Tuesday, September 15, 2009

For drug abusers, it's tough all over

Well, it’s tough all over that’s for sure. Those of us who seek intoxication as a means of coping with the horrors of late monopoly capitalism are not having an easy time of it.

This blog has gone out of its way to highlight and expose the crypto-prohitionist policies being pushed against drinkers.

It keeps getting worse. A recent article in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Australian proved just how difficult it is getting for drinkers. The article was entitled “Drinking at work over, bar shouting”.

Reporting on a truly shocking violation of workers’ rights, at and after work, the article begins: “A shoutafter work may be on the way out, as health authorities try to recruit big-brother bosses to curtail staff drinking habits.”

On the job

In particular the bastards are worried about drinking “on the job” and how it may be cutting into profit margins. “The bill for lost productivity through hangovers and sickies, staff turnover and early retirement due to alcohol use is calculated at $5.6 billion a year.”

This is despite the fact, I am pretty sure although I may have to look up the relevant sections, that “getting pissed at work” is recognised as a fundamental right in the International Labour Organisation’s conventions.

Even if it is not formally codified in ILO conventions, it is a fundamental aspect of the culture of Australian working people.

And attempting to deny a peoples their culture is, according many sources, a form of genocide.

In defending our right to drink and work, we are resisting genocide.

But what do the bosses care? Profits before people, yet again.

The article notes: “The report suggests that alcohol-related issues be incorporated in industrial awards, and in occupational health and safety laws.”

Yes! Damn right. It should be incorporated. But not in the way this right-wing corporate-owned paper, with its mind only at the profit margin whatever the social cost, no doubt means.

The right to drink, indeed the responsibility of the employer to provide an adequate supply of alcohol at all times, should be incorporated into industrial awards and occupational health and safety laws.

I can tell you, in my experience, sobriety is a very serious occupational health risk. You do all kinds of crazy shit sober — to say nothing of dangerous.

And the statistics are extremely worrying. The article reports that only “44 per cent of the Australian workforce drinks above the safe level recommended by the National Health and Research Council, ‘at least occasionally’.”

Only 44%! No wonder this country is in such a fucking mess.

There needs to be combination of appropriate legislation to ensure access to alcohol is available at workplaces, at the expense of the employers, and an educational campaign aimed at changing the disturbing culture of sobriety that exists.

It is about defending a way of life. Don’t let previous generations have sacrificed their livers in vain! Fight for your rights to be drunk at, and after, work!

Demon weed

But it has been brought to my attention that it is not just drinkers. In fact, it is sometimes worth remembering that we liver-abusers have it comparatively easy.

My good friend Conehead the Barbiturate made a comment on my painful post on the betrayal by Ben Cousins a couple of weeks back about the horrors of seeking pot in Sydney.

Now I have made my views on the demon weed pretty clear.

My main concern is the undeniable link between what many believe to be an innocent partaking in a relatively “soft” drug and the serious problems associated with that blight on society: swimming addiction.

Few knew of the close links until the tragic case of Michael Phelps was revealed earlier this year.

Having said that, it is not automatic. Some people manage to smoke pot at a quite high rate for a relatively long period of time and never ever even enter a pool.

Certainly, I can say in all honesty that I have never seen Conehead swimming, or anywhere near a pool, or indeed — and this is the crucial question — in a pair of speedos.

So, who am I to judge?

I try and not be judgmental in these matters. Unless you refuse all intoxicants, in which case there is something quite seriously wrong with you.

As a matter of principle, I refuse to trust any individual who finds it capable of navigating the barbarism that is modern life completely and totally straight.

So I hereby highlight Conehead’s sad and frightening story of seeking access to marijuana in Sydney. A warning to all of us not to take the crypto-prohibitionist booze push too lightly!

Conehead writes:

*** If Ben Cousins is a drug addict, it’s because he doesn’t live in Sydney.

Seriously, a little bit of weed shouldn’t be too hard to find but its impossible to get in this fucking city! Most so-called dealers are in desperate need of the basic principles of the market economy.

The only people showing any entrepreneurship are the kids selling little bags of grass on dark street corners which, when examined in the light, turn out to be just that: grass.

And while I admire this spirit of commercial creativety, I wouldn’t mind exchanging my money for something that actually gets me stoned.

Contact a so-called dealer in this place and the response is generally to meet them in the middle of the night, where if you're lucky they’ll have a single, very overpriced, deal.

If they had the slightest understanding of capitalism, they’d at least be willing to sell you as many of these small, overpriced deals as you’re willing to buy.

But no, its fucking RATIONED!

Yours totally not in drug abuse

Conehead ***

My heart breaks reading this, it really does. I know just how long Conehead has to wait in seedy inner-city pubs before his Man will show up with these small over-priced deals. Out of a sense of personal sacrifice, I will often wait with him, with nothing but beer after beer for comfort.




The first thing Conehead learned was that he always had to wait. To help Conehead the Barbiturate out, email Carlo at sands.carlo@gmail.com.

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