OK so it's a play on words but what do you expect from this commentator, Shakespeare?
I was travelling back from Liverpool tonight listening to a feisty debate on BBC Radio5 Live about the rights and wrongs of the decriminalisation of cannabis and other drugs and I kept thinking to myself where have I heard this all before. And of course it struck me. I've said it before only about alcohol.
You know how I go on about alcohol and how there is this argument that always beats around the bush with the same players on the same sides arguing the same thing. Well guess what we're at that point with drugs now too.
Look people how many times do I have to say it. Prohibition doesn't work.
The funniest thing came from the ex Police Officer who started on the my truncheon is bigger than yours with the drugs campaigner all because he had spent 40 years fighting the criminality of drugs compared to the mere 30 years knowledge of the guy supporting decriminalisation. How pathetic can you get.
That said though he highlighted the problem. Children are unteachable because of cannabis. No children do not want to be brainwashed by Victorian ideas right out of the little red book of Chairman Mao. Children want to be inspired. Children want to feel there is a future.
If you really want to stop children wasting their future on drugs and alcohol then you have to inspire them into thinking in a different way.
There is a third way when it comes to alcohol and drugs and it comes through inspiration not castigation.
Teach our parents the truth, teach our teachers to inspire and teach our politicians to stop playing for votes.
After all the mark of any civilised society is it's ability to overcome adversity in a way that treats everyone with dignity and equality, It is about how we treat people that matters and it is about how we develop for the betterment of humanity.
Remember all that glitters is not gold and the quality of mercy is not strained.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Doctor, Doctor
Ah so you tell the truth when you go to the doctor don't you!
When you're asked that awkward question about how much you drink you always answer with true and open honesty keeping your integrity in tact. Well maybe just a little white lie then.
The unfortunate thing is even if you tell the truth the doctor will assume that you are lying and write down a highly inflated figure. Now this figure gets sent off to epidemiologists who have the task of correlating this with the amount of disease, mortality and morbidity within the population, Thus they can report their ultra scientific findings to various Royal Colleges. In turn these Royal Colleges can advise those ultra scientific MPs who can ultimately tell the man in the street what is and isn't safe.
This is bad education based on bad medicine based on bad science based on bad information. There is no such thing as a safe limit and everyone who knows anything about alcohol can tell you that!
Trying to make alcohol a precise science is like trying to make gold from lead. It isn't going to happen. No scientist can accurately tell me how much alcohol is broken down by my liver in any given time period. No scientist can tell me how much alcohol will cause exactly how much damage to my body. I have been working in and around alcohol for over 30 years and even with the most up to date physiological tests I can only really guess at the damage that is done to an individual, It is an educated guess but all the same an educated guess is still a guess with some education thrown in.
Let us stop the smoke and mirrors, let us stop the funding of those who give us smoke and mirrors and let us have a Royal Commission to look at it all. Let us move forward together so that real information is disseminated to the public and so our children, who deserve our total care, get the best knowledge now.
What is simple is that the message is being fogged by those who would seek to benefit from the misery that alcohol can inflict. But remember guns don't kill people, people do. Alcohol can only cause this problem if we chose to put it down our necks, Let us go about showing people that they have a choice!
When you're asked that awkward question about how much you drink you always answer with true and open honesty keeping your integrity in tact. Well maybe just a little white lie then.
The unfortunate thing is even if you tell the truth the doctor will assume that you are lying and write down a highly inflated figure. Now this figure gets sent off to epidemiologists who have the task of correlating this with the amount of disease, mortality and morbidity within the population, Thus they can report their ultra scientific findings to various Royal Colleges. In turn these Royal Colleges can advise those ultra scientific MPs who can ultimately tell the man in the street what is and isn't safe.
This is bad education based on bad medicine based on bad science based on bad information. There is no such thing as a safe limit and everyone who knows anything about alcohol can tell you that!
Trying to make alcohol a precise science is like trying to make gold from lead. It isn't going to happen. No scientist can accurately tell me how much alcohol is broken down by my liver in any given time period. No scientist can tell me how much alcohol will cause exactly how much damage to my body. I have been working in and around alcohol for over 30 years and even with the most up to date physiological tests I can only really guess at the damage that is done to an individual, It is an educated guess but all the same an educated guess is still a guess with some education thrown in.
Let us stop the smoke and mirrors, let us stop the funding of those who give us smoke and mirrors and let us have a Royal Commission to look at it all. Let us move forward together so that real information is disseminated to the public and so our children, who deserve our total care, get the best knowledge now.
What is simple is that the message is being fogged by those who would seek to benefit from the misery that alcohol can inflict. But remember guns don't kill people, people do. Alcohol can only cause this problem if we chose to put it down our necks, Let us go about showing people that they have a choice!
Monday, 9 January 2012
A bright new future? Hardly
And so the Government committee on science on technology makes another statement on alcohol. And what have they said that's new? Well nothing really. It's the same old people banging on about the same old things all over again. And there lies the problem.
We are still living in a world where the alcohol industry say's one thing and the people wanting controls are saying another thing. They are not getting to the heart of the problem and I doubt if they will ever get to the heart of the problem. Why? because it's all about the money.
The Alcohol Industry effectively brings in billions of pounds of taxation revenue in one form and another for the Government. And that is not just the direct tax on alcohol but all the bits and pieces of tax that add up in the tax chain that make up the final price that you pay. And then there are the detractors who are funded generally directly or indirectly by the same Government. You can rock the boat therefor but not too much hence all he mixed messages about booze.
Is alcohol bad for you, well yes it is. After all the reason why we believe alcohol came about was a defence mechanism by yeast to other competitive or predatory organisms.
How bad is it for you? We don't know and the only way we will find out is if we conduct a series of experiments that will ultimately kill or injure human beings. Thank goodness for medical ethics.
Plato said it best when he said "Man should not drink until he is 18 then only moderately until he is 40 when he should immediately stop" Now Plato lived in a world where observation came first not physiology yet he seemed to know a thing or two about booze.
What is a safe limit? We don't know this either as this requires alcohol to be a precise science and that is clearly not true.
The whole subject of alcohol is so scientifically complex that at the end of the day we know not that much more for certain than we did when ancient Mesopotamians first brought it to our society.
However we can change patterns and we know that psychology plays a vitally important part in that particular challenge. Not further studies by academics in ivory towers but by clear concise and simple education about what alcohol is and what it does and why we rely so heavily on it in our society.
Teach people to break the emotional connection that they have with alcohol. Show them how to stop playing the alcohol blame game and give them the ability to make honest decisions about their future relationship with the so called demon drink.
Carol Vorderman recently called for financial education in our schools. Well I call and have been calling for years for proper alcohol education in schools.
I today challenged David Cameron on live radio to knock on my door and talk to me about alcohol, me an ordinary bloke with a mere 30 years experience in dealing with alcohol issues. I did it because of something I have learned.
All it takes for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up
I have spent most of my time working quietly helping people to change their lives if they want to. I am fed up of people with vested interests setting out guidelines or giving out messages because it makes a good sound byte. We can change our habits and we can enjoy alcohol but we need to have total impartial and independent education so that people understand why and how.
And we need it now
We are still living in a world where the alcohol industry say's one thing and the people wanting controls are saying another thing. They are not getting to the heart of the problem and I doubt if they will ever get to the heart of the problem. Why? because it's all about the money.
The Alcohol Industry effectively brings in billions of pounds of taxation revenue in one form and another for the Government. And that is not just the direct tax on alcohol but all the bits and pieces of tax that add up in the tax chain that make up the final price that you pay. And then there are the detractors who are funded generally directly or indirectly by the same Government. You can rock the boat therefor but not too much hence all he mixed messages about booze.
Is alcohol bad for you, well yes it is. After all the reason why we believe alcohol came about was a defence mechanism by yeast to other competitive or predatory organisms.
How bad is it for you? We don't know and the only way we will find out is if we conduct a series of experiments that will ultimately kill or injure human beings. Thank goodness for medical ethics.
Plato said it best when he said "Man should not drink until he is 18 then only moderately until he is 40 when he should immediately stop" Now Plato lived in a world where observation came first not physiology yet he seemed to know a thing or two about booze.
What is a safe limit? We don't know this either as this requires alcohol to be a precise science and that is clearly not true.
The whole subject of alcohol is so scientifically complex that at the end of the day we know not that much more for certain than we did when ancient Mesopotamians first brought it to our society.
However we can change patterns and we know that psychology plays a vitally important part in that particular challenge. Not further studies by academics in ivory towers but by clear concise and simple education about what alcohol is and what it does and why we rely so heavily on it in our society.
Teach people to break the emotional connection that they have with alcohol. Show them how to stop playing the alcohol blame game and give them the ability to make honest decisions about their future relationship with the so called demon drink.
Carol Vorderman recently called for financial education in our schools. Well I call and have been calling for years for proper alcohol education in schools.
I today challenged David Cameron on live radio to knock on my door and talk to me about alcohol, me an ordinary bloke with a mere 30 years experience in dealing with alcohol issues. I did it because of something I have learned.
All it takes for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up
I have spent most of my time working quietly helping people to change their lives if they want to. I am fed up of people with vested interests setting out guidelines or giving out messages because it makes a good sound byte. We can change our habits and we can enjoy alcohol but we need to have total impartial and independent education so that people understand why and how.
And we need it now
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