Page 12

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

March, 1991

Letters

Continued from page 3

ought to be reminded that no matter how much they hate the guy, such hostility and such brutality is hardly "funny"—and hardly needed to keep this planet in one piece.

A great threat

To the Editor:

Paul Svedersky

John Hartman's invitation to the gay and lesbian community to ally itself with NORML's efforts to legalize marijuana scares me. The greatest threat to the gay community, second only to AIDS, is alcohol and drug addiction. Not only is the gay community afflicted with the disease of chemical addiction at greater rates than the rest of the population, but those who do seek help often find that their needs are not met in homophobic treatment centers, making recovery much more elusive for the lesbian-gay addict.

For the chemically dependent person, use of mood-altering substances is a way to avoid painful feelings and to escape reallife problems. Because of the pain inherent in being gay in a homophobic society, gay and lesbians are more susceptible to the illusion of pain avoidance found in drugs and alcohol. But we as a community do not need people who are trying to escape life's problems and life's pains; we need clearthinking, healthy people who will fight homophobia and work to change society to accept all of us regardless of lifestyle.

Addiction is a disease with biological, sociological and psychological roots. It is possible to use alcohol and other drugs without becoming addicted. But when each of us picks up that first drink or first drug, none of us knows which of us will become addicted and which or us won't. In fact, addicts often don't know they are addicts until they've lost just about everything.

Peter Bell, a researcher of chemical

Horizons

addiction in the African-American community, describes prevention not in terms of teaching people to "just say no," but as a process that the community engages in to set the norms around chemical use and abuse. Cultures which set specific norms around use of mood-altering chemicals have low rates of addiction.

A good example of this is in certain Native American communities. Before Europeans introduced alcohol, Native Americans had strict rules surrounding the use of psychoactive substances such as peyote. It was used strictly in religious ceremony, and Native Americans had a very low rate of addiction. Another modern day example is MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). They have helped to construct values around the use of alcohol in this country: If You Drink, Do Not Drink and Drive. Legalizing marijuana and other drugs will only create confusion about the values around what is acceptable and unacceptable use. That confusion will only cause the rate of addiction to increase.

The issue with which I struggle the most is this: Alcohol is a drug; it is a moodaltering chemical, yet I do not believe that it should be made illegal. Alcohol has a rich history of use and has contributed to human culture almost since the dawning of time. Furthermore, alcohol does have functions (religious and social) without reference to its mood-altering properties. Marijuana, on the other hand, has only one function to get its users high. Marijuana may not be a physically addicting drug. But chemically dependent people are addicted to the high. Lacking their drug of choice, most addicts will use whatever is available, including marijuana. Any medicinal value marijuana may have should be researched and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, i.e. use only as a prescription drug.

I also do not believe alcohol should be made illegal because of that disaster of an experiment we call Prohibition. The problems caused by organized crime in that era far outweighed any potential benefits in terms of lower rates of addiction. How-

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ever, when I try to apply this reasoning to legalizing all drugs in an effort to lower the rate of crime associated with using and obtaining and trafficking drugs, I always come back to this simple point: It is irresponsible and immoral for a government to permit and to sanction its citizens to numb themselves, to poison themselves, to destroy their lives.

As a chemical dependency counselor in a treatment center, I have seen how drug and alcohol addiction has ravaged people's lives and the lives of the families of alcoholics and addicts. I have seen people struggle against the compulsion to use. I have seen people struggle to put their lives back together. I have seen people succeed; I have seen many more fail. Addiction is a powerful disease. And this I firmly believe-legalizing marijuana or any other drug will not lower the number of deaths each year due to its use.

Lastly, I am outraged that Mr. Hartman would use the pro-choice analogy in his argument. The right to a safe and legal abortion, the right to control when and if we have children is a hard-fought, hardwon constitutional right. The right to control our sexual lives is still a right for which women and gay people continue to struggle. There is no analogy. The right to use drugs, the right to render oneself emotionally incapable of coping with life is not protected by the Constitution, nor was it ever intended to be. This was a not-soclever ploy used by Mr. Hartman to seduce the gay community into thinking it had something in common with NORML.

I urge the lesbian-gay community to protect itself, its very life, by refusing Mr. Hartman's and NORML's invitation.

Respond to letters

To the Editor:

sure, it is drawn with great talent, flair, and verve, but what is its point? There's no humor, satire, sarcasm, or subtlety to invoke thought, action, emotion, or motivation for or from males of females. Bechdel is a good artist who would excel as an illustrator for "A-day-in-the-life-of" series booklet, not a monthly comic strip.

I'd venture to proffer that the bulk of readers, as with the public dailies, read the letters, personals, classifieds, comics, and attack the crossword or word-find sections before they venture into the hard news items, which mainly have been covered by other visual and print media in greater depth.

However, I'm in the fullest agreement with the letters by the Men's Chorus representative, and the president of StonewallCleveland, as well as Mr. Siegel of San Francisco. I could not disagree more vehemently with the way in which the Chronicle handled response to all the letters in this issue. Personally, I do not support the view to legalize "pot" usage, but as an American, I'm pleased you have given everyone a chance and right to speak.

And so it goes: I am speaking! Chronicle, platitudes and sanctimonious verbiage are the pismires that eat up the manna of the people!

1. Jeff Wobbecke, on partiality toward various issues and basic groups, is correct. You subconsciously admit that by the remark, in editorializing: "The Chronicle works to cover both men's and women's areas..." Here, I read "tries" for "work," and I must add your abject apology for an effort in serious short-fall needed to replace your sanctimoniousness. Following with your solemn affirmation to "work harder to give better coverage..." would seem highly in order. Only Ali McGraw can get away with never having to say I'm sorry!

2. A new "March on Washington" assembly ought to have received a loud, Melisa M. Schuster strong ovation from you. Besides, a gentle hint by the editorial staff, in print, and in a personal follow-up response note to Mr. Siegel, to remind us all that Cleveland, too, Cleveland Gay Fathers A Support/Peer Group for divorced, married or other adult gay men coming out.

You are to be commended for the inclusion of a crossword (finally!), started in the February edition, but what's with the cartoon, "Dykes to Watch Out For"? To be

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