Page 37 - the NOISE June 2012

Each month, the Socratic Forum hopes to bring you civic discourse on current topics & we invite you to contribute to this space by submitting a 1000-word essay to submit@thenoise.us.
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First Saturday Jerome ArtWalk celebrates the Fourth of July weekend in artistic style as galleries and studios open the doors for an evening of summertime enchantment.
Zen Mountain Gallery, an eclectic mix of fine art, jewelry and pottery with contemporary and contemplative inspirations, invites everyone to the gallery’s grand opening. Joan Roberts will be demonstrating her jewelry making techniques during the opening along with many of the other artists present to discuss their work.
Members of the Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery join in Arizona’s Centennial Celebration when hosting its annual Sum- mer Membership Show July 7 - August 2. While the weather is warm and visitors from around the country enthusiastically head for higher ground, the artists are proud to show off their own very ‘cool’ mile-high historic Arizona treasurethe old Jerome Ho- tel which houses the Cooperative Gallery on Main Street.
Decorate your outdoor spaces with “Jay’s Desert Creatures” fashioned from natural materials by local artist Jay Sabol or shiny metal pieces from Old Mexico. Set a festive table with col- orful hand-woven linens and bright tableware. Attend the party in comfortable cotton skirts and tops complimented by silver and turquoise Navajo jewelry. All are available at Casa Latina.
Across the hall, at the Cody DeLong Studio Gallery, find museum-quality ceramic wall art and contemporary drawings by Duane Ewing, as well as the painting that got Mr. DeLong into Southwest Art Magazine.
A fabulous selection of custom Jewelry created by the Father and Son team Rick and Ricky Hernandez is on display at Je- rome’s Jewelry. Unique custom creations in 14k Gold and Ster- ling Silver. Drusy, Tanzanite, Arizona Peridot and Fire Agate are among the colorful collection along with brilliant rainbow colors of Australian Opal.
Pura Vida Gallery debuts new designs by jewelry artist Keith Lewis. His new designs handcrafted in sterling silver and 18kt gold vermeils are classy, timeless, and affordable! Join Pura Vida for champagne and chocolates during the evening of ArtWalk.
Escape the desert heat at Jerome Bead Creations and see Suzann Trout’s new jewelry collection of sea greens and aqua- marines! Suzy Mound will feature many new creations in silver and copper! Iced tea and cookies served!
The Wary Buffalo invites July Art Walkers to enjoy the thought provoking artists on display in our Pentimento Gallery. Celebrate summer with our “Great White Sale” as we commemo- rate the movie JAWS by featuring a special shark infested display of movie-related memorabilia.
The Stain of Politics rears its yearly head for the fifth time at Gallery 527. Gallery artists comment on the world around us in glass, ceramic, pen and ink, photography & painting. Special guests include Kevin Geary, Christopher Fox Graham perform- ing poetry, Joe Ward displaying a new painting & artist Michael Gallagher with his cartoon magic for the third time at the gallery. Susan Pitcairn’s colored pencil piece depicts a Jerome in the future, filled with sustainable and positive energy. Dave Rentz returns to the gallery with his array of fascinating instruments.
for more information on Jerome artWalk, contact donna at 649-2277.
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Spin with me... in my CD player, I was hooked. The musicianship from Ziegler and friends (including co-producer/engineer and fellow Lingo alumni Steve Botterweg on bass, drums, keys and Glockenspiel, Kirk Burnett on banjo and Bill Bennett on pedal steel) is top notch. The interplay of Ziegler’s warm voice with those of guests Tamara Lindsey, Sarah Garrett, Brian Parks and Sally Stricker (another Major Lingo member) is harmonious and captivating. To top things off, the recording of the album sounds pristine and warm. Hats off to Mr. Botterweg for making an in- dependent album recorded at the old Jerome high school sound like a major label record, full of depth and clarity.
Unlike most albums aimed at younger listeners, Spin with me... is not made up of old, familiar songs. Rather than taking the easy route, Mr. Ziegler composed ten wonderful NEW songs, which stand up perfectly with the few traditional songs (“Oh Su- sanna”,” Hush Little Baby”) that appear on the album. Such songs as “Banjo Joe meets Bongo Bob,” “I Dig Sea Shells,” and “Molly & Pongo” (an ode to the Ziegler Family dogs) are destined to be- come campfire classics for generations to come. Whether you are 7 or 77 (or anywhere in-between), Spin with Me, Grin with Me will bring joy to your ears, and a smile to your face.
the curse of
cannabis by benjamin souler Master of science registerd Pharmacist Prescott, arizona
In 1937 I was a student at the Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and Allied Scienc- es. That was the year Con- gress passed the Marijuana Tax Act that outlawed the possession, growth, use and all trafficking of marijuana or any of its components. It was the only United States law I can recall that was passed in anticipation of a serious drug problem long before that problem developed. Why did this step of prevention take place? Answer — the very situation envisioned by our alert lawmakers in 1937 had become a full-blown social an economic catastrophe for many years in Middle Eastern countries, especially Egypt.
Here in America during the 1930s most medicinals were derived from plant sources. Many older pharmacies
had up to 100 drug drawers where the roots, leaves, flow- ers, or rhizomes of various plants were kept and sold by the ounce for preparing teas, poultices, and other dosage forms. Later, companies like SB Penick would package the more popular crude drugs for sale in convenient sizes. Those included such items as arnica, sassafras, buchu, myrrh, peppermint, ginger, cascara sagrada, benzoin, etc. Few if any medicinals during that decade were syntheti- cally produced and had pat- ent protection.
Most chemical medica- tions such as strychnine, di- goxin, atropine, and quinine were extracted and purified from the plants containing them. Although marijuana was sometimes included in the drug drawers, hardly anyone ever asked for it. The only people rumored to use marijuana were musicians who smoked it in cigarettes called reefers or goof-butts.
Cannabis sativa is the bo- tanical name for marijuana, with synonyms such as Gua- za, Ganjah, Hashish, Indian Hemp, and marihuana. The major active principle is con- tained in the flowering tops
and leaves of the pistillate plants and is known chemi- cally as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The more potent vari- eties of marijuana are grown in temperate or semi-tropical regions.
In 1800, when the French conquered Egypt, Napoleon was greatly concerned about the deplorable condition among the citizens due to widespread hashish smok- ing. One of Napoleon’s staff officers noted: “the mass of the male population is in a perpetual state of stupor.” Na- poleon, wishing to breathe some life into the stagnant nation, but desiring mostly to protect his own soldiers, issued the following decree:
“The use of the strong liquor made by some Moslems with a certain weed called hashish, as well as smoking the flow- ering tops of Indian Hemp, is forbidden in all of Egypt.”
Over 125 years later, the national blight in Egypt re- mained much the same. In 1924, Dr. El Guindy, Egypt’s leading authority on narcotic drugs, declared: “The illicit use of hashish is the princi- pal cause of insanity in Egypt, varying from 30 percent to 60 percent of the total number of cases reported.” He further commented, concerning the greatest hazards of cannabis intoxication, as being: “acute hashishism, marked by crises of delirium, and insanity, and chronic hashishism, marked by visible mental and physi- cal deterioration.” So des- perate was the situation in Egypt that her government authorities having control of dangerous drugs were seek- ing international support for legal condemnation of mari- juana, and placing it in the same class with all dangerous narcotics.
However, at this point in our history, there was no real drug problem in the United States until after World War II. Therefore, it was pressure from Egyptian diplomats and willingness of our Congress to learn a lesson from the Middle Eastern calamity, that the 1937 law was enacted.
We often hear the term “Medical Marijuana” as a bat- tle cry from proponents for
broadening the scope of the drug’s use. In this regard, read
well the following report:
In 1970 an important
symposium on psychoac- tive drugs, marijuana (Hash- ish) in particular, was held in Paris, France. Leading scien- tists, medical specialists and lawmakers from Europe and America participated. Their conclusions were published in La Press Medicale, a leading French medical journal, and I quote exactly verbatim: “The derivatives of cannabis con- tain substances which impair thinking and behavior. They do not have any therapeu- tic application. Adolescents who use these compounds frequently tend to become apathetic, to lose individual ambition, and social respon- sibility, without the benefit of solving their emotional prob- lems. For certain adolescents. Cannabis intoxication is the first step towards the regular use of drugs.”
No official standards of purity or potency have ever been established for marijua- na or any of its components. It has never been listed in any official compendium of me- dicinals, i.e., the United States Pharmacopia or the National Formulary. As the 1970 Paris Symposium correctly con- cluded, “The derivatives of cannabis ... do not have any therapeutic application.”
There are three major com- ponents that have been iso- lated from the flowering tops and leaves and young twigs of cannabis sativa: 1) delta-9- tetrahudrocannabinol (THC), the major psychoactive prin- cipal; 2) cannabinol (CBN); and 3) cannabidol, each of which inhibit DNA produc- tion in humans, thereby com- prising a very dangerous cou- plet indeed.
The pharmacology of marijuana has been well re- searched during the past 60 years. However, the major points of its activity in human subjects had not changed during the interim. Hybrid- ization and improved culti- vation techniques have pro- duced newer and much more potent strains of cannabis, possessing much higher THC concentrations.
Smoking is by far the pre- ferred method of administra- tion and is probably the most destructive route for habitual
users of marijuana. Not only are the psychoactive princi- pals readily absorbed into the blood stream, but inhalation of the combustion products of the various plant parts and paper wrapper add greatly to the irritant effect upon lung tissues. Thusly, early emphy- sema and the potential for lung cancer become additive threats to the deterioration of the pot smoker’s health. Also the THC crosses the blood- brain barrier and accumu- lates in the brain cells and fatty tissues of the body. The immune system becomes im- paired and the production of DNA is inhibited. Accurately described as a stupefying drug, marijuana produces in the chronic user a progres- sive degradation physically and mentally.
There can be no doubt that marijuana is a very dangerous and addictive drug. Therefore, its domes- tic growth and importation must be prevented and those who are involved in its mar- keting must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
On that day in 1937, it was one of my duties as a labora- tory assistant to empty the drug drawer marked “can- nabis sativa” and record the weight and arrange for ev- ery vestige to be destroyed with witnesses in attendance. Forms had to be filled out and sent to the Bureau of Narcotics in Washington DC. Other colleges, pharmacies, and purveyors of crude drugs were also busy complying with the directive pursuant to the passage of the new law.
My thoughts then were only that is was good rid- dance to a useless botanical drug that would soon be for- gotten. As mentioned earlier, there was very little use of marijuana within American society at that time.
I would recommend that every doctor, nurse, pharma- cist, parent, teenager, college student, and all law enforce- ment personnel learn more about the serious threat mar- ijuana poses in every com- munity in our land. Read the informative book titled Keep Off the Grass by Gabriel G. Na- has, MD, PhD (Reader’s Digest Press, 1976).
— Scott Chase | no seriously, music@thenoise.us thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news magazine • JULY 2012 • 37