Pubdate: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Thom Marshall

THE OTHER SIDE OF DRUG-USE COIN

So many U.S. citizens are using and creating such a demand for illegal drugs
that producers will find ways and means to supply. When one is stopped,
another takes his place. Tons of illegal drugs intercepted by the warriors
in the war against drugs don't seem to put any lasting dent in the
availability.

Most of the stories most of us see about users concern those who suffer from
addiction. But just as most users of alcohol do not become alcoholics, most
casual or recreational users of illegal drugs do not become addicts. They
don't steal. They work at jobs and earn money and pay for their drugs. You
may even know some of them without knowing they use.

However, thus far in the ongoing discussion and debate in this space about
criminal justice issues, few casual drug users have commented openly.
Silence or anonymity is the safer course when so many drug warriors consider
you the enemy. And yet, how well we understand drugs in America depends to a
great extent upon how much we can learn about demand.

Les Wilson grew up in the San Francisco Bay area during the '60s. He
graduated from Berkeley in 1971 with a computer science major. And like so
many of his fellow students in that place and time, Wilson said he
"experimented with many drugs."

Citing His Drug Experience

He only uses marijuana now. Said he pays about $400 an ounce. Lasts him two
or three months.

Wilson lives in California, but travels in his job as a computer programmer.
It was during a recent job in Houston, he said, that he decided to join the
discussion with comments from his experiences, experiments, observations and
research.

"Most users of the commonly abused drugs do not abuse them and suffer
relatively few of the negative effects," he said. "This is easy to see with
alcohol, which many can use on an occasional basis, and can recognize when
they've used enough to reduce important skills. This is also true of the
opium and coca-based drugs."

He said many medical doctors use the opium family. They get reliable
products at low prices and "understand proper dosage."

He said a freshman roommate of his, who wound up getting a Ph.D. from
Berkeley and graduating second in his class, occasionally injected heroin
"to relax from the stress."

Wilson said that in 1992, for designing and implementing a new-generation
imaging workstation, he won the company Chairman's Award for innovation,
which included $10,000 prize money.

"Much of the work I did after-hours to bring the project in on time, I did
while smoking crack in my office," Wilson said.

He does not deny that drug abuse is a problem, but said drug-war-generated
"hysteria greatly exaggerates it, and prevents reasonable approaches to the
problems that do exist."

Draws The Line At LSD

He agrees with the widely held view that legalization would dramatically
decrease crime by reducing costs to a tiny fraction of what they are for
illegal drugs. Addicts would not have to steal nearly as much to buy them.
Users would be protected from poor quality. But he said not all substances
should be equally obtainable. He would not want to see LSD "licensed in any
form for commercial sales," though he does not believe LSD use should be a
criminal act.

He speaks from experience, saying 90 percent of his college computer
programs were written while taking LSD. "Being a nerd, I enjoyed programming
and the LSD enhanced the pleasure of it. I had a 4.0 average in graduate
computer science courses at UCB, and about a 3.7 in undergraduate computer
and math courses."

However, he said LSD "is always unpredictable," and though it can have "some
value for experimental purposes," he said for psychedelic experiences
mushrooms or peyote are safer, because of "well-established shamanic
traditions for their proper use."

In all his years of using illegal substances, Wilson said, he never has been
busted by drug warriors. Millions more can say the same thing. Many of us do
not agree with what they choose to put in their bodies, but do we want to
continue trying to capture and prosecute them all?

Or would it be better to change tactics?
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk