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May 14, 2010
Is Cannabis treated unfairly in the United States? Let’s check the stats, shall we?
Fair or unfair, to know cocaine is considered less dangerous than marijuana worries me for some reason. The laws of yesterday just don’t seem to fit anymore, and the statistics seem to support that assessment.
source: kookybat from fazed.net
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La marihuana esta siendo tratada injustamente? sera? http://bit.ly/cF8FFW y aqui muertos y muertos por una farsa
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Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the USA? http://bit.ly/90g9s1
Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States (Infographic) RT @Cannagraphic http://bit.ly/diLlUx
@JoeRogan Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States (Infographic) RT @Cannagraphic http://bit.ly/diLlUx
An interesting look at drugs in the US with a focus on Cannabis [infographic] http://j.mp/cvtKRa
Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States (Infographic) http://bit.ly/9Zl95E
RT @sate3: An interesting look at drugs in the US with a focus on Cannabis [infographic] http://j.mp/cvtKRa
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@stewd98 http://snipurl.com/vyv87 that graphic I was shifting about
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Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States; visual infographic, very cool! http://su.pr/2WHjma
Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States; visual infographic, very cool! http://su.pr/2WHjma
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Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States (Infographic)National Cannagraphic Magazine @Cannagraphic.com http://su.pr/8XHkw2
Interesting cannabis infograph http://bit.ly/cF8FFW
Interesting cannabis infograph http://bit.ly/cF8FFW
RT @Cannagraphic: Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States (Infographic) http://bit.ly/aROkVU
@cspanwj #cspj why is cannabis still schedule 1 drug when A.M.A. has reversed its stance on health benefits? http://is.gd/cWO7c
RT @Cannagraphic: Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly in the United States (Infographic) http://bit.ly/aROkVU
Sense, spoken in infographic. http://j.mp/d5c1hz #marijuana #mmot
Let's put things in perspective… http://cannagraphic.com/politics/is-cannabis-treated-unfairly-in-the-united-states-infographic/
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April 30, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I am all for the legitimate logical arguments for the rise in status for pot. However the article cited does not use accurate data! Heroin itself is not a dangerous drug. Its users die from needle transmitted issues. Look at Switzerland which administers Heroin to its users. The mortality is very low for Heroin users. In the US they die needle issues and misdosage due to irregular purity. Why is Methylenedioxymethamphetamine at the bottom! Many MRI studies have proved what the over exposure of the serotonin. see http://www.dancesafeorg/slideshow/slide11.html for some pretty accurate information. I am 100% for the education of proper pot information however this website is far from it. Check your sources
April 30, 2010 at 6:04 pm
it’s because illegal drug profits launder their money by donating billions to politicians who promise to continue the ‘war on (some) drugs, read http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/dontblink.html
April 30, 2010 at 6:52 pm
You can sit around and site bullshit sources all YOU want, you constant nay saying son of a bitch. But when you seem to think that heroin isn’t dangerous, its just the needles? Have you ever personally known anyone on heroin? It destroys people, don’t say its all about needles when you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
May 1, 2010 at 4:34 am
I don’t know where this guy is getting his information from. Heroin is a dangerous drug. Thousands die from overdose, the addiction is one of the strongest, neonatal deaths alone outrank most of the other drugs. Needles is a contributor, but that doesn take away from the fact that heroin destroys lives. As far as MDMA goes, the drug is much safer. Those serotonin studies “science” is referring to are inconclusive. The literature hasn’t established significant detriments associated with the drug. Fatalities usually only occur from dehydration.
Science needs to open a book for once
May 1, 2010 at 5:07 am
Private prisons own in the US
May 1, 2010 at 5:23 am
That’s not heroin destroying the user, it’s the user destroying themselves. I’m pretty sure the heroin didn’t choose to home in, penetrate the user’s skin and dissolve itself in their blood.
All drugs should be legal, and possibly regulated on an individual basis. Grouping things together in such a general way based on the fact that they all modify mindset is totally ridiculous. It is like banning all foods that are good for your eyes, since vitamin A can be overdosed on, or someone stabbed another with a sharpened carrot.
We already know that this has nothing to do with safety, and is purely business. The economy that keeping illegal drugs illegal creates is immense, and so is the one formed by keeping the legal ones legal.
May 1, 2010 at 5:42 am
Another funny note is that the tobacco addiction has been proven to be much stronger than heroin.
The most comedic, however, is that there exists a psychedelic (not strictly though) substance called ibogaine, known to COMPLETELY STOP addictions dead in their tracks, with a SINGLE dose and experience lasting 36 hours. It is illegal in the US, so research cannot even be conducted as to whether this is true or not. Keep laughing: it is confirmed true for the majority of addicts. There are clinics in many countries that stay afloat because of the fact that this is successful. Google and do research in entirety before concluding anything on drugs or drug law.
May 1, 2010 at 6:44 am
Cocaine is a Schedule II because it has Federally recognized medical uses. Cocaine can be administered (not prescribed) for some things like a burned cornea.
MJ may have more medical uses but they are not federally recognized yet.
May 1, 2010 at 8:22 am
KEEP IT ILLEGAL! =
http://bit.ly/19M7uh
May 1, 2010 at 8:51 am
As of several months ago, marijuana is a Class B drug in the UK. Get the facts straight and up to date, stoners.
May 1, 2010 at 10:02 am
Wow thats incredible dude, I mean seriously.
Lou
http://www.post-anonymouslyustc
May 1, 2010 at 10:17 am
The prison stats are pretty deceitful. If someone was charged with murder and drug possession, they are included in those stats. Also, a lot of times prosecutors will drop a charge, attempted robbery for example, if the defendant pleads guilty to drug possession. The fact of the matter is, most violent criminals smoke weed. Yes, I know weed chills you out, and correlation isn’t causation. My point is the stats about the number of people in prison for drugs isn’t a reliable figure for public policy decisions.
May 1, 2010 at 11:56 am
The U.S. “Schedule” is classified according to the age of the user, from “teen” (most dangerous) to member of congress (least dangerous).
May 1, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I don’t care how dangerous cannabis is. Keep it illegal purely for the reason that stoners are irritating as fuck. I’m sure there are some weed smokers out there who are useful, productive members of society but I’ve yet to meet any. Besides, that shit stinks way worse than tobacco.
May 1, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Wow… “Science” your post is the most retarded thing I’ve ever read. Perhaps you are confusing the fact that heroin users tend to seem pretty normal until they AREN’T ON HEROIN ANYMORE with the fact that it isn’t a dangerous drug.
The “margin of error” between how much heroin it takes to get high and how much it takes to kill you (simply as an overdose, not because of I.V. related health problems!) is miniscule. It absolutely is dangerous.
I still think people should be able to imbibe, smoke, and inject any damn substance they want but get an education before you run your mouth on something you don’t understand.
May 1, 2010 at 6:13 pm
According the government’s own data, most heroin users, like most alcohol and pot and meth and cocaine users, are not addicted and use the drug recreationally and responsibly.
I highly recommend Jacob Sullum’s thoroughly researched book on drug use, “Saying Yes.”
http://www.amazon.com/Saying-Yes-Jacob-Sullum/dp/1585423181/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272752004&sr=8-1
May 1, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Why in the hell would the U.S. Classify cannabis as a worse drug than cocaine…that’s just plain ignorance if you ask me
May 1, 2010 at 7:09 pm
A lot of you seem to be missing something pretty important with regard to Heroin. This survey is not based purely on the physical harm caused to the individual by the drug, it takes into account how addictive the drug is and also how it can negatively effect family and society.
Though pure Heroin itself may not be the most physically dangerous drug on the list, it is highly addictive (though not the most addictive) and can have a massive effect on family and society.
May 1, 2010 at 9:06 pm
First, Cannabis is very dangerous to the lumber and paper industries in America. There were many activists who insisted that cannabis was dangerous, so it got class 1 status. It will require a 2/3 majority vote by congress to change, and so far very few people want to change it from class 1 (People want to legalize it, but that is a different debate). Second because it is illegal, there is little knowledge of deaths that it has caused. Cannabis is usually burned, so it will be about as harmful as unfiltered cigarettes (it is the smoke not the drug that causes asthma and cancer). Vaporizers are much safer, and they have shown that tobacco and cannabis themselves do not cause most of the harm. Stating that there are 0 deaths because of cannabis is just misleading. Then if pot is legalized, what about hashish? I am 100% for legalizing cannabis, it is just that some of the statements here are not accurate.
May 1, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Schwa is an idiot. If you think stoners are unproductive, look around you. Guarantee that there is at least one person at your workplace who is productive and you don’t even know he or she smokes weed. It isn’t the weed that makes people lazy, it’s their own personalities. Don’t be ignorant.
May 1, 2010 at 11:45 pm
This was a nice infographic, but I disagree with dangerousness of the drugs. Ecstasy is the least dangerous?? I read the article source and would be extremely interested in how the order of the list came about. I would say ecstasy is the most dangerous drug I have ever used and I have seen lives ruined by it. Granted, it’s not the ecstasy that will mess you up, but what you do on it that will. It’s an extreme psychedelic and will mess you up.
Also on the article source… 4-MTA is “safter” than marijuana? I have never heard of the drug personally, but did some limited research on it. It’s “best known for a number of deaths in Europe in the late 1990s” (http://www.erowid.org/). It’s a research chemical, blatantly meaning that everything isn’t known about it. How do you call it safer than marijuana?
Again, great infographic, but I disagree with the source article for the dangerousness of the drugs.
May 2, 2010 at 12:12 am
More really talented people have died from heroin in my lifetime than all the other drugs combined.
If you think you’re different, best of luck. Otherwise, keep the fuck away, please.
May 2, 2010 at 12:13 am
I like the infographic but the explanation of the US drug classification system is misleading. The US schedules drugs based on medicinal value, those with no medicinal value are Schedule I and so on and so forth.
That’s why cocaine and speed are classified lower than marijuana because they are cleared for medicinal use in some cases.
It’s still bunk given that marijuana has virtually innumerable medicinal benefits, but, hey.
May 2, 2010 at 1:01 am
the reason marijuana is treated the way it is by the USA is very simple once you follow the sordid trail of the MONEY.
prisons in this country are run FOR PROFIT. the people who run them want lots of “guests” so they can get paid. truth be told, those who run prisons are some of the biggest lobbyists for more stringent laws and sentencing standards. oh, and they really truly love the “3 strikes” rule.
potheads are an easy bust and off they go into the hell of America’s prison system to make somebody else rich.
combine that with the billions spent by Congress to have the DEA fight the useless “War on Some Drugs”. the DEA has become a monster, sucking up cash (to make those who feed that beast rich) and they have to “show results” so they concentrate on pot possession because it is an easy bust and the public doesn’t have the smarts to ask why “hard drugs” and the violence are continuing at epic levels.
marijuana is just an easy target. one could ask why the DEA doesn’t show more results against “hard drugs” but then we’d have to ask if the night flights through Mena are still going on…
May 2, 2010 at 1:37 am
I feel the need to repeat myself. Most people who use drugs, whether it’s alcohol, pot, meth, heroin, etc., are not addicted and don’t have their lives ruined.
People use lots of things to ruin their lives. Gambling, sex, television, food, the list can go on and on. But this notion that “drug x” “ruins lives,” is just silly. People ruin their own lives and they choose the thing they use to ruin it.
May 2, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Prisoners being held for the peaceful, non-violent possession, sale, transport or cultivation of cannabis hemp must be released immediately. Money and property seized must be returned. Criminal records must be wiped clean, amnesty granted and some sort of reparations paid for time served. These cannabis prisoners are the real victims of this monstrous crime against humanity called the “War on Drugs.”
The United States is supposed to be a free country, yet those who choose to smoke this mostly harmless drug are penalized. An American can go out and drink themself to death, but they cannot freely use a drug which is less toxic and less prone to making one out of control than alcohol. I say this is not only unfair, but also un-American!
The police, prosecutors and prison guards should not be in charge of which herbal therapies people may use to treat their personal health problems.
Federal Judge Francis Young in 1988 called “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”
May 3, 2010 at 8:43 pm
The graph shows the absurdity of the war marijuana.
May 4, 2010 at 12:20 am
Well said Dennis!
We have all heard the quote ” the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, but for some reason we think this is just a cliche’
Everything is about money. I’m all for free market, but if everything else man has created has an exception – why can’t a limit be set to how much a person can make in a year and not be a socialist society! It’s time we the people start to see the big picture… do some damn research and don’t believe the first thing you hear!
May 4, 2010 at 6:11 am
‘m a definite advocate of marijuana use and legalization but something about these studies has always bothered me. They always show tobacco as having a huge death rate and cannabis as having 0. Now obviously when someone dies of tobacco, it’s from long term lung damage, not tobacco overdose or DUI of tobacco. So how then do they determine that someone can’t die from lung damage by cannabis? Wouldn’t someone who smokes weed and cigarettes who dies of lung cancer be considered a cannabis death stat as well? This is all based on the assumption that smoking, no matter what substance, is bad for you.
May 4, 2010 at 6:12 am
Is cannabis treated unfairly in the entire western world with the exception of the Netherlands?
Yes.
May 5, 2010 at 4:05 am
At the top on the chart it cleary shows Herion to be the most dangerous of them all, you blind fucks.
May 5, 2010 at 1:56 pm
There was a BBC documentary all about the 2007 UK study that arranged drugs in that order. I definitely do not believe that LSD is safer than marijuana…quite a hard pill to swallow no pun intended. Here is the link to the documentary on Google video: http://www.bit.ly/90WKZz
Come discuss the issues after watching the BBC doc here: http://bit.ly/dy4y3W
May 7, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Weed is not a drug it is a plant and like every other plant it should be sold for 1 dollar for seeds or like 8 bucks for a small plant just like every other plant at home depot this is ridiculous we all letting the government rape us do you like to be raped apparently we do because power is in numbers and if we all stood together to change this we would succeed but were to scared we need to change this we need to fight for our rights i mean come on people are going to jail for life for a plant let me say that one more time for a plant, come on now you know we need to change
May 22, 2010 at 4:07 am
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May 27, 2010 at 2:43 pm
LOL @ WAT… yea lets make heroine and coke legal.. have a bunch of fuckin junkies and coke heads runnin around the streets… I agree that MDMA should be legalized cause there is NO PROOF ecstasy has harmful effects on your body NOR does it have ANY addictive properties .. MDMA was originally used as a anti depressant and if you have ever done it you know why.. haha
May 27, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I smoke weed every once in a while with my friends. Not in public. I’m a biomedical engineer and I’ve worked for major companies on some devices many of you use every day. I understand the US’s fear of decriminalizing weed and all the new laws and stresses it’ll cause the fatcats in Washington that fuck up our shit everyday with their greed and laziness, but it’s gonna happen eventually. Weed abuse is lame. The occasional joint with some friends or to relax and watch a movie?….best thing ever.
May 28, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I’ve smoked green everyday for the last 20 years. I make six figures. Like above posts, it’s a plant, with little negative health effects. There is a lot worse things going on in the world than someone trying to get high and sit in a basement. My father died from drugs, legal ones! (And yes I understand he choose to take them etc etc) Prescription narcotics should not be handed out like candy. I can only hope future generations will be smarter/open minded to things, because clearly mine hasn’t. four20 4 life!
May 28, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Is cannabis treated unfairly in the entire western world with the exception of the Netherlands?Yes.
May 28, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Is cannabis treated unfairly in the entire western world with the exception of the Netherlands?Yes.
May 30, 2010 at 12:50 pm
I’m a successful physician who smokes marijuana. I also drink alcohol occasionally, but I know it’s much worse for me. I don’t consume either in any fashion that will impair my work.
Anyone who claims that marijuana should be illegal while they keep drinking their beer is proof of their own ignorance.
May 30, 2010 at 7:20 pm
If you go on the DEA website and look up LSD, there are no adverse affects other than “flashbacks”. Having used it myself about 10 times, I have yet to have a “flashback” myself…
June 7, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Everyone settle down.
First off. MDMA is very dangerous. Thousands of empirical studies and hundreds of review literature have demonstrated this on multiple levels of analysis. There is criticism towards these studies because of recent complaints about brain imaging techniques, but mainly because MDMA users also use many other drugs. It is unlikely that MDMA users only use MDMA. The arguments came from people complaining that the data does not reflect strict MDMA use because most participants in the studies conducted were previous users of many drugs. However, this does not disprove any of the studies or mean they are inaccurate. For instance, there have not many studies on other drugs that have shown holes in the brain, and studies with similar compounds such as methamphetamine and amphetamine salts have shown similar effects in brain imaging. Sorry for ranting, I’m trying to speak easily and summarize the evidence for people who may not be involved in scientific research, nor will take the time to read credible scholarly articles. MDMA is one of the most dangerous drugs physically, right under methamphetamine.
On top of that, I’m sure no one is saying Heroin isn’t dangerous. Heroin is an extremely debilitating drug do to its addictive and withdrawal qualities, as well as sedative effects. However, I believe what “science” was talking about in his post is correct to a certain extent. Heroin actually is not a priority issue in the U.S. Its use is significantly less than that of methamphetamine and cocaine. Obviously it is “dangerous” because it can ruin lives, however, “science” was correct in his post on how this relates to mortality. Extensive research has shown that Heroin overdose is more often due to factors other than increased dosage. For instance, in many animal studies (primates and rodents) self-administration models have yielded results that indicate controlled abuse; such that subjects will continue to administer increasing quantities over-time and become dependent, but where they also increase their tolerance to the point where you see a pattern in self-administration that reflects almost like a sine wave of usage over time, slowly increasing in dosage overall. This deviates from cocaine, where subjects abuse and abuse and abuse until they convulse or pass out. And then wake back up, take a break, and then abuse and abuse, convulse and then die. Heroin addicts actually mainly die from needle related issues as well as from a psychophysiological effect that occurs with almost all drugs of abuse. In order to spare the jargon and explain a very complicated effect I will give an example. Basically, many heroin addicts die not from an increased dose or purity but from what seems like an “overdose.” (physically they overdose because they die, but it’s not from a dose that is too much, it is a dose they are completely comfortable with and have taken many times before). Most drugs of abuse have an effect on associative memory, such that the environment where a drug is used, who the drug is used with (friends), and the surrounding stimuli all are involved with the craving and build of tolerance related to drug use. Heroin addicts seem to overdose but actually end up taking the same or similar dose of the drug in an unfamiliar environment. Many shoot up in the same comfortable place with the same people, but then when they can’t use in their familiar spot or with familiar people they end up in an uncomfortable environment. This is hard to explain, although it sounds ridiculous (solely because I’m not trying to write an essay to explain the effect completely), it is an actual effect that accounts for most heroin related deaths, as well as other drugs for that matter. This effect exists with all drugs of abuse, except it is particularly strong in heroin abusers. For example, consider some of your friends you can comfortably enjoying drinking with. Maybe you go the same bar every now and again with them and can have a good time. Notice how much you can drink and how solid your tolerance is. Now consider going to your in laws house, or to your girlfriends family party and you are meeting people you have never met before. One beer, or a gin and tonic and you are feeling the effects more than usual (did I eat enough today?). This is just an example of this effect with alcohol, just to help clarify what I am talking about. With heroin this is an extremely strong effect. And all those animal studies I was talking abut earlier, nearly 100 % of the subjects live…BUT when placed in a new environment (new cages, with new stimuli, etc), and are subject to the same dosage, many die. This is why heroin abuse is actually not as dangerous as cocaine and methamphetamine abuse. Unless of course the scenario I described above occurs.
One last thing. I am all for the decriminalization and regulation of marijuana. That being said, it most certainly is not good for you unless used for specific medical purposes. Personally, I think these medical purposes relate more specifically to individuals diagnosed with AIDS, although the use as an anxiolytic and for pain relief varies from individual to individual and should be allowed to serve as a potential medicine (but by no means will work for everyone). Marijuana is quite bad when it comes to adolescent/teenage use and abuse, as well as long term abuse. It is associated with cognitive impairments and more importantly memory impairment. I hate to break it to most people, but your brain pretty much begins its decline in your early twenties, so consistent impairment up until that point will not be replaced by normal and healthy brain functioning (when it comes to memory and cognitive tasks). This is even more so a problem if heavy usage occurs during critical periods in brain development. Please do not place Marijuana in comparison to heavier drugs such as the ones discussed above. Obviously the risk one is taking by extensively using marijuana is no where near the consequences of the above mentioned drugs. However, that does not mean that “marijuana is not dangerous at all” as most advocates of legalization will continuously rant about. It can be, which is why it needs to be regulated and kept away from children until they reach a certain age (just like 21 for alcohol, although obviously that doesn’t stop anyone younger from abusing it).
Lastly, I think people who support legalization of marijuana should go back to the basics and use it in a medical sense. For example, the most basic reason everyone passionately argues about it: We want to be high, it feels good. (I’m sure most people discussing the subject in this thread use or have used it, otherwise there would be no point in passionately arguing about it.
June 9, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Also, In reference to “Wat”: You should look into the research neuroscientists are conducting at Albany Medical School. They have created a synthetic compound similar to ibogaine, that is just as effective but without any side effects. They have already done extensive animal research and are trying to get it approved for clinical trials. I forget the name of their drug, but I’m sure you can find it if you contact them or look into articles released by their faculty and staff. It works on nicotinic receptors. Very cool stuff. In fact I encourage any drug enthusiast to check it out.
June 10, 2010 at 5:40 am
i think the projected tax income from cannabis for the US is kinda low:
The Netherlands have a population of 16 149 000, the US 294 043 000.
so if the income is proportional then the projected tax income should be 10 billion, not 700 million.
unless you actually think we smoke our own bodyweight a year over here ;-D
June 11, 2010 at 1:35 pm
“http://www.dancesafe.org/slideshow/slide11.html ”
Accurate, yes; proving a point, no.
June 23, 2010 at 9:27 am
i live in holland and pot is legal here. we are not facing any problems because of that … its not that as soon as pot is legalized everyone spends their whole day in the coffee shop. from my point of view alcohol is far more dangerous because it makes people aggressive and overestimate themselves whereas pot makes you lazy and hungry. actually it stimulates the economy as well, because people buy more food and consumption rises =P
June 27, 2010 at 12:22 pm
There is ABSOLUTELY no way that Ecstasy is less dangerous than cannabis. You should be ashamed that you put this is people’s minds. While cannabis is relatively harmless, we do not need people (from an apparently trustworthy website) to infect this type of harm in the minds of our youth. For shame. Correct this obvious mistake.
June 28, 2010 at 3:09 am
I read the post by Settle Down Now with great interest. As another who enjoys reality and science, I found nothing I would soundly disagree with. Sir, you are well educated, and you I believe, are as accurate as one can currently be.
I use the word “currently” because the one thing we are all certain of as we study with reason and attempt to apply reality, is that it is extremely difficult to apply any concept too seriously. They have a vicious habit of changing over time–some concepts even reversing themselves. Additionally, even with all our knowledge and the scientific instrumentation which we often utilize to prove or disprove our points, we soon find that it was not the concept or the science that became incorrect, but that the high degree of variability within the human specimen.
People change.
A person who is one way in their youth may be a different person later because a host of irreversible and unexpected human events has altered them somewhat. Then when the forces you and others speak of are applied again, the outcome differs to an extent. The wave of humanity is a living, changing, growing, machine that seems alive and confused.
Consider the society we live within. Society exacts a toll from individuals. They suffer rejection to ostracism. The ones however who buy into the large picture and make every attempt to fit within society as they are expected to, can enjoy success make many friends and find respect. The problem however, is that like religion, society does not care to dig too deeply into truths. They want to accept the popular line–truth be damned.
So, people like the respected author using the name of Settle Down Now, while factual now, pays for it by gaining respect only within the slender parameters of his own small social group of the mentally capable and the scientifically oriented. The rest of society will not agree because his is not the popular line, regardless of the truths he has presented.
However, consider the change I spoke of. We all do it if we are those who like to fit closely within society and conform as expected. Society is what changes us as the intelligent, the rational, and the scientists fearlessly take the stage and well against what society demands, make reality and the search for truth their mission–and a fine mission that is.
Without that, we would still think that marijuana is a killer narcotic rather than a somewhat inoffensive, mild form of amusement to the masses. Things change, right?
Yes, of course. And, I would like to say, in time, all drugs will be legal. Why? because society will demand it. Slowly, bit by bit, over time, more and more drugs will be found to have a positive medical value and these will slowly gain acceptance. Even heroin is not the mean drug now it once was.
Were society to accept reality, the hardest drug to kick is not heroin, nor is it the most lethal, nor are all who take amphetamines damaging themselves. What we see as a society is what we want to see, not what is real. We refuse to accept things that are unpopular because they do not hold the party line, so to speak.
I am a medical person, and a scientist as is my astute daughter. I am not inclined to use drugs, as I did not do so in my youth. In my sixth or seventh year of college I began to experiment with drugs. I took everything I could be reasonably assured was not going to kill me or do me irreparable harm. Because my field was to be a study of more than I can list, but primarily anything that effects and moves or alters humans and relates in almost any form to sociology in all apparent forms, I had to know factually what drugs did to people. I needed a person strong enough to look at things behind the shield of reality. I needed a person who could not become addicted, and one who would be as objective as possible. Take my word for it, but those are not easily discovered so I had to rely on my own data.
So, this is the truth as far as drugs go. It is not the drug that harms the person, but the person who is incapable of controlling themselves that make the drug seem to be doing something it is not. You see, in a controlled individual, drugs can be little more than casual entertainment. I took drugs until i was certain that I had sampled each to the extent of any addict. I smoked pot for three years, smoking one joint each afternoon when my studies were through. I felt no discomfort, had no difficulties, and my IQ, 146 at age 18, is currently 144 at age 71. I took everything you can think of including hundreds of hits of acid, cocaine (which strangely, I never felt at all even though I used it in all it’s forms) I used intravenous heroin for three months, injecting it nearly every day. When I quit, I felt as if I had a case of the flu and I felt some difficulty for several days, but that was the extent of it. It did not damage my thinking nor did I have any desires to continue it. The only real effect I felt was on the second use, and that was quite interesting. It was a high like no other drug, and rather enjoyable and totally different than I had expected. I felt i could lay there and float for hours, quite in perfect peace with the world–even more peace than I feel now, but there was no desire to return.
Yes, I took everything for those years and I wrote many papers on my work. Not all were well received outside of the scientific medical community, and even in my community, I received (especially from the physicians) criticism. I was out of bounds doing this. I was against the popular line. I did not fit within society. I was even ostracized by some–generally though, just the more afraid within society.
Now, in my seventies, I take man made heroin daily–in the form of methadone, for severe pain resulting from a horrible surgery that has left me disabled. Because I am a high IQ ADD adult, I also take quite a large dose of amphetamine salts daily to control my tendency to study everything, at all times and sleep no more than 3 hours a night. The amphetamine gives me a better five hours of sleep and keeps me pointed in less variable directions.
I feel nothing from my amphetamines or methadone. They do not provide any high, or any “rush” as some might claim. I didn’t feel a thing when my doctor (yes, doctors have doctors) first prescribed either drug, and my dosage is considered unusually–even frighteningly high, but it is what I need to provide relief of nerve pain and the mental scattering from ADD, nor has it crept up from what it was twenty years ago. I take enough to provide for my physical and mental ills and no more, and I have no desires to “get high”. I am fine like I am. Just as fine and comfortable as I can be and pleased to be where and who I am. As they say, I am comfortable in my own skin.
So what is it that we can learn from this? Let me mention something I did not originally say.
As a youth, I was a huge troublemaker, I am large at 6’4 and 240 lbs, and I am still very tough. I was much tougher as a youth–as we all are. I was a fighter, angry and hateful of almost everything, and I dropped out of high school in my sophomore year at age twelve with more than fifty fights under my belt and a large arrest record. I spent a year in juvie, I forged money, checks, and did some time for being a con artist before i was 16. I did more things than I can admit for fear of things that could come back to haunt me.
I was an adopted kid, but in a wealthy home with rather terrible parents who were stuck in the social lie. Yes, society is a lie, and if you are intelligent, you can ascertain this for yourself. I could not convince those of you who wish to argue it anyway. You would not care to think, you prefer to defend and argue.
So I learned the rules my parents taught me. My stepfather had a black shoulder holster he carried a snub nosed 38 cal police special in. No, he was not a cop, just owned an insurance agency, but that promoted him. My brother is still a hood and useless.
What did I do differently? I questioned society and I read a book that opened my eyes. Then I took to my own way, not everyone’s way, the way of society. By 18 I was back in school and I completed my PhD, medical school, and four other degrees–just because I wanted to.
It is society that harms, not drugs. We think the way we are suppose to think, not the way we might prefer if we could take a chance on being an individual. We are raised to be just like everyone else and individualism is looked down on. The one thing that allows us to make up our own mind is rejected my the masses.
If all drugs were legalized, society would soon calm down and accept them as we now do alcohol, which is, by the way, one of the worst along with PCP as it promotes violence. The others do not. When we accepted drugs, we would soon begin to change and just as the mothers against drunk drivers and the million man march made changes in society, so would legalizing drugs. And, I might say, much for the better.
We waste so much money uselessly attempting to stem the flow of drugs. As a rather normal looking old man, of 70+ I can still go downtown and purchase anything I want. You cannot stop the hundreds of thousands of sales channels because when you do others pop up. It’s a silly and useless endeavor fit for those who want to remain stupid and refuse to see reality.
But, and I have studied this all my life, if drugs are legalized, after a very short rise in popularity, drug use will very quickly begin to drop, and it will stay well below the current levels. This has been proven in countries who have legalized ALL drugs.
You see, the 800 lb gorilla who controls the drug usage is not the law and the police, but the men and women and children of society.
Look closely before you rail against me. Well, if you can, that is. Your fear based American Society may not allow it. Yes, it is fear based, and you must conform!
Good night gang.
June 29, 2010 at 10:57 pm
The Netherlands doesn’t tax weed. Get your facts straight.
July 1, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I love the Ganja <3