Filed under: Addiction, Blogging, Children, Discipline, Family, Health, Internet, Kids, Life, News, Notables, Parenting, Rant, Rants, Stupidity, Thoughts, Uproars
I saw this story on the televised news and had to look it up to share it here. Honestly.. can you think of anything more vile than a 17 year old and an 18 year old who don’t have the damn sense to know they shouldnt be teaching a two and a five year old to smoke pot?
In Caught On Tape: Teens Give Toddlers Marijuana,
- “Two Texas teenagers are under arrest for giving marijuana to a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old boy, police said.
The incident was recorded on home video, and authorities said they don’t think this was the first time the boys had been given pot.
Police said they stumbled across the video when they went to arrest the men on a burgarly charge.”
From the televised story, it seems that the parents of the teen don’t think the teens need any jail time, protesting that “probabtion is enough”. Finish reading the story and you’ll see that the teens face charges of “injury to a child”. I don’t think that’s enough. Who knows what developmental issues those toddlers will face from the after-effects of being subjected to marijuana use when their little brains are still developing?
Clearly, marijuana use fries the brain of even 17 and 18 year olds, as exhibited by the fact that this story exists. Who is anyone to decide now… years before it is known what the real damage to those kids is or will be, that they should get off with probation?
Are you as mad as I am? I hope so. Live in Texas? Call someone, do something about it.
Think the effects listed below, when inflicted upon a toddler at their mercy, are only worth probation?
Me neither.
Some Facts About Marijuana
THC is the chemical in marijuana which makes you feel “high” (which means experiencing a change in mood and seeing or feeling things differently). Certain parts of the plant contain higher levels of THC. The flowers or “buds” have more THC than the stems or leaves.
When marijuana is smoked, THC goes quickly into the blood through the lungs and then to the brain (this is when the “high” is felt and can happen within a few minutes and can last up to five hours). THC is absorbed more slowly into the blood when marijuana is eaten because it has to pass through the stomach and intestine and can take up to one hour to experience the “high” effects, which can last up to 12 hours. THC is absorbed quickly into body fat and is then released very slowly back into the blood. This process can take up to one month for a single dose of THC to fully leave the body.
Short-term effects of marijuana
- Sleepiness
- Difficulty keeping track of time, impaired or reduced short-term memory
- Reduced ability to perform tasks requiring concentration and coordination, such as driving a car
- Increased heart rate
- Potential cardiac dangers for those with pre-existing heart disease
- Bloodshot eyes
- Dry mouth and throat
- Decreased social inhibitions
- Paranoia, hallucinations
- Impaired or reduced short-term memory
- Impaired or reduced comprehension
- Altered motivation and cognition, making the acquisition of new information difficult
- Psychological dependence
- Impairments in learning and memory, perception, and judgment
- Difficulty speaking, listening effectively, thinking, retaining knowledge, problem solving, and forming concepts
- Intense anxiety or panic attacks
Long-term effects of marijuana?
- Enhanced cancer risk
- Decrease in testosterone levels and lower sperm counts for men
- Increase in testosterone levels for women and increased risk of infertility
- Diminished or extinguished sexual pleasure
- Psychological dependence requiring more of the drug to get the same effect
Filed under: Addiction, Blogging, Britney Spears, Celebrities, Health, Internet, Life, Media, News, Notables, Rant, Rants, Thoughts, Uproars
Yes, you read that right… I’m going to defend party-going, baby-dropping, head-shaving and naughty-bit-baring Britney Spears.
Or to be more precise, I’m going to defend the idea of leaving her alone right now.
I don’t think any of the crappy things she’s done in the past while are worth defending. Clearly she’s been out of control, a bad example for the throngs (throngs not thongs since part of her previous bad-example behaviour not wearing any underwear) of little girls who (for lack of parenting perhaps) look up to her, and quite honestly, a questionable mother to her own kids. I’m not planning on defending any of that.
I’ve decided though, after reading this rendition of her recent problems while in rehab, that someone needs to start speaking towards the other side of this media circus coin and celebrity stalking world we encourage people to live in.
Stuart Heritage of hecklerspray.com writes,
- “This started off in the normal way - Britney Spears showed you her vagina and then gushed puke into her boyfriend’s hands like a manky vending machine - but it wasn’t nearly disturbing enough to hit home properly. And that’s when Britney Spears shaved off all her hair, tried to go to rehab before leaving the next day, then smashed up a car with an umbrella in an uncomfortable show of instability before trying out rehab again. Still not convinced that Britney Spears is in the middle of a fairly serious breakdown? Well then, Britney Spears will write evil biblical numbers on her dome, shriek about being Satan and then try to hang herself with part of a bed, just for you. “
He summarizes by adding,
- “It’s thought that Britney Spears’ suicide attempt was spurred on by one of three things; a) a rumoured fondness for crystal meth, b) her ongoing break-up with Kevin Federline or c) the fact that some idiot let Britney talk to Daniel Baldwin last week. We’re guessing c.”
Pardon me, but she’s in rehab, and didn’t leave this time, a huge accomplishment for someone who has a problem. Ask anyone who’s been through it or watched a loved one go through it. Even when they go in willingly, often the sheer hell they go through there makes staying there an ongoing battle that’s fought daily and sometimes even hourly.
Those of us who can boast of never getting sucked into some kind of addiction have little to draw on when it comes to understanding why a person in rehab might behave irrationally. We haven’t done the detox, we don’t have a clue, not a freaking clue. Even those of us who’ve supported a loved one in rehab still can’t ever know what’s it like to be the one going through it.
Detox (depending on what your detoxing from) can take ten days to two weeks. You’re not yourself. You will vomit, you will shake, you will have horrible headaches, you will feel like that rank ball of putrid vomitous crap the cat threw up. You will be irrational, you will be miserable, cranky and mean. You will cry, you will feel sorry for yourself, you will be mad at yourself, you will hate yourself for what you realize you’ve done to yourself. You may even wish you were dead.
And when you realize what you’ve put your loved ones through, you will despise yourself for that too, and you will feel like maybe you aren’t any better than what the cat threw up. You may think it would be easier to kill yourself than deal with fixing all that you’ve ruined.
You will feel overwhelmed and might often want to leave because you’re not sure you can keep doing this and clearly you got into this position because you were a person whose manner of dealing with your problems was escape… that’s what substance abuse is, a method of escape (that doesn’t really work).
All these things will happen to you and you won’t have a lick of control over when, where and how often. That’s why you’re in a facility… with people there to help, away from the people who love you and who won’t understand how to deal with you while you go through it.
It’s not the flu. It’s detox and it’s vile.
And then you will feel physically better but you will need psychological help. You will need tools for not making the same choices you made that got you here. You will need time to figure all this out and time to just think about yourself.
To anyone who has watched a loved one go through detox and rehab for an addiction (particularly drugs, some of which are inherantly more evil than others in what you go through to get off of them), reading what Britney is going through while in rehab inspires us to tell the Stuart Heritages of the world to fuck the hell off.
When she was refusing help she might have been fair game for publicity and commentary, but once she’s made the effort to stay in rehab and face the detox (which is arguably a significant reason people are afraid to accept help) she deserves to be able to go through the process without assholes like Heritage writing about how “mental” her suicide attempt in rehab is.
Celebrity Cafe’s story begins with the sub-heading, “Spears not responding well to rehab attempts.” Do people actually think only a scant few days into any rehab program, that a substance abuser is supposed to be suddenly well, chipper and speaking positively? It isn’t reality folks. It takes weeks of feeling sick, feeling scared, feeling overwhelmed and feeling totally and utterly miserable before they get to the feeling positve and talking chipper. I’d say the fact that she is still there, means that she is responding well. No one wants to do detox or rehab, that’s why they so often leave. It’s hard, it sucks and you have to be ready for the crap you will endure. She’s still there. That’s a positive response.
Those who witness her behaviour while in rehab should keep it to themselves; shame on them for not allowing her (or anyone) the privacy of dealing with these problems… well, privately! These facilities (whether for celebrities or the ones in our own home towns that each day, are home to our non-celebrity friends, neighbours and loved ones who are struggling to get off of substances) are supposed to be private, confidential and honestly… anyone who relishes telling the tales of how bizarre, rank, rude or desperate anyone’s behaviour is while detoxing, is honestly a person mentally and emotionally worse off than the person in rehab.
At least Britney has drugs and the effects of detox to blame for her “mental” behaviour… what’s his excuse?
Other links:
- ‘Antichrist’ Britney ‘attempts suicide’
- Britney’s Suicide Attempt
- Britney Spears says ‘I’m the Antichrist’ before suicide bid
Filed under: Blogging, Cartoons, Entertainment, Fun, Funny, Humor, Internet, Jokes, Life, Random, Random Thoughts, Weird Shit, Who Cares
Because it’s good to start a Monday with something funny…
Please don’t call the PETA people on me.
(cartoon credit: art.com)
Filed under: Blogging, Entertainment, Fun, Internet, Life, Lists, Monday Melee, Personal, Random, Red Shoe Diaries, Shameless Self Promotion, Thoughts, Women
To find out how you too, can participate in The Monday Melee, please read the main Monday Melee page, grab The Monday Melee logo (and view the participant list too).
Fracas’ The Monday Melee for March 5, 2007
1. The Misanthtropic: Name something (about humanity) you absolutely hate.
Rudeness. It ‘costs’ more to be mean and hateful than it does just to be decent, so why not be decent?
2. The Meretricious: Expose something or someone that’s phony, fraudulent or bogus.
“Free” item coupon offers online. You know damn well you’re going to have to give them the email addresses of five to ten people (who will later hunt you down and kill you for giving out their email address and subjecting them to all the spam they’ll get) or some other evil request that renders the coupon not to be for a “free” item but rather one you’ve “earned” in some way.
3. The Malcontent: Name something you’re unhappy with.
I’m unhappy that I’ve just come across a phenomenal deal on a pair of neat shoes on eBay (see preceding post) and can’t take advantage of this crazy find because my feet are the wrong size!
4. The Meritorious: Give someone credit for something and name it if you can.
Today, I’m going to give credit to Joy from Journey From Grrr to There for being brave enough to set out like a pioneer, making a new life for herself. She’s so talented and I know someday she’s going to make it big (in her definition of big, not necessarily the Hollywood definition of big).
5. The Mirror: See something good about yourself and name it.
I can do manly things (like build or fix stuff) while remaining very un-manly.
6. The Make-Believe: Name something you wish for.
Well dang it all… I wish for those damn shoes. I’ll settle for these though.
Okay, maybe if I was a little less obsessed with the shoes, I’d wish to be able to walk into the novel Pride & Prejudice, assume the character of Elizabeth Bennet and tell her mother to get a freaking clue. Yeah. Simpy women, I can’t stand.
Now it’s your turn.
You can take part in The Monday Melee, even make it a regular feature at your site by visiting The Monday Melee page and following the steps. Kick-start your brain on Mondays and meet other bloggers.
Filed under: Blogging, Fashion, Internet, Life, Notables, Random, Rant, Red Shoe Diaries, Shoes, Shopping, Stupidity, Thoughts, Uproars
Do you see this? There’s this pair of shoes being sold right now as I speak post (and as you read) for a ridiculous pittance… even when converted to my silly old Canadian dollar.
Now I know there are other shoes I am more fond of, but hey… the price was so totally right, the shoes were so utterly unnecessary (therefore so much more appealing) and well, frankly… I kind of thought they’d be neat to have around as my “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home” shoes.
See for yourself…
So why can’t I have them? After all, if I’m sitting here at 12:30 am, looking at shoes on eBay and I see something that good of a deal and a find, with almost no time left in the bidding… what should stop me?
%#&@!#*&^ shoes are the wrong size and the only other pair like them available for sale are two sizes smaller!
I’ll probably have to go drown my sorrows now.
