Drug War

[Radical Edward]

well one thing I know about drugs: winners don't do drugs.

[SmokingSkillz]

I find signs reading "The sale and use of drugs on this premesis will not be tollerated and reported to the police" ironic hung on the wall of a pub.

[SmokingSkillz]

Radical Edward said in post # :

well one thing I know about drugs: winners don't do drugs.

 

Yeah your right shakespere was a right looser.

 

did gerorge washington grow cannabis?

 

and what about ozzie osborne ... on second thoughts forget that one

[YT2095]

OZZY Rules!

[SmokingSkillz]

yep, kieth richards woulnd't stand a chance. I think if moonie was still about he'd give him a good run for his money though!

[matter]

I'm pro-cannabis and have been for about 4 years. As an advocate for responsible use, I find it disapointing that I observe the situation as a war that can't be won. There's a stigma about Marijuana in the country, where it feels like no one really cares whether it's legalized or not. I went to a Freedom Rally in my city not long ago sponsored by the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, and not to sound stereotypical but while one of the speakers was trying to rally everyone in the crowd, most of them were too stoned to care.

 

My solution is to live my private life carefully, and evade the law in a non-violent manner. The drug war has not prevented me from smoking pot for my own pleasure in any way. If you're bright, it's easy to live your life however you want.

[Radical Edward]

SmokingSkillz said in post # :

 

Yeah your right shakespere was a right looser.

 

 

"loser" and to damn right he is. that gimp made my english lessons hell.

[YT2095]

I`ll ditto that!

[fafalone]

Radical Edward said in post # :

well one thing I know about drugs: winners don't do drugs.

 

 

John Belushi

Belushi was a heavy cocaine user through most of his adult life. Right at the end of his life, he began using heroin. His death is widely attributed to a speedball overdose but it was likely a cocaine overdose.

 

David Bowie

A heavy cocaine and occasional heroin user.

 

William S. Burroughs

Burroughs was the father of the "beat" movement with books like Junkie and The Naked Lunch.

 

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain is a tragic figure in the heroin subculture. Most people think that drugs killed him, but in the end it seems more likely that he was killed by the intolerance of those around him who could not come to terms with his drug use.

 

Miles Davis

Miles Davis was one of the inventors of cool jazz.

 

Thomas De Quincy

The writer of Confessions of an English Opium Eater was an opium addict for almost fifty years--the William S. Burroughs of his day!

 

Robert Downey, Jr.

The most oppressed man in America?

 

Ben Franklin

This founding father was known to occasionally use opium recreationally.

 

Jerry Garcia

Although the Grateful Dead are strongly associated with psychedelics--especially LSD--Garcia used heroin on and off throughout most of his adult life. His death is often attributed to "heroin overdose" like the death the just about any famous heroin user. Garcia was a chain-smoker who was also quite over-weight and in poor overall health. This is undoubtably the primary reason for his death: general system failure. The official causes was heart failure which he experienced at a rehab clinic.

 

Boy George

He wasn't a junkie for long, but he has some good stories about being an addict.

 

Herman Goering

Goering became a morphine addict in WWI because of an injury. He stayed addicted to morphine for the rest of his life. In WWI, he was an ace pilot with 22 confirmed "kills". Under Hitler, he was the commander of the Nazi air force (Luftwaffe). He was so liked by Hitler, that Hitler named him his successor; various failures during WWII, however, caused him to fall out of favor with the Nazi leader who used him publicly as a scapegoat for war troubles. Goering is most remembered as the leader of the Luftwaffe, but he is an excellent example of how little a problem opioid addiction is, when the opioid is legal and readily available. Goering was found guilty of war crimes after WWII and sentenced to hang--he killed himself before the sentence could be carried out.

 

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was one of the greatest singers of this century. But like many great artists the US government treated her very poorly.

 

Love

Love was the psychedelic version of the Velvet Underground. In it's original incarnation, it did not last long but still managed to produce two of the greatest rock albums ever.

 

Bela Lugosi

"Dracula" spent a decade plus addicted to morphine and methadone.

 

Charlie Parker

Probably the greatest sax player of all time, Parker was also a life-long heroin addict.

 

Edgar Allan Poe

Since Poe died before heroin was invented, he clearly never used heroin. It is well-documented, however, that he used opium with some regularity.

 

Elvis Presley

You doubt us? You doubt that the king of rock-n-roll was a junkie? We'll provide you with the facts--you can decide for yourself. Also check out the strange story of Elvis and Nixon.

 

Keith Richards

We'll get around to dealing with him soon enough.

 

Tom Sizemore

You may remember him as the sick cop who kills a prostitute in Natural Born Killers. The word is that he is now off smack. The story goes that Robert De Niro showed up on Tom's doorstep one morning with Tom's mom to confront him about his heroin use (I'm so touched my eyes are getting all watery). One telling has De Niro threatening to turn Sizemore into the police for "heroin use" which may be true even though heroin use is not illegal--De Niro wouldn't necessarily know this fine point of law. I wrote a short rant about how I would like to see him playing fewer cops.

 

James Taylor

The prototypical "singer/songwriter" of the 1970s was an on again, off again heroin user.

 

 

Yeah, they're all losers, especially Ben Franklin.

 

Courtesy of http://www.heroinhelper.com/bored/celebrities/index.shtml

[YT2095]

and you were doing SO WELL until you mentioned boy george! LOL

 

If I`m not mistaken Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle (writer of Sherlock Holmes and others) was a cocaine addict also!?

[rockstarjaiden]

i know. look at all them famous people... rich successful famous dead now, but not losers.

[fafalone]

They're not all dead, and not all of the dead ones died from overdoses.

[fafalone]

Some things covered in my class today...

 

In every city where the focus is on treatment and not policing, the violence associated with the drug culture has sharply declined.

 

Prohibition increases violence, potency, and health problems, and has ultimately had no effect on drug use levels.

 

So long as there is a demand, suppliers will step up; and the exorbinant amount of money spent is completely ineffective at stopping the supply.

[greg1917]

I agree with your point, but Id question listing Hermann Goerring as a winner.

 

You could argue his drug addiction played a part in his almost comical incompetance as Luftwaffe chief on the eastern front of WW2, allowing Red Army aviation to gain complete control of the air and generally own the Wehrmacht.

 

That aside I agree with what your saying - Im just back from Amsterdam and enjoy the culture because they take a responsible view to the situation.

[fafalone]

In May 2001 the US gave $43 million to the Taliban government as a reward for cracking down on opium production in the country, that money clearly being used to equip the regime with weapons. We then proceded to declare war on them while at the same time claiming it was members of that regime that were responsible for the drug problem! (remember the "illegal drug money supports terrorism" commericals). Talk about propaganda.

[fafalone]

Some more facts:

 

The mortality rate of tobacco smokers is indeed higher than that of heroin users. We covered this in last Thursdays class.

 

There are approximately 5 times as many occaisonal recreational users of heroin than there are heroin addicts. (Relevant to previous claims about the addictive properties being much higher)

[rockstarjaiden]

i think that cops and the whole system should focus on serial killers and crap instead of worrying about some pot heads that just smoke pot... especially if they smoke it responsibly. in their own homes or wherever the case may be

[Sayonara]

fafalone said in post # :

Some more facts:

 

The mortality rate of tobacco smokers is indeed higher than that of heroin users. We covered this in last Thursdays class.

Is that as raw numbers, or is it as "percentage of users meeting a related untimely death"?

[fafalone]

It's the number of users divided by the number of deaths attributable to that substance. Not raw numbers.

[aman]

I've been curious as to the memory effects of pot. Although it may seem benign at the time I wonder if it robs the person of the future memories of the incident. Maybe it is more enjoyable for a time but you forget it. It seems that way to me over the last 50 years, maybe.

I can see why it would be thereputical to forget pain and suffering so it should be medicinally useful but it sucks forgetting some good stuff.

Just aman

[fafalone]

Pot is linked to loss of short-term memory in continuous use over long periods of time. There's really nothing to suggest the type of short-term memory loss from single instance use, unlike alcohol and some other substances.

[matter]

I ranted about a lot of the subjects fafalone learned in his class on my stupid website about 4 or 5 months ago.

 

It's pretty much common sense that even if a substance is classified as illegal people will ALWAYS find a way to get the product onto the street. Americans want drugs for some reason and drug lords take advantage of that fact. Just let us grow our own pot. sheesh.

[fafalone]

It's not just Americans; the evidence is that humans have been using drugs since we came into existance.

 

I'd like to point out another gaping idiotic drug policy law; the drug DXM is sold over the counter, produces severe intoxication, frequently leads to addictions, causes massive, observable brain damage (Olneys lesions, where visible-on-MRI patches of your brain just die), and has a very low safety factor (officially defined as the difference between achieving the desired effect and overdosing). Yet it's completely legal because in low doses it's an effective antitussive. In fact, it's specifically exempted from the CSA.

This just makes it even more abundantly obvious how arbitrary the drug laws here are.

[matter]

To save my life I can't understand why the government can't evaluate the situation correctly and make the proper adjustments.

 

And I'm not just one of these people that wants certain drugs to be decriminalized just so I can use them. The facts are there that a simple reform of the laws would take care of some of the worries that the U.S. has with smuggling, drug dealing, and drug violence.

 

Why fight the smugglers and drug lords with guns when you can just cut them out all together using a non-violent method?

 

I just don't understand.

[fafalone]

The laws are based on emotions and racism, and the general public is ignorant, as are the politicians who make the laws. It's the classic attitude that throwing money and police at a problem will stop it, and this doesn't work on drugs because both the buyer and seller are consenting to the sale. This is what separates legalizing drugs vs. legalizing other crimes... there is no non-consenting party involved in the transaction and you're trying to stop people from having control over what they put in their own body.

 

If cigarettes were made illegal today, and their price went up to the range of marijuana, do you think everyone would just quit, or would people take on behavior resembling the stereotypical drug addict? All evidence points to the latter, but ignorance keeps the public believing the former.