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didn't know where to post this
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
this was on my mind, I have no idea why......since coming to the Site I've understood a lot about why people take drugs, and how the risks are there, there not as big as they're made out to be. Majority of the people who take drugs on this site (from what I know) are decent people, have decent jobs, structured lives etc the same as any non drug taking person.
So why does the government brainwash us in school/college/on tv that taking drugs is wrong? Ok maybe not brainwash but we're taught that drugs always kill, ruin your life, ends up in crime etc. understandly the crime is a major factor, but from what I've understood from this forum etc drugs haven't ruined your lives. none of you are living on the streets or stealing from old ladies to feed your habits etc.
So why are we taught to never do drugs instead of teaching us the highs and lows of drugs and how you can still be a regular Joe if you take them?
Sorry if non of the above makes sense
So why does the government brainwash us in school/college/on tv that taking drugs is wrong? Ok maybe not brainwash but we're taught that drugs always kill, ruin your life, ends up in crime etc. understandly the crime is a major factor, but from what I've understood from this forum etc drugs haven't ruined your lives. none of you are living on the streets or stealing from old ladies to feed your habits etc.
So why are we taught to never do drugs instead of teaching us the highs and lows of drugs and how you can still be a regular Joe if you take them?
Sorry if non of the above makes sense
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Comments
No really, there is drug use out there that destroys people and wrecks families,causes alot of crime and drugs can kill.
But with cannabis i think, why would the government degrade it to class C if they didn't think it was a relatively harmless drug, i know they still think it's harmful but not as harmful as say heroin or cocaine.
I would like to see the government take a more relaxed approach to drugs especially cannabis, like Amsterdam perhaps.
But i think the way drugs are very easily avaible in this country just leaves it like amsterdam a bit, cannabis is everywhere, so are other things, mushrooms can be got in shops and other legal things that are quite good.
I take it you don't take drugs hybrid?
Talking about drugs and death from them i read today about a 16 yr old girl who took 2 yokes at an illegal rave and collasped and banged her head and died 6 days later..guess what the sub title was......Ecstacy Death.
It would just make more sense (to me) to teach us about the pros and cons of drug use. Or at least make it more realistic?
I think these do gooders believe that if we lived on a drug- free planet the world would be perfect and that is very short sighted in my opinion.
I honestly do not see the logic on anti drugs education, Drugs exist and always will do so why not educate on the good and bad sides and let people make their own fucking choices.
There will be bad education with drugs as long as they are illegal.
they wont suddenly change the attitude and say " hey drugs are not as bad as we made out before but were keeping it illegal for the sake of it"
Whatever your told in the class room the truth is out there, if your curious about them they will come into your life someway, somehow
Yes i fully agree that the PROS and cons of drugs should be taught, it's not all bad you know.
funny thing with me is i had no drugs education in school whatsoever!!! i left in 97 i think
most ...and i mean most actualy are regular joes ...they eat out ....go to the cinema ...work provide etc.
but some people can go over the edge with the usage and come somewhat unraveelled and living a life of chaos ...i've been there ...recognised i no longer had any control over my life ... made a decision and got control again ...theres a lot like me out there around my age. but ...drugs realy aren't for everyone. people with underlying emotional or psychiatric problems can be triggered into problems. even the most well balanced and determined of people can discover their drug of choice and want to feel like that all the time ...but the same situation seems to travel well with alcohol and people as well. they can all be destructive. drugs can be and are, a scource of wonder and pleasure to a lot of ordinary people.
But thats not what I'm trying to get at. We're taught to never even think about drugs because just that one time you look at a drug they will kill you,no questions asked. :rolleyes:
now I know thats not true and so I'm questioning why we are taught such things if understandably, drugs can bring pleasure (couldn't think of a better word) to some people's lives. They don't make you (most of the time) bad people. But because we're not taught that x amount of drugs is ok but y isn't, young people are probably gonna mess up when they do take drugs and go about it the wrong way. I'm questioning the system
if they had big honest charts about stuff you can buy legaly like booze and fags ...certain foods and medications over the counter, along with prescription drugs such as valium ...anti depressants ...viagra ...with a list of all the positive and negative effects this substance you are about to consume may have on your life ...be intersting ... probably have minimal effect of any kind at all ...nothing seems to work by way of drug education, becuase they won't or can't be honest with the subject.
Not every drug user has the same experience, but drugs can lead to terrible situations.
Myself, ive had my heart broken and loss all faith in life for a while after loved ones have gone down the pan because of drugs. I know two brothers, late 20s heroin addicts who cant move out of home still live with their mum ~ steal from her and break her heart every day but she cant kick them out because they would be on the street, she doesnt know what might happen to them. Personally i would have kicked those arseholes out long ago. Beat up kids who come to them to buy green for their money.
I can give you story after story about how drugs ruin lives of the users and their loved ones, or even strangers.
I think, the people on thesite arent necessarily representative of the drug users out there, you have got a point in that the numbers who are addicts compared to the number of users is slim, but people on this site want to know, find out, increase their knowledge and help others. Just because drugs havent necessarily ruined our lives (although im sure each of us has at least one very negative story to tell) it doesnt mean that drugs arent dangerous, dont kill or destroy lives.
Because they do. And they do all too much.
When people arent taught both sides of the coin at school. There is a big stigma regarding drugs, of course there are some truths to peoples views stereotypes dont come from nowhere. I think if kids were taught by their parents or by people they respect the whole story about drugs there would be less pain caused. But then i guess many parents dont know the whole story either. Leaving it up to us to find the truth or suss out the myths.
A lot of people say that, and whilst i agree that taking drugs can change your views, give you some great times and make you glad that you started certain drugs in the first place, Im always a bit wary when people say drugs can give you your best experiences.
I just think its a bit sad really, that some people dont have such amazing experiences without drugs. Life should give you your most amazing experiences, and the best ones dont involve drugs, imo. I see life as real, and drugs fair enough can give you insight, but drugs arent the real world. They're just a temporary holiday from the real world.
The most positive experiences, the best ones shouldnt have to come from drugs.
People are afraid of drugs and what they can do, and rightly so, but without any knowledge to temper their fear. They are scared that if they don't over-emphasise the dangers, it won't seem like a big decision to take drugs. Education could go a long way to alleviating this problem, IMO.
:yes:
People seem scared of the one extreme, so they go to the other.
There has to be a middle ground, that still shows drugs as a danger but without the lies and the shock tactics - with the truth so people listen. Schools really have to educate kids firstly, with the dangers of drugs and they should advise them not to do them, but secondly schools should educate kids about what happens when they are on drugs, what happens if it goes wrong, what happens after theyve taken the drugs, where they can go for help etc etc.
That's a real difficulty with this kind of thing, so many people on the drugs board have a complete lack of faith in the information provided by authorities that it will be almost impossible to get any street cred, so in some ways maybe its best that the info comes from an outside source.... Oh fuck I don't know, its too early on Friday morning.....
The number of times I have heard drug users calling for all out legalisation over night is stupid. The general public are scared of change when its that quick.
We need to introduce changes slowly and the education system is the key to that.
TalktoFrank was supposed to be a change in the way that the drugs education was given out, its does, sort of show some of the up's as well as downs. But as usual they have messed it up so everyone ignores any positives because of the mistakes.
You can never say X amount will be fine and Y amount will harm you, because everyone is different. And I think its only sensible for a government to perhaps press the downs slightly more than the up's especially when talking to younger children. But if you dont put forward a true message then it will all be ignored and you might as well not bother.
Drug use is here to stay, no society in the history of man has ever lived without it. So a policy of harm reduction and education is the way forward. But reformers have to understand the essentially conservative nature of politics. And I mean that with a small c.
The general public are not ready for government run shops dishing out high class skunk and hash along with a few beans. But if it was done well they could be in a few years time.
We just need to make sure that the arguments for and the results of change are water tight. There will be a swing back to the right wing in reaction to the more liberal ideas that are around now. We just need to make sure that any changes are not changed back when this happens.
Minxy; I can see what you mean about it sometimes being a bit concerning that your best experiences are on drugs. I guess the difference should be that if ALL your best experiences are with drugs then maybe theres a problem. I have had some fantastic times both with and without.
of course its the parents responsibility and ive said it before the brightest kids that i know, with an amazing sense of right and wrong are the 11 and 12 year olds kids of parents who teach them about drugs.
But its only the primary socialisation that comes from parents, schools have a duty to build on it, we cant just trust that parents will teach the kids, firstly many parents know as much as the rest of us anyway.
Schools teach sex education as a way of ensuring that all kids are well aware of it, why can it not be this way with drugs too? Personally, the sex ed we had at school was brilliant, we did it in junior school through secondary it was really good stuff, taught about the mental, emotional and physical sides. Maybe i just had a good experience and assume the rest of sex ed for everyone else was just as informative. But if i got a brilliant education in sexual issues, then why not with drugs?
Obviously many parents have failed in trying to teach kids about drugs, many schools have failed to so education needs to be rethought, parents need to be infromed so they can teach kids and schools also have a major part in a kids upbringing. Schools have a duty.
The only time that parents were involved in drugs matters at my school was the first day of year 7, when they were sent home a sheet of paper indicating signs that theur child was on drugs ie "a small white paper envelope = ....." etc
Shouldnt there be something further than this? Parents arent the only ones to bring up children, its society.
If all a persons best experiences are on drugs they have a MASSIVE problem. Im not here claiming that ive never had some great times on drugs, ive had some amazing times like everyone else. But there is no way that any expereience on drugs could compare to the best experiences in my life. Such as my niece and nephew being born, falling in love, walking on sand dunes in the sahara... I think its all too easy to get reality and drugs confused. To me there is a thin line but at the same time, that thin line is drawn in a big permanant black marker. If someone turned around and said to me ' the best time ive ever had was when i was tripping on acid, or tooting some rock etc' id be very concerned.
Things kids should know about.
And in terms of best experiences, I think drugs are best used to enhance a situation, not create one. The best times I've had on drugs would have been good without them, they were just made more special by the drugs. Like the time I took mushies with my now mrs when we were very first going out, it really brought us close and was fantastic.
Or like the first time I properly fell in love with someone and we went clubbing together.
With the experiences thing, sometimes ive felt amazingly close to people while on coke, or MDMA. But, i cant help wishing i knew whether i would ever have felt that close had i not been on drugs? Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes its no because it wasnt a real emotion.
Its real because you experience it, I dont think you need to over analyise it. Its enjoyable, you learn from it, you got closer to him/her, whats the problem? (well apart from the health risks, comedowns, cost...etc)
Its only a problem when you need the drugs to get you to that situation. When they are a necessity rather than a indulgence.
drugs for me have been nothing like alcohol ...being a pissed wreck never apealed ...no enlightenment there ...yes i believe altered states of consiousness being very valid for being ...dare i say, life changing.
Yeah you have a point and i get that its real because you experience it, but.. i dont really know i just have always told myself its not real, and i dont see it as real, i think if i ever let anybody convince me it was (i dont know if that could happen) it would be a lot easier to fall into addiction.
Im getting back more heavily into the coke because life feels like its meant to be when im on coke, if i let myself really believe its real. There would be no going back. But i think its important, for me at least, to draw a line.
I've said it before but be careful with coke, its a tough one, something thats very sly.
Why is it not OK to have a great experience on drugs? What is the point in taking them otherwise? It's not sad being able to say you've had some of your best experiences while on drugs - it's sad when people say they can't have a fun WITHOUT drugs.
Course it's real - just like many other 'great experiences' in life it's a rush. When I jumped out of plane on a static line I got the biggest adrenalin rush of my life - when I did one of my first pills I got one of the greatest rushes of my life from seratonin. Some of the best nights I've had were at rave's in the mid 90's whule takign my first few pills.
I was just meaning that they are not 'real life' what ever that fairly meaningless term means.
that was a very real and otherwise very misserable time ...the dope turned it into one of the most fantastic experiences ...i came away from the experience spiritualy high ...very positive about my future ...very determined ...i irritated some of my fellow prisoners by being unable to stop smiling and grinning for the next couple of months ...i was free ...they couldn't see it ...they were in jail ...i could see it cos i was truly free ...this event was one of many leading to my changing my life in a big and very positive way.
yes ...drugs work. it's why people use them. it's why people have love affairs with them. yes there is also the shallow but entertaining side to drugs ...getting mashed but ...i am not ashamed to be able to say that i have had some truly great and also very important experiences from drugs.
drugs realy can and do open hearts and minds ...alcohol could never give enlightenment of any kind.
some of you may not yet have had qaulity stuff to create quality experiences. if your drug taking is a normal everyday drab experience ...unintersting ...uneventful ...go get pissed for a while ...consider taking something else ...consider ..."why do i use drugs ...what DOES, it actualy do for me"?
care to elaborate? got me intrigued...
its not that its not ok at all.
ive had some brilliant times on pills. and like you some of my best nights have been at raves pilling. ive never had a bad experience really apart from times where pills have stopped me from moving my legs at raves so i couldnt dance...
and drugs can give you so much fun.
but the way, for me at least, that i see things, hear things etc isnt real. its not how things are in normal every day life when im straight. thats real, drugs are a holiday from the real life. You need to be able to say your best experiences have been sober in equal amounts *at least* to ones that youve been off it for. i think
With that id say theres nothing wrong, and for that experience i take my words back thats a time where drugs really really have had a good effect. thats spiritual and with something like that who am i to say that it shouldnt be a brilliant experience. But its rare for somebody to experience something that spiritual. for many teenagers at least ~~ all they want to do is get fucked. I think what youve talked about is very different to what ive been talking about.
too many people seem to have access only to mediocre drugs from what i can see.
all you stoners out there ...have a big fat bifta and remain alone with maybe some music in the distance ...in the distance ...and try to journey through heaven and hell ...fascinating stuff happens ...but if your smoking soapbar and other shite ...don't bother.
todays resin gives you a buzz and you can go no further ...i'm rambling again ...i know!