the question, “are we really trying to make them productive members of society?”

I have ten years as a Police Officer under my belt and I served most of my time working narcotics. If I would have read this article 5 years ago I would undoubtedly have said, “What a bleeding hart”. However I have also for the last several years been involved in treating substance abuse offenders. I discovered something significant. Your attitude can quickly change when a loved one gets caught in the criminal justice rinse cycle.

Before I go on let me clarify my views. In my opinion there are a group of people running around out there that need to be in jail and that the only rehabilitation suitable is to keep them away from society. However many of these offenders end up in court ordered treatment, probation, Drug Court, work diversion, and whatever else there is out there. I also believe that there are a great number of offenders that are reform able addicts. In fact I know many of them and can assure you there are many addicts that want to reform, try to reform, and indeed do reform. I have scene both sides of the coin and what I tell you is the truth.

Let me paint a familiar portrait. John Doe 26 years old works as a framer for a construction company. John started smoking marijuana when he was 15 when he became depressed due to a parental divorce. He quickly became addicted and has used marijuana ever sins whenever he needed to cope. Marijuana opened the door for some new drug experiences involving methamphetamine which he now uses approximately once a week.

The drug use makes John somewhat unreliable at his job so he finds himself bouncing from place to place and never moving up or getting pay increases. Then John gets pulled over leaving the bar one night, the astute officer quickly recognizes marijuana paraphernalia in the vehicle and later finds a meth pipe with meth residue on it. Now John is thrown head first into the criminal justice system. The officer rightly charges john with possession of meth a felony, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia a misdemeanor, and of course DUI. Well John had it Cumming and at this point there is a great potential for reformation.

John undoubtedly has a drug problem and the public defender is going to use that defense as a means of getting the weighty felony reduced to a misdemeanor. This happens and John is ordered to get an assessment and follow recommended treatment as well as have an interlock device installed on his vehicle. He is also placed on probation, loses his drivers license, and has to do 10 days in the county jail. Now all of this seems reasonable after all he committed a felony and he was driving impaired.

Now before we as a society pat ourselves on our backs and congratulate each other for such masterful handling of the situation, let’s see how all of this plays out for John. First Johns’ car was State impounded due to the DUI statute, his already precarious financial situation makes the possibility of getting his vehicle out of impound very difficult. John has lost his license and is not supposed to drive he now has to put an interlock devise on his vehicle that will cost approximately $2400.00 depending on the location. John has lost his job because he was replaced while he was serving his jail sentence; a new job will not come easy because most blue collar work requires a valid driver’s license and a vehicle to drive to the job site. John was living pay check to pay check anyway and now his other bills are backing up. John decides if he is going to survive he will have to drive regardless of the suspended license.

John finally gets a job but he is now hopelessly behind on his court fines and he has racked up several other fines for driving on the suspended license. John scraped the money together for the assessment but now has a warrant for non compliance because he is late on his fine payments and he has not been able to pay the money to attend treatment. Before long John is picked up for driving on suspension and arrested on the warrant, the judge wants him to know that he was serious about the order for treatment and the fine payment so He lets john sit in jail for a few days. John has lost his job again and now he is behind on payment for several courts he still needs to come up with the money for treatment and to get his vehicle out of impound so he can try and get a new job.

Faced with the abundant financial stress and hopelessness brought on by this impossible cycle John moves even deeper into the drug use. Throwing up his hands John embraces the drug culture and he will repeat this cycle for years.

We would all like to breathe a sigh of relief and say boy am I glad that I am not a low functioning druggy. We all have choices and obviously john has made some very bad decisions, but even if John is low functioning don’t we still want him to succeed and to overcome his problems, isn’t that what the system was trying to accomplish.

Maybe you are thinking that John made his bed and now he can lay in it, but if John was your son, brother or dad would you be as willing to write him off as deserving the outcome of his choices. Let me assure you John was someone’s Son, brother and dad. And so now the cycle did not end with John but is perpetuated as I see John’s kids entering the deadly cycle.