Wake and Bake and Purple Nitrate... Uh, Nitrile

     We've all done things in our young and carefree youths that we have left behind us.  Perhaps certain behaviors, certain tastes in music, clothes, food, or recreation.  Perhaps we've left behind bad habits.  It seems like you get to a certain age and you should cast certain things aside to make room/way for new adventures. To put away the behaviors of our youth or as it says in 1 Corinthians 13:11;

     "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

     There are many things I no longer do, from wearing certain clothes that really aren't for me to sitting in front of the television watching cartoons and eating cereal that turns the milk purple;

     Now granted, reading/collecting Calvin and Hobbes books is probably something I should have put aside long, long ago but it's just one thing I can't put away.

     But there is one thing I think most adults SHOULD definitely put away and that's the habit of what the youngun's like to call "Wake and Bake".  For those of you who don't know, that's smoking weed (or using the scientific term, Cannabis Sativa) immediately after waking up.  Apparently, there are even commandments for how to go about this particular practice.  Although it's not as safe as it used to be (I'll get to that in a minute) it seems most ridiculous to see someone do it after they've "reached a certain age".

     

     So what has prompted this particular rant on holding on to the follies of our youth?

     Well, for the last two days I've become aware of an amusing and at the same time disturbing trend - at least three times in each of the past two days cars have passed me reeking of the scorched leaves of the cannabis sativa plant.  At least once there was a wisp of smoke trailing behind the vehicle, not unlike this scene;

      The only thing missing is the skateboards, dude.  For one of them the smoke was so thick (and it was stopped at the light beside me) I thought I was going to end up with a contact high, like this poor officer;

     Fortunately I didn't, although I did arrive to work a bit hungrier than usual.  Now normally this wouldn't be sooooo unusual except for the fact that it happened two days in a row between 6:15 and 7:00 in the morning - and all of the cars were different. AND all of the cars were LUXURY cars!!!!  Exactly!  It wasn't some teen or twenty-something in a beat up old car, it was people nearly my age (I got a look at some of their relaxed faces) and I think one guy was even older!

     Hey, I've got enough destructive habit of my own so I can't throw stones since I live in a glass house, but come on.  If life is so rough that you have to blaze up first thing in the morning just to get through the day, you need to seriously reevaluate your life and priorities!  It's not bad enough that these guys are old enough to know better than to drive impaired, or the fact that they're role models for their kids (or grandkids most likely in one guy's case), the crap out there isn't like it was when I was sowing my own wild oats.  Not only is it more potent, it is also increasingly laced with other substances which can create other medical issues.  Even more frightening are those overdosing after using the synthetic version, thinking it is "safer".

     As I've gotten older I know I've gotten more "responsible" but it's more than that.  Before I became an EMT I was blithely unaware of a lot of things of which I was previously ignorant.  What has particularly become more clear to me from first hand knowledge is the insidious effect that drugs are having on our culture and communities.  Yes, I occasionally experimented with some of the minor things but found I really didn't care for the lack of control I felt under the influence.  I do understand that the lack of control is attractive to some.  But what's out there now can kill people and sometimes it's the innocents that are affected by those choices.  As we treat more and more patients on Long Island for overdoses, we find that we are fighting a difficult battle.  Yes, some of them are battling mental illness, some of them NEED it for treatment of pain, but more and more people are turning to it for other reasons and it's taking it's toll.  We need to change the mentality of how we are using drugs and why we're using drugs.  If nothing else, let's stop setting the example that blazing up at 6:15 in the morning is okay!  Let's reach out to each other and find other ways of coping with life!

     And speaking of EMS work, for almost four years now I've been thinking that the ubiquitous gloves we use for BSI (body substance isolation) on medical calls were called "purple nitrate" gloves. If you don't know what I'm talking about, they look something like this;

     There, you've probably seen them at the doctor's office, the dentist's office, maybe even the last time you got a tattoo.  Now you can clearly see on the box it says "NITRILE" so apparently I'm just inept at reading but I swear I thought it was nitrate.  The only problem with that is a NITRATE  is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO−
3 and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. Nitrates also describe the organic functional group RONO₂.  It's also used in fertilizer.  And explosives.  So purple nitrate while it might make some beautiful purple flowers and great purple fireworks, is not something you want to put on your hands or stick in someone's mouth.

    No, the correct name is PURPLE NITRILE and the reason I'm writing it here is because I was also thinking a lot about these purple gloves as I rode the last two days.  Why?  Because for some reason I'm seeing a preponderance of them on the sides of the road.  If they're used for BSI why are people throwing them on the road?!?!  If you don't want it on YOU then why would you throw it down for someone else to possibly come in contact with?  So today, I get to start back up with my "Random Flotsam Log" as most of it are these gloves.  So my fellow responders, do us all a favor, when you're finished with your BSI, don't throw them on the ground - they might explode!

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!

FFR - One possum, one raccoon, and what could have been a squirrel

RFL - Four and a half pairs of purple nitrile gloves,  two hats, a toilet seat lid.