Imagine the typical suburban dweller on a Saturday afternoon. The television set in the living room is on, showing the latest Subway ad before the thousandth re-run of SVU comes back on. Sunlight streams through the open window in the kitchen. A rich vanilla aroma signals cookies in the oven. All of these things are real, concrete to the viewer. But are they, really?

To our minds, the information gathered by our senses defines reality. But is there a difference between real reality...

Belize 2007 Trip

Day 1:

I arrived at the Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City. I went through customs without a hitch. First thing I noticed upon arrival in the country was the people’s accent. The stewardess got on the plane and said in a lovely Carribean Calypso accent “Welcome to Belize. We here at Continental Airlines thank you for your patronage today and we hope you enjoy your stay in our beautiful country.” Or something like that. This was...

The accepted use of marijuana as medical treatment has the potential to be one of the biggest setbacks in the legalization effort. Why is this? I'll try to explain.

Let us think back on a time when opium was a major drug for the masses. Man was beginning to realize that besides the potential for abuse, there was a potential of medical use for this plant byproduct. (Sound familiar so far?) Although opium latex could be smoked to achieve pain relief, medical research instead separated...

The way I see it, the War on Drugs is perpetrated by money first. The cops get paid, the criminals get paid. All the efforts to legalize, to regulate, to end prohibition on the local and national level are all being undermined by the huge source of income known as Drug Prohibition. It practically prints its own money.

The government pays for enforcement of draconian drug laws. As a result, dealers and manufacturers raise prices. They make more money off their addict customers who...

I use to live in the bible belt, and I heard sooooo many times that "mind altering substances are bad/immoral/etc" and the act of consuming drugs was inherently wrong. Well, I feel this isn't so. It cannot be so, humans and other animals are programmed to seek experiences which alter the consciousness. Small children like to spin in a circle because being dizzy is sensory alteration. Animals in the wild seek out entheogenic plants for reasons other than food or survival. Hell, my cat eats...