I hate hard drugs; heroin, cocaine, speed, downers.  For 15 years I took all of those drugs in large amounts. Everyone I knew took some of those drugs.  For years, I sold some of those drugs, but not for the last 25 years.  I’ve smoked pot for 45 years, now less than ever.

I used to live in Berkeley, one block from Telegraph Avenue, in the counterculture’s epicenter. There’s a larger-than-life mural there on Telegraph, portraying when the Berkeley radicals took to the streets in the 60’s, to battle the University and the police and establish People’s Park.  I hope the mural’s still there.

That mural prominently featured Anne as she was opening the fire hydrant that sprayed the police and sent off the street demonstrations. That mural image was all that remained of Anne, since a heroin overdose killed her. Anne was just one of about of the roughly 17,000 annual drug overdoses in the US.