Be Safe - Not Stupid

I've lived in the same apartment for 9 full years now.  My neighbors change with great frequency, mainly because we're a college town, and this place is across the street from the University of Colorado campus.  Lewis, who lives three doors down, has rented his place for 15 years, Beatrice (my friend on the second floor) has rented for 5 years, and my current neighbor Rodney has been in his place for 3 years.  But, on the west side of the hallway, most of the tenants change every 3 to 9 months.  I know them mostly by sight.  Benjamin, who spends all of his cash on marijuana, is in 101; two guys share 102, a man in his early 20s and a friend in his mid-30s.  We greet each other, say, "Hi.  How's it going?" - but don't really know each other.
   Boulder Creek has been rising with the past ten days of rain and snow.  The Creek is flowing at 440 cubic feet per second, which is high, but authorities don't close the use of the Creek until the flow rate is 700 cfs or higher.  Chris, the mid-30s man in 102, injured his back last week.  He's a day laborer and couldn't work due to the injury.  He was given pain pills and told to relax and let his injury heal.  Over the weekend, he told his mother, who lives in Connecticut, that the back pain was "excruciating."  Monday afternoon, two days ago, he and and his roommate smoked some marijuana (which is legal, if consumed inside our home) and drank some beer and hard liquor - after Chris had taken his opiate pain pill prescription.  Chris decided to go tubing on Boulder Creek, at the south end of or apartment building.  His friend decided he'd follow along the Boulder Creek Footpath on his skateboard, and not try to ride the water.  Chris jumped into Boulder Creek just east of Folsom Street, which is equivalent to 26th Street.  His friend said that Chris was struggling to get centered in the tube (his backside) and didn't appear to have any control.  The Creek immediately took Chris and the tube downstream, to the east.  Somewhere near 48th Street, Chris appeared to be in trouble, and his friend tried to grab his arm and pull him out of the Creek.  Chris slipped away from him.  His friend called 911 and reported Chris missing in the Creek.
   The Boulder Fire and Rescue teams have been looking for Chris since 6 p.m. on Monday; at 7 p.m. last night, his mother and roommate were informed that the Search and Rescue had been officially changed to a Search and Recover scenario.  This is May in Colorado - with the snow melt-off feeding the creeks and streams, the current water temperature is 40 degrees.  It was sheer stupidity to go into Boulder Creek in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, in a rubber inner tube, in 40 degree (F) water.  Both of the men should have known better.
   Please, do NOT undertake anything while you are mentally impaired - the mixture of medication, marijuana, and alcohol killed Chris.  It can easily happen to anyone who doesn't think things through.  Please be alert to your surroundings and use common sense - don't try anything that could possibly be life threatening in a impaired condition.
   As of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Chris has not been found.  One inner tube was found floating on the Creek, but it's not known if that was the tube Chris used.  He is now missing, assumed dead.

- Flashback -

Wow, talking about taking me back in time.  Smoking small amounts of marijuana, or cannabis, in private, is now legal in Colorado.  I have watched the media cover this, along with the selling of sales licenses, since the new year, and never really thought much about it.  Today, I stopped inside the local bus station to get a sip of water from the fountain,and was asked something I haven't been asked in years - "Do you have a few extra rolling papers I can have?"  I told the young man that I didn't, and got my water and went back to my pick-up area.  Then I started trying to remember when I had last been approached and asked for "rolling papers"...  and had to admit that the last time I remember that happening, I was at a concert that featured Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Roger McGuinn at the University of Florida.  In trying to pinpoint the year, the closest I could come was 1976 or 1977 - I know it was before I cut my right index finger off two days before Thanksgiving in 1977...  I know who I went to the concert with, and that we traveled on his motorcycle, and I remember having a wonderful time.  Marijuana never did anything "for" me - it just made me giggle insanely at everything, so I only used it once or twice.
  My Dad was an alcoholic, and, other than trying to drink for a little while, in college, I gave that up, too.  I suffer from migraine headaches, and alcohol brings them on - even though I didn't know it at the time.  All I knew was I always had a "hang over" that lasted a week, and that I'd spend most of the 24 hours after I stopped imbibing in the bathroom - either throwing up or with diarrhea.  Neither was pleasant, so I stopped doing that, also. I have to admit that up until 6 years ago, I occasionally - once or twice a year - had a cocktail.  But I don't really like the taste, and I have an allergic reaction to gin, so I've stopped drinking.
  I never tried LSD, but I did have a good dose of psychedelic mushrooms one night; at least, I was told they were -   The next day my friends told me about all these strange mental experiences they had; while I don't remember a thing out of the ordinary happening to me, mentally or physically....  I figure either I didn't ingest enough to "get high," or that I just didn't react to it for some unknown reason.
   It's possible that I'm just a spoil-sport.  I prefer to observe the world that I live in from a mind that isn't clouded (or enhanced) by psychotropic drugs.  I'd rather see and evaluate things as they actually happen. Maybe that's why I enjoy history so much - it's already happened, so it's cut and dried, other than the perspective.  But, then, I love to read science fiction, fantasy, and fiction, as well - maybe reading is my drug of choice....   I know I'm certainly addicted to it!