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Molly Charles-Reflections

A space to explore and known our world, our association with drugs, relevance and limitation of UN drug conventions, our digital age and relevance of AI, gender discrimination especially in India and Kerala, peace strategies, limitation of negative peace, blitzkrieg, towards this have used works of Kant and Heidegger to understand our search for altered states of consciousness, our search for peace and way we strategise ourselves.

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Living in the Margins

- October 20, 2017

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

Drugs, Altered States of Consciousness & Us - Implications for Drug Policy

- October 06, 2015

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

Social Distance & Violence- Our Unpaid cognisable offences

- July 28, 2016

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

Placing Social Distance (Us and Them) within Security Approach and Peace Approach

- October 21, 2016

Placing Social Distance (Us and Them) within Security Approach and Peace Approach The Time for Art of War is Over, it is Time for Peace We guard our borders with intensity that can evoke envy in any species, the passion associated with a line of demarcation, largely hypothetical which few citizens would have seen or conceptualized beyond maps, is remarkable. Yet, we treat human beings within the borders as disposable ‘products’ whose aspirations need to be addressed as when their expression of dissatisfaction crosses the limit of violence palatable to our 'sensitive souls'. India can blame its neighbors for acts of violence but can we as Indians state with a clear conscience that we asserted the rights of all our co-citizens, especially those who differed in their physical attributes from us or those whom we perceived to be of lower stature or those who we could never accept because of their historical desire to have more constitutional independence than us.

Peace, Security & Technology—impact on Us and Our Becoming

- September 24, 2021

Peace is something everyone can sense, and yet, find difficult to define. Its complexity, and simplicity is reflected in our restricted definition of peace as an absence of war/violence, even though we sense it is far beyond that. Peace is a concept that exists beyond the boundaries of empirical reality, but we seek it within the realms of empirical reality, where power has the final say. We conceive it as a static state, where a world view palatable to us will reign over all else. But, is Peace what we define it to be? The color white is often used to indicate peace as in calling for a truce with a white flag held high, or when a white dove is set free to express the desire for peace. None of us give a second thought to the fact that the color white is complex, on an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color model, where it has the RGB col

MANIPUR IN CONFLICT

- July 11, 2015

Internal Conflict in Manipur-Beyond Conventional Approach We take pride in being the enlightened species on planet earth and yet in our efforts to secure national boundaries or assert the uniqueness or superiority of our ethnicity we would transgress any ethical boundary to have the winning edge. That is a feeling that has gained strength during my recent visit to Manipur and hence this note. When security measures focus primarily on violence; its means, methods, and analysis or countermeasures it ignores - silent spectators in the conflict zone, active impressionable minds that are being molded for life. Manipur, a state in the north eastern region of India has been in a conflict situation for over four decades. The state has a population of over 2.5 million residing in 22.327 Sq. Kms of land 90% of the land is designated as hilly terrain and 67% of the population reside in rural areas. The population in the valley is comprised of Meiteis, Muslims

Is Drug Policy in a flux or is a different shade of criminalization being planned for?

- January 26, 2022

Our association with mind altering substances has rarely remained static or uniform across the globe or within any given region. The United Nations sought to control this complex, diverse and intricate human association through its various global conventions, beginning with the Single Convention 1961 as the base; and State members were bound to follow the set path without much room for change (1,2). But, despite all of its efforts it could neither rein in the drug problem nor ensure that a uniform drug policy led to the synthesis of uniform associations with mind altering substances, across the globe. In many countries a minor shift in drug policy occurred when drugs users became very vulnerable to HIV infection, initiating harm minimization measures for users who injected drugs. The harm minimization strategy included, provision of safe needle and syringes, opioid agonist therapy (OST) to users in the community and to addicted prison population, setting up of a room for safe consu

Dr. Molly Charles (PhD).: Researcher by profession and inclination; with interest to explore and understand lives of people who live in the margins. Career journey that began in 1989, as part of National Addiction Research Centre (Mumbai) of which I am also a founding member, later worked as independent consultant on diverse inclusive of drug use, drug trade and organized crime. My professional profile took shape based on how my journey of life evolved and paths shown by the universe to assert life is not a supply demand curve, but one that sees a rainbow in the darkest night. Drug use and abuse management, organized crime, HIV/AIDS Management, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and understanding dynamics of conflicts areas all formed a part of my career map. https://sites.google.com/site/mollycharlesreflections/home

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