cannabisnews.com: Keeping Your Head Straight





Keeping Your Head Straight
Posted by CN Staff on June 18, 2007 at 09:46:50 PT
By Jeremiah Horrigan
Source: Times Herald-Record
New York -- Asked to comment on the state Assembly's approval of a grow-your-own medical marijuana bill, Republican Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt of Greenwood Lake told The Times Herald-Record last week "I'm against it because I think it is a mind-altering substance." I was having my morning cup of decaf, trying to figure out how best to get through another day without altering my mind.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like to change my mind. I love to do that. But altering my mind is something completely different. That's what happens when a foreign substance is introduced into the body and makes it do things it wouldn't ordinarily do.Which explains why I'd just emptied the sugar bowl.I know all the arguments about sugar. It's natural. It's sweet. Even organic sometimes.And it's mind-altering.It had to go. It made me feel ... good. I could feel it, its warm, early morning fingers working their way up my sleep-weakened spinal column, squeezing into my pleasure centers, making me crave — what else? Jelly donuts! Bacon! Eggs!Do they still make Alpha-Bits?Which explains the dry toast. And, I suppose, the crashing headache my anti-altering regime appears to have brought me.The headache I take as a sign of progress. I'm detoxing. Keeping my aching mind clear of invasive poisons that might alter me in bad and unpredictable ways.I grabbed my lunch — unseasoned soy-paste-on-rye and dehydrated water — and headed for work.I arrived there in my usual resentful state. My co-workers were freely indulging in their usual antics: knocking back Red Bulls and Mountain Dews and fruit-at-the-bottom yogurts and even going so far as to smoke cigarettes out on the sidewalk.And, I sometimes suspect, it's not just the government-approved brands they're doing.All of this was, as usual, getting to me. Besides my daily headache, my knee had begun jerking reflexively. I was just about to give up hope when I looked at the morning paper. I saw what my assemblywoman had to say about medical marijuana.I started to cry.At last, someone had told it like it was, someone had stood up for people like me, people who know only too well the dangers of mind-altering substances. In just a few, deftly chosen words, someone acknowledged how difficult it is to keep an open but unalterable mind about things like medical marijuana.Other, far-less-knowing Assembly people were saying they agreed that people with painful medical conditions should be allowed to grow their own marijuana and to use it for pain relief. Mind-altering pain relief, of course. As if there were any other kind.I was aghast. If the state were to allow people to grow their own mind-altering substances, what was next? Grow your own sugar cane? Brew your own Red Bull? Extrude your own Alpha-Bits?It was beyond belief. My head was throbbing and my knee was black-and-blue from banging against the underside of my desk. I was hurting, but hurting for a good cause. Hurting for an unalterable good cause.Jeremiah Horrigan, who is no stranger to mind-altering substances, can be reached at:  jhorrigan th-record.comSource: Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY)Author: Jeremiah HorriganPublished: June 17, 2007Copyright: 2007 Orange County PublicationsContact: letters th-record.comWebsite: http://www.th-record.com/Related Articles:Hope Riding on NY's Marijuana Billhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23081.shtmlState Finds Its Compassionhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23080.shtmlMedical Marijuana Bill: Legalize Ithttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23078.shtml 
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Comment #12 posted by dongenero on June 19, 2007 at 08:40:13 PT
MMJ MINISTRY post
Wow, way to out the Republican Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt!That fact should find its way into every news article where she offers her profound opinion.I thought her comment were just ridiculous. Then, you point out that she runs a pub and bartends there. Holy cow! If that is not the height of hypocrisy and, I suppose, conflict of interest!This kind of stuff is really sickening and people, voters, should not stand for it.Oh, let's mention again; she's a Republican. Anyone surprised?
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on June 19, 2007 at 06:23:32 PT
gloovins
What a kind comment to read first thing in the morning. The way I see it is honesty is the only policy.
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Comment #10 posted by gloovins on June 18, 2007 at 22:42:51 PT
I love this site
You know why? Because not only are the articles all about cannabis but the readers and posters are so smart & dead-on honest with every article. They are the truth seekers who won't let some drug-dealing "bartender" & sometime legislator get away with "I'm against it because I think it is a mind-altering substance." when she is a f %!ing bartender!! A drug pusher herself. Ever been to a bar & not wanted to drink? Jeez, the looks you get from the "bartender". And if you do drink, how long do you have to wait for another? 30 seconds? 2-3 minutes? I have been to Holland, in coffee shops & they are not like bars at all. See, you have to go up & buy your bud, then you smoke as you see fit. No harrassent via "Another round??" This Rabbit lady is a joke & hasn't a shred of credibility. How many people have gotten dui's leaving your bar, Rabbit? How many fights there been at your bar involving drunkards there, Rabbit? I think someone needs to write her a letter or call her & ask her these things since she is pushing a "mind-altering substance" herself, no? Just a thought.
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on June 18, 2007 at 21:08:49 PT
Cannabis works.
Pay no attention to this BS and continue explaining the facts and the Rabbitt lady will lose Her platform.Cannabis works.Almost every person that uses cannabis for medical reasons says it works.-0-Sometimes when people realise they are being ignored, they don't like the dumb feeling that overcomes them and they quit being stupid.
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Comment #8 posted by MMJ MINISTRY on June 18, 2007 at 16:37:55 PT
THE NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE
"I'm against it because I think it is a mind-altering substance." Annie RabbittThis from the owner of O'Hare's Pub in Greenwood Lake for the last 10 years. (Where she still tends bar!)WTF, I HATE HYPOCRITES!She’s also the wife of a police officer.
http://www.rabbittforassembly.com/bio.htmlIssues she supports:Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology. (Except hemp)
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on June 18, 2007 at 15:37:42 PT
Max Flowers 
I don't like articles that are trying to be funny. This is way to serious to play games. We should let our yes mean yes and our no mean no. Game playing isn't my thing either.
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Comment #6 posted by Max Flowers on June 18, 2007 at 15:30:27 PT
Personally...
I can't stand this type of editorial, these quasi-ironic, smartass is-he-serious-or-isn't-he things.The reason: the stakes are way too high for questionable opinions here. People are in pain and in some cases, dying. If this guy has a negative opinion of the war on cannabis and wants to make his thoughts known, he needs to just come out and state it forcefully and not do this namby-pamby, wishy-washy veiled-scorn stuff!!My take on people who write that kind of thing is that they are still to fearful (read: cowardly) to really say it like it is, probably fearing for their "reputation" or their writing job or whatever.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on June 18, 2007 at 10:57:07 PT
Thanks, Sam.
I appreciate it. I thought it was, but I have found myself thinking something, surely, is meant to be ironic or sarcastic, only to discover they were serious. There are so many people who are just nuts about these things, that when someone pretends to be one of the nuts...for effect...I can't always be sure they aren't the real thing, because there are so dang many of the real thing...the real nuts, out there.
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Comment #4 posted by potpal on June 18, 2007 at 10:41:46 PT
Mind altering spin
Well maybe this prohibitionist, Republican Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt of Greenwood Lake, will stop this stuff from reaching our shores...oh, it's here, in NY, already...http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/06/absinthe_arrives_in_new_york_a_1.html
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on June 18, 2007 at 10:25:34 PT
it is
yes, it seems fairly clear that he's outraged at his state rep. Justifiably so!
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on June 18, 2007 at 10:23:08 PT
This article 
is supposed to be ironic...isn't it? There are so many true loonies out there...it's difficult to tell sometimes when someone is actually making fun of the loonies.
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on June 18, 2007 at 10:08:14 PT
Good guy
If he thinks his coffee is mind altering, he should try Percocet, Flexeril, and Neurontin and some of the other lovelies the corporations/govt force us to use instead of herbal cannabis. He'd probably never even make it to the breakfast table on Flexeril.
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