Monday, May 31, 2010

My Letter to the Residential Services in Compliance with Punishment for Dorm Drinkin'

Juan Madrigal
AOD Reflection

My meeting at with social services brought me great insight to the dangers of alcohol. Many people there had got into some serious trouble and one man even had a friend who passed away from alcohol poisoning. The experience reminded me that alcohol is dangerous and that I need to be careful. They also taught me valuable facts about alcohol and weed that can help me avoid an untimely death or other serious consequences. For instance, while blacked out the other night, I talked to my roommate. Apparently, I said “Hey Andrew. If you drink a bunch of alcohol really fast, that's how you black out. It doesn't even matter if it's not a lot. So, I could be blacked out RIGHT NOW.”
Furthermore, I was informed that if you drink alcohol with carbonation, it is absorbed faster into your bloodstream. With this knowledge, I quickly realized that chugging a few cups of rum and coke at a 1:1 ratio is the fastest and most cost-effective way to get drunk. This saves me time and money. I also understand that shotgunning a few beers is another quick way to become intoxicated when there is no hard alcohol. I plan to apply both of these lessons in the future. Furthermore, I learned that the different strains of weed actually do matter. Before I only thought it mattered if it was indica or sativa. Apparently, each strain can change the type of high and intensity as well. Although I knew this to be true with the higher end strains, such as Trainwreck, I was not aware it mattered for most strains. Now, I can be sure to be business savvy and privy the next time that I purchase or sell marijuana. Not that I would ever do that, because it is illegal.
In addition to having knowledge that will not help me unless I insist on doing things that are illegal, I also learned that the best way to avoid danger is to avoid what is illegal. The government is pretty trustworthy and just because we have a black president does mean that doing drugs is okay. However, Obama can, because he's the president and he's charming. He smoked weed and did cocaine as far as I know. I am not citing that, because I consider it either common knowledge, or inaccurate. You know, whatever. Anyways, I don't necessarily support Obama and the way that he re-opened Guantanamo in a sneaky way and is supporting more power being diverted to the executive and stripping the Constitution of its power as higher law- however, the man looks very cool while smoking a cigarette. And hey, I can't argue with cool.
Harm-reduction to me, means a strategy by which we can reduce harm. When pertaining to illegal substances, this would include such actions as abstaining from taking any sort of drugs, or not drinking so much that you die. For example, you could drink some water or take some of those pills that get rid of your hangover. One thing that I do to reduce the harm of alcohol is to practice and build up my tolerance. I also do my best to make sure that I mix drugs that go well together. I don't want to drink and do ecstasy, for example. That would be insane.
There are many signs that people are abusing alcohol or other drugs to an extent that is just not okay. One such sign is that perhaps they are dead, or dying. Another hint could be if they begin abusing drugs more than once a day, or they become dependent on the drugs, threatening to murder you in your sleep if you don't tell them where you hid their goddam booze, you worthless mistake that could have been prevented if condoms just did their damn job for once. Luckily more for me, I am almost done with this three page assignment, and will soon be rid of the burden caused in my life by abusing various substances. After this, there will be no burden, just an awesome high and a sense of satisfaction- just as God intended. Not that I believe in God. I think I believe in something similar to the God that Spinoza described. Except maybe one that makes more sense. Either way, if I ever see God or he tells me to build a boat or something, I will trust that that is when I can know that I have a problem with alcohol or drugs.
Alright, time for the conclusion. In this concluding paragraph, I intend to summarize some of the stuff I said, and then make a deep reflection on all that I have talked about. So, in the AOD workshop, I learned that problems are very serious and that the world isn't perfect. I also continued to take this assignment seriously past the first few sentences, and discuss how great weed is. I think that's what I did. I don't remember. Anyways, there was also a paragraph about harm reduction, and I made sure that I answered all four questions. I think I put some stuff in there about Obama, too. I think that I should get extra credit for the unnecessary academia.
I decided to indent to make it appear that this conclusion isn't just the idle rambling of a mad man. I don't really remember what the fourth question was, and I don't really want to scroll up. I believe it might have had something to do with knowing that your father is an alcoholic. However, I dismissed this question on the basis that he loves and cares about me very much anyways. Plus I am out of house, so I have nothing against him- and I owe him for paying my way through college mostly. Man, who else is excited for the World Cup? I know I am. The Stanley Cup is almost over, too. Time is just flying. Also, earlier in spring semester I wrote two essays while under the influence in like four hours, and they were pretty good. Anyways, I learned a lot about both weed and alcohol. I also learned about some other drugs. I appreciated these lessons and they have touched me (in a good way).
These are the lessons that come with time and alcohol workshops. But it is really all part of growing up. I will be sure to pass this knowledge on to my children and their children for generations. I won't really keep in contact with any children I have actually. So probably not. Anyways, I will be sure to share it with any children that I meet in the next few weeks. Hopefully that will go over really well. I'm almost positive that it will. Also, I am unsure if 3-5 pages means that I barely have to write on the third page, have a full page, so I wrote this sentence just in case. Well, thanks for reading I guess, see you next time!