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Post by mouse on Aug 20, 2010 8:54:19 GMT
So, instead of pointless name calling.... I had to chuckle at that one, very good trouble is that post was quite unintentionally funny ;D
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Post by pumpkinette on Aug 20, 2010 16:46:21 GMT
Oh my. I can see I'm outnumbered in this thread. My view is that RV, Aubrey, and Riotgrrl are all hopeless liberals with blinders firmly in place and heads buried deep in the sand. And yes, Riotgrrl, the word 'Liberal' does have very negative connotations. I'm with you on most of your views on this thread. I HATE ANY abuse of ANY drug, if the drug is legal or not. I HATE the use of alcohol to get any kind of buzz/high at ALL. I also hate the use of drugs/alcohol to get any kind of buzz/high to distract from REALITY UNLESS you have a true health problem, getting surgery, etc.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 20, 2010 16:55:58 GMT
Well, I like getting high.
And how else would you use alcohol, if not to get high?
Cannabis, according to most Govts, has no other use than getting high; so use if it for this purpose can't be called misuse.
Most drugs - or a lot of drugs - had other uses before their present use was discovered (Viagra was a heart drug). Opium was always used as a pain-killer; but even that was stopped early last century, for some reason (probably because people were using it to self medicate, as they had always done, at a time when Doctors were getting more influential). So, the only use for it now is an illegal one. (Something I was told when I was 14: if I touched a white poppy, I would be addicted to opium for life. Govt info about drugs is not much more accurate.) The writer Anthony Burgess said, in his autobiography, that smoking opium was a very pleasant experience.
Heroin was first used as a treatment for Morphine addiction.
Every form of entertainment - films, TV, music, books - are meant to provide a distraction from reality. There is nothing wrong with that. Reality's ok, but not 24 hours a day, please.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 20, 2010 21:28:27 GMT
Pleasantly drunk. I'm going to have a hay-fever tablet (the type that make you drowsy) and go to bed. I'll read a bit of Anthony Burgess's Earthly Powers until I can't keep my eyes open any longer.
Good night.
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Post by pumpkinette on Aug 21, 2010 7:17:39 GMT
Pleasantly drunk. I'm going to have a hay-fever tablet (the type that make you drowsy) and go to bed. I'll read a bit of Anthony Burgess's Earthly Powers until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. Good night. Please realize that there's a PRICE TO PAY for getting drunk. I know this 1st hand. It's an EVIL EXCHANGE, OK? I'll NEVER deny that getting drunk FELT GOOD. I miss that feeling in some ways, to be honest, and always will. But, there's a PRICE TO PAY for it. I can't ever go back to paying that price. I still have the effects of the abuse in my body. Was THAT worth it? NO, it wasn't and never will be. Was it WORTH all the hurt, etc., I caused my true family and friends? NO, it wasn't and never will be. Sin feels good and always has. But, the PRICE you pay for sin...not worth anything!
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Post by pumpkinette on Aug 21, 2010 7:19:48 GMT
Well, I like getting high. And how else would you use alcohol, if not to get high? Cannabis, according to most Govts, has no other use than getting high; so use if it for this purpose can't be called misuse. Most drugs - or a lot of drugs - had other uses before their present use was discovered (Viagra was a heart drug). Opium was always used as a pain-killer; but even that was stopped early last century, for some reason (probably because people were using it to self medicate, as they had always done, at a time when Doctors were getting more influential). So, the only use for it now is an illegal one. (Something I was told when I was 14: if I touched a white poppy, I would be addicted to opium for life. Govt info about drugs is not much more accurate.) The writer Anthony Burgess said, in his autobiography, that smoking opium was a very pleasant experience. Heroin was first used as a treatment for Morphine addiction. Every form of entertainment - films, TV, music, books - are meant to provide a distraction from reality. There is nothing wrong with that. Reality's ok, but not 24 hours a day, please. Your view that alcohol is only good for getting high is a sign of alcoholism. Alcohol in MODERATION actually HAS health benefits! I'm not being sarcastic here. However, anyone with a family history of alcoholism (I have that, unfortunately) shouldn't drink in moderation even for health benefits because of the huge risk of BECOMING an alcoholic. It's NOT worth the risk. I wish every day I'd NEVER taken a drink. I'm not being dramatic: I truly wish this every day.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 21, 2010 8:52:13 GMT
Well, that's sad. I really wish you could enjoy a drink.
There are things that taste like alcohol, but which are not that popular when alcohol is available as the taste of alcohol is only is only part of the appeal.
I don't know what alcoholism is, in that case. I like the taste of whisky, but I also like the buzz. I don't start drinking until after 9pm (I know that in some places in the US you are considered to have a drink problem if you have a glass of wine with your midday meal*), and then I only have one big one. I have less than the UK Govt's recommended amount.
*I think that some US views of addiction are bizarre. I was once looking at Fisherman's Friends (menthol and liquorice cough sweets) on a US review site, and some people on their thought they were addicted to Fisherman's Friends because they sometimes had them when they didn't have a cold. Like this was a real problem, not that they actually liked them (I used to eat loads and loads of Fisherman's Friends, by the way. Not addicted.)
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Post by mouse on Aug 21, 2010 16:09:45 GMT
Well, I like getting high. And how else would you use alcohol, if not to get high? . possibly because it enhances a meal...or warms you up or relaxes without getting high..or because your thirsty and water is bland....or just a social experience..all can and are be done with out getting drunk[high]
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Post by mouse on Aug 21, 2010 16:13:22 GMT
Cannabis, according to most Govts, has no other use than getting high; so use if it for this purpose can't be called misuse. . friends son is just about to be divorced because of his use of canabis....his paranoia..and depression which flare when he hasnt had a joint,,,he is continually tankedup and his wife has had enough ..and i dont blame her.....he of course sees nothing wrong in his canabis...and so will lose every thing
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Post by fretslider on Aug 21, 2010 16:13:54 GMT
Well, I like getting high. And how else would you use alcohol, if not to get high? . possibly because it enhances a meal...or warms you up or relaxes without getting high..or because your thirsty and water is bland....or just a social experience..all can and are be done with out getting drunk[high] Funny how after a shock most people go for a stiff Brandy or a Whisky. Because it takes the edge off, in other words the drug has an effect.
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Post by mouse on Aug 21, 2010 16:55:05 GMT
possibly because it enhances a meal...or warms you up or relaxes without getting high..or because your thirsty and water is bland....or just a social experience..all can and are be done with out getting drunk[high] Funny how after a shock most people go for a stiff Brandy or a Whisky. Because it takes the edge off, in other words the drug has an effect. indeed fret...but i was answering aubreys ...high....coment and just putting forward that people drink alcohol for reasons other than getting high and actually after shock..doesnt it have some effect on the rate of heart beat or some thing,,,dunno,,,just half remebered some thing like that,,,..a ciggy can slow things down as well
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Post by aubrey on Aug 21, 2010 17:32:03 GMT
OK. The warmth you get off alcohol is part of the buzz.
Alcohol is not much good for thirst (it dehydrates you). Better to have water: maybe water with a bit of wine in it (I think the Greeks used wine to stop water going brackish on long voyages - Jean may know).
I'm not talking about getting drunk - I can't drink enough these days to get drunk - but just getting pleasantly high: a warm feeling about the face, a slight buzz.
The social experience it also because alcohol gives you a buzz (tea can do the same thing. Read George Orwell's essay "A Nice Cup of Tea" - try googling - it is worth it. It stopped me from taking tea with sugar).
You can get the same - a mild buzz - off cannabis as well. Your mate's husband overdid it - as you can overdo anything, including coffee, and get the same effect. He did not get that way on 2-3 joints a day, which is all most people have. You don't really get stoned on that much, just pleasantly high.
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Post by beth on Aug 29, 2010 17:04:00 GMT
I think if cannabis were legal in this country, it would be taxed to the point of absurdity (think cigarette taxes - plus) and a black market would immediately develop. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 29, 2010 19:05:05 GMT
That is a point.
But I think they could tax it quite a lot, and it would still be cheaper than it is now. I'd have no problem with that, really.
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Aug 29, 2010 23:43:54 GMT
One of the most ridiculous defenses druggies use to excuse their own behavior is to try and equate hard drug use to alcohol.
There are degrees of alcohol use. There is no problem with a a few glasses of wine with dinner or a couple beers at the football game.
That is in no way comparable to sniffing Cocaine or intravenously injecting heroin. Please stop it with the nonsense comparisons.
There is a problem with alcoholics who start drinking at 9AM in the morning and drink all day. That's where the comparison does hold. However, that is the rare exception.
Addicted druggies try to compare alcohol with hard drugs but that comparison is nonsense.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 30, 2010 19:10:48 GMT
That is not what the Volstead act said. And look what happened there.
I think that sniffing cocaine is analogous to having a few beers. Most coke users are occassional users.
A lot of heroin users are the same.
The general assumption about coke and heroin is that one snort, etc, gets you hooked. It doesn't.
I've drunk whisky at 8am. (Though I'd just finished a night shift and was about to go to bed.)
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Post by aubrey on Aug 30, 2010 19:17:59 GMT
3. The enforcement of marijuana laws is racially discriminatory.
Minorities, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, disproportionately bear the brunt of marijuana arrests despite using cannabis at rates similar to – or in some cases, less frequently – than whites.
For example, an August 2010 study (PDF) commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance reported that African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession offenses in California at more than twice the rate of Caucasians. Authors determined: "Young blacks use marijuana at lower rates than young whites. Yet from 2004 through 2008, in every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks were arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites, typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites.”
The study concluded, "acks were arrested for simple marijuana possession far out of proportion to their percentage in the total population of the counties. In the 25 largest counties as a whole, blacks are 7% of the population but 20% of the people arrested for possessing marijuana.”
Arrest figures from New York City, the marijuana arrest capitol of the world, tell a similar tale. In 2009, New York City police made 46,400 lowest level marijuana possession arrests (NY State Penal Law 221.10) involving cases where cannabis was either used or, more often than not, possessed in public. Of those arrested, 54 percent were African American, 33 percent were Hispanic, and only ten percent were Caucasian. (Blacks and Hispanics together comprise approximately half of the city's population.)
Nationally, the black arrest rate for marijuana offenses is 2.5 times the arrest rate for whites, according to a NORML commissioned study from 2000. Yet it wasn’t until this year that civil rights organizations like the California chapter of the NAACP and the Latino Voters League finally began talking about the racially motivated nature of marijuana law enforcement. For the most part, editors and reporters for the MSM have still yet to notice.
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on Aug 30, 2010 23:36:57 GMT
I've had considerable first hand experience with cocaine users Aubrey. Mostly employees who worked for me. They were worthless. Totally worthless. Their addiction took priority over everything in their lives. It was totally controlling.
I remember giving one employee money to go buy supplies for an office renovation project (paint, wall board, putty, etc.). He took the cash directly to his cocaine dealer and never came back. That's typical.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 31, 2010 8:28:08 GMT
You're talking about addicts.
And even then, it would have been better - for you, and themselves - if they could have got it on prescription.
At the place I worked, we had an accountant who we used to keep finding in the toilet with a bottle of something in a brown paper bag. He was always going out to get paperclips. I never saw any of the paperclips, but he was always going out to get some. (He was an ex-army Major. Very right-wing. I never asked him, but he probably hated the idea of drugs.)
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Post by firedancer on Aug 31, 2010 14:48:38 GMT
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