Hello Dynapython,
Well because people are people. Some people who fly REAL rockets are alcoholics, e.g. Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11) is an alcoholic. Alcohol is a substance that one can become addicted to in the SAME was as H-E-R-O-I-N. You see, people are people. We all have the capacity to love, to hate, to murder, to care, to steal, to lie, to feel, to want, ect.. Its just that most of us have self control and that it what keeps us civil and progressing as a society/culture.
Some (not MOST, I retract that predicate noun), not all, some being one or more, of the "founding fathers" of both low and high power rocketry, did in fact, use drugs. Now some used the drug of alcohol, while others used controlled substances ... am I going to name them, nope, because that is there personal business. One of them did share their experiences and opinions with narcotics with a fellow flyer back in the late 1970s. Is that flyer still using the narcotic? I don't know. It was just posed as speculation as to why Jerry Irvine does the things that he has done over and over over the last 27+ years.
So please, don't place words where they never were. Again, SOME (more than 1) of the 1970s/80s /low/high power flyers, by his own mouth admitted, in confidence, that he felt that H-E-R-O-I-N was "more pleasurable than sex". Now how you arrived at, " What in the world ever posessed you to paint the HPR pioneers as drug addicts in a public forum? " was NOT the point I was trying to make, although SOME of them were users. People make unwise choices in ALL professions and hobbies on life. There are NAR people who show up drunk at the flying field. At a NARAM event years back, a drunk flyer, crashed several radio controlled rocket gliders in a row ... it was sad to see, but it does happen. There are people who were major players in model rocketry who are now dead because of a car crash due to drugs and alcohol, sad but true. I wish it were a perfect world, but is isn't.
As for Jerry Irvine, its not that I am trying to call him names as that has been and will always be done given the current issues with him. I am just trying to understand, WHY a person makes choices that lead to such an unrecoverable fall. I am not chastising the man, instead I want to see him in a positive light. Like I said, either he has a REAL physical neurological issue, or it MIGHT be, a drug addiction as I have seen people throw away six figure a year incomes, homes, and family for a little white rock, or power heated in a spoon then injected. And personally, I don't think its a physical reason as to Jerry's behavoir, so that only leaves ...
No angst against Jerry meant at all in these postings. Actually, I hope that Jerry might be inspired by these posting to get things worked out and positively re-enter rocketry. And if it should be substance abuse, that is far more forgivable than blatant greed. Drugs have a way of short circuiting the brain's built in common sense.
As for the last sentence in your posting, "I certainly hope you are not a member of any rocketry association I belong to. You have gone way, way, way too far.", I just hope you realise that there are people who fly rockets (NAR/TRA members) who beat there wives and children. There are members who use weed, meth, coke, H-E-R-O-I-N, booze, ect.. There is likely to be a member a two in both organizations that molest young children and perhaps use the pretence of, "lets go fly a rocket together Timmy", as a way to get into the child's pants ... its NOT a perfect world. Everyone is NO WHERE NEAR a Jesus Christ. Personally, you should be proud that I am a member of either organization as I could be the guy parking next to you at the next meet, loaning you some thermalite, or helping you prep your large chute or carry supplies out to the pads. If I am willing to be intellectually and emotionally honest with you here, CHANCES are, I will be so in person :) Be careful what you wish for, as you may get it.