SANTA MONICA, CA. - Like the psyche of San Francisco, Santa Monica epitomizes the United States west coast experience. A synergism exists wherein somnolent Chet Bakerish vibrations merge with a historically honed social consciousness. As waves of conservative neo-liberalism wash over the Santa Monica consciousness, its pristine liberalism nostalgically and stubbornly hums and adheres within the ambiance.

I have found that when I negotiate Santa Monica or its neighbor, the even more neo-liberally inept Venice, my inherited verve of east coast savvyness initially suffers and spits when confronted with such inefficient funkiness. I am instantly impatient with aimlessness, non-sequiturs and weird shoes. However, the atmosphere does eventually elicit a hidden capacity to recline and relax as if under the influence of a libation, a long bong hit or cathartic breathing. I become ever more receptive to the textures.

Santa Monicans have lately seemed to be in the midst of an identity crisis as they try to distinguish where their usurped Democratic social causes can now find firm footing. Neo-liberalism has blurred the lines of a once bipartisan existence. Since the Clinton Administration has taken charge of the destiny of the United States, global economic power compulsions and control-freak tendencies play predominant roles of new world ordering. The health-care-for-all (!) aspiration has been essentially shelved; executions are in vogue; corporations and conglomerates often move their factories to underdeveloped countries where workers and ecology are deliciously exploitable; welfare recipients are jerked out of their government assistance programs like band-aids suddenly torn from relic wounds that won't heal. The War on Drugs crusade continues to compromise the privacy and property of individuals while state autonomy is increasingly constricted. The elected bipartisan leaders have rolled the substance of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights into a nice, tight joint. When smoked, this bomber conjures megalomania, a selective listening syndrome and a surge of frenzied, tough-on-crime photo ops. Perhaps it is this self-congratulatory, anal-retentive, political inner circling that is gradually pushing the increasing number of malcontents toward the Green and Libertarian parties. The Green ideology tends to attract displaced Democratic leaners while the Libertarians offer an attractive philosophy for weary Republicans and/or those who are exquisitely embittered at the behavior modification tactics that the Government continues to interject into their lives.

I recently re-emerged into the Santa Monica landscape in order to attend a symposium featuring Mike Gray, author of Drug Crazy (Random House; 1998). Located within the Midnight Special Bookstore, this event was hosted by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting), a media watch group. As I slid into a metal folding chair, many elderly Santa Monica veterans had already gathered for the War on the War on Drugs event. The women donned barrettes in their wizened white hair; the men sported hygienically safe, determined goatees. Experienced liberal concern knitted their brows as they faced another debacle of reactionaryism in history. The establishment has once again become unreasonable.

An affable, elderly representative of FAIR performed the introduction compulsories. He calmly informed us, an audience of approximately fifty people, of the corporate seizure of mainstream media; the information that we readily receive is tainted by corporate interests. Eyes atwinkle, Mr. FAIR encouraged us to seek out other, peripheral resources of information. I felt more secure knowing that the amicable FAIR representative was watching the media; I felt sure that he could comfort me if I was overly manipulated by mainstream media.

The Midnight Special Bookstore bestows consumers with an eclectic variety of magazines and features the latest Censored News Project anthology on their front counter. Before embarking into the Mike Gray event, I fondled a communist zine and moaned gratuitously while perusing periodicals devoted to current events in Latin American countries.

Mike Gray finally pounced the podium as if suddenly released from shackles. What there is of his hair is gray; my phrenological inclinations were aroused by the smooth, slightly tanned contours of his head. His goatee is gray. He wore a loose, gray ensemble accentuated with slightly tanned dragons that gripped his comfortable, west coast shirt. Mike Gray's surname depicts middle-ground; in order for one to concoct a reasonable gray, the extremities of black and white must be merged.

Like Mr. Gray's lauded screenplay The China Syndrome, Drug Crazy is lively, terse and timely. Drug Crazy dialectically demonstrates that the fiendish zeal of the War on Drugs supersedes the fiendish stereotypes of the illicit drug user/abuser, trafficker and producer/cultivator. Mr. Gray analogizes the current die-hard criminalization of illicit substances within the United States to the failed Prohibition of alcohol maneuver: corruption, thirst, lawlessness, roguery and renegadism continually torqued the temperance movement.

In California, there is particular interest in cannabis. The citizens determined that marijuana is not only safe but medically viable when Proposition 215 passed by popular vote. There is no recorded incident of an individual overdosing on marijuana and alcohol tends to evoke more violent effects than marijuana. People old and young who suffer from the unsavory side-effects of AIDS and cancer treatments, arthritis and other ailments attest to the value of marijuana where their quality of life is concerned. Yet, the federal government and our ever sweaty state attorney general are intent on blockading the will of the people on this issue; we obviously don't know what we are doing. "The Feds knew they were in trouble when Prop. 215 passed in California," Mike Gray asserts. Indeed, this marijuana initiative is igniting the ire of the most peaceful of personalities while also martyring those who have been arrested for exercising their rights within California. The politicians tend to walk around Proposition 215 as if it were a wild eyed, white elephant in their livingroom while the prison population continues to swell with non-violent cannabis enthusiasts.

In the 1970's one faced an annoying fine if caught with cannabis in the United States. One had to be particularly stupid and/or impudent to incite a police officer to take issue with such an infraction in the first place. In the 70's one's home and vehicle were safeguarded against privacy invasions and smoking a joint was considered, at most, quirky rather than evil. In those times of more relaxed pot policies, the United States did not fall apart or go up in smoke.

Today one faces incarceration, tremendous fines and forfeiture of property if caught smoking, cultivating or otherwise fraternizing with cannabis. Today the police have the authority to raid any domicile at any time; private vehicles are swooped upon and searched simply because the car or truck may be exhibiting a psychedelically-winking Grateful Dead bumpersticker; fascist canines continually ensconce their contraband- sensitive noses into crotches and crevices on a whim; body language and mannerisms are monitored and dissected by "experts" with surveillance camera attitudes; we are encouraged to snitch on each other while simultaneously "embracing the ideals of community, democracy, liberty, and peace." We are fed Prozac for our macabre interiors and Viagra for flacciditis (erectus reluctantus). We witness slick, seductive vodka ads while tobacco company advertising campaigns are crucified. The atmosphere is so schizophrenic with inconsistencies, compulsive control and fear that it is no surprise that the United States population is a ravenous consumer of illicit substances, alcohol, prescriptive drugs and food (a recent study shows that obesity is more prevalent in the United States than in any other country; we are officially the fattest nation on the globe).

"How many of you would use heroin if it were legalized?" Mike Gray posed this question to us, his socially concerned and weird shoe'd audience. Only two individuals raised their hands. When an audience member blurted "How about weed?!", we chortled, applauded and/or raised our hands. More than half of the hands rocketed skyward at the mention of cannabis. In this particular scenario, the Gateway Theory (that marijuana use is likely to lead to heroin addiction and other travesties) held no weight. As I have mentioned, cannabis is of particular interest in California. Universally, cocaine and heroin are considered hard drugs while marijuana is considered a soft drug. In the United States, all currently-deemed illegal substances are defined as fetishly hazardous. Alcohol is not within this equation of substance hazardliness; alcohol is a legal and profitable industry even though there are at least 13 million alcoholics residing within the United States. Tobacco has been demonized but not criminalized.

During the Question & Answer period of the symposium, we all burrowed our brows determinedly and, in unison, issued a collective query of "But, what can we do, Mr. Gray?!" "Don't waste time talking to politicians. Educate neighbors and friends; get organized and then take on Washington," Mike Gray confidently barked.

I recently contacted my local, politico representative, the plebianesque Jane Harman. I encouraged her to support the will of the people in regards to Proposition 215. She countered with a letter stating that "The Clinton Administration is concerned, and I agree, that before our society condones the widespread medical use of marijuana, more rigorous testing is required...Certainly, there is legitimate concern that the vague wording of the Proposition could 'legalize' the use of marijuana well beyond what proponents intended and, as a consequence, hurt our ability to successfully fight the war on drugs." "They" have to successfully fight the war on drugs and evidently "we" no longer participate in the determination of "our" destiny (formerly known as Democracy).

Not everyone that drinks is an alcoholic; likewise not everyone that would consume Other Substances is a drug fiend. Addiction is and always has been a tragic disease. Cancerous in nature, the organism attacks itself through an intricate and sophisticated pattern of self-infliction. In the United States, a criminal approach to illicit substance addiction is far more emphasized than a rehabilitative doctrine. Incarcerating, hog-tying, tsk-tsk'ing, and executing illegal drug abusers and their dealers is not going to erase the disease of addiction from society. Addiction has shown that it endures, that it will continue to swell in rhythm with the non-violent prison population, the popping of pills, the gulps of booze and food; it beckons for a longer look at its perplexing condition and also why it breeds so prolifically in our society. Many, I believe, are afraid of the answer because those in power are less inclined to listen than to command.

Mike Gray demonstrated acute prescience when he composed The China Syndrome. This film presented the situation of a nuclear power plant running dangerously amok. Twelve days after the release of the film, the Twelve Mile Island nuclear facility's cup ranneth over, eerily akin to the plot of The China Syndrome. In lieu of a documented prophecy, I was curious as to Mike Gray's impressions concerning the outcome, if any, of our current trend of certain-substance criminalization/demonization. Can the population actually make an impact or is the trend of totalitarianism going to tighten its grip? "We are 3-5 years away from the end of this goddamn mess," he impulsively uttered, before I asked the question.