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? - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk