23 May 2023
Editors
Newport Daily News
101 Malbone Road
Newport, RI 02840
Editors
Newport This Week
86 Broadway
Newport, RI 02840
Dear Editors:
If you ever asked me back in 2013 when I had just moved to Utica if I would ever write a local Newport paper again, I probably would have said probably not. In 2019, when I moved back in with my then girlfriend and now wife, I still had my doubts. However, fate being what it is, here we are.
I am writing to you today because I have heard noise that some folks do not support marijuana dispensaries in Rhode Island. We even had that silly ruling this week about not being able to advertise when folks one state over can advertise. I just wanted to point out that dispensaries, even though I hated the stuff back when I was using and would never touch it as a sober person, are good for public health.
“Back when you were using??” you ask. Yes, I started drinking when I was 10 and using coke when I was 12. I went to private schools, skipped a grade, left college for a national political campaign all the while flipping cars 3 times and getting arrested a bunch. I would get sober living behind the White Horse Tavern and learn I was Bipolar 1 the hard way while living in the city as well.
Then I went to Upstate New York for 7 years learning how to be Bipolar and taking a new life class in politics. When I returned to Rhode Island, during the pandemic I improved my credit score, got married, met my birth family, and have a Book available at Amazon and will be appearing in bookstores this July. My second book is in front of an editor. Now I’m celebrating 20+ years sober. I only mention all that so when I talk about addiction, you know I have a clue.
Can I let you in on a secret?? Decriminalizing all drugs would lessen addiction problems and save money for everybody. Why is that?? Taking the crime stigma off a disease would cause more people to seek help sooner instead of trying to avoid the name calling and persecution.
Unfortunately, due to fentanyl and tranq, we can’t exactly do that at the moment. Those substances are deadly. If drug use became legal, there would be no way to test for them until it was too late. Sometimes when batches get captured, word gets on the street and a couple of lives get saved. In the case of the Cranston Street Armory last year, word didn’t get out and a couple of folks died.
Why does everyone prefer you using weed over alcohol?? I never have to take you to a meeting for weed. It’s so non addictive physically that you are more likely to suffer a peanut like allergy to it and die that way then ever possibly being addicted to it. I should mention that there’s no such thing as a gateway drug. 85% of folks who become addicts have a co-occuring mental illness. I’ve got like 7 of them to go with the 167 IQ, semi-eidetic memory, and creative skills. At an early age, we self medicate. That triggers the addiction gene. Folks who go from weed to harder substances do so because the weed wasn’t good enough to fix the problem.
“If that’s true Bobby, why don’t you push it for alcoholics??” becomes the natural next question. The “marijuana maintenance program” has been around for alcoholics since the 20’s. It usually ends the same way. The alcoholic forgets that they’re an alcoholic when high and they drink. That sets off a binge that sometimes ends in death. There is a mental health parallel to this too. When I lived alone, I had notes all over the house reminding me that I was an alcoholic, addict, and Bipolar. My fear was I would go into mania, have a drinking 72 hours, and end up dead.
With all that on the table I would much rather hear some high school kid smoking at his favorite band’s concert instead of lifting whiskey from the liquor cabinet before heading out with the crew. Yes, when I was using, I referred to weed users as “lazy”. On the other hand, my combination of alcohol and crack, not only was I a customer – I became a refined product enterprise owner, was “performance enhancing”.
This year, I started doing ghost tours in the city. I noticed the public addiction problem is way worse than it used to be. Without question, the pandemic played some role in that. I also noticed that drug of choice and underlying mental illness plays a huge role with regards to who ends up where. The folks up by the police station are much deeper in full addiction than the folks struggling with mental illness issues using now and again to self medicate who hang in Queen Anne Square for instance.
Yes, when I am in the city, I do try to 12 step people when time is available. The same habits I practice here in Warwick and sometimes in Kennedy Plaza. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t, sometimes those folks just want you to keep in touch in case they ever want to try stopping again.
Newport could be a leader on these issues. If I can get sober in a “party driven tourist city” then anybody can. Newport could innovate and show other communities how more people can find health and sobriety.
God forbid you know anyone is struggling, but if you do, please reach out to one of us in the recovery community. It is by helping others that we remind ourselves how grateful we are to be able to stay clean and sober. That gratitude keeps us sober all by itself. Of course if you’re like me, you up the gratitude quotient by visiting cemeteries every Sunday. You are immediately reminded by all the people that didn’t live as long as you have while not taking close to the number of chances that you did, nor putting themselves in jeopardy the way you did, that you have received a gift from the universe.
The alcohol companies have done a great job over the years demonizing Cannabis. The reality is that one substance is addictive and the other is not. One substance can help folks overcome anxiety with literally no side effects while the other can destroy families. I get it if you find the weed experience to be boring. Even when that is the truth, it is important to stay in line with the biological facts.
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Robert T. Oliveira
Warwick, RI
401-391-6402
Quahogs United 
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