Phish's Trey Anastasio Talks Drugs and Sobriety

The legalize pot movement is self serving. You like pot so you want to legalize it. Okay so it isn't fair that alcohol is legal and its use regulated. But hey, life isn't fair. No sense in rehashing history here...just accept that alcohol is legal and pot is not. I don't think this country needs another legal drug to abuse. The problem isn't which drug but why a drug? Escaping reality with drug use doesn't solve your problems it compounds them. You want to smoke pot freely, go to Jamaica or somewhere. Good luck finding a job because societies with more liberal drug laws are generally less productive and efficient. Instead of running away from life, embrace it and take your problems head on. Frustrated at work, try exercise, try volunteering to help others less fortunate. Legalizing pot and creating yet another government body to waste even more money controlling it with nuance is not the answer, we have much bigger problems facing our society than legalizing your drug of choice. Just my humble opinion.

Why the hell would a drug(alcohol) that killS, not has killed, but KILLS thousands of people every year be legal and advertised religiously day in and day out. By the time a person gets to the age of 21 they have seen over 100,000 advertisements for alcohol no wonder there are so many alcoholics! My father is and always has been an alcoholic and to say that it did not bother me is a big fat lie. I was not abused physically which I am grateful for extremely, but emotional abuse stays with you. On one hand I am saddenned by it, but on the other I am glad these were the cards dealt to me because I have seen what I never want to become. I am a marijuana user and definately enjoy a bend of the pshycedelic rubber band every so often, and have been given the best example of what not to become, (an alocohlic.) I have a lifetime to focus on being a loving, non-drinking, pot smoking family man, and friend, and wish that one day pot, the drug that has NEVER KILLED, will be legalized!!!

As it goes with pain management and opiate abuse, there are so many issues and complications involving the overall proper treatment and then how to deal with the individuals who stigmatize the system. Also, chronic pain and addition can absolutly be concurrent issue that an individual may be experience at the same time. Because one snort or shoots opiates doesn't mean they are faking pain to get it. Some of course are , other really do suffer with extreme pain, deciphering these two groups is yet another challenge to pain doctors, the government (DEA, FDA, and Drug Courts Officers especially) not to mention the probation officer's who simply do not understand their criminal probationee can have chronic pain at the same time as being charged with a drug offense. With all this said one can begin to approach the complex issue of regular addition and drug offense within the criminal justice system revolving door

Let me say, not only is the CJ system highly misinformed about how to deal with certain medical issues and pain, drugs and abuse, it also is extremely fragmented, making it almost impossible for one part of the process to communicate effectively with the other parts of the process. I have not only seen this happen to multiple times but have studied the phenomena myself. The argument here is not about "let us normal people get high once in a while" it is about how seriously fragmented the system is when going from being charged to pre-trail, from conviction to sentencing and then perhaps the worst is from sentencing to probation or "rehabilitation" and making sure convicts are compliant. Not only this, but the system does not differentiate between situations and intelligence, education , or how it ruins people's careers, it just applies the same rules, even if it is ever so obvious the probation requirements are now starting to hurt and disable the individual more than "keeping them in line" or helping them not violate the law again. Drug Court is the biggest failure in our system, because it only addresses one type of drug addict who has the attitude of an offender for life. It will never address individuals who have depth and concurrent problems along with their drug addiction. It doesn't want to, doesn't have the money too, and frankly would rather bankrupt the individual then say "see look your bankrupt because your reckless" or a more common one is when the Judge order a "mental health evaluation" on an individual. Then when and if Mental health practitioner reports no recommendations or nor mental health issues beyond the normal stresses in life due to unfortunate circumstances in the individuals life, the drug court/probation office/court/and general law enforcement community will continue to PUSH the individual until they do end up having apparent mental health issues. Then they say " ahhh see, you have something wrong with you, we need to put you away or put more restriction on you to keep you and us safe...yay!"

Many of you have made true comments above. jimBoChili, your comment shows how little you know about this system or any government mechanics. Trey kicking heroin is a good thing, however he is a musician who will always use pot and less dangerous substances. When I say less dangerous I mean in effect and immediate future. However, Trey's addiciton had begun effective his life. However when the Drug courts get involved they actually end up making certain aspects of your life WORSE. Most individuals are left with charges that even if they are educated and worked so hard in their life, they will never find employment again, or a Doctor to perscribe them pain meds should they be in severe pain! Which also destroys life even further.

maybe if we defined what a drug addict is. I am addicted to cigarettes and coffee, if they were both made illegal tomorrow, and the prices skyrocketed, and the supply moved to shadier locations, I could probabl quit the coffee, but the cigarrettes would have me circling the open air drug markets with whatever money I could scrounge up.

I have no had to ruin my life to get the substance I am addicted to, if I had to go through the same things a person had to go through to get crack or heroin, I'm sure I'd stand a very strong chance of my behaviors and priorities changing as the stressors in my life would have changed.

food for thought, we created the label then use it as a just reason to destroy people's lives. Penalize people for crimes against society, stealing, raping, neglect of children. Not for how they feel, or want to feel. Punish acts of indecency not acts that could lead to indecency. give us liberty.

trying to force people to change who they are is wrong, the whole "cage the elephant" mentality was recognized as futile and imperialistic back in the day, when the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" remember nurse ratchet? So sure she was right, not even life itself mattered so much as making people admit they were wrong to be who they were, and feel the way they do. evolve, humanity. We've once again given ourselves arbitrary permission to subsume a percentage of society and deem them less human, less deserving of liberty, rights or protection, based on a label we assign them. Someone said "doing drugs is bad" and now we behave as if anyone doing illegal drugs is such a bad person, they should be caged, and kept from the rest of the world.

what right have we to destroy human lives to enforce our opinions about substances they ingest? how is that our business? I say, until they are a direct threat to society, their actions are not societies business. we're supposed to be entitled to the right to privacy. what we ingest is a personal matter.

I'll drink to that!!!!!!!!

Screw him, Who the hell is this guy to be able to have any clout. And this shit about thanking the cop for aresting him is just sucking up for whatever reason if he wanted to quit dope then he should have just quit. People do not need the Government to tell them how to live without drugs, And I dont think this guy should should be a spoksman for any bodys freedom of choice. If you think drugs are bad then dont do them. But if you do like doing drugs and your not bothering anybody while your doing them then whats the problem? I dont need anyone telling me that I can or can not do with my body, They dont seem to care about your body when they send you off to one of there wars. I'm sick of people makeing the Government the all powerful ruler of your life. Now I am going to smoke a joint and eat some sugar, and after that I just might have a cigarette. then go for a ride without my seat belt. Oh and by the way none of these things will give me any of the side effects as the stuff the Government says is ok like Oily Discharge or uncontrolable Defacation and the urge to Gamble just to name a few, just to have some hair? Ewwww. I guess if you dont buy your drugs from the Government then you cant have any.

Drugs should stay ILLEGAL

ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS SHOULD REMAIN ILLEGAL. Not one person was honest - DRUGS ARE POISON - Let addicts get treatment in jail. I lived in a bad neighborhood - I am safer when they are behind bars where they can't break into my car to steal my radio, can't break into my apartment or hotel room, where they can't beat on their kids or baby mommas, common law wives, etc.

If you are a pothead or other idiot feel free to email me at Tangelique21@aol.com you need common sense not liberal dreams

Drugs have claimed the lives of many musicians.

This is a big issue. One reason is there is no equality in the justice system. Two people with the same offense may have very different results. One may go prison or do lengthy probation while other may get little to nothing. Usually this difference is linked to how big a check you can write for a lawyer.

Court drug treatment does NOT work. Their success rate is < 5%. AA/NA is nothing more than a religious cult. They fill your head with BS and make you feel powerless and dependent. How can a court mandate religious affiliation? Seperation of church and state ring a bell.

As others I've had my issues in this area. I take Methadone and have for several years. My back is shot and leaves me in constant pain. Methadone was the one pain killer that relieved the pain without leaving me in a fog. I was pulled over on a speeding ticket and had just refilled by Methadone so I had 30 days worth with me. I was arrested for DUI, due to the Methadone. I had to other drug or alcohol in my system. I had a gun with a carry permit. None of this mattered, I was charged with felony posession and a felony gun charge. WTF? Five grand to a lawyer who told me it far better for me to take probation on the drug charge. The gun charge was deleted and the drug charge was lowered to a misdemeanor. I would cost me another $20,000 to fight it. So having done NOTHING wrong, I'm now on probation and labeled an addict by the court. I'm completing probation but will have to do the full year because I refused to go to drug treatment for a legal, prescribed, medication. This system is broken and needs a complete overhaul. Otherwise, this egregious treatment will only continue.