Another Hollywood Drug Story Ends in the Inevitable Way: Death
I never did drugs. I’m not sure why. I suppose it probably had to do with the fact that I took my athletics very seriously growing up. And, too, I was never comfortable with the loss of control I noticed in others. It didn’t hurt either that I watched another boy in one of my classes rapidly devolve from top scholar and great athlete, to mediocre student and athletic failure.
The mindless calls for legalization by various povertarians and grief pimps bother me, in that they ignore becoming the drug competition bureau for the dealer, as much as they can NEVER answer how the result of making such poisons more freely available to children in a dangerously increasing, permissive society will somehow create the world less dopey.
I never watched anything Corey Haim did. Although a child of the seventies and eighties, I ignored much of the teeny boppers and ‘Brat Pack’, as I favored more of the past: I listened to Led Zeppelin and the Who, played the Rolling Stones and the Doors in my car, watched old Westerns from Audie Murphy and Clint Eastwood and began a slow but purposeful goal of eliminating all the junk on the boob tube from my viewing, except for the news, ’60 Minutes’ (and Magnum, P.I.)
Mr. Haim died last night. His life was riddled with drug and alcohol related issues from the time he was in his teens.
When his limp body was pronounced dead yesterday, he was only 38.
I don’t know how many examples children need to see to understand that drugs will kill you–there is no other end. I have many friends who continue to use drugs recreationally. I do not judge them. I’m very Libertarian that way: Live and let live I say.
If you’re comfortable putting up your nose what someone shoved up his ass in a bathroom in Bogata for the flight to YVR, good for you.
The more recent examples of drug usage resulting in death, are striking: Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson,
Chris Farely and John Belushi before them.
The richly gifted Marilyn Monroe and Truman Capote, before them.
Monumental talents like Keith Moon, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and, of course, Elvis. I could fill five posts with the names of others that aren’t popping up in my mind at the moment.
Talk to your children. Talk to your friends. Drug use has only one result: death, sooner or later.
Or, worse, you manage to survive, purely by luck, to a ripe old age and look back, with obvious remorse, at the endless opportunities you’ve missed.
And the lives you’ve hurt…
Most notably, your own.
“making such poisons more freely available to children in a dangerously increasing, permissive society will somehow create the world less dopey.”
I forgot Alex, that the purpose of eliminating the highly counter-productive prohibition on Alcohol was designed to make booze available to CHILDREN! I will give you credit for great skill at manipulating words in a manner that some people might call simply LYING!
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Once again, koot, it would be helpful if you actually knew what you were talking about. Keeping drugs off the streets is so that people won;t die.
Prohibition on, the other hand, was instituted on the heels of a great financial collapse after a period of total excess, since depressed providers were spending their families savings in the saloon rather than working a second job. The labour force had tanked to unprecedented levels and the abundance of booze was a problem. After years of innovation and invention, it started to look bleak. It had nothing to do keeping booze from kids, or sending some along in their thermos. It was about saving families from being destroyed because there weren’t the social supports that exist today, from which bread-earners might see some support. Therefore, prohibition was entirely productive, contrary to your misinformed and uneducated spin.
Good effort though.
Just another in a long and growing list of kootisms and inaccurate revisions of history. No wonder your blog is losing steam and credibility. You lie (and have the temerity to accuse others of the same), you refuse to accept that conspiracy theories are almost always only that, and you whine and bitch about things that don’t exist all so you can whine and bitch some more. And for what reason? Who knows?
But why don’t you tells us why you fled the United States? Now THAT’S a story I’d love to have you tell. I’ll be happy to check it against what I already know.
Take care.
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“But why don’t you tells us why you fled the United States? Now THAT’S a story I’d love to have you tell. I’ll be happy to check it against what I already know.”
You already don’t know shit Alex. I didn’t “flee” the US, nor do you know shit. Just the fact that you call me a draft dodge (though I have nothing against draft dodgers) is proof of that. Now George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, there’s a couple draft dodgers for you, ESPECIALLY hypocritical candy ass ones at that.
Maybe I will tell you the “story” sometime, but I have more important things to attend to at the moment.
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Oh, hit a nerve did I…..?
LOL
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No Alex, you didn’t hit a nerve at all – but it is a lengthy story and I will apparently have to tell it without using any big words if I have any hope that your right-wing nutbar mind might actually comprehend it. I’m pretty sure if you had been faced with the opportunity you would have been a draft dodger, in the George W. Bush style and from a similiar sense of entitlement.
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Actually, before flying off to university, I wanted to go into the service and had received all the literature. It didn’t bother me at all. But my mother stepped in and that was that.
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Aw come on Coyote tell the story already,the night is still so young.
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If you’re comfortable putting up your nose what someone shoved up his ass in a bathroom in Bogata for the flight to YVR, good for you.
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Hench, from which the saying ” good shit ” comes from.
Something that has confounded me in regards to people who smoke weed , many or most of them demand clean air,clean pesticide free food, clean safe drinking water.
When it comes to their smoking of weed or the consumption of ( brownies, etc) of weed, all logic goes out the window, most people have no clue, who handled,grew,or what may have been sprayed on the product for protection from predators.
I would think its reasonable to say, it is business driven for the “most part” for quantity, not quality, with the added caveat, user be aware.
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Yes, I completely agree with you. These are the same people that attend these ridiculous bike rallies, telling everybody how fit they are, only to stop half way through for a little puff of mary jane. Pathetic. I repeat for the umpteenth time: It’s not called DOPE for nothing. Great to hear from you Henri. Merci.
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Sad but a regular occuring story and not just in Hollywood we simply get news because the person was well known as far as the list you show many of them died by using legal products some prescribed by their own trusted Drs and i do believe alcohol is all as bad as any others 25 yrs of experience in emergency services and the worst things i saw all related to booze to be honest and i am a firm beleiver we will not take away addiction issues with laws as hard as we may try the ones who wil abuse things will find something and the sreet market profiteers will aid the search as long as money is to be made .
none of it is good for soceity but we tolerate alcoholics because we sell them the drug and then expect all other addictions to be treated with an iron fist a slippery slope it is i dont have any answers but i have no doubt it will see similar debates in 25 yrs and in between ill educate my kids and hope none of them end up a headline.
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I agree. I just think that the legalization zealots need to compare apples with apples and admit that marijuana, example, is devastating to a young brain and increases the chance for schizophrenia (a new study recently featured in Suzuki’s ‘Nature of Things’)
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Alex – first time poster and long time reader of your work. I’ve often thought about commenting on your brilliant writing, especially your recent posts on Vancouver’s chief electrical inspector being fired however this posting caused me to respond as you have hit the nail on the head – we do have to talk about drugs to everyone that we are close to and care about. I have two fine young boys; the first sailed through high school with no drug issues, however the second…well let’s just say we have had a couple of close encounters and let me tell you, the communication has never been stronger or more frequent. I’d like to say we’ve nipped this one in the bud but it ain’t over till it’s over.
Keep up the terrific work and by the way…I pictured you more of a Kojak kind of guy, not taking in a fluff show like Magnum P.I.
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Thank you Goldilocks. Very kind words and you’re absolutely correct, communication is key. Welcome aboard.
Actually, Kojak would have been a bit more of fluff. I thought the writing on Magnum was better and the story lines were more realistic. Anyway, it was a bit on mental relief for a high school/university student. Pls visit again! Cheers.
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Live and let die, would be more like it Alex! I must add, on the same matter, that I was not thrilled to hear that there appears to be a cocaine connection with this ex-conservative, Jaffer. The judge even seems to suggest he got a good break in his sentencing. He is married to a minister in the present government. I mentioned on Small Dead Animals that until he is barred from any position whatsoever in the Conservative government, that there would be no more funding or even votes from this taxpayer. For my efforts I was criticized by one of the regulars and called a “puritan” and given quotes by such notable drunkards as Sinatra and Boris Yeltsin (sigh)
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Jaffer, whom I have met several times, is a fool. And his wife’s (Hon, Helena Guergis) comments about PEI are idiotic and shameful (been there and it’s one of the most beautiful places in this country). She should have been bounced from Cabinet. As for Jaffer’s case, it has NOTHING to do with catching a break. If you read the prosecutors entry, a young RCMP officer obtained some evidence inappropriately and this compromised those particular charges. The prosecution couldn’t prove those charges, that’s why they made a recommendation for a shorter sentence and only on the charge of reckless driving. If he got lucky, it was at arrest and NOT in court.
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Just curious Alex, and therefore I’m asking you, I mean who else knows everything.
I can understand if there were problems with Jaffer’s cocaine perhaps being the result of an improper search – BUT, what was wrong with the breathalyzer results that according to all reports I’ve read were above .08? Oh, maybe he was busy drinking by the roadside while the police were examining the cocaine and thus wasn’t drunk while driving, you know, the Monty Robinson defense.
Kudos to Mr. Bennett above for pointing this out on that right wing sewer Small Dead Animals. I get it the Harper anti-crime hang ‘em high message is “Do the crime, do the time,” unless of course you are a member of the Con party (or a member of the RCMP). Anyone that can lose his seat to the NDP in Alberta is already dead meat, even in comparatively enlightened Edmonton, so his future prospects in Harper’s caucus are non-existent. He could become an advisor in the PMO, however.
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Another example of how impoverished your thought process is (and now it’s becoming tedious). There is no hope in hell that Jaffer will do anything with the Tories, they don’t want him. The notion that you equate Jaffer getting a lighter sentence with being a previous (failed) Tory MP is just another smear job. Do you see what I mean about the crap you shovel? Call the guy an idiot because he is, but supporting the guilt by association nonsense and expecting it to stick to the PM or his caucus is asinine.
As for the breathalyzer, it is no different than the manner with which the cocaine was discovered and obtained. The PROSECUTOR, not the judge or anyone else was responsible for looking at the evidence in detail. In the absence of being able to review the full file and plot that against the specific act(s), I cannot provide you with anything more than they (the prosecution) determined that they had little chance of conviction beyond the reckless driving charge.
Note: I never liked Jaffer or his wife. They are both incredible lightweights and irresponsible. But on the issue of the law, only the prosecution can speak to this, fully and completely.
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“Prohibition on, the other hand, was instituted on the heels of a great financial collapse since depressed providers were spending their families savings in the saloon rather than working a second job. The labour force had tanked to unprecedented levels and the abundance of booze was a problem”
Wow Alex, don’t you feel self concious even using the term revisionist?I mean what an example of revisionism. Prohibition was brought in by the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1917 and was in effect mostly through the BOOM times of the roaring twenties. It was repealed in 1933 during the depths of the WORST economic times of the twentieth century. Try again idjit!
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I’m not sure what you’ve done here because you are missing words in my statement about excess and THEN on the heels of collapse.
Two additional points here. Prohibition actually began in 1920 through to 1933, but if you read ANY of the best accounts of what the economy (Alexander, Paine, Foster) in the US was at the time, you’ll see that the excess of the so-called ‘Roaring Twenties’ had more to do with the upper echelon than it did the working man–whom prohibition was designed to protect. Prohibition was the blanket “that didn’t cover everyone” because it wasn’t meant to. You need to go back a read some of the history of the country you abandoned before coming here and pretending you know something. Anything.
So what are you doing hiding out in the Kootneys? How long have you been here? Were you just a coward or did they boot you? Didn’t like the smell of napalm in the morning, huh? Just as well. You definitely don’t shoot straight and in the jungles of Vietnam, that can be a problem…
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Actually I’m starting to think Koot is one of those Interior pot growers. I come online sometime before work, sometimes after work. By the time I’ve been here, it seems like he’s been posting more than you Alex.
Whether or not he’s a draft dodger, I don’t know, but it certainly seems like he doesn’t work a regular job for a living. So he’s either; a socialist sucking from the public teet, a retired hippy, or he’s got a medical marijuana grow-op license, and he’s smoking what he grows over his quota. That is if he’s not selling it out his back door.
There are few people in this world that spew venom like Koot does and his dialog reminds me a bit of the garbled garbage that emanated from Marc Emery’s mouth before he was taken away to a US prison as that martyr he hoped to be for his cause.
Perhaps Koot will take up the fight and join Marc down south, it sounds like he’s well on his way.
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I would pay big dollars to have Koot and Emery the idiot end up in a cell with a very large fellow named JaMarcus, who misses his Momma and hasn’t seen a woman for 15 years. I bet if I put out for a collection just from the regular decent folks that come around here, we’d collect a goodly sum, quite quickly. Hey Koot, want to go back home? We’re all excited all of a sudden.
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Note to readers: In this space was yet another vile note from the “man” who hides behind the moniker, Kootcoot. The comment has been deleted on the grounds that part was actionable and the remaining three fourths was completely inappropriate. It ended with a typically idiotic quote by deceased economist John Kenneth Galbraith.
“The modern conservative is engaged, in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” It’s the only part I can print since prior to it, was just simple hate speech and an insult of my mother.
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It’s not such a black and white issue. The majority of the examples you cited died of overdoses, but they were on prescription drugs courtesy of their physicians. Whether the unfortunate souls misused the drugs or not is unknown as the powers that be circle the wagons to protect themselves and their profits.
Tonight on the news there was a story on a birth control product produced by Bayer that has some very serious side effects.
Yesterday there was a story on CBC’s website on a stop smoking product produced by Pfizer which has produced very negative reactions among many of its users.
Oxy-contin has been proven to be addictive.
All these products have been approved by the FDA in the US, and subsequently in Canada. They are not illegal drugs, but supposedly safe to use to combat certain afflictions.
Which is worse, to die from the use of a legal drug or an illegal one? The result seems to be the same.
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True enough. But as you’ve quite astutely pointed out, the result is the same. Hence, for me, there is nothing but treatment, education–prevention that makes sense.
As for the OxyContin–there is a very well known doctor in Vancouver that works the DTES who has been investigated for over-prescribing, twice. As I predicted years ago: The bigger drug dealer in the 21 Century is not the one with a fanny pack and a nine millimeter, but a white lab coat and a fountain pen.
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Hi Alex, The references above about Koot, posts which I bypass as useless reading, may be accurate (probably are). I think the guy must be a intellect masochist, why continue visiting your site, posting absurd writings (I am being kind) and getting your logically caustic reaction.
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Hi Alex,
I did drugs. I know why. I was abandoned and neglected as an enfant by both parents and left to fend for myself. Along the way I made all the wrong friends, took all the wrong adivce and ended up no where fast trying to meet my basic needs.
I smoked my first cigarette at the age of six; I smoked my first marijuana joint at the age of fourteen and was put out as a dealer that same year and instructed to solicit night club patrons; I was given a vehicle to drive, without a driver’s licence, to sell the stuff. I was under the impression that the people who were taking care of me had my best interests at heart. My new environment was a constant party. It was great compared to the neglectful and abusive environment I ran away from. One thing led to another and I ended up in Calgary AB.
After failing miserably as a simple receptionist at real estate company I decided to go back to school. Back to school, that’s funny, technically I’ve never been to school. According to my Social Services report I was truant and in and out of government care. I enrolled myself in an academic preparation course at the Bow Valley College (aka Alberta Vocational College) and found I could not grasp basic skills. I believe that the enterance tests placed me at the wrong level. I’ve noticed that all tests that I have written do not test applicants at the core level–only around grade 8. I should have been placed in ESL classes to learn grammer, spelling, punctuation, writing and fractions, yet I was placed in algebra and grade 8 English. Because I was incorrectly tested and placed I spent way too much time going nowhere fast. The school administrators and counsellors decided to get rid of me. I was told to write the General Equivalency Diploma (GED)test. I received 50% = C even though I could not read, write, or add simple fractions. I had no clue what I was doing. Then I was placed in the the Dicta Typist course without the basic skills prerequesite. I am thankful that some counsellors had pitty on me and begged that the office manager in the Counselling Department hire me because I’m certain they knew I had no hope in hell in the real world.
Now that I’m out of my drug and alcohol stupper, I realize that my GED diploma and my Dicta Typist diploma are a false sense of accomplishment. A constant craving for knowledge has led me back to school in 2000s this time at the Academic Career Preparation program at the Kwantlen University College in Richmond, BC. I met a beautiful model-like heroin addict. I asked her if the methodone was helping. She said that she preferred the real thing and until she got her hands on the good stuff the methodone would do. Insite is not helping this woman. Oddly enough, she comes from a well- off family whereas I came from an improvished family. The one thing we both have in common is we are both looking for love in all the wrong places and going nowhere fast. I don’t know what happened to her but I hope she’s alright.
I was lucky. I stopped doing drugs. I drink very little. I know why. For the first time in my life I am loved, cared for and I have all of my basic needs met and then some. I truly believe if all of these drug addicts had their basic needs met and were loved, cared for and and treated with respect and dignity they wouldn’t be out searching for a poison to fill their voids and places like Insite would be out of business. I’m glad I didn’t end up like Corie. My condolences to his family.
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Olga, what a BEAUTIFUL story. I find it moving when readers post such wonderful comments and share with the rest of us. Bless you.
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God bless you too.
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All this debate and sliming of AGT over what? A chemical mix that
does alot of damage to the body? Agree with AT on the Prohibition issue, it was the Roaring Twenties, the time of speakeasies and Mobs and rum runners across the border.
Gues the only thing towards MJ a friend and I got into was Best Friend’s Mum’s pack of Kool cigarettes we took and smoked behind the barn when we were kids to see what smoking was all about while growin’ up in Poco in the late 1960′s. He had one and so did I. That was the last time we ever smoked and yes the cigraette pack were put back in exactly the same place and position we found it, so she never knew. Thank gawd for that. Punishment back then if around now would mean court and a visit from the Ministry of Children and Families today.
Had to be a rebel with a cause there, AT.
But wonder what happeed to Liberal Rob Rebagati and Iggy.
Did they ever have a joint meeting? Weed out what it is he wants to do in the next campaign?
Keep the blog smokin’.
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Thx Seymour. Much appreciation.
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