[Archived] Drugs

[Presty On Tour]

My link

The stuff you can find on our beaches these days eh!

[Tom]

Has anyone heard the advert on talksport? It goes, 'Have you ever:

A) drunkenly text your girlfriend

B ) Pulled a sicky when hungover

C) Injected drugs at a party

If C you may have hepatitus and you need to get checked out.'

I was in shock do people just accidentally inject drugs these days? Is it in the same vein as pulling a sicky or sending a drunken textt? It was almost like a joke advert.

Edited October 30, 2009 by TCO

[philipl]

Hey I don't for a moment condone it or approve or am anything other than totally opposed to drugs abuse but that question just shows that drugs are probably more mainstream than tobacco is these days.

Anyway, here is how our fellow Brits popped their clogs over the ast two years.. I shouldn't be being irreverent because my mother died last week (suffering a 100% legal bad trip on the way- cannabis would not have caused the same problem)) but this shows that:

For every person who died of cannabis excess, 5 fell off a cliff and 170 died of alcohol poisoning (that is direct poisoning by alcohol after a bender too many, not any of the digestive or cancerous or mental illnesses that alcohol is traditionally blamed for).

To be really naughty the score British deaths last year was rat bites 1 Al Qayda 0.

Send the troops down the sewers- they are wasting their time in Afghanistan!

[philipl]

Let's be honest- legalise drugs and Society would benefit- The Independent

If that fraud Alan Johnson is serious about reclassifying canabis, then he should expect politicians to set an example and report to their local police station to confess all their past drug taking activities. A crime surely remains a crime no matter when it was committed.

The sentences given to the likes of David Cameron and George Osborne should be the norm applied to all users who are unlucky to be nicked using whatever drugs the Parliamentarians have taken.

This has to be the fairest approach.

Incidentally, Prof Nutt's work positions alcohol as a borderline Class A/ Class B substance and tobacco as Class B. Ecstacy scarcely warrants so much as a Class C rating.

[philipl]

The Economist approvingly tracks the increasing decriminalisation of drugs

[Presty On Tour]

My link

[philipl]

Washington Post reports on rapid move to legalise pot in US States and collapse in support for prohibition

[Billy Castell]

One thing I don't understand is why people my age (28) or younger starts using the hard stuff like heroin. You see the storylines in soaps and films so often, where characters start doing it and it feels good until they're falling into a life whereby they're sucking off some violent thug or stabbing a granny for their next fix. Those stories are everywhere, and we get told about about it at school and yet people carry onn having a go. Odd really.

[sleepyjack]

Stories like that are everywhere, but so are TV warnings about marijuana and ecstasy and cocaine being the devil, and a huge amount of young people have used one or both and haven't suddenly fallen into an episode of Casualty. The weight that warnings about illegal drugs carry isn't really that great for young people. And if the circumstances of your life mean you reach a point where you're ignorant of the dangers of (some) substances, and then you're told that one you've never tried is a million times better than everything else you've ever experienced in your life put together, it's not hard to imagine giving it a try. Then, when it really does feel that good, you're somewhat screwed when it comes to stopping.

Same as most other addictions. You fall into it without intending to, and then you don't really want to stop.

[colin]

One thing I don't understand is why people my age (28) or younger starts using the hard stuff like heroin. You see the storylines in soaps and films so often, where characters start doing it and it feels good until they're falling into a life whereby they're sucking off some violent thug or stabbing a granny for their next fix. Those stories are everywhere, and we get told about about it at school and yet people carry onn having a go. Odd really.

One explanation I've read about is that young people get the message that all illegal drugs are bad and evil. Then they smoke a joint, have a good time and a laugh and wake up the next day without a hangover and the world carries on as normal. No damage at all.

So that message failed, so maybe heroin is just the same, maybe people think. I'll try a bit of that. And before you know where you are you're spending the budget on the next fix and looking for more.

The cannabis dealership is sort of relaxed. The cocaine & heroin is a bit more intense & nasty. They want to get people addicted to keep the trade going.

I've taken heroin. It was a long time ago, I've not had any for 20 years. It was a wonderful warm feeling, like being given a lovely gentle massage by a beautiful woman. (or Bradd Pitt if your reading this & you're female.)

I can understand that if your life is @#/? and you get a shot of heroin that makes you feel better then you may be really tempted to have another go. Then another one. Then that third one. Then you're screwed. Then you nick your Mum's purse to get the next fix.

[broadsword]

storylines in soaps and films so often, where characters start doing it and it feels good until they're falling into a life whereby they're sucking off some violent thug or stabbing a granny for their next fix.

Bloody hell, Emmerdale Farm's moved on a bit since the days of Amos Brearley.

Probably best not to ejamacate yourself through soaps and movies. I don't think any drug is totally harmless, it's up to the inidividual to evaluate the risk.

The only drug I've ever taken is alcohol. Of course some people make the mistake of thinking I actually am on drugs due to my wacky behaviour.

I choose reality because I can't handle hard drugs :-).

[thenodrog]

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/blackburndarwenhyndburnribble/4757488.Blackburn_dad_of_five_heroin_user_jailed/

Until people like this are dealt with properly then the problem is never ending. 'a social security loan' ultimately to buy drugs. This bloke is worse than vermin whose ultimate demise will be a blessing on the rest of society.

1. I suggest the person who signed off that loan needs to be given a final warning. When will it be repaid? If the answer is as I expect never then should it not be deducted from said persons salary? Harsh? Maybe... but it would prove the best regulator os such idiotic profligacy possible.

2. If the state has to provide drugs then a compulsory vasectomy should be the trade in.

[philipl]

As If It Weren't Obvious Already...

by Conor Friedersdorf

If you're one of the Americans who thinks that controlling our southern border is a must -- that the potential for smuggling terrorists or their weapons imperils our national security -- perhaps you should join me in diagnosing everyone who wants to keep waging the War on Drugs as part of the problem.

Cue a New York Times story that answers the question, "What happens when you create a hugely lucrative black market in illicit substances?"

The answer:

Mexican traffickers — facing beefed-up security on the border that now includes miles of new fencing, floodlights, drones, motion sensors and cameras — have stepped up their efforts to corrupt the border police.

They research potential targets, anticorruption investigators said, exploiting the cross-border clans and relationships that define the region, offering money, sex, whatever it takes. But, with the border police in the midst of a hiring boom, law enforcement officers believe that traffickers are pulling out the stops, even soliciting some of their own operatives to apply for jobs.

“In some ways,” said Keith Slotter, the agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s San Diego office, “it’s like the old spy game between the old Soviet Union and the U.S. — trying to compromise each other’s spies.”

James Tomsheck, the assistant commissioner for internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection, and other investigators said they had seen many signs that the drug organizations were making a concerted effort to infiltrate the ranks.

“We are very concerned,” Mr. Tomsheck said. “There have been verifiable instances where people were directed to C.B.P. to apply for positions only for the purpose of enhancing the goals of criminal organizations. They had been selected because they had no criminal record; a background investigation would not develop derogatory information.”

Perhaps it isn't worth keeping drugs illegal if the cost is the corruption of our border agents, murderous turf wars in our cities, billions of dollars spent jailing non-violent offenders, children of non-violent offenders growing up without their parents, the rise of paramilitary drug cartels destabilizing multiple Latin American countries and capable at any moment of using their smuggling channels to help terrorists, no-knock raids in American neighborhoods that regularly terrify innocents and sometimes kill them, and addicts who overdose more than they would if dosage and quality were controlled.

[philipl]

The end of America's war on drugs

[thenodrog]

............ If the state has to provide drugs then a compulsory vasectomy should be the trade in.

A huge step in the right direction. http://www.projectprevention.org/

I've said as much many times over the years. imo an open policy of offering a one off payment of £5000 for a vasectomy should reel many of the druggies and dollopers in, save money, reduce taxes and overall prove a huge long term benefit to society.

All our skewed benefit system is doing is lowering the quality of the national gene pool.

Edited April 27, 2010 by thenodrog

[philipl]

The Economist has just argued for the complete legalisation of all drugs.

[LeChuck]

Do you have a link to that Phil?

[philipl]

The Economist link . Being debated on Twitter this afternoon.

[philipl]

[Billy Castell]

A huge step in the right direction. http://www.projectprevention.org/

I've said as much many times over the years. imo an open policy of offering a one off payment of £5000 for a vasectomy should reel many of the druggies and dollopers in, save money, reduce taxes and overall prove a huge long term benefit to society.

All our skewed benefit system is doing is lowering the quality of the national gene pool.

You know nothing of genetics do you? The more narrow the gene pool, the higher the rate of inbreeding. The higher the rate of inbreeding, the increasing likelihood of recessive genetic diseases having an effect on a person, and that person will probably have learning difficulties too. I worry about you sometimes, you occaisionally come out with some extremely strange views on just about everyone who isn't you, or hold your views. You're like some early 20th Century aristocratic Colonel who wants to do away with democracy, sterilise anyone who doesn't have a servant or butler, and sees homosexuals as having a dangerous mental illness and should therefore be sectioned.

[thenodrog]

You know nothing of genetics do you? The more narrow the gene pool, the higher the rate of inbreeding. The higher the rate of inbreeding, the increasing likelihood of recessive genetic diseases having an effect on a person, and that person will probably have learning difficulties too. I worry about you sometimes, you occaisionally come out with some extremely strange views on just about everyone who isn't you, or hold your views. You're like some early 20th Century aristocratic Colonel who wants to do away with democracy, sterilise anyone who doesn't have a servant or butler, and sees homosexuals as having a dangerous mental illness and should therefore be sectioned.

So you suggest that we promote generations of useless individuals breeding on sink estates simply to provide a bit of hybrid vigour? Modern travel takes care of that.

Personally I worry about you and others who cannot see the wood for the trees Billy.

[LeChuck]

Very interesting documentary on Channel 4 - Our Drugs War.

It doesn't really bring anything new to the debate, but it does put the ideas in more mainstream environment. Making drugs illegal is little more than political points scoring and, as that documentary suggets, just serves to make the situation worse.

It's a three parter so I'll definitely be watching the next two.

[tony gale's mic]

A huge step in the right direction. http://www.projectprevention.org/

I've said as much many times over the years. imo an open policy of offering a one off payment of £5000 for a vasectomy should reel many of the druggies and dollopers in, save money, reduce taxes and overall prove a huge long term benefit to society.

All our skewed benefit system is doing is lowering the quality of the national gene pool.

You do realise the vast majority of illegal drug takers in this country aren't the type of people you'd usually see on an episode of Jeremy Kyle?

And Billy Castell is spot on, though the hard science is just one reason why that plan is utterly loony.

Edited August 3, 2010 by tony gale's mic

[speeeeeeedie]

I'm in the legalise camp. Only last week the US governemnt finally adjusted sentencing times for people convicted of crack vs. powder cocaine possession/dealing making them equal. Previously people caught with crack were treated far more harshly than people caught with powder. It's still not right but they are at least thinking.

Unfortunately it's an easy stance for politicans, they can't lose. They come off tough on drug offenders and it makes them look good.

It's a complicated issue affecting everybody. Mexico is not in good shape, and the USA are now using post September 11th anti-terror powers to go after them as departments worried about having their budgets cut need something to do.

[sleepyjack]

I'm in the legalise camp. Only last week the US governemnt finally adjusted sentencing times for people convicted of crack vs. powder cocaine possession/dealing making them equal. Previously people caught with crack were treated far more harshly than people caught with powder. It's still not right but they are at least thinking.

Still not equal. The ratio used to be 100-1, meaning if you had 1g of crack cocaine they'd sentence you as if you had 100g of powdered cocaine. Now they've reduced the ratio to 18-1 via the Fair Sentencing Act.