Is it possible to avoid illegal drug use?

gibgodsman

I am 25, went to college for 4 years, and I have never done any drugs, smoked anything, and never drank either, nothing against any of it, I just don't need it to be happy so why would I do it

Arrival

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You're absolutely right. It desperately needs to be legalised and regulated. The standard stuff on the street right now is far too strong.

This is genuinely a serious issue. The people harvesting it are growing it to be as strong as possible, they maximise the THC and minimise the CBD, in order for the quantities they manage to distribute to pack the biggest punch possible. I stopped smoking cannabis years ago specifically because you've no idea which strain and its makeup you're getting and they were all consistently uncomfortable experiences.

JohnnyFlash is correct in saying there's an increase in psychosis amongst consumers but the answer really is regulation to ensure that all/most cannabis strains contain enough CBD and aren't overly high in CBD. It's not too different from the different types of alcoholic drinks we have available and their varying strengths

Arrival

Arrival wrote: »

This is genuinely a serious issue. The people harvesting it are growing it to be as strong as possible, they maximise the THC and minimise the CBD, in order for the quantities they manage to distribute to pack the biggest punch possible. I stopped smoking cannabis years ago specifically because you've no idea which strain and its makeup you're getting and they were all consistently uncomfortable experiences.

JohnnyFlash is correct in saying there's an increase in psychosis amongst consumers but the answer really is regulation to ensure that all/most cannabis strains contain enough CBD and aren't overly high in CBD. It's not too different from the different types of alcoholic drinks we have available and their varying strengths

The best analogy I've come across is trying to sneak booze into a football match. Once something becomes illegal, you want to maximise it's effect with the minimum amount of hassle. What are you going to sneak in; a crate of beer or a bottle of vodka?

Ash.J.Williams

my late grandfather used to always say "if there's low THC then it aint for me"

charlietheminxx

I'm pretty far from being a stoner but when I was away in a country where its decriminalised, someone I befriended shared some of their weed that they had grown themselves. It was like nothing I ever smoked in Ireland and was just a pleasant way to relax, stopped a stress headache in its tracks. If I could have some here, I'd much rather do that than have a drink on a Friday night. The muck people are smoking here though.... I'm not surprised to hear its having adverse effects.

Instead of avoiding illegal drugs, maybe we should consider what should be illegal?

I'm not even going to get into the peer pressure or gateway drug arguments because they've long since disproved.

FYI the Green Party wants to end the war on drugs https://www.greenparty.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Green-Party-Drugs-Policy.pdf

mfceiling

Not particularly easy to avoid but easy to say no.

I was big into the rave scene in my late teens, early 20's. Loads of times I was offered pills, speed or acid. No you're grand thanks. Not for me but each to their own.

Late 20's and it was more cannabis being offered at house parties etc. Again I've never smoked so no thanks.

Now I'm in my mid 40's and the amount of lads offering coke is mental. Lads I work with both older and younger on the bag every weekend. Went to Lisbon with herself for a few days last summer and we were offered hash or coke at least half a dozen times. Actually sat outside a bar on pink street one night and watched a tiny little Japanese lad sniff coke of the back of a dealers hand then buy a bag from him!!

The coke trade here seems to be huge. Everyone seems to know people taking it or are themselves.

Again each to their own but it's not my scene.

TheAnalyst_

The Lisbon stuff is all fake targeting tourists.

Doctor Nick

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Its a gateway drug. No junkie ever woke up one morning and said "lets start heroin". Its always the smoke that leads to the pill that leads to needle. You can monitor their progress like rats. There are no old timer junkies

Yeah but usually before the joint is the pint or can...... So maybe alcohol is the gateway drug.

mfceiling

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

The Lisbon stuff is all fake targeting tourists.

Really? Seemed fairly open about dealing and taking it in public.

mr_fegelien

You know what's interesting is that I'm African and my parents and I think many African's around 40-50 have never tried any drug besides alcohol. Many don't smoke cannabis or tobacco. I don't know why that is. It just isn't the culture.

pablo128

mr_fegelien wrote: »

You know what's interesting is that I'm African and my parents and I think many African's around 40-50 have never tried any drug besides alcohol. Many don't smoke cannabis or tobacco. I don't know why that is. It just isn't the culture.

Khat would be the most widely used drug in parts.of Africa as far as I know. I'm not disputing what you are saying though.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

mr_fegelien wrote: »

You know what's interesting is that I'm African and my parents and I think many African's around 40-50 have never tried any drug besides alcohol. Many don't smoke cannabis or tobacco. I don't know why that is. It just isn't the culture.

Tanzania, right?

Drug abuse is a major issue in Tanzania. In 2011, the drug control commission (which is dealing with drug abuse issues) reported that the number of people who are addicted ranges from 150,000 and 500,000. Most of the people who are involved in drug abuse in Tanzania are youths, who are often involved in trafficking and consuming illegal drugs like cannabis. The common illegal drugs in Tanzania are khat, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and cannabis.

mr_fegelien

Kameron Mango Warship wrote: »

Tanzania, right?

Yes but I'm not doubting that it's an issue just that the older generation of people here rarely uses it.

I suppose there are many African drug users here but the stigma prevents them from talking about it openly. Weed may be harmless but I wouldn't go around saying let alone admit it around my African friend's parents due to the deep indoctrination of "drugs are bad"

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

mr_fegelien wrote: »

Yes but I'm not doubting that it's an issue just that the older generation of people here rarely uses it.

I suppose there are many African drug users here but the stigma prevents them from talking about it openly. Weed may be harmless but I wouldn't go around saying let alone admit it around my African friend's parents due to the deep indoctrination of "drugs are bad"

Do you honestly believe it's accepted in Irish culture for teenagers, or young adults, to talk about their illegal drug use around their parents? Most Irish parents of your parent's age would generally share their views.

lainey_d_123

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Its a gateway drug. No junkie ever woke up one morning and said "lets start heroin". Its always the smoke that leads to the pill that leads to needle. You can monitor their progress like rats. There are no old timer junkies

This is ridiculous logic. Maybe most heroin users started with weed, but most people who smoke weed don't go on to become heroin addicts. Plenty of people have the odd smoke, line of coke or whatever and lead perfectly normal lives. I'm not saying the stuff isn't bad for you, but I've personally seen more devastation caused by alcohol, which is not only perfectly legal, but also practically mandatory in this country.

I've been trying to stay off the booze this month and it's unbelievable how people try to force it on you. 'Oh go on, just the one', 'sure what difference does it make stopping for just a month', even in some cases buying me an alcoholic drink when I asked for a soft drink. Absolutely pathetic carry on, from people in their 20s and 30s who should know better. I can only imagine how tough it is for someone who actually has a serious problem with alcohol and is really trying to stop.

In comparison, I don't find drugs are ever pushed on people who aren't interested. I've been at house parties where people are doing coke and MDMA and all sorts but you'd be none the wiser unless you really went looking for them because they do it in a bedroom or something, not on the coffee table in front of everyone, because most people don't do it. Same for pubs and clubs. People disappear but I never know or care if they're doing drugs, gone for a cigarette or gone for a p1ss. The only thing I've seen people do openly is weed, and even then there was never any pressure to do it. Anyone who didn't want it could simply decline.

My experience is that you need to go looking for drugs if you want them, whereas you can't get away from alcohol ever. It's bloody everywhere.

riclad

Its quiet easy to say no, if offered drugs say no,
my theory is 5-10 per cent of people use drugs,
it could be cannabis ,cocaine etc but they tend to make friends with other drug users .you have to know where to get it.
weed can have a major effect on young people , under 24.
it changes their behavior.
junkies either stop taking Hard drugs, or they OD.
Theres not many 40 year old heroin users .
Its quiet easy to avoid,
drugs are avaidable in every town in ireland.
1000,s of people use cannabis a few times a week,
without it having a major effect on their lifestyle.
for some medical ailments cannabis is a very effective treatment ,
with little side effects versus conventional legal drugs .

cj maxx

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I'm pretty far from being a stoner but when I was away in a country where its decriminalised, someone I befriended shared some of their weed that they had grown themselves. It was like nothing I ever smoked in Ireland and was just a pleasant way to relax, stopped a stress headache in its tracks. If I could have some here, I'd much rather do that than have a drink on a Friday night. The muck people are smoking here though.... I'm not surprised to hear its having adverse effects.

Instead of avoiding illegal drugs, maybe we should consider what should be illegal?

I'm not even going to get into the peer pressure or gateway drug arguments because they've long since disproved.

I've bought weed maybe once in the last 15 years .I smoked in I small quantities and it was fine. But you reminded me about the different strains. I used to get 'chocolate' in NY from a Jamaican guy. Lovely mild buzz not zonked out after a few drags

lainey_d_123

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

This is ridiculous logic.

Probably because he has no idea what the difference is in both the buzz, and the downtime afterwards. It's something I've noticed with people who've no experience or had two puffs and puked... they think all drugs are similar, so they must lead to other stronger drugs... because people want to get a harder and harder hit. Which couldn't be further from the truth... but that doesn't matter because they're convinced they're right with their extremely limited experience of both drugs and the people who use drugs.

Quantum Erasure

Deleted User wrote: »

Probably because he has no idea what the difference is in both the buzz, and the downtime afterwards..

a lot of people would have gotten into smoking heroin to take the edge off the comedown off pills, or whatever...

Quantum Erasure

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

a lot of people would have gotten into smoking heroin to take the edge off the comedown off pills, or whatever...

In Ireland? What's a lot of people considering the availability of heroin, and price?

CrankyHaus

Deleted User wrote: »

In Ireland? What's a lot of people considering the availability of heroin, and price?

It was something said to us in the anti-drug literature in the early 2000s, and by a group of NA former junkies who came to our school to tell us cautionary tales. It's also referred to in Emmet Kirwan's Dublin Oldschool, which I think is autobiographical.



I suspect the rave scene and dance and club culture in the 90s and 2000s had much more people doing much more ecstasy, inevitably some partied too hard and fell into heroin as a come-down drug. I remember some lads who were on yokes on the Nitelink telling me they were going to do valium when they got home and that this was their post-rave routine.

skooterblue2

Deleted User wrote: »

Probably because he has no idea what the difference is in both the buzz, and the downtime afterwards.

... but that doesn't matter because they're convinced they're right with their extremely limited experience of both drugs and the people who use drugs.

Damn right, I love Warren Buffets lecture to the kids on their "dream car". Why would you put that horrible crap in your your beautiful body and mind.

Actually have have seen enough of it. I saw lads much smarter than me at college who couldnt pass first year computing because they were enjoying weed too much. I have worked with the homeless and once you work out which ones are trying to get up and the others are just junkie opportunists, you get sick of it. Why would I want to waste my time and energy with people who aren't going to add anything to my life? I have lived with lads who smoked so much weed that they lost their jobs and got reduced to playing "world of Warcraft" 12 hours a day. Why would you mess with a drug that will over time screw up your heart mind or liver. These people are beyond my help and better to let the go with the ebb and flow of the tide.

mariaalice

Of course, you can avoid it.

walking around Dublin on a Sunday afternoon recently I passed at least 3 group openly smoking weed while walking around the smell would knock you over nobody care anymore its seems.

A few months ago on the tram in manchester people openly smoking it no one seemed to care.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Damn right, I love Warren Buffets lecture to the kids on their "dream car". Why would you put that horrible crap in your your beautiful body and mind.

Perhaps it's BECAUSE I do certain things that I have a beautiful mind? Drugs have enhanced by ablity to think and to understand complex and abstract concepts.

Actually have have seen enough of it. I saw lads much smarter than me at college who couldnt pass first year computing because they were enjoying weed too much. I have worked with the homeless and once you work out which ones are trying to get up and the others are just junkie opportunists, you get sick of it. Why would I want to waste my time and energy with people who aren't going to add anything to my life? I have lived with lads who smoked so much weed that they lost their jobs and got reduced to playing "world of Warcraft" 12 hours a day. Why would you mess with a drug that will over time screw up your heart mind or liver. These people are beyond my help and better to let the go with the ebb and flow of the tide.

So, you've second-hand experiecne of weed and heroin and you think that all drugs are the same and you can lecture people who have actually been doing a far broader range of drugs for far longer.

Kind of proves the preveious poster's point.

Ash.J.Williams

mariaalice wrote: »

Of course, you can avoid it.

walking around Dublin on a Sunday afternoon recently I passed at least 3 group openly smoking weed while walking around the smell would knock you over nobody care anymore its seems.

A few months ago on the tram in manchester people openly smoking it no one seemed to care.

The smell will not knock you over

the sword

More and more I find it hard to avoid drugs in everyday life. When I walk up the street in Belfast I smell weed, walk into the pub theirs guys openly doing lines in the toilets.

I think weed is a gateway drug, and I could see from some of my best friends (at the time) that it went from playing football everyday aged 14, to smoking weed age 15/16 to taking pills age 16/17. I drifted away as I didn’t prefer their company and habits, and last I heard these guys were taking coke and in the company of a few people that done heroin.
From my experience with drugs, they went the typical path of going to the next level of drug to the next. but I believe that was down to the company they were keeping also.

Fellas in the football team I play for (club level GAA but commitment is paramount), fit, level headed (as it would appear) individuals who have strong drives, goals and objectives in life, take coke recreationally. It concerns me, because it is hard to tell whether it is a passing phase in their lives, or it is the new normal?

skooterblue2

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Perhaps it's BECAUSE I do certain things that I have a beautiful mind? Drugs have enhanced by ablity to think and to understand complex and abstract concepts.



So, you've second-hand experiecne of weed and heroin and you think that all drugs are the same and you can lecture people who have actually been doing a far broader range of drugs for far longer.

Kind of proves the preveious poster's point.

Where did I say all drugs are the same? I recognise all drugs have different side effects. None of the folks I have come across on drugs have been able to pass first computing and some struggle to realise they have soiled themselves. When you say "broad and abstract concepts", can you define those and how you made them productive? In fact drug users are fairly pathetic at the end of the human scale.

Most of these "great thinkers" have never graduated from the grannyflat and level 32 on World of Warcraft. Money and time flitted away without a care in the world.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Where did I say all drugs are the same?

Some of your viewpoitns on the subject of "drugs". Not a sepcific drug, mind - drugs.

skooterblue2 wrote: »

yes but they were unregulated before they copped on. I am always fascinated why junkies go to great lengths to pursue danger chemicals.

skooterblue2 wrote: »

I am never justifying drugs. The only thing I hate more than drugs is the people who take them.

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Its much easier to avoid drugs if you are having other hobbies.
There are two people that get involved in drugs:
People who have all the comforts in their life and they get involved out of boredom.
Then there are the people who are slipping into poverty and they get involved to escape the boredom.

skooterblue2 wrote: »

Its very hard and if you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas. The amount of money and time you waste you could use it to develop yourself.

I recognise all drugs have different side effects. None of the folks I have come across on drugs have been able to pass first computing and some struggle to realise they have soiled themselves.

Again "on drugs". Not all drugs do that to people, y'know?"

"When you say "broad and abstract concepts", can you define those and how you made them productive? In fact drug users are fairly pathetic at the end of the human scale.

And we're back to the generalising without even giving me a chance to answer the question....?

Anyway: concepts such as the afterlife, higher forms of consciousness and how different ideas interact with an influence each other.

Most of these "great thinkers" have never graduated from the grannyflat and level 32 on World of Warcraft. Money and time flitted away without a care in the world.

And so, as a result of that, you form the "informed" opnion that no one on drugs has ever actually made a life for themselves.

Are you familiar with the work of Alex Grey? Or how about Steve Jobs? Albert Hoffman? Maybe the Beatles? Have a look and and then come back and tell me that none of them ever left home or stopped playing video games. Or that they are all "fairly pathetic on the human end of the scale."

Or is it possible that some drugs do different things and more postiive things other than the heroin the homeless you worked with or the weed your college friends smoked?

skooterblue2

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Are you familiar with the work of Alex Grey? Or how about Steve Jobs? Albert Hoffman? Maybe the Beatles? Have a look and and then come back and tell me that none of them ever left home or stopped playing video games. Or that they are all "fairly pathetic on the human end of the scale."

Or is it possible that some drugs do different things and more postiive things other than the heroin the homeless you worked with or the weed your college friends smoked?

Never heard of Alex Grey. Looks like a load of clap trap, to justify using drugs.
Jobs was a parasite getting rich off other people technology and Wozniacks hard grift. treated his "daughter" Lisa with disdain and not accepting responsibility for her. Isnt it amazing that Jobs spouts all this wonderful thinking yet every time you return to work for Apple they test you for drugs?
Never heard of Albert Hoffman.

I can only judge by the filth I see on O Connell Street and the wasters who couldnt drag themselves out of the sack for college in the morning or some waster who threw his job away to play World of Warcraft. Then there are the associates who died prematurely for suspicious reasons.