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December 25, 2009
The Silent Crescendo of Denial
Two of the more important lessons I’ve learned through taking histories from cannabis applicants have little directly to do with pot pharmacology; rather, they relate to overall human behavior. The first is that fathers are far more important to the self-esteem of their children than is commonly realized; the second is that humans are so averse to admitting mistakes they will carry denial to ridiculous lengths to avoid any admission that they might have been wrong.To start with what are, for me at least, the most recent and obvious examples of pernicious denial on a global scale: last week, both the US and Mexican governments trumpeted the death of drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva in a gun battle with the Mexican military as an important "victory” in the drug war. However, I saw it as just the opposite: an indication that America’s drug policy has been an even bigger failure than our disastrous attempt to "prohibit" alcohol between 1920 and 1933; it shouldn't be that difficult to understand that there’s essentially no difference between Leyva’s killing in 2009 and the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre of the Bugs Moran gang in 1929; yet there were no op-eds or editorials making that point immediately after the "victory" was announced.
Even more astonishing, from my point of view: after the family of the Mexican Marine who was both the official "hero" and the only “good guy” killed in the shoot-out was brutally murdered in an obvious act of revenge, I could find no editorial mention of drug war futility. It’s a subject that seems to have become such a global sacred cow that it’s now safely above criticism.
How does one fix a problem one can't acknowledge? Can this species be saved from itself?
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at December 25, 2009 12:40 AM