The Drug Dealer
My travels gave me a glimpse of a future in which law enforcement blocked legitimate research and imposed the criminal justice system on the disease of addiction. It was a colossal error and only added sixty more years to the century-long failure of the War on Drugs, which remains a war on people. Drugs are the medium of a purely capitalistic system of supply and demand. Draconian laws only raise the risk premium, i.e., the profits for the international drug trade.
Eaton Fire II
In Altadena Mary Jo and I bought our first home in 1983 following the end of my twenty-year first marriage to Julie. It was destroyed in the Easton Fire of 2025. We moved away in 1999. It was sold a few years ago for over one million dollars. I feel sorry for the current owners. It’s not about the money, we also loved that place and installed a special stained-glass window in the master bedroom upstairs. I feel the collective ache of the displaced Altadenans losing prized possessions, pets, cars and their identities.
It is a diverse, bohemian enclave in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.
Why Do I Write?
What my years of medical practice have given me is the privilege of bearing witness to the lives of thousands of human beings. I saw them at their most difficult moments and observed the quiet courage with which most people confront their mortality. The best way to capture this journey is to write about it.