DEMOCRATS? NEVER! Stories of repression and depression @ Peti Nudi888 (1999)

 EDITORIAL @ Peti Nudi888 1999

DEMOCRATS? NEVER!

Stories of repression and depression

“O just, refined, powerful opium! You who infuse your sweet balm into the poor as well as the rich, for wounds that will never heal and woes that lead our souls to revolt, speaking opium!"

(CHARLES BAUDELAIRE, 1861)

“No struggle, as far as we are concerned, for the triumph of merchandise. But a very hard one against all those who want drugs to be and keep on being luxury goods, with all the damage we know. If real freedom means the exile from the world of merchandise, it is also true that real slavery means not calling things with their own name.”

(RICCARDO D’ESTE, 1993)

“Drugs have established themselves as a market truth. The democrats are trying to disguise them as a State truth.”

(DROGA, CHE FARSI? op. ed. 415, 1996)

They’ve been debating for years, with heated discussions, delirious reasoning and imposing law proposals, on the supposed and unavoidable necessity to abolish the so-called prohibition of soft drugs, i.e. all those substances whose active constituent is composed of the notorious THC, aka tetrahydrocannabinol, which changes according to what kind of cannabis is derived from and whether it is marijuana, hashish or oil.

And as usual, when a situation needs to be changed, a lot of people come out in the streets screaming for their sacrosanct right/need of fun and freedom of behavior and expression. If it happens, then, that an innocent joint is used by the demonstrators as a pretext/scapegoat for demonstrating, and by the government for repressing, it wouldn’t be bad to try and break this vicious circle by making some considerations outside the chorus of the left democrats, including now also some voices from the right, which makes no difference to us.

a) First consideration

ALL IS ALWAYS RELATIVE

About one century ago, in the USA, some federal states started to control the recreational use of cannabis, which was usually smoked or eaten, first by means of some alarming campaigns on its harmful effects and unpredictable social consequences, and then, with the help of the World Health Organization, by establishing with international laws and decrees that it’s illegal to possess, grow, use or incite the use of cannabinoids, which are classified as “soft”, unlike other drugs like heroine and cocaine, which are definitely “hard”. Soft?…. Have you ever tried to smoke a couple of pipes, just to spend a nice afternoon together with your friends, talking of this and that? Sorry but we can’t see anything soft in this: by virtue of the right of use and therefore of abuse everyone can take all the THC he wants, comfortably sitting, standing, or in the lotus position, either where this right is tolerated and claimed or at home, as he likes better, and decide, if he manages, to work, do nothing, take a walk or lie still for hours, days and months, maybe considering how convenient and reasonable it would be to legalize and tolerate such a soft and lovable substance, which is so innocuous, not like cigarettes which give you cancer and are in the hands of multinationals, nor like alcohol, which is a state monopoly and the cause of so many social problems and of terrible hepatic diseases… and so on with an avalanche of ultra commonplaces.

We don’t care whether it is the state, or the anti-prohibitionist and progressive part of the state, rather than the international mafia, to possess, distribute, cure with THC or make laws on the matter, while looking for a social welfare and trying to solve old and complex questions with a handful of marijuana seeds, icon of the people who are subdued and frustrated, not by taxes or unemployment, but because they’re prevented from expressing their own passions and desires by dreary contexts of family, work, religion, politics …. and so on.

b) Second consideration

EVERYTHING COMES TO HARM.

Those who said that psychotropic substances can be classified as soft and hard, those who decided that physical and psychological addiction can be controlled and cured by specifically intended organizations, hospitals, drug rehabilitation centres, alternative therapies, wild experimentations, those who decided that the use of drugs can be quantified and formulated in an average daily dose, so as not to be considered a criminal, but only a sick, those who make laws and pass sentences on pushers, users, addicts, mobsters and anyone who experiment, those who, in the name of the constitution, of the social contract, of democracy, of common sense choose and vote for a bit of freedom…. are those who choose the lesser of two evils, those who think that the stick is worst than the carrot, that the state is better than the mob, that the left is better than the right, that being good is preferable to being bad, that being rich, handsome and healthy is preferable to being poor, ugly and unhealthy, that the sun is better than the rain, that we would live better if there wasn’t so much pollution, that life is a precious thing, that death should come as late as possible, because we content ourselves with a hot meal a day, a safe job with paid holidays, a comfortable couch for the night, a good fuck every now and then, with mum who is always mum and then… why not, with a big good joint smoked in peace in the park, with no cops, no pushers selling you shit, no horrified old men, no one pissing you off, and so on…

Against such a disgusting and dull vision, we ask for more, we want the free circulation of all substances, we want to be allowed to grow all the plants we like next to the flowers in our gardens, we want to be allowed to sell, buy, possess, export, import, use, snort, eat, smoke, alone or in company every known substance, the good and the bad ones, the harmless and the harmful ones, and those which are dangerous for the environment and for what will remain for our children…. If we will survive!

IT WILL BE A LAUGHTER THAT WILL BURY YOU

LA LOGGIA

pics & words © ANTONELLA PINTUS