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Readers Respond to
Mike Doughty
Posted: August 30, 2006
The following letters are in response to ex-Soul Coughing
frontman Mike Doughty's comments about marijuana in our recent
interview with him. The prompt for these responses was sent
out in a newsletter and went something like this:
Mike Doughty left the band Soul Coughing in 2000
while enduring a heroin problem which he acquired after being
a heavy pot smoker. He's since recovered to launch a solo career.
In our recent interview with him, he made the following pronouncement
about marijuana: "I'd like to get weed recognized as a
drug that people can become seriously addicted to and wreck
their lives with. I don't judge drugs—I stopped doing
'em, but I love 'em. But this nonsense that weed is some kind
of light non-drug is pure fiction; a major problem in our society.
Whether or not people should choose to stop, they ought to face
facts." What's your response to this statement?
My response to the Mike Doughty statement: first off, pre-statement,
you note that he acquired a heroin from a pot habit -- it's
a fallacious note, a post hoc fallacy to be a bit more precise.
It's true that in his case, heroin followed pot; but it's not
true that pot directly lead, or, more importantly, always leads,
to heroin. Yes, there's a correlation: they're both illegal
drugs, but one does not necessarily follow the other, one does
not create the other, it's up to the human fucking individual
to stretch such correlation into causation. Even if, through
some details unknown to me and probably you, Mike, say, took
a drag of heroin-laced pot, which then hooked him to heroin,
then that sucks, but it's still not, in a broader sense, a causational
(word?) relationship. So, he didn't acquire a heroin problem
from a pot problem.
In any case, to the statement itself: Mike (and Matt), weed
already is a drug that's widely recognized as being addictive
and leading to other, stonier, drugs. I mean, I don't need to
use "dude, fallacy!" arguments for each of these statements,
so I won't, but I probably could, but anyway what's this guy
on? Nothing. Well, at one point he was on stuff, and apparently
he was on it because he spent too long chilling in some vacuum
separated from all after school specials, anti-pot commercials,
the War on Drugs, and every junior high teacher, high school
teacher, and half the parents of the students that attend these
grades -- gobs of people recognize pot as a Gateway Drug, a
serious menace to society. If, currently, there are any relaxations
of such ideas about pot, as he then suggests, then they are
founded not on complacency, but on research and results -- on
careful assessment of the beneficial aspects versus the negative
aspects. Does he really believe that society is totally chill
with weed?
Practically last: "this nonsense is ... pure fiction"?
Dude, sentence. Please show me nonsense that is nonfiction,
because I really want to read it. I admit, I haven't yet read
the interview, so I don't know what (or who) in the god he is
arguing against -- but apparently it's someone who acknowledges
that pot is considered a gateway drug, and who also says it's
totally harmless. Because the person or society who mades such
suggestions seems to be the person or society that he is addressing.
In conclusion, it's his argument that is nonsense, and it is
hardly even worth a response (especially this awesome response).
But you asked.
So to conclude the conclusion, I smoked a bit of pot when I
was in high school, and then I quit during my junior year. It
wasn't a big deal. I had a few friends who moved on to crack
and heroin and then swiftly went to jail (which implies that
I wasn't far off from such a track). Right there, in those last
three sentences, is the basis for an argument about the real
correlation between pot and heroin. Ultimately, we're all navigators,
capable of decisions, often knowledgeable about potential responses
to the decisions. The pot was not Mike's problem. The heroin,
yes, that's been proven to be much more hazardous to health
and difficult to unhook oneself from, and so, yes, that was
his problem (or, of a few problems, one of the biggest). And
that sucks. And I can understand that he might be looking outside
of himself for blame (and, in many respects, rightly so). But
he's looking in the wrong spot when he glares at pot as this
culprit, and he's missing some major points about how pot is
conceived by society.
-Ryan
___
find this a little puzzling... I know so many people who use
marijuana responsibily. I also know a number of people with
chronic illnesses who use 'legal' marijuana in the bay area
and it does seem to help them. It seems to me it's probably
the best 'pleasure' drug we have. If this guy because a heroin
addict, I'd blame that on the heroin, not the pot!
-David, CA
___
Mike Doughty, like many addicts I have known, seeks to make
his demons, through that ridiculous claim, the same demons as
others inflicted with a substance abuse problem.
Clem Greenberg argued; that "content-subject" doesn't
matter -- what matters is the 'application' of ones "style"
regardless the the content-subject expressed through art. That
alone is what makes art, good or not. Well, this argument cannot
be disproved, given the impossibility of the constituent qualification.
Simply stated -- Doughty employs an equivocation fallacy --
like any good propagandist of his claim; "But this nonsense
that weed is some kind of light non-drug is pure fiction; a
major problem in our society. Whether or not people should choose
to stop, they ought to face facts." I am unaware of "marijuana"
(weed) ever finding characterization of a "non-drug."
I am unaware of the narcotic specific, a major problem. Ergo,
I am not sure what "facts" Doughty refers. I live
in Los Angeles, and on more than one occasion I have flushed
large amounts of high grade marijuana down the toilet, no kidding.
Yes, one can just find this stuff. It isn't something I bring
up to brag about, given that I rather enjoy a sticky fatty,
if I have the time. In the wrong hands anything one might find
useful, is a problem for that individual stuck in their prepubescent
mindset ("reification": Lukacs) Real joy results of
task accomplishment, and I have found few adults accept this
"fact" in Los Angeles. Most would rather sell some
madness to others, rather than face these 'facts.' Such is life.
-Mark, CA
___
Well, many thousands of folk have field-tested marijuana and
other substances for decades, and I believe the consensus may
be something like this: it's what you make of it.
Light? Heavy? Addictive? Jezus chrise,
Mr. Doughty, who appointed you the pontiff of potdom?
Oh, yes McDonalds is to blame for being fat, or scalded.
Yes, and Ligget & Myers [sic] is at fault for lung cancer;
and the lovely plant marijuana has led many an unsuspecting
flower child down the path to narcotics addiction
-----How can one doubt?
Give it a rest, Mr Doughty. If you're an addict it's because
you choose to be:
and that includes iced coffee, for chrise sake.
Dat ice coffee be's my current drug of choice, by the way.
-Jim, IL
___
As I sit here with my physical wreck of a wife drawing medical
marijuana through her vaporizer before she goes to sleep, it
seems a bit lame for someone with a heroin problem to be quoted
as an expert on addiction. What he's an expert on is his own
personality. My wife is not a heroin addict.
We have scientists for that. We need less, not more, scare
noises about marijuana. We have a lot of drunks too. Big woop.
-Ormond
___
I think it (pot smoking) in my late teens and early twenties
contributed significantly to my present day anxiety disorder.
I never progressed to taking anything harder than pot, though
I'm now in my mid-forties and am still quite substance dependent
on alcohol. I take seratonin re-uptake inhibitors (anti-depressants).
I think kids need to be educated about the dangers of increased
anxiety if one is predisposed, which is highly likely given
the tendency/desire/need/peer pressure to take pot in the first
place.
-Paul, Australia
___
my response on pot smoking is ah yes, it's potentially dangerous
& can be addictive, Don't kid yourself about the pastime
is what I'd tell all the weedies.
-gladys
___
"Well, that's just like, your opinion, man."
-Jake, FL (quoting The Big Lebowski)
Read the interview
with Mike Doughty
If you would like to respond to one of our articles or
simply ramble on about your next-door neighbor's lawn-care practices,
email editor@identitytheory.com.
We might publish it on this page.
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