Lake County News | California

A few of the Lake County Supervisors have launched an attack on marijuana. Yet, there is a drug that is used by all of us, kills more people than cancer, and yet is never referred to as a drug: food.  

Foods are chemicals which may soothe the soul, dull sharp feelings, and change consciousness. Foods can be lethal: suicide by fork. Hyperbole?

In the Korean War, and again in the Vietnam War, American dead, ages 18-21, were autopsied, and a large percentage of them had advanced arterial blockage, or atherosclerosis.

In 1993, another study was done of deceased men around 26 years of age, and almost 80 percent had coronary disease, of that group, 20 percent had 50 percent occlusion (blockage) in their main arteries to the heart, and 9 percent had more than 70 percent occlusion.

This is a major health disaster and no miracle cure is needed; simply a low fat diet will do the trick. And that would mean less than 25 percent of food calories in fat (the percentage is derived by dividing the number of calories in fat by the total calories). Few labels return such a measure. (The A.M.A. says one third, but does not support that percentage with evidence).

I used to argue with my father about diet. He would quote Socrates, “All things in moderation.” I would respond that this was an issue about threshold, and that over a certain amount of fat consumed can cause people begin to have arterial blockage.

So, I would answer, “All things in moderation” including “all things in moderation.” His death turned out to be my own most eloquent argument.

An organization I belong to had a potluck recently and there was ice cream, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, and other high fat snacks of various kinds. This is not sane behavior. We see fat people everywhere and start to think that fat is normal. No, fat is not normal, it is average, and those two notions are not the same.

High fat foods stare at us from the shelves at the strangest places, even the hardware store. That stressful trip to buy a hammer evidently needs to be soothed by a chocolate bar before emotional equilibrium can return.

So, here is a bit of absolute insanity: one needs a medical card to obtain marijuana, which by all accounts is an effective pain reliever, but not for a candy bar or cheeseburger, which will kill you at worst (over time), and necessitate a roto-rooter of the major arteries at best.

So, in a blatant example of “you spot it, you got it” we have a lot of “foodies” waddling around condemning marijuana users for trying to alleviate pain while they are on the very same mission.

“Ah,” you say, “but that’s different.” How so?

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.

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good point
written by dogwalker, June 28, 2012

I know a guy who doesn't smoke pot, but he still eats chicarones after having a quintuple bypass. I guess if he smoked pot, he would consume even more chicharones!

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@Marzocco
written by gramps, June 27, 2012

I should have used qotation marks in my comment, the original writer said "a few of the supervisors had launched an attack" I just pointed out that 2/3 of the voters did too. I would point out though the state allows more than the board allows. so I guess that is somewhat of an attack on state law.

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Hey Mountain Militia
written by cloaks95423, June 24, 2012

Lake County is not now or ever been a laughing stock of any part of California! What it has been, over the years, is a place where the lower socioeconomic levels of our population could find rents low enough to be able to afford! This means that along with those that just chose to be here for the reasons of clean air, good rural lifestyles and less of the "City Lifestyles" there have come those who can't do for themselves for numerous reasons. Those on SSI at young ages due to injuries suffered in the pursuit of employment, those who did not plan well and believed that Social Security retirement would suffice them and found that it did not! Those who were born into situations where they were wards of the State and then turned out onto the streets by Governor Reagan...etc, etc. Lake County has always been a place where you could make a good living at your chosen field, if you worked hard enough and paid attention to the changing trends. Our largest employers, The County, Safeway, Mendo Mill,etc. offer good paying jobs with good benefits. The self employed can make a good living and afford their families a good life if they are honest, customer oriented and look at the economy around them and learn to adjust to the ever changing economic cues in our State and County. I find that the right thinking citizens at time are too self involved in their own day to day and do not pay enough attention to the County, and then an election comes around and shows me that they are paying attention and can come up with the right decisions! They just need to be motivated. All in all this is a wonderful County to live in and those that wish to do it harm need to understand that they will not succeed here and need to move back to Humbolt or other such Counties where the population does not care as much about what affects their daily lives.

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No Wonder
written by MOUNTAIN MILITIA, June 24, 2012

Lake County is STILL the laughing stock of Northern California; everyone needs dopers on their block and some SENILE citizen offshoots of the Obama administration, but oh no....the LIBERAL supervisor candidates running in the last election were both rejected, maybe some people DO care about jobs in lake county....

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written by Marzocco, June 24, 2012

@gramps. The BOS haven't launched any attacks. They had already created guidelines regulating marijuana before the election. They were forced to void them by the supporters of initiative D, which was soundly defeated.

And now the same BOS have the mandate of the majority of voters to try to create new laws regulating normal use of marijuana and prevent unregulated and illegal growth. Those guidelines will have to consider Federal and State laws. If you consider that an attack then so be it.

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written by gramps, June 24, 2012

A few of the supervisors and about 2/3 of the voters have launched an attack on marijuana.

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The most lethal drug
written by ca215, June 23, 2012

What ISN'T a drug? What IS a drug?

Seems to me that a drug is anything which has any effect on body, mind, spirit. So, isn't food of just about any sort a drug?
Does anyone know of a friend or acquaintance who, under stress, dashes to a store to load up a shopping cart with what practically everyone has heard called 'empty calories,' 'fun food,' and so on?

Is the snack food area of any store even necessary? Do people really need potato chips, candy, pastry, pasta, etc.?

Who in any group of people NEEDS alcohol?

Leaving behind alcohol and junk disguised as food, what about "Hey there's a sale going on at Bring Bucks Clothing Store, I'm going, anyone want to go along?"
Ever see what happens to a female (writing carefully here so as to not appear to be sexist...) who has found a pair of shoes that change her height and, at the same time, her attitude which may become one of "Look at me. I may appear to be six feet tall, these shoes make me feel attractive or powerful, I'll put up with aching feet, legs, back and so on for a while. Of course the minute I get home the new shoes are taken off...but didn't I look good while I had them on?"

Okay. So some foods, any alcohol, some items of clothing may be drugs.

On to non-food, non-alcoholic, non-wearable things. What about hoarding old newspapers? Obviously the hoarder feels better or at least different in some fashion due to hoarding, or that person would not be doing that.
So stacks of unnecessary - and sometimes hazardous - items could be called drugs. Recycle the ____ newspapers!

A reader here might be patting himself/herself on the back right about now: Well I don't over-eat or over-drink or stash away anything from yo yos to 40 year old bundles of newspapers so I'm okay and those people who DO any of those things are definitely not okay.

So all "drug users," considering the newer definition of "drugs" out there could check themselves and their motives. But they won't.

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autopsies
written by Just Sayin, June 23, 2012

were all done during an era when people ate very differently than we did-lots of red meat and butter and fatty foods at every meal. Get over it. Drugs are the problem. Autopsies are the problem. Gangs are the problem. Antiquated finidings that cause panic are the problem. Say something real, like DUI's kill young people, gangs kill young people, or shut up.

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written by Marzocco, June 22, 2012

This is a joke, isn't it?
I have a question for you. You can live without marijuana but can you live without food?
What's next? Water? Air?

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