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War on Drugs before/after I looked at his face. It was ashen with shame, fear, and saddness. "Yeah, man. On friday I go to jail for nine months." he said. My lab partner got busted a year or so ago by a drug task force for selling marijuana at college. They put him up on felonies, and since he couldnt afford a lawyer, is now fucked. They let him go conditionally on him turning in other drug dealers. He skipped out, went to another school, rebuilt his life and was on his way to making himself of it. Now it looked like the law had caught up with him, and a nine month stretch lay ahead. "All in all, I'll do the nine months if it means my family will forgive me." he said sincerely. Nine months. A nice little time bomb left in the middle of his life by the law, the republicans and their "War on Drugs". Yet another unwinnable conflict they keep dragging us into. And here was my lab partner. Blind, lazy eye in one eye. Guilty of selling a little weed in college, like so many others. Now he's fucked, losing classes, losing a scholarship for what? So the man can get his pound of flesh. So DA's and other political creatures can point to a panel of fake statistics and say they're doing something, to justify their salaries, to justify giving them their jobs back every 4 years. I wanted to lean in and hug him for support, but I didnt. In the old days, the days as a counselor, I would have without thinking about it. In a heartbeat. But not now. Besides, he really queered me out twice. We were driving along twice, when I was buying alcohol for him from a local liquor shop. "There's this guy I know, he came up to me, and said to me, 'Hey man, if you ever need someone to suck your cock, I'll do it for you.' Didja' ever hear of anything like that before? Didja'?" He broached this twice. I dont know exactly if he was propostioning me, but who knows. I'd never heard of such a thing. "No." "oh." And we drove on in silence. So I didnt hug him. He was a bit sweaty and oily. I gave him some advice as to what to say to the judge at his sentencing, in a plea of contrition and leinency. He listened. It occurred to me that if I was his lawyer at some point in all these proceedings, he would walk. I can talk to these people, I know their lingo. And it would spare the waste of his life. My guess is that he will be damn lucky to get back on track. Ever. After that, I shook his hand, and drove to a nearby kmart. I got a bottle of hand sanitizer and used it immediately, before buying it. Never can be too careful.
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