Cocaine Destroying Rural Ireland

I once saw a documentary on cocaine use. Showed a brain with holes burrowed into it.

Again, I posted the Bukowski video to highlight an observation you can make yourself - or at least one I have made; all regular dope smokers I have known are visibly damaged people (psychically damaged). Bob Geldof, in his autobiography Is That All tells about the first time he smoked weed. He went crazy and ran out of the house and tried to kill himself by banging his head on a nail sticking out of the wall. Granted, not all people will do this but it shows how psychoactive weed can be.

Anecdote and cultural reference are good enough. Seeing what you are looking at is also good enough. Look at them.

@Raichų "I find myself to be as much the same with or without it except with a joint or two I can sleep a bit better and I’m able to eat more. Have issues with both of them and it’s the best remedy I’ve found."

At best dope smokers are so sedated they, generally, don't realize their full potential. Regular dope smokers don't usually become brilliant in their business or vocation etc.

If you have these issues why not get to the root cause?

I’m sure you’ll be able to link to that documentary pretty easily, right?

Marijuana doesn’t physically damage people, do you mean that you are seeing people who are high? I hope you know that it passes after a few hours, it’s not permanent.

Marijuana doesn’t make you run out of the house and try to kill yourself, the worst thing that can happen is you will get the munchies and eat the fridge, maybe laugh yourself to death, or a bit of paranoia. Again, it all passes.

Sounds a bit hyperbolic, what Geldof might have said, again I’m sure you can link to that. Thanks.

Unfortunately, anecdotal and cultural references are not good enough. Evidence and data surpass all of that, and it surpasses what you claim you’ve seen as well.

most underlying issues have already been identified, here i am listening to tim fletcher, who has been running addiction treatment centers for 20 years, and in his opinion, cptsd is one of the most common psychological issues with most in treatment, and most, if not all humans are capable of experiencing such, so…..

Tubbercurry pop 2400, like

This study claims there may be a genetic component. So maybe a tiered approach to legalization?

https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2023/03/new-nih-study-reveals-shared-genetic-markers-underlying-substance-use-disorders

Cocaine and Brain Aging

As a person grows older, their brain will naturally change and begin to lose gray matter. In a healthy brain, this is a decades-long process, and it does not appear until a person has reached older adulthood. Memory problems, changes in cognitive ability, and even dementia are linked to reduction of gray matter.

A recent study through the University of Cambridge examined the aging of the brain in people who used cocaine and those who had no previous history of substance use. The group found that the average brain normally loses 1.69 milliliters of gray matter per year; however, people who had used cocaine in the past, or who were currently cocaine-dependent, doubled the rate of gray matter loss, for an average of 3.08 milliliters per year.5

Another study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University on rodents, suggests that cocaine may cause brain cells to cannibalize themselves. The study describes cocaine triggering autophagy in neurons in mice, or the process of the cells eating themselves from the inside out. The cells threw out useful resources during metabolism, leading to a stress reaction of cannibalizing other internal cell structures.

The Effects of Cocaine on the Brain: Mental Effects of Cocaine

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Geldof's story is in his book. Can't find a reference online.

As for evidence and data. It is well know that marijuana causes psychic damage.

Beware of 'studies' telling you there is a genetic component. Back in the day there was a lot of talk about the 'alcoholic gene'. The genes made me do it. But that gene went out of fashion and the theory has been largely discarded now. There is a tendency in medicine, sociology and science in general to ascribe all manner of things to genes. But these associations are not at all clear and easy to demonstrate. There has emerged a kind of Gene-of-the-gaps theory whereby if something is not clearly understood someone says 'must be a gene in there somewhere' Yeah, must be a gene.

There is a fundamental caution in science: Correlation is not necessarily causation. (Correlation does not imply causation - Wikipedia) Time and time again I have seen scientists, as they call themselves, blatantly ignore this caution.

Just because a gene is correlated with addiction does not mean the gene is responsible. Genes are genes. They were there long before cocaine addiction. This is a very murky and not at all well understood area. And whenever I see 'there may be a genetic component' I throw my hands up in despair.

No, it’s clearly not good.

I’m not sure you are, but if you’re trying to compare marijuana and cocaine and their effects, you are on a serious apples to oranges train there pal.

My main argument is that continued use has incremental psychic effects and when all these increments are added up they can become traumatic. By various circumstances I have been in contact with many drug users. They are seriously damaged people. I'm not saying if someone sniffs cocaine once they will go crazy. But it is rarely once, or twice, or 50 times. It becomes a compulsion, as you know. Long terms use of cocaine can make people violent. I have seen this.

I think that what is now banned should remain banned. Legalizing drugs can give the impression that they are ok or even good - "sure 'tis legal". Legal can become normal and normal can become 'good'. You know how some people think.

But isolating the drug thing and talking about it in isolation is not the way to go. I many ways drug use is exacerbated by many problems in society. This does not excuse anybody for being stupid enough to get addicted but a world where people can find real fulfillment in healthy ways would help a lot. But the world itself is badly damaged.

I'm not comparing them. Marijuana may be worse than cocaine. People say 'sure I've been smoking for the last 20 years and it has done me no harm'. How do they know it hasn't? What kind of person would they be if they had not smoked? They can't know that. Maybe they would have discovered how to do cold fusion or became a renowned musician or whatever. I smoked some of the stuff a long time ago, in my 20s. Not good.