Ecstacy, class A- are politicians mad?

[Bago]

 

Well, maybe it should (although why I don't know) but the simple fact is that it doesn't, and it never has done.

 

It never worked before the government never were strict and followed the rules. If we did, then maybe the tax payor will have to increase their taxes, and oh no, we cannot afford that to happen.

[Ruby79]

If you have never done something, how come you are qualified to speak on the matter? just an observation. Surely if you hadnt actually watched a film, just read the stuff on the back of the dvd , you'd only be able to comment on a tiny proportion of the story.

 

Just a thought for the people who dont seem to have a clue, and would you all try horseriding ?

[Bago]

If you have never done something, how come you are qualified to speak on the matter? just an observation. S

 

Because there are too many articles out there and stats to support how drugs affect people? Also, because this is a supposed democratic country whereby my tax allows me a say in any current affair issue? lol !

 

On a serious note. I have been exposed to people who do take drugs, and they can be defensive and so forth. Whether it is drugs, or any other form of escapism, you know when someone is doing something to avoid an area of their lives. I think most adults would've done that by the time that they are in their 30s. For me, it was food. For others in my family, it was cigarettes, or gambling. For friends at uni, it was cannabis, and cocaine. When you see a repeated pattern in people's behaviours, you recognise it all too well.

[Phanerothyme]

It never worked before the government never were strict and followed the rules. If we did, then maybe the tax payer will have to increase their taxes, and oh no, we cannot afford that to happen.

 

The combined spend on the war on drugs over the last 25 years has topped trillions a trillion dollars in the US and the UK.

 

and the net effect on drug usage?: 0, zilch, null points, noll, nada.

 

A hundred years ago there was not a single federally illicit drug in the United States. In 1914 the US government decided it wanted to justify making certain drugs illegal so it estimated that 1.3 percent of the population was addicted to drugs.

 

“We can’t have that,” they said, and they passed the 1914 Harrison Anti-Narcotics Act. Fifty-six years later the US government wanted to justify a policy starting a war on drugs, so they conducted a survey that showed 1.3 percent of the population was addicted to drugs.

 

After nearly four decades of fueling this war with over a trillion dollars of our taxes and making nearly 38 million arrests for nonviolent drug offenses, what are the results? Our court system is choked with the escalating number of drug prosecutions and our quadrupled prison population has made building prisons this nation's fastest growing industry; with 2.2 million incarcerated today and another 1.9 million arrested every year for nonviolent drug offenses — more per capita than any country in the world. Where will it end? The United States has 4.6 percent of the world’s population and 22.5 percent of its prisoners — right here in this “land of freedom”! And today, 1.3 percent of the population is addicted to drugs.

 

It doesn't matter how much tax revenue you spend on prohibitionist policies and prosecuting them, all you do is pour money into the hands of criminals, whilst increasing the harm to users.

 

 

Or for a more british view, from Edward Ellison - former head of New Scotland Yard's Anti-Drug Squad:

 

Time and again politicians parrot one phrase: Legalising drugs is 'unthinkable'. Yet politicians are paid to think. Sadly, their leaders forbid them licence to even discuss the matter.

 

The pushers earn my hatred: politicians who are too cowardly to think, or to promote public debate, earn my contempt.

 

They forget, those who spout the word 'unthinkable', that drugs like heroin were once legal, and fairly recently too. In the Sixties, clinics were allowed to prescribe to heroin addicts, drugs from reputable, medical sources at prices that were not inflated.

 

Today, drugs at cost equivalent of £1,000 pound on the street could be produced for the NHS for just £1. That is £999 that would not have to be found by the addicts - in other words, stolen from you. It is £999 that would not go straight into the pockets of crime syndicates.

 

The benefit to the drug addict would be huge. Getting his drugs from a legal source would access him to counselling, support, therapy - all the things he or she needs to break dependency.

 

'Legalised cannabis' does not mean 'encourage cannabis'. It means the reverse. I want to see the lowest level of drug abuse, with the least detrimental effect on everyone else.

 

Legalised cannabis would mean that parents and teachers could discuss it with young people openly, not confrontationally. It means those thinking of using it will get education, not propaganda, and they will be less likely to take it as a gesture of adolescent rebellion. The same applies to the harder drugs.

 

Even the cops think prohibition is a total crock.

[Ruby79]

Because there are too many articles out there and stats to support how drugs affect people? Also, because this is a supposed democratic country whereby my tax allows me a say in any current affair issue? lol !

 

On a serious note. I have been exposed to people who do take drugs, and they can be defensive and so forth. Whether it is drugs, or any other form of escapism, you know when someone is doing something to avoid an area of their lives. I think most adults would've done that by the time that they are in their 30s. For me, it was food. For others in my family, it was cigarettes, or gambling. For friends at uni, it was cannabis, and cocaine. When you see a repeated pattern in people's behaviours, you recognise it all too well.

 

Chocolate Muffin - Class A ?!!!:hihi:

[purdyamos]

If you want something that you cannot get, or think that you cannot get, then yes... maybe. We just have to go with the flow and ride out the wave, just as other depressions before that, and any other depression before that. How did people used to survive?

 

Maybe it's time to bring back religion, or some kind of hope and belief so that people don't turn on each other. Since when do you complain and moan at all ills, and let it get to you so? This is not just affecting some people, this is affecting ALL people globally. So what are you going to do? Drug yourself first with little money that you can afford to buy drugs with, on top of your existing living expenses to depress and demotivate yourself in this current climate?

 

I would cut my expenses, eat fresh where I can, exercise, see my friends, spend time with families (people who really matters), and hold tight...

 

Bago do you have any idea (and I mean ANY idea) just how many people who use drugs, addicts and non-addicts alike, do so to soften the pain caused by their families?

 

As for 'bring back religion', do you mean by force? Would it be a new improved religion that grants full equality and autonomy to women and doesn't dictate who people can or can't sleep with as long as all parties are consenting? Do you have any idea how much that is not going to work? What about people who happen not to believe in God? You haven't thought this through really have you?

 

You are evidently highly self disciplined, good for you. But there is all the difference in the world between the way you think the world should be, and how the world actually is. People are a mass of impulses, longings, pains, weaknesses, quirks, and contradictions, always have been and always will be. People will always feel like changing their state of consciousness, for a wide range of reasons - some highly spiritual, as it happens. You have to work with human nature, not try to pretend it out of existence.

[Smithster]

If you want something that you cannot get, or think that you cannot get, then yes... maybe. We just have to go with the flow and ride out the wave, just as other depressions before that, and any other depression before that. How did people used to survive?

 

I think you will find that humans (not all, I grant you) have been using narcotics of some kind for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It is nothing new and is in no way specific to this current economic situation.

 

Maybe it's time to bring back religion, or some kind of hope and belief so that people don't turn on each other.

 

Please, please, please let's not turn this into another religious debate. There are far too many of those running on this forum already.

 

Since when do you complain and moan at all ills, and let it get to you so? This is not just affecting some people, this is affecting ALL people globally. So what are you going to do? Drug yourself first with little money that you can afford to buy drugs with, on top of your existing living expenses to depress and demotivate yourself in this current climate?

 

I would cut my expenses, eat fresh where I can, exercise, see my friends, spend time with families (people who really matters), and hold tight...

 

As someone who has clearly never indulged in this culture, I would not expect you to understand Bago. It really isn't as straightforward as you make it out to be. Most, if not all people I know who have used recreational drugs would not simply say "Right, the world is rubbish so I'm going to bury my head in the sand and get wasted until it's all better again." That's not how people think in my experience.

 

Clearly from your statements you have never tried, and never intend to try using drugs. I totally respect you for that - really I do. But, and I know you probably don't want to hear this, drugs really do make you feel good. It's that simple, that's why people take them. When people spend long periods of their lives feeling low and fed up with their daily routine, feeling like they are stuck in a rut with no end in sight, is it really any wonder to you that some people like to try and take a quick fix to make themselves feel good? Even if it is just for a few hours? There are millions of people around the world that think this way - just because you don't, doesn't make you a better person than any of them.

[Bago]

The combined spend on the war on drugs over the last 25 years has topped trillions a trillion dollars in the US and the UK.

 

and the net effect on drug usage?: 0, zilch, null points, noll, nada.

 

It doesn't matter how much tax revenue you spend on prohibitionist policies and prosecuting them, all you do is pour money into the hands of criminals, whilst increasing the harm to users.

 

Or for a more british view, from Edward Ellison - former head of New Scotland Yard's Anti-Drug Squad:

 

Even the cops think prohibition is a total crock.

How can legalising drugs not encourage people to take more drugs but to reduce it? I mean, look at sex. We introduced sex education earlier and earlier, and we oversexualised young people as a society, and now 13 year old can have babies, and they want it as well. Do you think that it is healthy? All I also hear are the "corrs" once an individual is over 18, never mind if the person have the emotional capacity to deal with it or not.

 

How can it possible that this won't happen with heroin? I understand the sentiment that the Head is saying. It is only because heroin is a stronger addictive substance. His argument is to control those who are already addicted by legalising it, and therefore reduce his workforce in overspend in policing this area alone. However, I don't think his argument meant that it should legalise all drugs so that it is normalised and therefore make it more accessible to the masses. As there is a possibility that this will indeed happen.

 

Switzerland controlled its epidemic by giving heroin to addicts and cleaning their street. Rather than letting the street be full of blood and the addicts getting worst health because of unclean needles, and unpure heroin. So people end up getting diseases on top of a drug addiction.

[Ruby79]

Ban Sex, Food , drugs, cigs, gambling, shopping, driving , horseriding, all dangerous sports, paracetomel ( might take the whole packet and die) , drink, dogs( might take mine for a walk, slip , fall over and bang my head and die)

 

Bago, lighten up , being so serious is bad for your health !!

[Bago]

I think you will find that humans (not all, I grant you) have been using narcotics of some kind for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It is nothing new and is in no way specific to this current economic situation.

 

Please, please, please let's not turn this into another religious debate. There are far too many of those running on this forum already.

When I was down and at a low point in my life, do you know what a close family member said to me? If I cannot handle this, then I ought to just go and jump over the bridge and into the river Thames. Gosh, it were harsh words, but now thinking back to those words, how true it all is. I am sure that there were a lot of people even worst off than me back then. At least I was still healthy and alive.

 

My reason is not to turn this into a religious debate, but maybe I wanted to inject a sense of morality, and personal responsibility into all of this. If one person can handle it, then why can't another person?

 

As someone who has clearly never indulged in this culture, I would not expect you to understand Bago. It really isn't as straightforward as you make it out to be. Most, if not all people I know who have used recreational drugs would not simply say "Right, the world is rubbish so I'm going to bury my head in the sand and get wasted until it's all better again." That's not how people think in my experience.

 

Clearly from your statements you have never tried, and never intend to try using drugs. I totally respect you for that - really I do. But, and I know you probably don't want to hear this, drugs really do make you feel good. It's that simple, that's why people take them. When people spend long periods of their lives feeling low and fed up with their daily routine, feeling like they are stuck in a rut with no end in sight, is it really any wonder to you that some people like to try and take a quick fix to make themselves feel good? Even if it is just for a few hours? There are millions of people around the world that think this way - just because you don't, doesn't make you a better person than any of them.

You just contradicted yourself there. To find temporary relief and remove yourself from the situation is escaping from the situation. Whereas a lot of people should allow themselves this, they don't need added burden which may lead to something more longer term is what I am saying.

 

Why can't you sleep it off? If I am that stressed, then I would just not think about it. Refocus, or redirect your own attention. Or to forget about it. Even now, I'm still trying and learning consciously to do this. If you care for yourself, then you would do this for yourself, and not load your body with drugs.

 

I do not understand how you can say that just because I do not take it, therefore I think I am a better person. Where exactly have I said that, or have given the impression that is how I think? Let's be brutally honest here. I am sure that if you want drugs, then you know where and how to get it. I also know this too. It is there for the taking. If you have the money, or know the person. As I have said before that I was exposed to people that did take it, and I was also offered this too. I am so certain that the drug takers that I know were not from the streets, but young and loaded enough to splash out on a few decent shot, and they had the facilities to test it too before buying.

 

At the end of it all, what does it achieve, even if it only makes you realise what you had, was what you wanted, and you had to go off the wire for the experience to compare in your mind?

 

If it is not prohibited, then I guess there will forever be people who were at that stage in their lives who would want to experiment, just because it is there.