3 charged in selling heroin from day care premises

Shamokin-dop and jumpin rope.
Stay classy Northumberland County..

Sickening..

3 charged in selling heroin from day care premises

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VavdCpewQbA?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

This is a video of Terrence McKenna describing his DMT Trip .. It’s a rare audio clip, and not presented in an form of an endorsement of his words.. But just take a minute and listen to how he describes it.. The air pumping out the room, edges sharpening, colors jumping up.. and then after one more enormous hit, it separates the ‘intrepid from the casual,’ as McKenna said..

McKenna describes colors racing together and forming a slowly rotating place..

I have always been fascinated by McKenna.. and this video. Thought I’d share it on a cold early spring night..

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Bob Beckel: I've Done Dope in The White House

He was reacting to Snoop Dogg’s bragging rights that he did dope in the first family’s not so humble abode.. Beckel, one of the few Democrats permitted air time on FOX NEWS, said:

“I can’t criticize this guy (Snoop) because I’ve done dope in the White House myself”

That..

And to put this in perspective: Obvious shenanigans are taking place in the White House—I would venture to say that pot was the least of the sins in the past 200 + years—but a teenager is facing life in prison in Texas over pot brownies.  You’re half baked if you don’t see something wrong with that picture..

Bob Beckel: I've Done Dope in The White House

Heroin in North East PA: "Nothing short of an epidemic"

It is bad.
And going from bad to worse…

The death of an entire region continues.. the area spiraling out of control.. to the point of no return—and to an unrecognizable place. Death has found the little towns sprawled across the former amazing Coal Region of Pennsylvania.. …

Heroin in North East PA: "Nothing short of an epidemic"

Mom Wants Overdose Reversal Drug Available To Families of Addicts.. and with that a question of ethics abound

The number of people dying from heroin overdoses in Ohio has increased exponentially. State lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow an addict’s family or friends to give a drug that can halt an overdose. Some medical experts worry expanding the drug’s availability could cause other problems.

I recently found myself in a pretty heated debate with family over this drug.. I was doing my typical act of playing devil’s advocate.. I am slightly still torn as to what the right answer should be.. Should someone be permitted to bring back a person who overdosed on drugs?

I was told be the naysayers who said nay: “No, we cannot play God.”
"No, the drug addict made the choice."
"No, they will live to do drugs again."

All valid points, I suppose.. but I expanded on it all perhaps too much for a family meal. I guess you should never talk politics or religion at the dinner table. Add to that, thanks to me, Narcan.

Before moving on, let’s first explain this:

Narcan is the brand name for naloxone. It sends someone overdosing on heroin or synthetic opioids into immediate withdrawals and restores breathing.

On the point of playing God. We do anyway.. each and every day. Doctors and family members decides who dies—hell they just decided, in a sense, to allow Casey Kasem to meet his earthly demise.. And isn’t medical advancements ensuring we play God on a more regular basis? At one time in history, we’d put a feather over someone’s face to see if they were dead. These days we can restart the heart up to hours after it stops.. we can make a body live again. We can keep the soldiers in war alive to get prosthetic limbs. And while we cannot restart the brain—yet—Obama is working on that.

So if we play God already with people who get ailments, why not do the same with those who OD? Are they less than people? Did their choices compel others to say they are not worthy of living? Dig deep into your soul for the answers to that.. and while you’re in there, come up with a a concise and totally appropriate paragraph on why doing drugs is ”wrong” to begin with—but minus our the PSAs from Nancy Reagan and Mr. T that are undoubtedly ingrained in your psyche from childhood, if you’re a baby from the 80s that is.

These are deeply troubling questions for me.. 

I find myself agreeable to the premise that some addicts will live to die another day, do another snort, and take another needle. Yes, they will take a hit and keep on hitting, with Narcan to possibly blame for their furthering of their habit. I also think, however, that this near death experience will enlighten them to the possibility of kicking that deadly habit and choosing an alternate and more healthy way to die: Old age. Maybe that is just the dreamer in me..

America and the world is filled with deadbeats and junkies, whores and heathens. Sinners and saints are hard to find, the murky middle is where too many human beings belong.

But in a society where we regularly play God, it’s perhaps a decent and timely question to start deciding if we should pick and choose who lives and dies.. or if we should just play God in a more universal (*or Catholic!) way.

Yes… the medical team can try to revive a person who ODs.. but should the family? Is it wrong? …riddle me this: Is wrong to revive someone with CPR, or as Mrs. Doubtfire did, relieve someone of choking at a restaurant? Imagine that scene.. Mrs. Doubtfire Part 2, with Piece Bronson injecting himself with heroin.. and Doubtfire has to administer the Narcan..  Now THAT would be a modern take for a sequel, perhaps.

I am going to continue to debate this question internally.. 

I will also continue to argue both points with anyone willing to have a discussion. I have not yet decided..

But I know this final thing: We are moving towards a society where humans and machines merge.. I think Narcan is a nice fit on that highway. Good or bad.. God or devil. The devil’s always in the details..

Mom Wants Overdose Reversal Drug Available To Families of Addicts.. and with that a question of ethics abound

The drug of choice..

Pope Francis speaks out against legalized drugs, citing ‘evil’..

No word on whether he will start using grape juice instead of wine in his chalice..

The Party Drug Molly Can Make You a Racist: Study | TIME

Far from being a recipe for peace on earth, a new study for the Netherlands suggests that the “love hormone” oxytocin, triggered by the party drug MDMA, only makes you love people in your in-group, and contributes to conflict with outsiders

So what say you, MILEY?

The Party Drug Molly Can Make You a Racist: Study | TIME

Which is Worse: A Bath Salt Epidemic or a Zombie Outbreak?

This Florida online paper perfectly sums up the horror that is drugs, particularly bath salts, in the once great coal region of Pennsylvania ..This is a great article, written from looking in from the outside. Dennis Maley, the author,  grew up in Schuylkill County PA, or as residents term it the “skook” .. He penned this article about a trip back and a sad view of how bath salts and other hardcore drugs have destroyed the last remaining goodness that was the county.

A few points from Maley:

I grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, or the Skook as it’s affectionately known. It is an area that has suffered through a long history of problems with pervasive drug addiction. In that way, it’s no different than a lot of small, economically-depressed places that have fared poorly in the post-industrial economy. The stories are the same, but for some reason, the drugs are often different, perhaps reflecting the particular brand of desperation most prevalent in any particular geographical region.

He goes on..

I’d been hearing the tales for a long time, but by that last trip home the scope had become unthinkable. One after another, I heard dozens of stories about the ranks of friends and acquaintances who’d jumped to the dark side and become a “salter.” It wasn’t just the usual suspects either. Smart people with good jobs and intact families saw their lives quickly circle the drain before nose-diving down the pipe and into oblivion. 

I myself have known people, or known of people, who suddenly lost their way and changed their entire personality due to drugs.. It’s a horrible thing, too. The zombie look that the face gets is frightening.. 

Another point from the author:

All of it felt surreal. I was without a frame of reference. This many people couldn’t be off the grid, living some underground life as fiends with an insatiable craving for some drug you bought in a head shop with cartoon pictures on the box. Then it happened … I saw one.

She was a formerly gorgeous girl, five years my junior and daughter of a family friend. Her face was hollowed out so deep that it called to mind the Skeletor character from the horrible live-action movie, based on the He-Man cartoon. Her once full lips were now pencil thin and scabbed over on at least half of their surface area. The doe-eyed baby blues I remembered as her most striking feature had narrowed into slits, leaving her with only a permanent expression that seemed to drip with cynicism. Then there was the assortment of scabs and open cuts dotting her face. Her teeth looked like they’d begun rotting in place and her once-curvy body had thinned to the point that I might have missed her, had she been standing sideways rather than facing me straight on. 

I have seen the people he is describing.. I have seen beautiful young and hopeful people become destroyed because they made a choice to do some hardcore horrid things.  

While you see the coal region close up every day, looking at it from a new perspective always gives you a fresh look.. Reading an account from someone who left before the bath salt and meth fad began here is striking.. Everything that was is gone. Things that were stable are not..

As the Coal Speaker has followed for years, you never know where you’ll find a meth lab in the area..  The Coal Speaker has also began documenting what I feel will be the ultimate demise of the area: Closed malls, schools, hospitals, and hope. Deep down, beyond all the facts and headlines, there is something else happening.

When I was a high schooler at the now defunct Cardinal Brennan High School in the roaring 90s, life was fine. Kids did bush parties—late night beer fests in the middle of corn fields or in hideouts in the woods. That was the test of a teenager… beer. Miller or Coors.. toxic sure… but things changed.

These days drugs are rampant.. And if you think the cops are immune you’re pretty naive to how things work.

There seems to be a disconnect—county leaders don’t realize just how fast and how much the area changed.. They don’t get the immense change that happened. And most don’t realize how much bath salts, meth, and other hard core drugs are responsible.  War has come to our towns.. The drug war. And sobriety is losing.

Don’t get me wrong. The drug was has failed. But let’s not forget how it was meant to fail—the CIA has been busy beavers.. 

I feel like I am digressing.
Back to this article..

Despite your belief about drugs and whether we should jail people for them…there is something very rotten at the core of Schuylkill County. 

And I fear the when Krocodil makes its debut in the region.. Then the real zombie look will be en vogue.. 

Which is Worse: A Bath Salt Epidemic or a Zombie Outbreak?

Holder drug reforms don't address structural racism

Holder drug reforms don't address structural racism

I missed the 'dope show'.. but I will surely have to download today

John B. Wells, who should now be the main host on Coast since Art Bell won’t be coming back, had an interested subject matter last night, just in time for 420: The Dope Show. But the concept was interesting, and something no doubt many would believe in. That marijuana could be a great American money maker, and right now the only ones who profit from it being illegal are those in the illegal trade of it. Also mentioned, apparently, was the prison industry and how many juvenile offenders are locked away for way too long because of possession of the substance.. 

But the best may be the music Wells chose for the show:

PAPER PLANES by MIA, WHITE RABBIT by Jefferson Airplane, COCAINE by JJ Cale, and the DOPE SHOW by Marilyn Manson.

There will be no doubt that I will be downloading and keeping this one for future enjoyment.

Apple's iMessage is really making the DEA angry

Libertarians and drug addicts will be reading the article sarcastically saying, ‘well ain’t that a shame’

Apple's iMessage is really making the DEA angry

The city of Boston being rocked by a scandal now as city administrators realize that potentially thousands have been wrongly convicted of drug crimes

This story has been festering in Boston media for weeks now. It’s becoming a bigger story. As it deserves to be.

The city of Boston being rocked by a scandal now as city administrators realize that potentially thousands have been wrongly convicted of drug crimes

Bath salts that don't clean

So… as usual, my local news just opened up, yet again, with another cautionary tale of mindless zombie teenagers getting high, and dying, on bath salts. Yes, indeed, this  new phase of drug addiction is interesting—but particularly bothersome at the same time. It shows that, without question, the kids aren’t alright. No one just wants to be happy being alive these days, I guess. Instead of seeing earth as it is, people would rather seduce their brains with mind altering drugs. And even though the idea of drug and alcohol use among the puberty-wrought teen crowd as been around for ages, the latest bout of the human body with bath salts shows the unintellectual ability that kids have to come up with strange ways to destroy brain cells without inhibition. 

And at the same time, I’d somewhat tired of hearing of bath salts. 

The top story every night? … Along with the latest fire to burn a barn, or the latest accident to destroy a family. Weather 15 after, sports at 20. Followed up, at the end, with the fun little story of a goat with three legs or a potato sack race for cancer patients.

Local news is so predictable—and often boring.

I will argue that bath salt deaths are the best thing to happen to local news since rumors of knives in apples on Halloween. Unfortunately, unlike the Halloween scare, bath salts are real along with killing kids.

But state Legislatures will soon ban them. And …. that will … solve the problem………….. [inject sarcastic face.]

Stay off the crack, drink chocolate milk and enjoy every moment - that’s all I’ve got

Charlie Sheen’s advice to students as reported here: Charlie Sheen warns students off drugs and to stick to chocolate milkshake

I think we all can agree with Charlie Sheen’s milk advice. Although I don’t expect to see him on a milk ad any time soon, unless they let him put the white around his nose rather than his upper lip.

The kids aren't alright

Roswell 3rd Graders Smoking Pot At School 

But I suppose on the bright side, the 3rd graders at least waited until after school to do it…

A disturbing glimpse at the youth of America: 25% of them taking prescription drugs

As a soon to be parent, this story alarms me as much as it does saddens me. I don’t want little Ayden to be a pill popper. And of the 25% how many really need this..?

A disturbing glimpse at the youth of America: 25% of them taking prescription drugs