XPost: uk.politics.misc, uk.legal, alt.psychology   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
   From: andrewrichardwainwright@hotmail.co.uk   
      
   How Cannabis Causes Paranoia?   
      
   Right. You find out that us supposedly "free" citizens don't even have   
   the right to choose which plants we grow in our own gardens. And thus   
   "freedom", whilst it's better than in some states, isn't really worth   
   the paper it's written on.   
      
   Whilst it's certainly true that cannabis can make mental health issues   
   worse, the realisation that we're slaves as opposed to free men is   
   enough to mess up a lot of people in the head on it's own.   
      
   A lot of people think they're free because they've never tested the   
   boundaries of that "freedom".   
      
   Whilst there's a lot of opinion decrying the hippy on the dole, telling   
   that person what he can and cannot spend his money on is a great   
   incentive not to try and earn any. If you're not allowed to spend your   
   own earnings as you feel fit, who are you actually earning money for?   
      
   I like to enjoy my chemicals every now and then, obviously getting older   
   I need to improve my lifetyle generally, including sobering up. On a   
   serious note I'm interested in psychology and psychiatry, and substances   
   that bring about changes of mood and perception represent important   
   research on the subjective level. I'm not a gambler or a womaniser or   
   violent drunk, so why should they receive better treatment under the law?   
      
   Taking LSD for example is risky and can put not only the user's life at   
   risk but that of others too. It's also often an enlightening adventure.   
   Exactly the same could be said about diving or mountain climbing. It   
   seems that whilst it's OK to explore "outer space" it is considered   
   "sinful" to explore "inner space". To refer to my earlier point, I   
   believe curtailing such research through law and taboo has prevented   
   progress in finding cures for serious mental illness.   
      
   Back to the freedom issue, something that always amazes me is how some   
   people will say to a thinker that they should be doing instead of   
   thinking. Now to me that shows a slave mentality, that only certain   
   people are allowed to think, and if other people spend time thinking,   
   they're wasting time. Once again, like with money, this suggests that   
   "time" doesn't belong to the citizen, but to someone else.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)