somebody else that i've known for years is straight-edge, or almost straight-edge, is michael stipe, the singer of rem.

for years, i assumed that was a part of his ian mackeye fetish. and, that is a known fact: michael stipe was known to be very impressed by minor threat, and the bands that came out of it.

but, i learned fairly recently that it was sort of a similar story. apparently, somebody close to him was involved in a drug related fatality, and he just stopped altogether at that point. again, i don't know how he'd reflect on that now.

but, if you look into it, it always seems to be the people most affected by drugs that are most opposed to them; that is, you generally get these pro-drug arguments from people that have never actually done drugs, or known anybody affected by them.

it's the people with the most experience that seem to be the most apprehensive.

that observation ought to count for something.

listen: i've said repeatedly that i don't think drug addicts belong in jail, and that i don't even really support the concept of jail. but, i do support means of intervention to try to get sellers into a different line of work. i'm not naive enough to think i can cut the supply, but i can't in good conscience support anything that eases restrictions to access.

whatever the legal regime around the dangerous classes of drugs ends up as, it should be very hard to locate them. harder than now...