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Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: Have you ever dabbled with controlled substances? (note: this is not a cop asking)

A: I have not. I should preface this by saying that the Johnny G is anti-drugs. I'm not some berserk sXe guy that thinks that people that do drugs are evil or immoral, but I do think that drugs are foolish and a waste of time and money.

Right now, it seems like media and society are portraying drugs as "cool." In the past two years, I've seen like four movies where the main characters do cocaine on purpose or by accident without any major consequences and just shake it off like it's no big deal. They also make it seem like doing drugs is a blast. I think that's sad.

Because of my connection to punk rock (and because I lived in the bay area for a while), I've been to numerous parties and places where people are doing harder drugs. Let me tell you, it's never a huge party with people running around getting into zany adventures. To the contrary, when people do hard drugs, they just sit around and stare at each other and are bores. The times when people are having a great time and doing hard drugs would be great times without the drugs too, and really, the drugs are nearly inconsequential.

I suppose the reason that I'm so anti-drug is a result because I worked in the produce industry for about 10 years. Due to the hard labor and extremely early hours, that industry generally doe snot attract top tier help, and a lot of people working in that field are current or ex-drug addicts. When you see these guys, day after day, with their dim eyes, grayed visages, and just generally dampened mental ability, it really turns you off the drug thing. Some people right now say "certain drug use in certain circumstances doesn't have long term affects," but I'll tell you, I've met lots of examples that shoot that idea right down.

Plus, I'm anti-drugs on an economic level. We're lucky in that we are born in countries with low starvation levels where life is pretty okay. All around the world, people are fighting desperately for life, and to pay money for death in a bag (and make no mistake, drugs DO damage you) seems foolish at best and fundamentally selfish and insulting at worst.

Also, I'm anti-drug because drugs like cocaine and heroin are the direct result of death and slavery. Every day, men, women, and children are murdered and enslaved in South America and other countries as a result in the production or conflict in the drug trade. People sniffing coke are literally using a product that is the result of brutal murder.

One way to counter that last argument is to make all drugs legal, which would effectively eliminate the illegal drug trade. I'm all for letting people make their own choices- if someone wants to blast their brains out with weasel powder, I don't care. But, the problem then, is that hard drugs can be particularly dangerous (way more dangerous than weed or booze) so if a young kid or teenager that doesn't understand the dangers in what they were doing, one small screw up could potentially ruin his or her entire life.

I just wish people would be smart enough enough to stop doing hard drugs. What a foolish, group-minded and stupid thing to do. As for weed, I think that's dumb too, but I can't really make an argument as to how weed is more dangerous than beer. So, I don't think it's that big of a deal. But, if you are going to do weed, just make sure it doesn't cut back on your productivity and creativity.

I don't have any answers. Hard drugs just seem like a foolish way to squander this short time on earth that we have.

-John G

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