Drugs

[TMA_1]

What are your views on drugs that are used in ways that arent strictly for valid medical reasons? This could be for exploration with psychedelics that are non-habit forming, for partying, or for the pure enjoyment of a drug. Any reason outside of the sphere of proper medicine basically. What are your views on specific drugs? What drugs do you consider to more or less dangerous? What kinds of drugs have you tried if you wish to share, and how do you think drugs have impacted humankind? Basically share here anything you wish on the matter of drugs.

Personally I have found that there are drugs that are definitely more dangerous, but that in the end they all carry with them one thing. They all create some sort of altered state, and that these altered states in any form can be dangerous. Because of our problems with controlling them, and because they alter reality and this can be bad for many reasons, usually overshadowing any proper purpose from what I have surmised.

But definitely many psychedelics are not nearly as overtly dangerous as some narcotics and stimulants which are almost always habit forming and tap into the pleasure centers in a more clear and extreme way.

what do you guys think?

[Caid Ivik]

Perhaps for exploration of our mind and its hidden abilities it could be useful; but most people who use them are too weird to call them "cyberian explorers", as those like Rushkoff do...

[Andrew]

Drugs are bad and can lead to crime.

Think I'll go get addicted to coke right now...

Oxycontin is the prescription drug in atlantic canada that everyone is getting hooked on. Screws you up bad.

But is this more of a discussion on weed/hash and lsd etc? Still bad and pointless, much like liquor and cigarretes, but people do it.

[Mahdi]

I'm high on L.I.F.

The E is silent.

[TMA_1]

I love that part on simpsons, it reminded me of that.lol

Marge your tests came in, you havent taken any opiates.

Oh thank goodness! Ill tell you what I really am high on though, a little L.S.D., love for my son and daughter.

lol

[Andrew]

Forgot to add:

The fact that if you smoke a pack of cigs a day @ $10 CAD a pack, and do so for 30 years and assume a discount rate of 10%, you would have $600,000 after 30 years. And the fact that you would be dieing after 30 years anyway...

Same as Getting Tims coffee/donught, say $2 a day 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, assume 10% discount, 30 years, you'd have $82,247 after 30 years.

Now assume you drink alcohol or go to bars often. Say $10 a week for 50 weeks, 15 years, 10% discount. $15,886 (after 15 more years, with no payments, although getting interest, it would be $66,000)

I'd hate to see the smokers that go to Tim's every morning and then spend a minimum of $10 on alcohol/bar (bar cover maybe).

~$750,000... gone. What a waste. Retiring after those 30 years (say aged 50 assuming you started when 20), and you plan on living until 75. You could withdraw ~$83,000 a year until death. (your pension on top of that would be make it top $100,000)

Quite simple to be rich :P

Now add the amount spent on drugs...

[Megashrap]

Oxycontin is the prescription drug in atlantic canada that everyone is getting hooked on. Screws you up bad.

Yea those that have or get prescriptions for that one has the instant potential for becoming a corner druglord. I think they call those 80 Mg. Oxycontins Watermelons here, like the new and improved crack now.

[TMA_1]

its expensive, damn I have seen a single 80 mg pill taken in six lines by someone I know. It is a damn expensive, wasteful and all around bad habit.

[Caid Ivik]

Nobody says you have to pay for more than seed. Has anybody heard of ayahuasca? Altough in Slovakia you can grow many plants with...interesting effects, I heard about that one that it is somewhat special. Do you know something about it?

[Edric O]

I'm quite attached to my neurons and would rather not kill them off en masse, thank you very much... I have no intention to ever go anywhere near non-medicinal drugs.

But I have been thinking about drugs with regards to politics: Should they be legal or illegal? All other things being equal, I would say that recreational drugs should always be illegal - but I have seen compelling evidence and arguments that current methods for preventing drug use are horribly ineffective, and therefore it would be better to just legalize drugs in order to bring them into the open and impose regulations over their sale and consumption. I'm still undecided on the issue...

[Acriku]

I've taken oxycontin (for post-surgery I swear!) and it was la-la land for days. I could almost feel myself wanting more early on. So, it's pretty dangerous.

[Andrew]

I may have taken oxycontin for my wisom teeth, not sure if it was that drug or not. Whatever the drug was, it pretty much immobilized me whenever I took it. Didn't seem very fun though. Not being able to walk very well and when in bed not being able to move and not remembering much. But I was also taking 10 ibu a day for the pain. It sucked.

[Acriku]

Having knee surgery kept me from moving anyway, so I didn't experience what you did. From what I remember, I slept days at a time, and was caught in somewhat of an "in-between" between sleeping and being awake. I had to stay on the same couch for two months before I could actually get up (which hurt like hell, reactivating those nerves).

[exatreide]

They gave you oxy for knee surgury? What did you have done? I had a orthoscope and all I got was two weeks of vikadin. Although my knee is acting up again, they might have to put pins it.

This poster in my health room has "the real killers" how many people die in america each year from whatever.

400,000 people die from heath problems/obesity releated deaths.

200,000 smoking cigs or some number around there

45,000 die from alcohal related deaths.

The very bottem of the list is drugs

20,000.

Yet, the top three are legel, but we fight a war on the least deadly? That's like going after Osama bin ladans 9th LT down the line insted of going after him. It just doesn't make sense.

legalizing works..

It did in holland didn't it?

[Acriku]

They gave you oxy for knee surgury? What did you have done? I had a orthoscope and all I got was two weeks of vikadin. Although my knee is acting up again, they might have to put pins it.

I had a bone twisted and four or five nails screwed in to keep in place, plus a plate. I had chronic knee dislocation so it tightened the knee in place so it wouldn't dislocate. If I didn't have oxycontin, I would've been in serious pain  :- To mention the staples, oh god the staples! :'(

[Megashrap]

Had a Kidney stone removal operation and they gave me oxycontin afterwards. It was great for the pain but the in hospital, the I.V. in my wrist they gave me Daulaudid. (I believe it's spelled similar to that not sure)Did an even greater job though and I bet it's much more addictive. All I can say is it was pretty much lights out when they put that in my I.V. Thats got to be as strong as Heroin and as addictive. But damn it was great for killing the pain 100%.

[Egeides]

The chemicals produced for pain actually neutralize the dependency effect. This is why that, dosed correctly, the body is able to take the stuff alot more easily and the pain goes off.

I still recall a doctor saying to me that one of his very very young patients was laughing and trying to catch "flies" flying over his head. Don't ask me how was the dosing, but the pain was sure to be neutralized at this point ;)

[Egeides]

legalizing works..

It did in holland didn't it?

I'm not too sure... I went there and was said that the government pays the research going on one side rather the other, and prefers not to stir trouble, like by not counting the unregulated traffic. So I wonder.

In Rotterdam, in a residential area away from the center, I saw 11 pot bars on maybe 200 meters. For a population smoking less than restricted others, it would be alot. Sadly, I didn't think about getting inside to check the percentage of foreigners... but it was a residential street away from tourist areas nonetheless. It forms a curious case.

[Khan]

Well I take ecstacy because I find I like the way it affects me much more than when I'm drinking, and it a much more sociable drug than alcohol for me. Not incredibly addictive either and the hang overs are pretty reasonable. I'd like to try 'Shrooms and LSD too but they're getting really hard to find in the UK. :(

[Caid Ivik]

Why LSD, nowadays it's dimethyltryptamin what rules  ;D

[Kiyouta]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Only in moderation of course. ;) Can't see any medical usage for it though... unless you have a very wet mouth. ???

[TMA_1]

Heh, DMT is powerful, heard from people I know that it is almost too powerful. I think it is considered the most potent out of any hallucinagen out there. Not only that but it is usually always smoked when yo uget the street version, and this means that you hit the maximum effects in under a minute... scary stuff. I wouldnt touch any hallucinagen again most likely, and wouldnt touch DMT with a ten foot pole.

[lost_child]

Well I take ecstacy because I find I like the way it affects me much more than when I'm drinking, and it a much more sociable drug than alcohol for me. Not incredibly addictive either and the hang overs are pretty reasonable. I'd like to try 'Shrooms and LSD too but they're getting really hard to find in the UK. :(

I smoke marijuana on a fairly regular basis I still maintain honour roll in all advanced credits. But I deffinately have less ambtition then I used to which is pretty much the only real long term effect of it oh yeah and the lung cancer. As for ecstacy I would never touch that shit. No one knows its long term effects, some scientists are saying even low use can  result in you losing like half your brain cells by the time your 40. The only other drugs I've ever taken is Mushrooms which I've only done a few times. They are deffinatly fucked, your brain refuses to operate with the rest of your body I almost lost my grip with sanity once.

As for how I feel about people taking drugs, I think it's all about moderation for most I'm not talking like coke and  that shit. I think the only drug you can really take over the long term is marijana since it's not as bad for you as they say unless you get addicted but that's pretty rare.

[Dante]

*Sigh* Lets try to post this again...

I've never taken any drugs for recreational purposes (or if I did then they messed my mind up so much that I can't remember it ;)), and none of the medicinal drugs that I've taken have had any mind-altering side effects. So I can't really speak from experience. Nevertheless, I have no desire to mess with my body's chemical balances, nor my own fragile grip on reality. I'll keep away. Simply put, the risks are not worth the 'benefits.'

From a less personal perspective, as with many other things, I just don't care. Let people smoke/inject/snort themselves into oblivion, what does it matter? If it makes them happy, fine, no objections here. If it makes them mentally disabled, manic depressive, or dead, then it was their own stupid fault and a few faulty genes pass out of the pool. Of course it is not always possible for some people to make a balanced decision as to whether they want to play with their mind or not. To this end, education programs about drugs are advisable. Teaching people how to use them correctly and/or not to use them at all, it's all one to me.

At the end of the day, people are going to search for a high, and they are going to continue doing so no matter what measures are taken against them. So provide infomation, yes. But regulations, laws, restrictions, rules; why bother? Just step back and let them stew in their own juice.

[Andrew]

Let people smoke/inject/snort themselves into oblivion, what does it matter?

Drugs can lead to crime (Hell's Angels anyone?).

Also they become a drain on the economy when living on the streets or by spending all their income on drugs which are not taxed.