On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 11:36:29AM -0800, Tom wrote: > On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 03:35:39PM +0100, Benedict Verheyen wrote: > > Another lesson learnt here: stay off the pot. At a later age you > > will not be able to count past 4. :-) just couldn't help it. > > I haven't touched it for 5 years, once I realized I'm still same old > boring me with it or without it :-) > > I have mixed feelings. One the one hand, I read about China's opium > wars in the 1800s, and see a failed people resulting from "legalizing > it." On the other hand, I see a drug which causes people to fight, > crash their cars, and beat their kids (alcohol) completely normalized. Painting pot and opium with the same brush is a pretty big stretch. > I think the right answer is to legalize it, but, just as you are > considered a drunk and a loser if you drink before work, habitually, or > to excess, exactly the same with dope. Absolutely. > Folks in Amsterdam have the > correct attitude: they mix tobacco with grass because it cuts down on > the smell and doesn't get you so whoppered. Exactly like we don't drink > pure grain alcohol. It souds good, except that you're mixing pot (a drug that has no demonstrable addictive qualities) with _nicotine_ to cut it. Mix it with clove cigarettes and maybe we'll talk. I've quit tobacco once, and it's not an experience I care to repeat. > I really think the "severe moderation, low concentration, but it's okay > for adults" message is the correct message for drugs. In terms of pot, I'm inclined to agree, but... > It is totally > hypocritcal to encourage this message for one drug but not others, when > any drug to excess requres counseling, but adults in moderation can > manage. I've never heard anybody put the issue like this in public yet. > I have hope we can grow up about it, yet. I see no sense in this at all. Different drugs have vastly different effects. With some drugs (eg pot, alcohol) it takes some serious use to get into the "excess" and "requires counseling" territory. Others (eg coke, heroin, opium) are _so_intensely_ addictive that the path from "experimenting" to needing in-patient rehab is very short. I think it is not only stupid, but dangerous, to lump "drugs" into one category. As soon as you do that, you make it very easy for someone to make the step from doing (relatively) harmless drugs to dabbling in things that are actually dangerous. Especially (though not exclusively) in terms of the current (American) culture, where as soon as you're labelled a "drug user" this implies "criminal"... Once you've gotten used to those labels, it's a short step to doing something incredibly stupid. Like crack. Teach people about the _real_ dangers of _individual_ drugs and you enable them to make smarter, informed decisions. Regarding any one drug as being just the same as any other makes no more sense than prescribing morphine for an infection or penicillin for a migraine. Cheers! -- ,-------------------------------------------------------------------------. > -ScruLoose- | The more I get to know people < > Please do not | the more I like my dog. < > reply off-list. | - Rev. Stu Strang < `-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
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