The party's over

Icaras

The national health servie has launched a big campaign against people using cocaine in the past month or two (see more on drugs.ie).
The problem I have with this is they have started using the catchphrase "The party's over" - this does not in any way make me think I shouldn't take cocaine. When looking at the billboards (haven't seen any t.v. ads yet) I think to myself "the party's over when I say its over, buddy".
Also when the campaign was launched I remember some woman in the HSE in her 50's being interviewed (on TV3 I think) say something along the line that "young people must realise they are funding gun crime and destroying the country".
In my opinion the people taking drugs dont care about the country, dont care about potentially reducing their life expectancy by a few years and dont care about some woman trying to tell them to stop "enjoying" themselves.

This thread is not to intended to start an arguement on drug taking, it is a rant about how out of touch, I think, the goverment are on the whole drug taking issue, how the have no idea how to solve the problem and also what sort of ad campaign would stop people taking drugs.

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".
Also if you are planning on saying "youll never stop people taking drugs" dont bother posting - you are not helping.

monkeyfudge

The posters do seem to be a rather naff attempt to be youthful and trendy.

But white text on a pink background? Maybe it's easy to read if you're coked off your tits.

Jay D

Icaras wrote: »

The national health servie has launched a big campaign against people using cocaine in the past month or two (see more on drugs.ie).
The problem I have with this is they have started using the catchphrase "The party's over" - this does not in any way make me think I shouldn't take cocaine. When looking at the billboards (haven't seen any t.v. ads yet) I think to myself "the party's over when I say its over, buddy".
Also when the campaign was launched I remember some woman in the HSE in her 50's being interviewed (on TV3 I think) say something along the line that "young people must realise they are funding gun crime and destroying the country".
In my opinion the people taking drugs dont care about the country, dont care about potentially reducing their life expectancy by a few years and dont care about some woman trying to tell them to stop "enjoying" themselves.

This thread is not to intended to start an arguement on drug taking, it is a rant about how out of touch, I think, the goverment are on the whole drug taking issue, how the have no idea how to solve the problem and also what sort of ad campaign would stop people taking drugs.

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".
Also if you are planning on saying "youll never stop people taking drugs" dont bother posting - you are not helping.

well I don't know where you get the notion that drug users don't care for the country and as for them adds, I saw a lorry pulling a sign along on Baggot St a few weeks ago, it made me stop and think.

The government are out of touch, what do you think should be the way to do it?

Karoma

Icaras wrote: »

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".

The anti-alcohol bastards got there first. The anti-coke crowd take what they can.

rubadub

Icaras wrote: »

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".

He wouldnt have scored since he probably would have been drinking, and the other ads all tell me that wimmin don't ride lads who drink.

All these ads do seem to go on about "scoring", the coke thing on http://www.drugs.ie/ mentions impotence, so do smoking ads and booze ads. Must be improving viagra sales!

Sigmund Freud use to rub liberal amounts of cocaine on his "undercarriage" to get a good erection.

The whole "funding gangs" just gives reason to remove prohibition, just like the US did with booze.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

youll never stop people taking drugs


/edit. On a serious note, there's no real precedent for successful campaigns of this nature. All these organisations can do is put together a campaing and hope for the best. It's trial and error.

Lazare

If cocaine was legalised and manufactured in a regulated environment, and freely/cheaply available, diluted to be safe, but still enjoyable, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Huge market for hugely profitable illegal product, makes big bad boys run around the block shooting automatic weapons at each other. It also makes same bad boys add harmfull un-regulated cheap chemicals to said product to add to the already massive bottom line.

Legalise and regulate = way forward.

Karoma

Sean_K wrote: »

/edit. On a serious note, there's no real precedent for successful campaigns of this nature. All these organisations can do is put together a campaing and hope for the best. It's trial and error.

Damnit! DAMNIT, MAN! Hoping for the best isn't enough. We need to be properly convinced to not take drugs or we're doomed! We cannot be trusted to make decisions for ourselves.

Kold

My submissions: "Take cocaine responsibly" and "Fair Trade Cocaine"

thelordofcheese

Icaras wrote: »

In my opinion the people taking drugs don't care about potentially reducing their life expectancy by a few years

Well to be fair those years are off the end of your life, and those years are **** anyway.

Sangre

Know the line thats one too many.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Lazare wrote: »

If cocaine was legalised and manufactured in a regulated environment, and freely/cheaply available, diluted to be safe, but still enjoyable, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Huge market for hugely profitable illegal product, makes big bad boys run around the block shooting automatic weapons at each other. It also makes same bad boys add harmfull un-regulated cheap chemicals to said product to add to the already massive bottom line.

Legalise and regulate = way forward.

No to mention the ridiculous amount of money that we would make from the increased tourism and the taxes it could pull in.

The dutch know where the money's at.

buckfast4me

Those ads make me wanna do coke even more, for fear of ending up like the people featured on them.

~Rebel~

Sean_K wrote: »

No to mention the ridiculous amount of money that we would make from the increased tourism and the taxes it could pull in.

The dutch know where the money's at.

The other side is that we become the drug tourism centre of the world. We'd become the new amsterdam where everyone comes to get fcked up. Something like this could only work if it was done over the whole continent to stop everyone flooding to one spot.

Wertz

Icaras wrote: »

This thread is not to intended to start an arguement on drug taking, it is a rant about how out of touch, I think, the goverment are on the whole drug taking issue, how the have no idea how to solve the problem and also what sort of ad campaign would stop people taking drugs.

I have to agree....listening to a piece on Matt Cooper the other day about teh EU banning BZP ("herbal ecstasy") and there was some woman from some drug awareness group argiuing with some idiot guy from Hot Press....to be fair neither side won me over with their "arguments", but the woman was so seemingly out of touch and spouting the usual clichés that I just turned off in disgust.
If the government and health authorities are serious about curtailing the use of illegal drugs then actually engaging the demogrpahic groups they wish to target with people who speak the language, not some school m'arm biddy spouting off something she read in a 1970's american textbook would be a great start. I'm not saying that my approach would work, but enough of the preaching BS and start treating people like they have a mind of their own.

Those ad banners certainly are eye catching, all the day-glo goodness and groovy hookline ("the party's over" :rolleyes: ) certainly had me thinking about drugs...for about 2 seconds.
Next time I'm back at a part and someone pulls out the goodie bag, that poster and it's message will be very far from my mind...I suspect the same can be said for most people like me...

dsmythy

Lazare wrote: »

If cocaine was legalised and manufactured in a regulated environment, and freely/cheaply available, diluted to be safe, but still enjoyable, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Huge market for hugely profitable illegal product, makes big bad boys run around the block shooting automatic weapons at each other. It also makes same bad boys add harmfull un-regulated cheap chemicals to said product to add to the already massive bottom line.

Legalise and regulate = way forward.

Wow the perfect cocaine. You won't freak out and aggression won't be increased in some people.

Lazare

Lazare wrote: »

If cocaine was legalised and manufactured in a regulated environment, and freely/cheaply available, diluted to be safe, but still enjoyable, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Huge market for hugely profitable illegal product, makes big bad boys run around the block shooting automatic weapons at each other. It also makes same bad boys add harmfull un-regulated cheap chemicals to said product to add to the already massive bottom line.

Legalise and regulate = way forward.

That assumes that the main ingredient is safe on its own which it clearly isn't.

WoollyRedHat

But you have to take into account that in many ways the hse are out-of date and incompetent.

Tha Gopher

Wertz wrote: »

I have to agree....listening to a piece on Matt Cooper the other day about teh EU banning BZP ("herbal ecstasy")
.
Next time I'm back at a part and someone pulls out the goodie bag, that poster and it's message will be very far from my mind...I suspect the same can be said for most people like me...

Fairly sure BZP is different from herbal ecstasy. BZP is a chemical substance, and a fcuking dangerous one at that. Most terrifying night of me and my mates life spent on that filth.

I dont need ads to stop me doing cocaine. The shockingly bad impurity and quality of the white sniffable dental anaesthetic sold as cocaine in Ireland is enough to keep me off the crap.

Kold

Tha Gopher wrote: »

I dont need ads to stop me doing cocaine. The shockingly bad impurity and quality of the white sniffable dental anaesthetic sold as cocaine in Ireland is enough to keep me off the crap.

True enough, "It's sh*t and expensive, just get yourselve's some mandy" I should work for the HSE.

slipss

Icaras wrote: »

The national health servie has launched a big campaign against people using cocaine in the past month or two (see more on drugs.ie).
The problem I have with this is they have started using the catchphrase "The party's over" - this does not in any way make me think I shouldn't take cocaine. When looking at the billboards (haven't seen any t.v. ads yet) I think to myself "the party's over when I say its over, buddy".
Also when the campaign was launched I remember some woman in the HSE in her 50's being interviewed (on TV3 I think) say something along the line that "young people must realise they are funding gun crime and destroying the country".
In my opinion the people taking drugs dont care about the country, dont care about potentially reducing their life expectancy by a few years and dont care about some woman trying to tell them to stop "enjoying" themselves.

This thread is not to intended to start an arguement on drug taking, it is a rant about how out of touch, I think, the goverment are on the whole drug taking issue, how the have no idea how to solve the problem and also what sort of ad campaign would stop people taking drugs.

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".
Also if you are planning on saying "youll never stop people taking drugs" dont bother posting - you are not helping.

Couldn't agree more in relation to the current add campaign. Those radio adds are painfully cheesy and i can't imagine them working in the slightest way on anyone whatsoever. "face it, cocaine isn't fun",.......oh really it isn't and here I was thinking that it was, I guess I was wrong, won't be taking anymore coke so. Genius, if only we'd thought of telling people drugs aren't fun before, there would be no drug problem by now. The very reason people take drugs is because they are fun. Why not start an add campaign to help people lose weight "face it, fatty high sugar foods don't taste nice" or one to tackle teen pregnancy and STI's "face it, sex feels horrible". Idiots!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Icaras wrote: »

The national health servie has launched a big campaign against people using cocaine in the past month or two (see more on drugs.ie).
The problem I have with this is they have started using the catchphrase "The party's over" - this does not in any way make me think I shouldn't take cocaine. When looking at the billboards (haven't seen any t.v. ads yet) I think to myself "the party's over when I say its over, buddy".
Also when the campaign was launched I remember some woman in the HSE in her 50's being interviewed (on TV3 I think) say something along the line that "young people must realise they are funding gun crime and destroying the country".
In my opinion the people taking drugs dont care about the country, dont care about potentially reducing their life expectancy by a few years and dont care about some woman trying to tell them to stop "enjoying" themselves.

This thread is not to intended to start an arguement on drug taking, it is a rant about how out of touch, I think, the goverment are on the whole drug taking issue, how the have no idea how to solve the problem and also what sort of ad campaign would stop people taking drugs.

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".
Also if you are planning on saying "youll never stop people taking drugs" dont bother posting - you are not helping.

I thought "The Party's Over" meant "look what we're clsoing down NOW!"

Wertz

Tha Gopher wrote: »

Fairly sure BZP is different from herbal ecstasy. BZP is a chemical substance, and a fcuking dangerous one at that. Most terrifying night of me and my mates life spent on that filth.

I dont need ads to stop me doing cocaine. The shockingly bad impurity and quality of the white sniffable dental anaesthetic sold as cocaine in Ireland is enough to keep me off the crap.

You're probably right with the BZP thing, I don't know, I've never bought it or done it...just heard it decribed as herbal XTC by people that have.
If I want to do pills I do them...can't beat a good serotonin rush and a bit of brain damage

WRT "the party's over"...have to take issue with the phrase...it's talking down, telling people what to do...if someone is already flauting the law by taking drugs what makes the HSE/government think that they'll be told what to do...everyone's been fine, caning it for a few years and then a month after a high profile drug death, we're suddenly being ordered what to do..but in a reassuredly "we know best" preachy BS way.

flanum

Lazare wrote: »

If cocaine was legalised and manufactured in a regulated environment, and freely/cheaply available, diluted to be safe, but still enjoyable, we wouldn't be in this mess.


Legalise and regulate = way forward.

WTF? u for real? where on this planet is cocaine legalised and regulated?
why all of a sudden is the sudden interest in cocaine in ireland? is it because some stupid whore clothes-horse killed herself? who gives a ****? cokes been around ireland for donkeys years. Do people actually believe ireland will succeed in somehow curtailing its use? its here to stay!

phantom_lord

Icaras wrote: »

The national health servie has launched a big campaign against people using cocaine in the past month or two (see more on drugs.ie).
The problem I have with this is they have started using the catchphrase "The party's over" - this does not in any way make me think I shouldn't take cocaine. When looking at the billboards (haven't seen any t.v. ads yet) I think to myself "the party's over when I say its over, buddy".
Also when the campaign was launched I remember some woman in the HSE in her 50's being interviewed (on TV3 I think) say something along the line that "young people must realise they are funding gun crime and destroying the country".
In my opinion the people taking drugs dont care about the country, dont care about potentially reducing their life expectancy by a few years and dont care about some woman trying to tell them to stop "enjoying" themselves.

This thread is not to intended to start an arguement on drug taking, it is a rant about how out of touch, I think, the goverment are on the whole drug taking issue, how the have no idea how to solve the problem and also what sort of ad campaign would stop people taking drugs.

I think an ad of some guy total off his head trying to chat up some really good looking girl and getting nowhere cos hes so off his face and the line at the end coming up "he would have scored if he wasnt off is head" would work a lot better or the same situation but with the line being "dont be an a**hole, dont take drugs".
Also if you are planning on saying "youll never stop people taking drugs" dont bother posting - you are not helping.

haven't seen the ad campaign, but reading your post the impression i get is, stop taking coke = the party's over. not really a very persuasive set of ads they're running is it?

Lazare wrote: »

If cocaine was legalised and manufactured in a regulated environment, and freely/cheaply available, diluted to be safe, but still enjoyable, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Huge market for hugely profitable illegal product, makes big bad boys run around the block shooting automatic weapons at each other. It also makes same bad boys add harmfull un-regulated cheap chemicals to said product to add to the already massive bottom line.

Legalise and regulate = way forward.

you mean, like it was in the beginning? you used to get coke and weed from the local pharmacist. and **** it for a while there was people who gave acid away, thems were days!

SprostonGreen

Icaras wrote: »

Also when the campaign was launched I remember some woman in the HSE in her 50's being interviewed (on TV3 I think) say something along the line that "young people must realise they are funding gun crime and destroying the country".

That sounds like Gráinne Kenny from Europe against drugs. I havent done drugs in years but listening to that c'unt makes me want to back on them.

Trojan911

A person buying drugs gives the dealer business, the dealer gives the importer business. Drug users keep the market in demand.... Everyone who buys from a dealer or is offered free drugs is contributing to the drugs trade.

They are are all scummy lowlife contributers to murder, misery & crime. I shed no tears when I hear of another shooting or a person dropping into a coma from drug abuse. My only concern is that person has taken up a life support machine which could be used for a genuine illness not drug related. Selfish barstewards. They deserve all they get & more.

SprostonGreen

SprostonGreen wrote: »

That sounds like Gráinne Kenny from Europe against drugs. I havent done drugs in years but listening to that c'unt makes me want to back on them.

I despise that woman. She trots out the same old tired arguments while sounding like a pompous twat.

rubadub

slipss wrote: »

The very reason people take drugs is because they are fun. Why not start an add campaign to help people lose weight "face it, fatty high sugar foods don't taste nice" or one to tackle teen pregnancy and STI's "face it, sex feels horrible". Idiots!

LOL, it is a strange idea they came up with. Like how those alcohol ads were said to have backfired, people just laughing watching them, probably having a few cans saying "that'll be Johnny later on!"

flanum wrote: »

WTF? u for real? where on this planet is cocaine legalised and regulated?

He never said it was, though in some S.American countries I think you can buy coca leaves in supermarkets. Of course that is not as bad as coke but it shows some people do use it in small doses. Like people can have a glass of wine with dinner, while others will skull a bottle of vodka. Many refuse to accept that illegal drugs could be taken in a small dose, the media do not help matters. If you look at any of these ads you could just as easily substitute in any currently legal recreational drug with the same wording.

Trojan911 wrote: »

A person buying drugs gives the dealer business, the dealer gives the importer business. Drug users keep the market in demand.... Everyone who buys from a dealer or is offered free drugs is contributing to the drugs trade.

This is a relatively new approach. I think even the gardai officially withdrew the whole "gateway" farce, so this is the new one. As I said any legal drugs will cause similar negative physical problems, so all they have left is this "funding crime" logic, buy some hash and you have a hand in death. All it does is bolster the point that prohibition doesn't work, and that taxation and control is really the only feasible option, just like the US discovered a long time ago with booze. Some people who do give a damn about quality and source will grow their own, becoming more popular now, some people even grow coca plants.

It costs more to drink coke all night in a pub than do do coke, e's are now cheaper than pints. The party is just beginning...

c0rk3r

This will put people of doing drugs. Current ad campaign is rubbish

amygurn.jpg

Trojan911

rubadub wrote: »

This is a relatively new approach.

Not new in the UK, maybe here but then again Ireland is about 8-10 years behind.....

Hogmeister B

~Rebel~ wrote: »

The other side is that we become the drug tourism centre of the world. We'd become the new amsterdam where everyone comes to get fcked up. Something like this could only work if it was done over the whole continent to stop everyone flooding to one spot.

This would be avoided by the simple expedient of only selling to people with Irish passports.

Predalien

I'd agree the ad campaign is awful but at some point I'd wish the twats usin coke (and other drugs) at the moment would cop on to the fact that the people bringin in the drugs are the same as the bstards bringin in guns.

I'm sick of people whingin about how if drugs were legal then all the problems with crime would disappear, they won't, it's time drug users just took some responsibility and made the choice to not take drugs while they're illegal, without a market there'd be no business. We'll never have a rational debate what recreational drugs should be legal when people believe they have some kind of right to take whatever drugs they want, simply because they enjoy it.

Stky10

thelordofcheese wrote: »

Well to be fair those years are off the end of your life, and those years are **** anyway.

Not so. I have a friend who's father recently had a quadruple heart bypass, and spent about a month in hospital, before during and after the surgery. He was telling me that in the same ward there were guys in their late twenty's and early thirties as well that were in there because they overdid the coke so much they've got the heart condition and arteries of seventy year olds.

If people want to waste their life because they snorted 2 parts coke, 3 parts talcum powder, and 4 parts horse tranquilizer then no ad campaign is going to stop them. You can try educate them, but at the end of the day its a personal choice.

Kold

Predalien wrote: »

I'm sick of people whingin about how if drugs were legal then all the problems with crime would disappear, they won't, it's time drug users just took some responsibility and made the choice to not take drugs while they're illegal, without a market there'd be no business. We'll never have a rational debate what recreational drugs should be legal when people believe they have some kind of right to take whatever drugs they want, simply because they enjoy it.

State which drugs you're referring to here because by tarring them all with the same brush you come off pretty clueless.

Lazare

Predalien wrote: »

I'd agree the ad campaign is awful but at some point I'd wish the twats usin coke (and other drugs) at the moment would cop on to the fact that the people bringin in the drugs are the same as the bstards bringin in guns.

I'm sick of people whingin about how if drugs were legal then all the problems with crime would disappear, they won't, it's time drug users just took some responsibility and made the choice to not take drugs while they're illegal, without a market there'd be no business. We'll never have a rational debate what recreational drugs should be legal when people believe they have some kind of right to take whatever drugs they want, simply because they enjoy it.

Over 90% of crime in this country is DIRECTLY related to illegal drugs, mainly heroin and cocaine (heroin being responsible for the vast majority).

The cocaine problem (ie, people dropping dead, and people being shot dead) can be solved by legalising and regulating, it will obv create new problems, but these will be far lesser imo. Read 'Freakanomics' to see how the reduction in the market for crack cocaine caused the almost elimination of violent crime in New York.

Heroin is different, our prisons are full to overflowing with heroin addicts, these guys have no choice but to break into your house or steal your car. Legalising, regulating and making it freely available would see crime rates drop drastically.

Also re your last point, you're right, it's impossible to have a rational argument about this subject, people are suckers for the tabloids.

RoyalMarine

public executions anyone??

Lazare

ronoc wrote: »

That assumes that the main ingredient is safe on its own which it clearly isn't.

meh, cigarettes are worse for your health.

The 'main ingredient', ie cocaine is no more harmfull to you than alcohol.

utick

i am totally against drugs, but i agree the term 'the party is over' is so annoying and patronising that i wouldnt blame anyone taking up drugs purely because of that phrase.

on another note when the economy turns sour i think we are going to find the true extenet of the cocaine epidemic in ireland, unless of course they all are as they claim just recreational/social users, but i suspect alot of people will be surprised by the amount of people not able to give up when jobs become scarce

JC 2K3

Predalien wrote: »

We'll never have a rational debate what recreational drugs should be legal when people believe they have some kind of right to take whatever drugs they want, simply because they enjoy it.

Why don't they have that right?

Predalien

Predalien wrote: »

I'd agree the ad campaign is awful but at some point I'd wish the twats usin coke (and other drugs) at the moment would cop on to the fact that the people bringin in the drugs are the same as the bstards bringin in guns.

I'm sick of people whingin about how if drugs were legal then all the problems with crime would disappear, they won't, it's time drug users just took some responsibility and made the choice to not take drugs while they're illegal, without a market there'd be no business. We'll never have a rational debate what recreational drugs should be legal when people believe they have some kind of right to take whatever drugs they want, simply because they enjoy it.

I believe they should have that right to enjoy themselves. What right do we have to say how someone should manage (or not manage) their life? They are not your responsibilty, the ONLY person you should be responsible for is yourself. What's wrong with leading a hedonistic lifestyle? I feel trapped in this culture we have in Ireland where everyone must;
A) Finish School
Apply for the highest course (pointwise) and get it as it'll be worth a few bob, even though your heart belongs elsewhere
C) Finish college while pissing away every minute of it, knowing that you have to grow up soon
D) Get a job that you don't want, knowing you're qualified and something else will come around the corner
E) Meet someone who's as ****ed as you are,
F) Marry that someone who's as ****ed as you are thinking you're not worth anything more
G) Get a mortgage on a house 25 miles away from your friends and family "knowing" it's the best place you could have chosen
H) Have one or two kids that you now resent as they hold you back from breaking fee and do what you want to do
I) Get older and realise that you only had one life and you-****ed-it-up
J) Watch your kids grow up and realise they are making the same mistakes as you did. When you try to correct them, you realise you've turned into the parent you never wanted to be
K) Grow old and bitter from this knowledge, and eventually die. Knowing that you were given one life over a long time(to you), and you failed, as the main challenge is to be yourself in a world trying to make you like everyone else.


Sorry for my tangent, needed to spill...

As for...

Lazare wrote: »

Over 90% of crime in this country is DIRECTLY related to illegal drugs, mainly heroin and cocaine (heroin being responsible for the vast majority).

I would love to see some facts back this up. There is a lot of control in this country, but illegal drugs is not over 90% of it

Lazare wrote: »

meh, cigarettes are worse for your health.
The 'main ingredient', ie cocaine is no more harmfull to you than alcohol.

Once again, back up with facts please. I don't believe you, please prove me wrong.

AngryHippie

~Rebel~ wrote: »

The other side is that we become the drug tourism centre of the world. We'd become the new amsterdam where everyone comes to get fcked up. Something like this could only work if it was done over the whole continent to stop everyone flooding to one spot.

Kinda are anyway, Vintners association, Paddy's day ???? International day of drinking and all thinks Irish... It'd be a new twist on the Green Isle....Have a week long amnesty and see how it goes. Try a weed amnesty 1st, let people apply for licenses to have some sent over from Amsterdam or Canada or somewhere and see how few people have anything bad to say about it....Some nice week in August.....Might mellow people out as they wait for that fleeting fragment of Summer ?

I'm sick of people whingin about how if drugs were legal then all the problems with crime would disappear, they won't, it's time drug users just took some responsibility and made the choice to not take drugs while they're illegal, without a market there'd be no business. We'll never have a rational debate what recreational drugs should be legal when people believe they have some kind of right to take whatever drugs they want, simply because they enjoy it.

Nobody ever suggested that all the social problems blamed on drug abuse (including alcohol) would disappear, but the resources thrown at the problem could be spent on actually helping people sort out their lives in a functional way, instead of criminalising them and turning them into a social underclass for a crime that is victimless at the grassroots level. The same problems that arise from illegal narcotic abuse occur from alcohol abuse too, and there is no real way to separate the two so they need to be regarded, -if not treated-, in the same manner.
Ad campaigns will be of modest effect at best. Most regular drug users will reach the same conclusion as the ad in their own time anyway and mill find a desire to change their lives/lifestyles

Over 90% of crime in this country is DIRECTLY related to illegal drugs, mainly heroin and cocaine (heroin being responsible for the vast majority).

While we are making stuff up, 40 percent of under 40's have admitted having an experience with illegal drugs (experimenting at some stage)
I wonder how many of those were positive, and how many were negative ??

I'm with Papa Smut, It takes a little bit of spectating on the rat race to actually see where the track bends back to the start, where you pass the torch to your eternally disappointing kids !!!
It'd make you want to take the whole experience a little less seriously, and enjoy it, Some drugs do have benefits of making you see aspects of life that make you question it, I think that is a healthy thing, and that it may have had a role in the development of the cognitive dynamic animals that we have evolved to be, Who are we to decide that we are above it all of a sudden.
In that statement I refer specifically to Marijuana which was far less illegal in the 19th Century, and while less widespread, had few of the social ills for which it stands accused associated with it. It is being used as a conservative political tool. Its too east to blame it, and removing it definitely removes some unquantified benefits.
Its my head, my body, my mind, I'll do with it as I fcuking please, Who are you to tell me what to do, I can read, I can understand clinical studies and risk assesments, Do not treat me like a child, or I will act as one....and ignore you. That is the response a condescending ad campaign provokes from this hippie anyway.....:rolleyes:

Terry

Yeah, let's legalise cocaine.
The dealers will stop breaking the law for easy money then, nice folk that they are.
It will also make cocaine less addictive and less dangerous.

Legalise heroin too.
Then the junkies won't mug you any more, because you're paying for their fix with your taxes anyway.

SimpleSam06

AngryHippie wrote: »

Its my head, my body, my mind, I'll do with it as I fcuking please, Who are you to tell me what to do, I can read, I can understand clinical studies and risk assesments,

If your bad habits are being legalised, putting addictive, pointless substances on the shelves for anyone to reach, even people who would normally have no contact with that group that sells drugs, then your bad habits are affecting my society and me, personally. Its not my fault that some people can't deal with reality, or lack sufficient imagination to make reality interesting, and I don't see why I should have to bend over to accommodate their deficiencies, jaded catchphrases or not. Maybe if they didn't take drugs they might see what I mean.

AngryHippie wrote: »

Do not treat me like a child, or I will act as one....

Guaranteed to work, yes indeed.

I am aware I will probably be dogpiled by the AH stoner brigade at this point, but I've spoken my piece, I'll leave it at that.

elambra

Papa Smut wrote: »

A) Finish School
Apply for the highest course (pointwise) and get it as it'll be worth a few bob, even though your heart belongs elsewhere
C) Finish college while pissing away every minute of it, knowing that you have to grow up soon
D) Get a job that you don't want, knowing you're qualified and something else will come around the corner
E) Meet someone who's as ****ed as you are,
F) Marry that someone who's as ****ed as you are thinking you're not worth anything more
G) Get a mortgage on a house 25 miles away from your friends and family "knowing" it's the best place you could have chosen
H) Have one or two kids that you now resent as they hold you back from breaking fee and do what you want to do
I) Get older and realise that you only had one life and you-****ed-it-up
J) Watch your kids grow up and realise they are making the same mistakes as you did. When you try to correct them, you realise you've turned into the parent you never wanted to be
K) Grow old and bitter from this knowledge, and eventually die. Knowing that you were given one life over a long time(to you), and you failed, as the main challenge is to be yourself in a world trying to make you like everyone else.

...brilliant, spot on about the rat-race Irish society

Earthhorse

Hey guys, if we just legalise everything then there'll be no more crime!

Surprised no one thought of this earlier. Must've been all the drugs we were doing.

JC 2K3

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Its not my fault that some people can't deal with reality, or lack sufficient imagination to make reality interesting

Indeed. We should ban all fictional literature, films and television programs too.

rubadub

Predalien wrote: »

I'm sick of people whingin about how if drugs were legal then all the problems with crime would disappear, they won't, it's time drug users just took some responsibility and made the choice to not take drugs while they're illegal, without a market there'd be no business.

I don't think anybody said crime would disappear. The scum will simply turn to another trade, illegal activity. Cigarettes are smuggled in and booze gets stolen or illegally distilled. Somebody is buying these and funding these gangs. There is a lot more profit selling a smuggled pack of smokes than a "E" tablet. Some people will buy these illegal smokes and booze even though they could buy legal ones where the tax goes towards the country, and they know that the production is controlled to some degree.

Of course people would still by on the cheap from gangs, but I expect most people would buy in shops, just like booze and smokes now, many would love the opportunity to buy drugs with some control, from a normal shop, and give money to a shop owner and tax to their government.

Needless to say there still be people robbing for money, and of course many will use some this money to buy drugs, legal or not, just like they do now. Just like people who make an honest living will use some of their income on drugs, legal or not.

Terry wrote: »

It will also make cocaine less addictive and less dangerous.

Yes, a good point, there is talk of dealers mixing it with heroin these days, so it could well be less addictive, also with controlled doses people will know how much to take, less risk of overdosing or just abnormally high use which would lead to easier addiction. And certainly it would be less harmful, people are cutting it with all sorts of stuff, the way it is produced in Columbia uses lots of toxic chemicals. Prohibition of alcohol lead to the sale of dangerous contaminated alcohol in the US, part of the reason it was done away with.

The CAB program was just on TV3 a while ago, during one of the ads it had one of these red top rags advertisements, most go something like "the guys who bring in the drugs also bring in the guns"

The last one was "If you think cocaine is a party, you'll end up at a wake"
What happens at a wake again? dunno how they missed the irony.

Dudess

Those ads are cringey and no, I can't see how they'd stop people from doing coke.

Chunky Monkey

Legalise cocaine? Look at the drinking problem. We're an over indulgent society that's barely out of the Catholic dark ages. Somehow I don't think it would work.

JC 2K3

I don't see how another method to get off your head being legal would make the drinking problem(which would become the "legal drugs problem") any worse though. It's not like making drugs legal will somehow extend the amount of free time people have to be using and getting off their faces on these different drugs.

Hell, it'd be healthier for people's bodies to be alternating which substances they overindulge in rather than overusing the same drug every weekend like they do now.