Hi Massachusetts Voters,
As I have said in a comment, I will be voting yes on all the ballot questions. (Watertown specimen ballots for the general election on Tuesday, November 3rd, can be found here at https://www.watertown-ma.gov/295/Specimen-Ballots). At the root of many of the ballot questions is economic fairness. However, I feel most completed to write about Question 4.
“This proposed law would allow persons aged 21 and older to grow, possess, and use certain natural psychedelic substances in certain circumstances. The psychedelic substances allowed would be two substances found in mushrooms (psilocybin and psilocin) and three substances found in plants (dimethyltryptamine, mescaline, and ibogaine).”
I feel compelled because this is about how we care for those who have no other options.
Individuals for whom the passage of the question would be beneficial are veterans and those in the positions as first responders. Many of these professions have the highest rates of suicide, and the most success at committing the act with easy access to firearms. What they do not have is access to effective treatment for PTSD. It’s no accident that many homeless individuals are veterans self medicating on alcohol or nowadays Oxycontin. Many must travel outside the U.S. to obtain the drugs being decriminalized by YES on 4. When they do so, they find success. However, they should not have to go to such lengths. To learn about successes, read Micheal Pollan’s book “How to Change Your Mind” or watch the Netflix documentary.
Unfortunately, most psychiatric medications are not highly effective at treating mental health conditions. In fact, Bristol Myers Squibb ended its Antidepressant Program as they found this to be true. Professor Edward Bullmore from the N.H.S. and author of “The Inflamed Mind” has linked the appearance of depression with the appearance of trauma. When the body is traumatized, it reacts with inflammation. The same is true for the brain. Trauma, physical or psychological, causes inflammation, which in the brain produces a fog.
Another population having to cope with trauma are terminally ill patients. If you have watched an immediate family member die from a terminal disease, such as Stage 4 Cancer, you would understand this. These patients are usually given medications like diluted morphine to ease the physical pain, but the morphine does nothing for the psyche. The aforementioned substances do unburden the psyche. Again, see Pollan’s documentary. The terminally ill are being separated from their lives, and at the same time, from family, and that is profoundly traumatically. Trauma is rooted in separation from the community, be it civilian or familial.
This ballot question does not permit the retail sale of such plants, and in a sense the substances would be more controlled than alcohol, which can be viewed as freely dispensed despite regulation. Alcohol is also the most dangerous drug because it contributes to automotive accidents (the most common cause), dulls the mind over time and can cause certain cancers. Unlike alcohol, these psychedelic substances provide therapeutic benefits that can be immeasurable. Please vote YES on Question 4.
Rita ColafellaDistrict C-9
Thank you for such a fair and comprehensive letter. I am also voting yes on 4. These plant medicines are necessary as highly effective options to address our mental health crisis. There’s no time to waste when 17 veterans die each day from suicide.
Amen.
Thanks for posting Charlie.
Autocorrect did this:
However, I feel most completed to write about Question 4. Compelled is what it should say.
IMHO, The mental health issues you describe are a result of the inner stories we tell ourselves and cling too. If you can see how your thought habits effect how you feel and experience situations you can experience these events differently by choosing different thoughts and beliefs. How we experience events, both tragic and positive are dictated by where we are in the evolution of our personal journey to wisdom. This wisdom begins with acceptance of our life journey and the constant questioning and seeking out of what is true. When you stop seeking truth and believe you have found all the answers you then will get stuck in the chaos of what you call mental health conditions.
I am not against plant based medications and will vote yes because we all deserve to have choices but, There are no plant based medications that will change the course of events anymore that pharmaceuticals and it will be the belief we hold onto and the understanding of what is true that makes a difference in how we experience both the pain and pleasures of life.
I can totally agree with your statement in cases of feeling inadequate or not confident that changing the story one tells oneself would be better than drug treatment. Many don’t talk about their experiences, though, to others or themselves, but it comes out in various unproductive and unhealthy ways. Self medicating on these plant based medications won’t do much good (other than sending fewer non-violent lawbreakers to prison) but with a therapist or palliative care specialist it can be therapeutic for those have lived in violence or through unbearable conditions. Trauma also goes down to the cellular level, especially when it is generational trauma like famine, enslavement or genocide. I personally thing we all are living with trauma of witnessing 9/11. I am glad you are voting yes.