THE "GATEWAY THEORY" IS ALIVE AGAIN AND QUITE VALID

Not the one the government tries to sell, about marijuana leading to
heroin.

No, the gateway theory with teeth, is the one where the government
itself encourages us to use heroin.

The Bush economy, though supposedly becoming more robust for the stock
market and corporate profits is a big dud when it comes to actual jobs
for lower and middle class workers. I know, I have been unemployed
for almost two years now. I have managed to get by on unemployment
benefits and selling George Bush Voodoo Dolls.

However, there will be no more unemployment checks for me and the
voodoo business is real slow. So I've been hitting the streets,
trying to get a job, any damned job at all. Pickings are slim, offers
are rare and damned if they don't want me to piss in a bottle.

Here's where the genuine, "gateway" theory rears it's ugly
head.

I was a love child, a child of the sixties. We did drugs every chance
we got, we considered ourselves explorers, set on finding new ways of
grooving, of reconciling and rectifying our society and ourselves.
Acid, 'shrooms, cactus, pot, pills, powders and the occasional
toad-back were our tools. Progress was our most important product. I
did not take up alcohol in a serious manner till I was about 25 years
old, having quit most hard drugs, but left in the lurch by my first
wife I then decided it was my manly duty, according to Hank Williams,
to drown my sorrows at every opportunity.

I was lucky that heroin held no sway over me, I simply hated the
stuff. But alcohol, wonderful, wonderful alcohol held sway, nearly
destroyed my liver and my life, led me to car wrecks, traffic tickets
and violence. (I quit alcohol on May 8, 1985 and now thank my lucky
stars for each day without the "elixir of life," which would by now
have robbed me of life.)

I like having a roof over my computer and I'm certain there will be no
DSL hookup under the bridge, I'm going to flip burgers, steal a job
from a 20 year old or shovel sand, whatever it takes to bring in some
bucks. That's where the idea of heroin, cocaine or a bit of
methamphetamine starts to sound like an intelligent move, (the only
logical option the government wants to offer me). Take any of these
hard drugs on Friday and piss clean on Monday. This is really
depressing for a 30-year veteran of Houston's oil and gas concerns.
It's enough to make you want to do drugs.

If I smoke a joint today, the residual of the drug will remain in my
system for a month. The residual is a marker, a measure of certain
drug use that cannot be rid from your system, though you can try to
mask it. Use chemicals to mask it and they bust you first for those
chemicals and then a more refined test for drug metabolites. You can
even buy fake, body temp, clean-urine filled penises if you want to go
that far. But I need the cash so bad, can take no chances and it
would just be easier to give up pot. I already go several days at a
time without, and so it will be a psychological finesse more than
anything. Hell, I gave up Marlboros this New Years after 40 years or
so. I'm certain it can be done.

But what then? Alcohol wants to kill me and if I pick up the bottle,
I'm certain to pick up the cigarettes again and at my age I'll really
be on that fast and "slippery slope" to hell the prohibs love to talk
about. In the end, they will have taxed me, lied to me, killed me and
then they get the honor of a page in the history books for their efforts.

Momma government pretends to think she knows what's good for all of
us. All knowing, all seeing, the drug czar knows just how much
medicine is right for you and is willing to kill you and your children
to keep you from taking that lethal dose.

Prohibitionists, in the beginning were misguided nannies and nurses,
preachers and teachers, do-gooders and concerned citizens (and a
couple of rich, influential and demented weasels).

Now, they are a pack of about a million lying weasels, devouring our
children, stealing our tax dollars and destroying our international
relations.

Presidents, congressmen, district attorneys, police chiefs, corporate
Svengallis and "just doing my job" lackey cops, guards and urine
testers, nearly all, knowing full well the truth regarding the utter
hopelessness of prohibition, take that paycheck just the same.

At this time, the DEA is ratcheting up their efforts in Kabul to
perhaps try to slow the advance of the booming Afghani opium poppy
fields. The price of nearly pure heroin on the east coast of the US
is now $3 per hit. Recent Congressional investigations show bin Laden
makes millions from heroin sold to our children. The Congress
therefore wants to arrest more of our children and increase the price
of heroin for bin Laden.

We must do something. We must work to bring a more practical approach
to how we deal with the harms of drugs. More importantly we must
determine how we can better deal with the much more destructive harms
of drug prohibition. Please join our efforts.

Project Housterdam!

Here in Houston, each Tuesday, it is possible to speak to the mayor
and the city council at 1:30 PM

Each week, we will send representatives to educate, cajole, inform,
berate, leverage and otherwise change the focus and the implementation
of the drug war in Houston, Texas. We welcome representatives of any
organization. We will bring in as many professionals and notables in
the coming months as we can, to include if possible Ed Rosenthal,
Oakland's "Guru of Ganja", Dr. Al Robison, the Distinguished Professor
of Pharmacology at UT Health Science Center (the man who first
discovered there is no lethal dose for marijuana) as well as assorted
authors, politicians, judges, etc.

We Need YOU!

Once a month take a Tuesday off from work. Have a speech of 3 minutes
OR LESS. (You want to "get it out". Practice. Better a bit short
than too long. We want them to know the truth about marijuana will
never go away and that it in fact gets stronger every day.)

We'll capture your audio presentation and any feedback from council
and mayor and make extracts part of the daily 4:20 Drug War News and
Cultural Baggage (Tue 6:30 pm) on KPFT radio, 90.1 FM. We'll track it
all online and store your visit to council there as an audio file. We
must all register and vote and show we are numerous, serious and very
damned real. We will share progress with and from the Drug Truth
Network Affiliate cities as well.

For God's sake, the people of Oakland California just planted a half
million, high-grade pot seeds in front of their city hall. We are
American's right? Our "in the Harris County jailhouse" reporter, Mr. K
just got sentenced to 4 years in state prison for 1 millionth of a
gram of pot in his system, based on a report from a crime lab that was
disbanded for lack of credibility.

Breaking the Chains Conference

I just nudged the intro to our half hour show to: "broadcasting from
the gulag filling station of planet Earth". That is what Houston is,
a bigoted, round up the mustangs on the prairie and drive 'em to the
big house kind of town.

Next month, we will be focusing on the racial bias of the drug war.
The Drug Policy Alliance is sponsoring a conference here in Houston at
TSU on April 1, 2 and 3. The "Breaking the Chains Conference" will
take a good look at the mechanisms of this drug war and examine how
they impact people of color. Houston was chosen for this event
because there is not a better example on planet Earth of institutional
racism run amok.

If you would like to learn more about Project Housterdam and how you
can participate please call me at 281-752-9198. Or visit:
http://www.unvarnishedtruth.org. The mechanisms of drug prohibition
are in place to assure continuance of white domination in America and
the world. If you want to learn more about the Breaking the Chains
Conference, please visit http://www.breakingthechains.info