"Scarface" is a story of the American dream. You can come to America with
nothing, but if you work hard you can move to the top fast. That's what Tony
Montana wanted. He came to America on a boat from Cuba in 1983 with nothing in
his pocket. It wasn't even certain that he'd be allowed to stay in America.
But he worked hard. He was a criminal, but crime in a business like any other.
With hard work he became the biggest drug dealer in South Florida.
Even though Tony is the bad guy, people have sympathy with him. That's
probably because they value his work ethic. They respect him as the underdog
who came out on top.
But he fell from his top position. Was it his morals? Was it because he
refused to kill children for the Bolivian drug lord? I don't think so. He
could have worked around it somehow. He was already acting erratically. The
problem was drugs. Not the ones he was selling, the ones he was using.
"Never get high on your own supply".
When a man has cocaine piled up on his desk, he's dead already.
The actress Jenna Presley gave up her career in pornography, blaming porn for
ruining her life. She was wrong. Appearing nude in films ruined nothing; her
drug addiction ruined her. She was the highest earning porn star in America,
but she was always broke because she spent her money on drugs as soon as she
earned it. Without drugs, she'd still be making high quality pornographic
films today.
It's been argued that many things are a drug, even coffee and alcohol. I can
see the problem in making clear definitions. I shan't attempt to define the
word drug itself. I'll just talk about which drugs are harmful and should be
outlawed. A drug is bad if you can't stop taking it. For instance, I drink
coffee every day, but I've had times when I did without it for weeks, mostly
when I was taking blood pressure medication in England. I missed my morning
cup of coffee, but I didn't feel like I was suffering without it. Alcohol is a
borderline case. Most people, including me, can take it or leave it, but there
are many who need alcohol every day.
What about cigarettes? Nicotine isn't usually considered a drug because it's legal,
but it's highly addictive. Despite warnings about negative effects, nobody who
smokes can do without cigarettes.
An interesting case is marijuana. For years people have been saying it should
be legalised because it's harmless. I've never used it myself, but I've had a
lot of friends who smoked it, and I've made interesting observations. People
who use marijuana like to talk about it. They become obsessed with it without
noticing. It's a medically proven fact that it brings on psychotic episodes in
people with a tendency to psychosis. The figures from studies vary between 10%
and 15%. The normal marijuana users deny this. They make excuses or
just say it isn't true. But I witnessed it myself in my second wife Nicola.
She didn't smoke marijuana often, but whenever she did she became suicidal. I
knew that and she knew that, but she still made mistakes. One afternoon we
were sitting with Pete, a friend of mine in Birmingham, who regularly smoked
marijuana. He offered her some, and she turned it down, saying it was bad for
her. So he started a long monologue about how good it is. Eventually, despite
my protests, she smoked a joint. When we went home Pete said,
"Look how good it's made you feel". Later that evening I had to take
her to hospital after she cut her wrists.
Cocaine is considered a helpful drug by many. It keeps people awake, and it
helps them function. It's often called the drug of intellectuals. Maybe, just
maybe, it can be helpful in small quantities, but how easy is it to remain
with small quantities? I have no experience.
Heroin is a destructive drug. Whoever takes it is incapable of functioning in
society. It's so addictive that a person's only interest in life is getting
more heroin. I knew several heroin addicts, and they were all wrecks.
Subhuman. There was only one exception. There was a girl called Maisie, the
girlfriend of a drug dealer called Alexis Thomas. One day when I met her she
said,
"Mike, everyone told me that heroin is bad, but I take it and it makes me
feel great".
I asked her how long she'd been taking it. She said "One week". I
wonder if she's still alive today.
It's obvious that drugs (and I'm talking about illegal drugs) feel good
when you try them. If they didn't, nobody would want them. But there's a
sting in the tail. The negative effects come later. Maybe it doesn't feel as
good any more, or maybe you realise that you're spending too much money on
them and ruining your life. When you realise you can't stop, it's already too
late. I wonder how many how many weeks Maisie needed to realise this point.
Success Rate: + 0.6
Order from Amazon.com | |
Order from Amazon.co.uk | |
Order from Amazon.de |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tick the box "Notify me" to receive notification of replies.