Jan. 23, 2000
Austin, Texas, USA
11:25am. For the past three days, I have been working on getting the Big Bend journals on the site.
Friday night, I played Legos with Jack, watched the lunar eclipse and South Park- bigger, longer, and uncut.
Yesterday, I played Frisbee with Jack, watched James and the Giant Peach, and Pocahontas while editing images on the computer.
Near the end of James and the Giant Peach, James had an inspiring dialogue with his two witchy, evil aunts, who were his captors before he set off on his voyage across the Atlantic on the giant peach. The scene takes place on the street at the foot of the Empire State Building with a police officer and a large croud watching:
Skinny aunt: The poor boy needs his medicine... so we will just have to take him.
Fat aunt: ...And the peach!
Skinny aunt: Back to our cozy little house on the hill. Come along. You’re going home with us.
James: No I’m not!
Skinny aunt: What did you say?
James: I said, "No - I’m - Not!" I hate that house and that cold room. And how I was always hungry.
Skinny aunt: Alright! That’s enough!
James: And how you beat me!
Fat aunt: He’s lying!
James: And telling me I was nothing.
Skinny aunt: Shut up! Shut Up!
James: No. Not this time! I flew a giant peach across the ocean. I landed on top of the tallest building in the world. I made it. I’m not the one who is nothing--- you are! And I’m never going back with you.
Skinny aunt: This is something he dreamed up!
James: Well... maybe it started that way ....as a dream, but doesn’t everything-- those buildings, these lights-- this whole city? Somebody had to dream about it first. And maybe that’s what I did. I dreamed about coming here, but then I did it!
Yesterday, the article about me in the Reader was distributed across the province of New Brunswick. The front page was covered with a photo of me in the Baja, holding a fish on the tip of my spear gun and a warm sunset in the back ground. The story and photos filled seven pages.
This morning, I was very interested in reading this email:
MAX,
Hey there. I doubt you remember me - you must get a ton of email - but I sent
you an email about a year or so ago regarding some comments you made about a
homosexual guy you came across in your travels. Anyway, Over the past year
I’ve been checking in to your site periodically to see what you've been up to
and I often found that you hadn’t updated it for months on end until last
month when I was happily surprised to see that you were back online. After
reading through your most recent journal entries I am again finding myself
compelled to write you another email with some of my thoughts about what
you’ve been writing about. Before I get into it, please keep in mind that I am
NOT trying to preach to you or anything like that - it’s just how I feel about
the topic and you can do what you like with the advice - but I just thought
I’d share it with you.
Doubtless you’ve been getting some emails about the topic - your use of
marijuana. Unlike one of the emails you put up on your site that you received,
my views on the subject have nothing to do with religion at all - I am an
agnostic (just a little full disclosure so you know where I’m coming from).
Basically, I think that you are making a mistake in getting into this drug the
way you seem to be getting into it. The reasons are many - I’ll try to make
this as concise as possible.
1) As you well know, pot is illegal in the U.S. This means that there is a
criminal underworld revolving around its sale distribution, etc. often on an
international scale. (We can discuss the legalization of it and the effects of
criminalisation of it in another email). So I ask - where did the pot you
smoked most recently come from? Probably one of your friends, right? Ok and
where did he get it? Probably from a dealer and so on and so on. The fact is
that when you use pot - whether or not you actually purchase it - you are in
effect supporting the criminal underworld that revolves around it. More often
than not the people high up on the chain are not nice people. Just tune into
the news and at least once a week or so you’ll hear about gang violence ending
in the deaths of either gang members or innocent bystanders caught in the
crossfire. And most likely, the gang is involved in dealing drugs. I know this
is hard to think about when you’re chillin with your friends smoking up but
just think about where the product you are smoking has come from and what the
consequences may have been.
2) You mentioned in your journal recently that people think that pot slows you
down, etc. and that they are just people caught in the rat race who are
worried about getting somewhere while you are just going with the flow, etc.
Max, you WERE going somewhere. You don’t have to be a suit caught in the rat
race to want to "get somewhere." I realize that in the past few months indeed
you may have not felt at all like paddling for a truckload of other reasons -
but I just can’t help but see some sort of connection between your "slowdown"
and your foray into pot. Your attitude has changed and it is apparent in your
journal. 18 months ago you were living out your dreams - "living an adventure
novel." You had some major goals and you were working hard as hell. Now, I
wonder how all your sponsors will feel when they see that they’ve been
supporting a guy to hang out on a beach or in Texas and smoke pot seemingly on
a daily basis? I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but it is reality. On your site
you say, "This is about education. It is not a vacation." I do not doubt that
you’ve been getting the education of a lifetime - I was pleased to see that
you’ve been studying world religions - but Max, it does seem like your
attitude has changed and is looking at this as a vacation.
3) You probably think that smoking pot is going against the establishment
because who is the gov’t to tell you what you can and can’t put in your body,
right? I don’t buy it. In fact, I see it the other way around. Without
sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I think that if not the gov’t, the
corporations are quite happy to see people sedate themselves whether it is
with beer or pot. If people are high or something, they don’t question things
- they are not sharp. Here’s a line from a song by a band called Holeshot that
I like: "Can’t you see it’s what they want/Their war on drugs is just a
front/They want you stoned they want you numb/Can't you see they want you
dumb?" See what I’m saying?
4) Yes, it IS addictive. I’ve known a few people who could not live without a
joint in the morning. They needed it to function. Look, if it is something you
do on occasion - like once every couple months or so - even though I despise
it, I guess I don’t have a problem with it. But seriously Max, don’t let it
start to control your life. You’ve got so much going on for you and it would
be a shame to become some slave to a drug that you think you need to be
creative or whatever. Drugs=Slavery.
So there you have it. Those are my main arguments against pot. I hope you do
some serious thinking about the subject Max. It would be a shame for you to
turn into some kind of bleary-eyed hippy who says "dude" way too much. I’d be
interested to hear your response if you have time. Also, I probably don't have
to tell you that you don’t want to be caught with it in Central America. Good
luck with whatever you end up doing. I wish you the best.
Regards,
Eric H.
So, now I’ll respond:
Eric...
Thank you again for sharing your point of view. I’m sure other readers are thinking along the same lines. . . . as I expected.
I have not published my journal over the past year, because I didn’t want armchair adventurers harassing me about how I should be living my life. Now that I’m ready to get back on the water and I’ve talked with my parents about everything, I’m ready to share those experiences and offer an educated opinion. If some people still don’t like what I choose to think and do... oh well. I’m just telling my story-- not looking for glory.
Back in Santa Cruz, I refused reefer. I didn’t know enough about it. Being a "role-model", I thought it was important for me to be able to say, "I’ve never done drugs," when speaking with students(although I now realize that was not true... because I had drank alcohol).
In Mazatlan, all my friends were smoking cannabis. They never pressured me to smoke with them. For a couple weeks, I just watched them. After interviewing each, I decided that I wanted to try it. I didn’t like the idea of inhaling smoke, so I waited until they baked a space cake-- made with marijuana sauteed in butter.
That night, sitting around the table with friends, faces glowing, lit by candlelight, listening to Bob Marley, I saw the world differently-- like I was more connected to everything, more open-- and I liked it. My thoughts were slower -- allowing deep contemplation. I didn’t want to feel that way all the time, because there are things I couldn’t do well in that frame of mind, but I realized that it wasn’t a bad thing after all-- if used in moderation, like drinking alcohol.
I have been drunk 3 times in my life. All three times I got alcohol poisoning and woofed my cookies shortly afterward. Cannabis is 400 hundred times less toxic. There is not a single record of anyone dying from smoking Cannabis. After interviewing no less than a hundred "pot smokers," I haven’t found a single case of a person getting ’dumber’ from their use of the herb. Many of the wisest people I know enjoy the effects of marijuana. Bunching marijuana together with crack is stupid.
Anyone who believes that adults can choose to smoke tobacco cigarettes and drink alcohol has no argument against marijuana. To say that it leads to harder drugs is stupid. If you are hanging out with people who smoke weed, you may also be exposed to LSD, coke, etc.. I have been offered coke, but chose not to try it. It was a simple decision-- much like a person choosing not to follow their expert skier friends down the double diamond when they are just a beginner.
The more I learned about drugs... the more I learned about ’The War on Drugs.’ and it’s effects: billions and billions of tax dollars spent warehousing mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters-- breaking-up homes(2.5 million children in the US with one or both parents in prison for drugs).
If drugs were legal, they would be cheap and clean. Prohibition makes thugs rich, and is a blatant assault on liberty-- the freedom to do as one pleases. Unjust laws turn otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals... thus causing a distrust in government which says, "Sure... it’s okay for Dad to drink Jack Daniel’s, and Mom can pop Prozac, and they can keep Tommy sedated on Ritalin, but you’ll go to jail if you’re caught growing a herb or eating mushrooms picked off cow crap." It makes no sense.
A large percentage of prescription drugs have side-effects almost as harmful as the condition they attempt to fix. Cannabis is the best relief known for glaucoma and is useful in treating asthma, epilepsy, PMS, Emphysema, stress, migraines and depression. Cancer, AIDS, and Anorexia / bulimia sufferers eat more, keep more food down, and keep their strength up by smoking marijuana. When I am sick and don’t feel like eating, I’ll take a few puffs and will feel hungry instantly. It’s just a plant... an amazing plant, and it being illegal... annoys me and makes me a criminal, and I am doing what I can to change that... by educating the public. When enough politicians know their constituents and believe marijuana should be legal... it will be. I believe in the system.
1) So I ask - where did the pot you
smoked most recently come from? Probably one of your friends, right? Ok and
where did he get it? Probably from a dealer and so on and so on. The fact is
that when you use pot - whether or not you actually purchase it - you are in
effect supporting the criminal underworld that revolves around it.
In Mazatlan, I once threw in 20 pesos to help my friends purchase a bag of weed. So, I’ve spent a total of $2 on marijuana in my life. My money went to a kid and a farmer.
I’ve purchased many pairs of Nike sneakers. Maybe you have too. We are both guilty of supporting child labor in Thailand.
Again, if drugs were legal, they would be clean, cheap, and the thugs would be out of biz.
I look forward to the day I can walk down the Psychotropics aisle in the supermarket and pick out my favorite strain of mushrooms, Cannabis and peyote cactus - the stuff God gave us to trip-out on... and won’t hurt us.
2) You mentioned in your journal recently that people think that pot slows you
down, etc. and that they are just people caught in the rat race who are
worried about getting somewhere while you are just going with the flow, etc.
Max, you WERE going somewhere.
Smoking marijuana over the past year has slowed me down, but, it was positive in many ways. I read more books in the past year than I have my whole life and I wrote journal almost everyday. When I am traveling, I am often too tired to read and write, or just too busy. Now, I’m tired of reading and writing and I’m looking forward to more adventures.
It’s all part of my education. Before this year, I couldn’t help those hung-up on drugs, because I didn’t understand what they were hung-up on. I can now give an informed opinion. And, my opinion is... that all "drugs"-- including cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis, can inhibit a person financially, physically and psychologically from reaching their goals... if not used in moderation.
Life is what you make it. Drugs don’t hold people back from doing what they want to do. Drugs help allow a balding middle-age man to get funky on the dance floor. Drugs keep a house wife from committing suicide. Drugs keep the housewive’s husband at home after work, chill’n in front of the boob, instead out looking for firm tits. Drugs make it possible for people to bear working at boring jobs and going to boring classes(if you have a job or go to a school that doesn’t require a random piss tests, there are likely people you see everyday who are pleasantly mellow, although maybe a bit forgetful). Drugs make life bearable for people from all walks of life, but, "bearable" is what keeps them from making changes toward a more desirable life... without drugs. Some people stop cold turkey. Some people... it takes their life.
3) You probably think that smoking pot is going against the establishment
because who is the gov’t to tell you what you can and can’t put in your body,
right? I don't buy it.
I don’t even believe there is an "establishment..." let alone get my kicks from "going against" it. I wake up everyday to a brand new world.
4) Yes, it IS addictive. I’ve known a few people who could not live without a
joint in the morning. They needed it to function. Look, if it is something you
do on occasion - like once every couple months or so - even though I despise
it, I guess I don’t have a problem with it.
Eric... you are giving a plant way too much power.
Thank you, again, for taking the time to write. You are welcome to email me again anytime.
Namaste!
MAX
