Meerschaum

Alot of people see drug users are evil by default and they are chosing to gnore the true evil/wrongness wich is people bieng raped and contracting HIV in prison for the simple fact they happend to be caught with drugs. If you dont believe prison rape occures go check out google, it does and its an epidemic problem thats why Bush signed the prison rape prevention act or some such in 03 If you think its acceptable that a person caught with drugs be punished by inhumane conditions that ultimately lead to death and further criminalization , shame on you! I was going to post in this thread several other times but I abstained from doing so because I see nobody seems open and everyone here is either pro or con, and NO I'm not a drug addict or an ex-con or something, but I've seen many people I went to school and grew up with become irreguler users, then addicts and instead of treatment and rehabilitation they went to prison and I dont care how big the sign is 'correctional facility' it does anything but correct people, it turns screwed up people into monsters and its not right. A person who is addicted to a substance needs HELP they dont need punishment. I know this from having had the sad job of showing up at funerals of friends who died before their time because they where too ignorant to know what they getting into and too afraid or ashamed to seek help. I'm not really for legalization of any drug, I'm more for de-criminalization of drugs, build a legal framework that prosecutes people who deal drugs for profit, deal to minors, or push drugs , but a framework that dosent put users into prison, a framework that is education, treatment, and rehabilitation centric. The best prevention is education. Our current framework isnt working, the fact that its been in place so long and we still have the same problems with drugs today that have existed since the 70's shows this. The drugs change the problems do not. sorry if my spelling here sucks guys, I'm dyslexic and my grammers always sucked, I hope you understand I dont entirely disagree with anyone here, but you gotta realise that drug abuse isnt like infotainment television, its a real problem and needs to be stomped out but not in the way that is currently in place, its just not working. I for one went through the schools 'dare' program wich mixes truth with non-truth and focuses primarily opon prevention of cigarette smoking, it didnt scare me or teach me in the least, or I should say it taught me the WRONG things and it made me sceptical, especially when I heard them say things like 'heroin is less destructive and addictive than tobacco' 'one hit of LSD often ruins the users mind' 'marijuana causes most rape' 'alcohol is worse than crack cocaine' (a teachers words pulled from my memory) what kind of a messege do you think THAT sent to us? kids who've seen our parents smoking and quitting, drinking and having fun? that was horrible and that is the kind of education that is very counter productive, since they think 'of course they wont encounter heroin, so we'll use heroin to scare them off cigarettes since they saw heroin as bad in a movie' ... very very very bad. I was a depressed person at that point in my life, I think alot of young teenagers are, and it lead me down the road to drugs, I regret that very much but at the same time I'm greatful I didnt wind up addicted to anything I couldnt quit and was given a second chance, alot of my friends from that time moved onto hard narcotics and are dead or imprisoned now. my LAST post on this subject....

Drug use is virtually timeless and linked to many religions, its part of humanity it should not be a crime... the DEA creates the very problem it combats, it stomps on drugs so prices go up so addicts are forced to commit crime to afford the habit, they take non-violent drug offenders and put them in prison where they are beaten, raped, and sometimes contract disease (HIV) ... then they call them 'corrected' and let them loose (never to vote again, not able to get ANY state job really, and not able to get any job worth a sh*t in the private sector) all for having comsumed a drug..now what do you logical people think a person so tortured and ruined is going to be like when they get out or prison? do you think they are going to just 'get the act together' and move onto better things? ... they become serious criminals and go and commit worse crimes ... this IS proven by statistics I dont like the idea very much at all of someone bieng treated like the lowest scum on earth for having decided to par-take in the timeless sacraments our ancestors did. If someone wants to smoke opium, eat mushrooms, eat cactus, smoke some pot...why on earth is it my business?... it BECOMES my business when he's turned into a criminal and comes to rob me, but when this peaceful person is bothering nobody why is he my problem?... why do my tax dollars pay to keep him locked up and tortured by fellow prisoners? ... I dont think any logical, rational person can argue a straight argument in 'favor' of this 'war on drugs' its been proven to have failed, it reduces drug flow wich actually increases crime, it creates crime, it raises taxes, it does no good! drug use today isnt 'down' ... sure... 'certin' drugs are down but not overall. 3% of americans live behind bars in prison and for what? come on.... think about it The drug problem isnt just a problem of drug users and the familys of drug users, its a problem 'everyone' is part of and mainly because of tight enforcement, its like in the prohabition era, the fallout is crime and ghettos from the criminal enterprises going on, its not the 'drugs' causing this, its the high-profiet involved in trafficking them and an underclass of people bieng formed who are disenfranchised from the rest of us. now my rant is over... and no I'm not a drug addict or a satan worshipping homosexual or some other form of socially unacceptable deviant. I'm simply an observer with poor grammer and an opinon!

is it possible to engineer mushrooms to grow any form of chemical? like in the future with genetic engineering and stuff :lame: :lame: :lame: /me chews bubblegum

I agree about the mis-use of verbal punishment/warning/etc I remember quite clearly when I did bad things as a small child bieng yelled at for them and stopping ...but the fact that yelling was so rare as to stick out in my mind even now so many years later I believe (in my case) demonstrates that it can be effective... my parents where very quiet people and if they yelled it was a big deal...not some every day nagging thing...it meant something when you heard them say 'NO" ... or 'STOP" ... so to me I would react even as a small child... I call it it hit because it is a hit... I'm not talking about abuse or calling it abuse or anything like that..... I dont have a particuler moral judgement against it... it's been demonstrated to be effective for thousands of years... but I do think it's not needed most of the time these days if at all ... If you have a particulerly unresponsive child they now have medicine for that that might be alot of more effective then hitting anyway.

my parents never hit me at all... I didnt come out any more screwed up then the next guy... I think if a big fully formed person cannot get a little child to behave without hitting them..it's the big person who should be looked at with scepticism... I wasnt a big misbehaving child doing all sorts of nonsense... and I was never hit.. on a sidenote: the reason my parents decided to not hit me ... was because my dad was forced to go to a catholic school when he was a little kid and they used to beat all the kids there with broom handles and other impliments sometimes extremely arbitrarily he says it did little or no good just inspired hatred a spite... and my mother simply objected to it as a good form of punishment...she thought it was sick... I was also an only child ;P

I've had occasion to know several ex-heroine addicts and I think (for right or wrong) what helped the quit was one of three things a)God (one guy I know is very religious now and he's 100% clean he dosent smoke, he never went to rehab, he just went for Jesus and quit) b)Methadone (one guy I know is on Methadone he's about 40 or so and he's been on it for 12 years now) c)Rehab I think the smoking of cigarettes actually did help the Rehab and Methadone guys for right or wrong it did give them some degree of relief I assume. Opiates are terrible... there is no 'universal' to quit them... it's a life/death struggle and the people I know all seem a little nuts (the religious guy somehow 'snapped' to quit he says)

I think the main thing you can do (as my parents did) is try to 'guide' or 'lead by example' more then lead by force... my parents where my friends growing up...and I never had any problems with the law or serious drug use problems... I could always tell my parents what I was doing without them reacting to me with anger...because there is little you can do after the fact.... I had very little if any anger for my parents growing up... not that they rolled over and spoiled me... it was just common respect I think...

what are the long term/short term effects of a-thujone? are they blown out of proportion?... (sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum here I figured if it was off topic as it where I'd post it here)

19,male, connecticut (boring state),went to college and decided it wasnt the life for me... now I work as a perm 1099 for a company outta st. louis doing graphic design work... pays alright... but boooring work... and btw this sites cool.. just found it tonight