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Critical Thinking and Intellectual Autonomy

                                                                                                   

                             
         For Previous Posts, click below:

          Is Single Convention 1961 - void?            

          Is drug Policy in Flux?

          Peace, Security & Technology

          Living in the Margins

          Drugs and Altered States of Consciousness

          Us and Them within Security/Peace Approach

          Social Distance & Violence

          Manipur in Conflict   

                               

   Blog Owner - Molly Charles (PhD.)           

   Contact: molly.charles@gmail.com 

   Blog Editor:   Andrew Mohan Charles       

   Contact: mohancharles@gmail.com

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Living in the Margins

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 Molly Charles (1) Margin, a term familiar from tender age; notebooks with clear cut margins to delineate the main body of text, define it. The margins give it definite shape, a practice that continues into the virtual world. Among humans, it is these margins that give identity to the large majority we term normal. The often, porous boundaries offer a chance for individuals to slip through and slip back into either ‘normal’ or ‘marginal’ spaces. The decision to identify with marginal groups or positions can be a conscious one as with (gender identity, drug use), enforced as in (mental health, racial and caste based discrimination) and accidental for (drug use, stigmatized diseases). In certain instances, as with mental health, some individuals may find their being part of marginal groups a permanent reality, in most other instances individuals do move in and out of marginal groups, as a survival strategy to deal with marginalization. Even when physical spaces merge, with an emphasis
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Drugs, Altered States of Consciousness & Us - Implications for Drug Policy

                                                             C enturies have gone by and yet we struggle in our waltz with Mind Altering Substances (MAS), our steps still falter and a probable safe distance evades our grasp. The yesteryears centered around finding mind altering substances in nature, from far and near; now we hone our skills in identifying the right chemicals or the means of manipulating molecular formations for creating MAS within kitchen labs or in the pharmaceutical industry. The presence of numerous substances to choose from has apparently not satiated user demand nor dampened the passion of enforcement agencies to exterminate the 'enemy'. There is an ever widening gap in the perception of MAS by users, numerous sub groups within the larger society, inclusive of enforcers of the Law. Users who adhere to cultural norms or those seek a break through a cannabis smoke view the drug as a catalyst or substance that adds color to life. To the hardcore heroin use
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Social Distance & Violence- Our Unpaid cognisable offences

Social Distance & Violence- Our Unpaid cognisable offences Violence, unlike its portrayal is rarely an individual reality that emerges from a vacuum. Our perception of violence and the response it evokes is a product of socialization with culture, ethnicity, sense of identity, technology, skill, all playing a significant role, at times far more than the long hands of the law. A reality to confront the United Nations or other agencies, when setting in place a universal frame to perceive, to react and act (to prevent, restrict or reform/rehabilitate), be it to address violence or assertion of rights. Given the diversity in culture, technological advancement, and presence of conflict between individuals or communities, if setting in systems of management with definite terms of reference is seen as the only option to facilitate the evolution of a collective frame of reference from a distance, the task would prove trying and is bound to fail. Is there a short cut to deal
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