Howard Meitiner, President and CEO of Phoenix House, has an OpEd in the Huffington Post: The Argument Against Marijuana
His thesis is a variation on “Think of the children!…”
with the unspoken, but obvious subtext:
“… without whose exploitation we’d lose most of our $100,000,000 budget.”
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We started http://www.12stepplanet.com to help combat the wide spread addiction. We have no idea why people would want to keep secret what has saved their life and could very well save someone elses if they heard your story.
Kelly, hon, I think you stumbled into Pete’s house here by mistake, the twelve step meeting is in the Church down on the corner there. This is Pete’s Couch, and we’re all pretty much stoned right now. But feel free to sit down. Don’t mind the mess, we’ve all been here for quite a while… I think there’s a seven-up in the fridge there.
Here… I’ll scoot over Kelly, there’s always room for more on the couch. It’s a realllllllly big couch.
But be prepared… we talk a lot. Tell us about it… how’s things with Kelly?
and I comment, tongue firmly implanted in cheek. That’s soooo spam. “to help combat the wide spread addiction.” Or a Russki, hard to tell. Where’s Joe McCarthy when ya need him? He’d figger it out. With J. Edgar’s help of course.
“We have no idea why people would want to keep secret what has saved their life and could very well save someone elses if they heard your story.”
Kelly, it’s very simple, check out Tradition 12: Anonymity is the spritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
It’s there for our own protection and to prevent us from actively seeking a pat on the back, as you appear to be doing. Bigshotitis is a recognized condition for most addicts.
Your invitation to hand out “12 Step Planet” advertising material “at your 12 Step Group” is crass in the extreme. Here’s Tradition 6: An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any
related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
I don’t know what your groups are like but i know that ones where I live would tell you in no uncertain terms what you could do with your marketing material if you tried to hand it out at a meeting.
My suggestion to you is to take the cottonwool out of your ears and put it in your mouth. You’re doing yourself no favors acting as a shill for the commercial “not for profit” treatment industry.
kelly, why not take your superior self for a 12 step walk on an 11 step pier, hmm? There’s a good girl.
Why do the drug warriors bother? Do they win any converts with crap like this? Hell, do those guys EVER win converts? Really. Have you ever met anyone who went from being a reform supporter to a prohibitionist? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this kind of thing COSTS them supporters. And I’m being completely serious. Which scenario do you think is more likely: (1) a know-nothing finally gets a clue after stumbling across the comments section (which, to put it mildly, has not been kind to Meitiner) OR (2) that this clown actually wins someone over with his recycled garbage?
The Newt
I imagine that such efforts are undertaken while their ‘treatment specialist’ is standing behind them at the terminal. Or, it’s some kid who sadly believes DARE propaganda and is doing this for ‘extra credit’. In any event, it doesn’t rate the attention it’s getting here.
Beating up on wide-eyed, clueless intellectual cripples that vapidly stagger into the trenches where the grizzled, battle-hardened veterans reside isn’t very sporting…unless they’re obnoxious. Then I spare no expense, ammo-wise.
As to ‘Kelly’? To quote the immortal WC Fields, “Go away, kid, ya bahthuh me…”
Life is too short to waste it on unnecessary drug treatments for unconfirmed marijuana addictions. Especially if you’re a kid.
Rehab really does exist on its own planet. By contrast, commitments to mental institutions require court hearings to deflect fraudulent attempts by others to arbitrarily commit people they don’t like, or don’t care about for one reason or another. Yet no hearing of proof of addiction is required to wrongly restrict or confine someone for smoking marijuana. It’s clear from the packaged ramblings of Phoenix House CEO Howard Meitner that once a marijuana smoker is sent to drug rehab, the stigma of addiction is speciously applied after the commitment and with no appeal to empirical evidence.
Actual court hearings for an alleged marijuana addiction would face an immediate obstacle. The crafted addiction model for cannabis that’s been built up over the last 20-years to justify disenfranchising marijuana users can just as easily be applied to addictions to religion, sports, and so forth; none of which are likely to fly in rehab world. Certainly the Twelve Step Method and 12stepplanet.com would be in deep trouble.
Hacks like Howard Meitner are the real threat to society, not marijuana. When and if the ‘justice’ system can eradicate con artists like Meitner will determine whether we have true justice in the United States, or merely a façade of fakery designed to prop up idiots, corporatists and political parasites.
That’s a good point. If addiction is a disease, as the drug warriors generally concede and their goal is just to get us poor cannabis addicts the help we so desperately need, why is the criminal justice system necessary to achieve that goal? We already have involuntary commitment procedures for people who pose “a danger to themselves or others,” are “gravely disabled,” or satisfy some other similar standard. Of course, the “problem” with those procedures is that they’re hard, i.e. it’s a very high standard to meet and it requires a clear showing with actual evidence. But the fact that it’s hard to have someone involuntarily committed is BY DESIGN. Ordinarily, we recognize that locking someone in an institution or forcing them to accept treatment against their will is an extreme intrusion on their liberty that can only be justified in extreme cases. Why does that go out the window if they’re caught possessing the wrong dried plant matter?
“Since when is ‘public safety’ the root password to the Constitution?” — C. D. Tavares
I had to put that up at the site Serv
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I recall one time when I flew to Oakland. I deplaned, fetched my luggage, and found the shuttle to the hotel. On the shuttle I met a man bedecked in every piece of Boston Red Sox paraphernalia imaginable save the big foam [my team] is number 1 hand. However, I’m certain it was in his luggage. My personal motto being “better a smart ass than a dumb ass” I noted in the most sympathetic voice possible how regrettable it must be to accidentally get on the wrong plane and accidentally end up some 3000 miles from home. He found that amusing, and filled me in that the Red Sox were playing a match against the Oakland Athletics that evening, and that he spent his life following the Red Sox from city to city in order that he might see all of their games. I didn’t bother to ask him if he spent winters in Japan following one of their professional baseball clubs, and also managed to not say “get a life dude!” out loud.
This might be a good book: http://www.drrez.com/
Ooh, Michael has a book out…I believe it will be worthwhile. I’ll be checking it out.