Speaker: Towards a realistic drug policy
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OK I think I got it.
When you defended the Washington Post published study on pot reducing the risk of cancer, it was in defense of Stevens position & not your own position.
That wasn't immediately clear to me.
If anyone produces a study linking, weetbix to mental illness I'll listen (Pak n Save have just had a sale on them and the cubboards overflowing). Till then I'll hold to the view Dope increases the likelyhood of your risk to mental illness by 41%. That ain't insignificant at all.
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webweaver, a majority of people who abuse alcohol do so to blot out pain* of one kind or another. I am talking about binge drinking - and binge drinking is generally not "once in a while."
I agree the fun-factor is played down - but not by me! I esteem the stuff too highly.
* In family experience, two of the alcoholics drank because they had severe arthritis, and another 2 because of war experiences (one, ironically, because his TB-scarred lungs meant he couldnt go overseas.)
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I got 41% increased risk as linked on page one.
Happy to accept the info Ross has added above.
"They estimated that 13% of schizophrenia cases could be averted if cannabis use was prevented. "
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I think being drunk (and stoned) is fun too (though not both at the same time).
But... I feel the fun doesn't necessarily refute the notion that the roots of abuse lie in unhappiness. I don't feel the need for excessive fun of this kind when things are going swimmingly. Bottled fun is fun no matter what state you're in, but it's an easier kind of one when you're in a bad one.
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because they're fun.
Pretty hard to legislate for that.
Yep, that would just be ridiculous. Can't be having fun.
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Yup I guess I'd agree with you Islander - to a large extent, anyway. I'm making a distinction between doing drugs/alcohol for fun in some sort of moderation, as opposed to doing them to excess.
However, I'd still question whether every binge drinker on Courtenay Place (or as I like to call it, "Babylon") on a Saturday night is doing it to blot out the pain. I don't think it's that simple. I think there's a significant cultural/peer pressure influence at work as well.
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Can't be having fun.
Also, it could lead to dancing, and we can't have none of that either.
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Bring back laudanum! (As lauded by Brit. Royalty for the true Conservatives among us.)
webweaver - yeah, to that significant cultural & peer pressure, but it tends to lessen dramatically when people become adult - unless there is the pain/unhappiness factor.
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When you defended the Washington Post published study on pot reducing the risk of cancer, it was in defense of Stevens position & not your own position.
That wasn't immediately clear to me.
It was more that you rejected Stephen's study on the basis that the WaPo had reported it. It seems a robust study in itself, but clearly, there's no consensus in the research.
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I read studies saying this and studies saying that and the question I always come back to is this: worldwide cannabis use has literally skyrocketed over the past forty years, why have rates of psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia remained relatively stable? If cannabis caused schizophrenia, shouldn't incidence rates of the condition have risen in tandem with cannabis use rates and shouldn't that be statistically evident by now? It doesn't appear to be.
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Well tonight 3 news says watching more than 1 hour Tv increases the chance of heart disease by 46%. Yep it's true.Woah, scary stuff. Impending doom. Cheers.
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Can't be having fun.
This is the point that's so often missed. Most people take most drugs because it's fun for them.
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Well tonight 3 news says watching more than 1 hour Tv increases the chance of heart disease by 46%. Yep it's true.Woah, scary stuff. Impending doom. Cheers.
Oh, I missed that. Must watch more TV.
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Since you are supporting the restriction of personal liberty, shouldn't that be based on rigorous science?
Eh??? I was just making on observation, based on 18 years of teaching a myriad of university courses. Science, shmience!
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Well tonight 3 news says watching more than 1 hour Tv increases the chance of heart disease by 46%.
I watch hours of programming everyday - but on the computer. Suckers.
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I was heartened by the news (BBC, so it must be impeccable eh?) that, while I spend a lot of time sitting down, the facts that I have a magnificentlly large arse and heavy hips (but v. little belly fat) means t'one is cancelled by t'others. I think...
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Ok Geoff, I have 20+ years in IT. Based on casual observation (lack of dreads/track marks/dilated pupils) I'd guess that most of my customers didn't do drugs much (this obviously excludes those in the financial markets).
Do I conclude that lack of drugs makes one ignorant, short-sighted and unable to make rational decisions?
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Rich, I think you can both be right. Geoff's hunch that some pothead students underperformed has been formed from experience. What other factors there might be could reasonably be discussed.
But IT's an interesting one. In the 1990s, Hewlett Packard joined the moral panic in the US and instituted workplace drug testing. They reversed the policy when they realised it was driving away the best talent.
Neither Apple or Microsoft have ever done workplace drug testing, and it's now relatively rare in the IT industry.
Meanwhile, the media and business worlds are hanging on an announcement late this month from Apple's Steve Jobs, who was forced out of the company he founded as an unmanageable stoner -- and eventually came back, saved the company and changed the culture.
Jobs told the New York Times that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things" he'd done.
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Here's a link to the introductory chapter from the bestselling book Marijuana is Safer - so why are we driving people to drink?
Reading this is what inspired me to write the opinion piece in the first place.
Also:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/marijuana_is_safer:paperback
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Also: http://www.coldtype.net/Assets.09/pdfs/0909.Myths.pdf
The story of what happend in Portugal before the England-France 2005 World Cup match: the authorities fearing the worst from drunken violence decided not to ban alcohol but to allow fans to freely smoke cannabis instead. Follow the link to find out what happened.
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In 1990 the England team played the opening round in Sardinia. In the early goings a bunch of them bothered some young women on a beach. Within half an hour a truckful of Sardinian appeared, armed solely with their indestructible noggins. And that was the end of trouble from the hooligans for the rest of the tournament.
But in the absence of head-butting Sardinians, I guess pot will do.
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I guess pot will do.
Pot is always a good alternative to other stuff. Chilling a bit, taking things a little bit slower cant hurt. Medicinally beneficial for a number of situations. creativity, viable' clean green compared with other smoke, proud to be 100% NZ made. Win, win really.
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A WOMAD mini-banner just popped up.
Now, is that targetted advertising based on repeated words like "cannabis", "weed" "dak" and "pot"? Or has Russell sold the ads based on an agreed placement next to hippy-friendly editorial?
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A WOMAD mini-banner just popped up.
Now, is that targetted advertising
Hope I helped then. WOMAD is a great occasion and even puts the 'Naki on the map.Chilling a bit, taking things a little bit slower cant hurt. Medicinally beneficial for a number of people, creativity, viable' clean green. Win, win really.
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@Sofie Bribiesca
Many of the problems with heroin are secondary to it being illegal. Doctor addicts with access to pure diamorphine had none of the problems smack heads face.
1. Overdose: due often to no or false information as to strength/concentration of the drug. Legalise and this goes away. Addicts also die of overdose while trying to give up, when they fall off the wagon their tolerances have decreased but they go back to what they used to use.
2. Purity: heroin is, famously, golden brown but diamorphine is a white powder. Now add in all the crap, and other drugs that can be cut into heroin as it passes down the line. These are what produce the classic junkie look and health problems. Legalise with pure drug and those disappear.
3. Inconsistent supply: which produces desperation and great risk taking.
4. Disease: at last count about 7 heroin addicts have died here in Scotland recently from Anthrax contracted due to contaminated smack.
Etc, etc.
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