Allegiance

5. Allegiance
(…And now for some preaching)

Most drug abusers who do not “drop out” of legitimate society, develop mental mechanisms against knowing that they are criminals. It is a normal ego self-defense mechanism – to hide a fact which might upset you. They pretend that they are part of the game around them, and as an afterthought make sure that they don’t get caught. But this is exactly where the issue is – they make sure that they don’t get caught, because they are enemies, they are criminals. By fooling yourself that you are not a criminal, by making yourself forget that fact, you are playing the game of those who want to see you behind bars. And there are many levels of hypocrisy into which a person might fall and usually does.
- It is hiding from the cops and supporting politically or religiously the people who make the cops ‘crack down’ on you.
- It’s a drug-taking musician participating in a “say no to drugs” occasion. The lowest of the low.
- Now that I think about it, the lowest of the low are the young politicians who take cocaine, but make no effort to change the law, because they themselves are secure;
- Obviously the policeman who take drugs, and thinks “I’m not one of them”
- The adult on happy pills who thinks “I’m not one of them”.

Because the “them” in the “I’m not one of them” is invented by the establishment. All they have to do is stop treating drug takers as “them”, the “evil them”, than we will no longer be living in the divisions, spying and paranoia of this “war on drugs”. But for now, we are the “evil them”, and we must try to remember at all times, that those to whom we are the “evil them”, honestly believe that we are scum, which wants to rape their daughters, shoot their sons, steal their property and poison their minds.

If you can not, do not want to live without your favorite drugs which are illegal, than you better be sure that your political choices are based on careful thought. Why support a government, or an institution, when according to them you are a criminal? Yet many drug abusers lead such a schizophrenic political life – they vote for people, they support people, who want to see them in jail. I mean – a political choice is a choice of “what kind of life am I going to lead if these guys win? Are they going to take something away from me, are they going to give me something, or are they the same as the previous ones”. Quite simply – the choice is “are they my enemies, or are they my allies?” If they say that they are going to put you into prison because of what you see, think, say, smoke, listen to, watch, eat, feel – then they are obviously not your friends.

Of course, there are, to my knowledge (2007 ad), no new parliaments being formed anywhere with the promise to legalize drugs, and so we are as “abusers” are forced to choose between different evils, to evaluate – who is going to do me least harm? Who can take care of the economy, foreign policy, and at the same time not wage war on me and my friends? There is, at this point, no such political force, but be careful to choose the lesser evil, and do your little effort to help. Write to your political representatives (if you are in such a society) and demand the stop of the war on drugs. When you meet a politician on the street – walk over to him/her, or just yell from a distance something about ‘legalization’. When at election time political parties try to grab your vote - why not tell them bluntly that they will get the vote only in exchange of a promise concerning the end of the war on drugs. There are many small ways in which political pressure can be kept up (in the Free World at least) by independent individuals, with little effort. Of course, everyone must be the judge of how far is it safe to go in each given society, and each given moment. No use getting yourself ran out of town, jailed or executed…

But political actions apart, the focus of the struggle is not so much to convince with logical arguments the other side of a free debate – its not a free debate (one side risks more or less everything by participating, the other – nothing), and the other side is not influenced by logical arguments, because either the other side is blindly following subconscious programs, or it doesn’t really care anyway.
The struggle is not to convince with reason the public, but to influence it – to condition it. Using the most primitive of mental mechanisms – if someone lives with something long enough – he begins to see it as “normal”.
Therefore, if the public lives side by side with drug abusers for long enough – we will become part of the landscape and it will be much easier to pursue our freedom. Just like it happened with homosexuals and scientists.
For this to happen, the public must be aware of the fact, that it is living side by side with drug abusers, who are not scum. Because now, the public is only aware of the ‘frightening monster’ drug abuser, of the drug abuser who is visible because he is behaving inadequately, or because he steals the pocket money of schoolchildren and the purses of old ladies. And of course Hollywood and TV are doing their bit in showing evil drug dealers and drug abusers launching rocket grenades at petrol stations, etc.
And for the public to be aware of the existence of ‘normal’ drug abusers – these drug abusers must come out in the open – in ways which do not directly lead to jail, but which let the others know who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. A marijuana t-shirt, or blandly inserting into conversations – “when I was stoned the other day...” are quite enough, to make sure that the people around you know that you take dope, and little by little, if you set with yourself a good example and don’t let their fears materialize – you will be working for a more free future.

If we continue hiding and fooling ourselves that we don’t mind always being on the edge of prison or a mental hospital, it’ll just go on, and on, and on, like until now. I believe, that the process of changing our status from “enemy of society and everything decent” to “just these weird guys” must follow a mellow groove. It’s not a question of choosing between revolution or submission, but of a careful, calm and patient interaction with the environment.
If every self-aware drug abuser makes sure to influence in small ways the community around him or her, than maybe, we, or the next generation will live to see a world with freedom of thought.