Maggie's Farm

Re: The Patrick Kennedy brouhaha
I'm sorry for him. Sorry that he is so dumb he didn't acquaint himself with the side effects of his prescribed medication before he took it. Phenergan acts, opiate-fashion, to zonk you out and kill pain. It is great for temporarily suppressing coughs when you have been sleepless for nights on end with bronchitis. But it sends a normal person into such a heavy sleep that they would no more try to drive on it than fly. It also constipates you--perhaps the rep was too delicate to say that it was given him not for nausea but to stop diarrhea?? I have been prescribed it a couple of times for bronchitis and found that it actually made me nauseous. But every person reacts differently...

Who knows if he is an addict or not. But it raises an interesting set of issues... Speaking as a years-sober but still "foul, psychotic bitch, degenerate, whore alcoholic" (and I use only the loving appellations of my "devoted" spouse) I can categorically say that if we plain vanilla recovered alcoholics are bad, drug addicts are immeasurably worse. You don't have to break the law to be a drunken pig. But all drug addicts, by definition, have to break the law to supply their habits. We become what we do. It's for similar reasons that I am outraged by special treatment for illegals. They may work harder, initially, than native born workers. But I believe that if you get used to breaking the law in one area of your life, it gets easier and easier to do it in others. Jesus said that he who is faithful in small things will be faithful in big ones.

In my experience in recovery, the drug addicts have way higher rates of relapse, criminal behavior, lie more, steal more, etc. I have acquaintances in AA I am fond of who are drug addicts, but I would never give them a key to my house, ask them to look after my child, or entrust them with any important work. Being a drug addict should automatically get you kicked out of the US Congress and the Presidency and the Supreme Court. And I wouldn't scream blue murder if you did the same thing to even recovered alcoholics who are now sober, godly and otherwise reasonable. Public office and other responsible positions are privileges, not entitlements. If we know enough to disbar impaired or immoral lawyers and keep drunken doctors from practicing, why are we not equally picky about those who govern and judge us? Maybe a three strikes and you're out would be a fair compromise. Anyone can be an addict. They should be given every opportunity to get healthy, to reform and to get clean. But not unlimited cards out of jail, past Go, indefinitely collecting $200.

Writing for one...ah, the wonderful things I wrote blotto! You may even have read some of them...But not any more. Lost the gift of the gab with the abandonning of my wicked old habits.

I agree with you about politicians most of the time, but what bothers me in this case is the bad example to the young of yet another grownup in the public eye getting away with outrageous behavior. My kids work, so it's their tax dollars paying these buffoons...