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Showing posts with label War on drugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label War on drugs. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Fallible Man [Today's News Poem, November 2, 2010]

Fallible Man [Today's News Poem, November 2, 2010]

Reality's lost the electorate,
So vote for your gratification.
The libertine pathway of synapses
Is Manicheistic; rewarding
The silencing instinct of consciousness.

Fallible Man! What does will represent?
Urgent activity, mingled with grins.
Solipsist, think, so you are—and can be
Vapors at vespers: a pipe on your desk,
Confidence fills up both lungs—you're alone.

"He and his chief chemist get ideas for new drugs by scanning scientific literature. They pay particularly close attention to new papers published by scholars known for researching mind-altering, psychoactive substances. David Nichols, a pharmacologist at Purdue University, has been especially valuable, Mr. Llewellyn says. Through his work studying brain receptors, Dr. Nichols has developed a range of psychoactive substances. His papers give a full description of the drugs he's using, including their chemical makeup. This provides Llewellyn and others with a roadmap for making the drugs."
—JEANNE WHALEN, The Wall Street Journal, OCTOBER 30, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704763904575550200845267526.html

"Voters in many states cast ballots on controversial measures Tuesday, including opting out of President Obama's health care reforms, balancing budgets, legalizing marijuana, and countering union organizing."
—Michael Martinez, CNN, November 2, 2010 5:48 p.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/02/ballot.initiatives/

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Scythian War Chant [Today's News Poem, October 25, 2010]

Scythian War Chant [Today's News Poem, October 25, 2010]

After tonight, when the smoke from our campfire
Alters our instinct, we'll ride on our ponies
Offering iron from bowstring to dousers
Looking for rain. We will shoot off our arrows,
Manifest fertile and effortless prairies,
Bringing the future much closer—and higher.

"A growing number of Iraqi security force members are becoming dependent on drugs or alcohol, which has led to concerns about a significant addiction problem among the country’s armed services as the insurgency remains a potent force and American troops prepare to depart at the end of next year... Those who admit to using drugs and alcohol on duty acknowledge that the substances lead to erratic behavior, but say long hours working at checkpoints, constant fear and witnessing the grisly deaths of colleagues make drugs and alcohol less a choice than a necessity... Some senior police and army officers said that because drug abusers were typically among their most fearless fighters, they were loath to take disciplinary action against them."
—TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY, The New York Times, Published: October 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/world/middleeast/25baghdad.html

"The news, delivered in a phone call, left Sue Bates aghast: she was losing her job of 22 years after testing positive for a legally prescribed drug... The medication that Mrs. Bates was taking for back pain — hydrocodone, a narcotic prescribed by her doctor — was among many that the company, which makes car parts, had suddenly deemed unsafe."
—KATIE ZEZIMA and ABBY GOODNOUGH, The New York Times, Published: October 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/us/25drugs.html

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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Stoned and High: In Search of the Final Reward [Today's News Poem, July 10, 2010]

Stoned and High: In Search of the Final Reward [Today's News Poem, July 10, 2010]

We all know the answer—the question's too simple.
Instead, methamphetamine clouds join the thunder
Of sugar and caffeine; to addle the senses.
It's faster than ever. A hurricane gathers
And carries the waitresses, truckers and farmers
On powdery wings—that are dripping with whiteness—
And passes the mountains of opiates, ganja,
And alcohol: passengers spinning too quickly
To notice the flatness beneath them. And sleeping
Inside of the base of the mountain, the dreamers
Are scarcely aware of the action of living
Outside of their dream—of the scurrying sightless.
Obsessive, who still can't imagine the tempo
Of God in the clouds or the silence in temples
Of stone—and the metrics they use all avoiding
The obvious standard for filling the empty
Ennui that is drawn to rewards made of pleasure.

“That question remains at the center of an investigation into the death of David Rozga, an Iowa teenager who last month committed suicide shortly after smoking K2. Mr. Rozga, 18, had graduated from high school one week earlier and was planning to attend college in the fall. According to the police report, Mr. Rozga smoked the substance with friends and then began “freaking out,” saying he was “going to hell.” He then returned to his parents’ house, grabbed a rifle from the family’s gunroom and shot himself in the head. ”
– Malcolm Gay, The New York Times, July 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/us/11k2.html?_r=1&hp



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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Burroughs Business Machines [Today's News Poem, March 10. 2010]

Burroughs Business Machines [Today's News Poem, March 10. 2010]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cal-jobs11-2010mar11,0,3667613.story

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633661/20100310/story.jhtml

http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1495735.html

With drugs, the wealthy take their pick:
The doctors scrum to fill demand.
With poorer people, hurt and sick,
The government is at command.

A junkie's made inside a lab.
The warriors of silk conspire
Around the polished oaken slabs
To set an addict's thirst on fire.

They bill for what they don't prescribe,
Withholding drugs from those in pain.
And since they've cash enough to bribe
The government, complaint's in vain.

Said Burroughs: opium's control.
A poppy chains an addict's meat.
Its dealer's like police patrols
Inside a mind that knows defeat.

To arms of thugs to help you cope!
To penury if not a jail.
Monopolists who trade in dope
All know their trade will elsewise fail

In games where competition thrives.
A government sets foes to knives,
Denies relief from pain and drives
The wracked to jail. The rest survive—
Obedient to save their lives.

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