Drugs - your opinion?

passiflora

passiflora

Well-known member
david starling said:
Both heroin and methamphetamines are on my "do not try" list, along with pharmaceutical tranquilizers. The problem with drugs being illegal is, they're under the control of vicious criminals, and can even be adulterated with deadly chemicals. There are also children being killed in drive-by shootings.

The problem with drugs (like alcohol) being legal is, it gives them an aura of respectability, and makes them seem less hazardous. Children often have access to alcohol, and can become alcoholics at an early age.
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I find alcohol yuck on a societal level - it's no substitute for social-emotional literacy - and also on an individual level.

Pharmaceutical tranquilizers are legal but highly regulated and maybe given extra aura of respectability since you have to pay off multiple practitioners with doctoral level education to secure the substances, and those practitioners have a specific interest in marketing their product domains and protecting their badges.

In Northern California decriminalizing pot didn't do anything to get the mob out of growing. If I understand correctly the mob poisoned national forests while growing. I think they did a weird job of decriminalizing too, by letting big growers with greenhouses flood the market and not use any regenerative practices, so what should have been a high quality cottage industry now looks like big agriculture or pharma.
 
D

david starling

Well-known member
passiflora said:
I find alcohol yuck on a societal level - it's no substitute for social-emotional literacy - and also on an individual level.

Pharmaceutical tranquilizers are legal but highly regulated and maybe given extra aura of respectability since you have to pay off multiple practitioners with doctoral level education to secure the substances, and those practitioners have a specific interest in marketing their product domains and protecting their badges.

In Northern California decriminalizing pot didn't do anything to get the mob out of growing. If I understand correctly the mob poisoned national forests while growing. I think they did a weird job of decriminalizing too, by letting big growers with greenhouses flood the market and not use any regenerative practices, so what should have been a high quality cottage industry now looks like big agriculture or pharma.
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It did a lot, because it's legal to grow your own. There are still plenty of independent, smaller growers also. It's pretty much decriminalized on the Federal level, even though it's legal on the State level. Even Texas(!) is gradually moving towards legalizing.
 
passiflora

passiflora

Well-known member
Yeah as a grow-your-own guy you're not dependent any more on the mob, but the market still is.

www.wsj.com

How New York and California Botched Marijuana Legalization

Steep taxes and heavy regulation are making it hard for licensed pot sellers to operate in some states, driving more producers and buyers to illegal outlets. “Our No. 1 competitor is the illicit market.”
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com

www.nbcnews.com

Raids on black market cannabis farms uncover human trafficking victims

They came from China by way of New York in hope of supporting themselves and their loved ones back home. Instead, they were trafficked into the illicit drug trade.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

If you're talking about growing your own on a societal level, I don't mind most things that way. Coca leaf, opium poppy, pot, homebrew, whatever.
 
ScorpioMaria

ScorpioMaria

Well-known member
passiflora said:
Yeah as a grow-your-own guy you're not dependent any more on the mob, but the market still is.

www.wsj.com

How New York and California Botched Marijuana Legalization

Steep taxes and heavy regulation are making it hard for licensed pot sellers to operate in some states, driving more producers and buyers to illegal outlets. “Our No. 1 competitor is the illicit market.”
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com

www.nbcnews.com

Raids on black market cannabis farms uncover human trafficking victims

They came from China by way of New York in hope of supporting themselves and their loved ones back home. Instead, they were trafficked into the illicit drug trade.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

If you're talking about growing your own on a societal level, I don't mind most things that way. Coca leaf, opium poppy, pot, homebrew, whatever.
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www.latimes.com

Legal Weed, Broken Promises: A Times series on the fallout of legal pot in California

California’s legalization of recreational cannabis in 2016 ushered in a multibillion-dollar industry. But many of the promises of legalization have proved elusive.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
Same article free, archived

California seems to be a dysfunctional narco-state now, especially the rural areas.

Individuals can grow their own, as long as there is enough water, and as long as the police and fire department protect you;

otherwise, the cartels seem to control the entire illegal economy, as well as the legal economy, the political system, etc, possibly the police
 
Opal

Opal

Premium Member
There is the good, as well as the bad and the ugly.

Alcohol has an ugly side too.

Most everyone, has witnessed the negative side, if not themselves, in their family and friends.

To not recognize the good and the bad of each, is to miss half of the whole picture.
 
passiflora

passiflora

Well-known member
ScorpioMaria said:
www.latimes.com

Legal Weed, Broken Promises: A Times series on the fallout of legal pot in California

California’s legalization of recreational cannabis in 2016 ushered in a multibillion-dollar industry. But many of the promises of legalization have proved elusive.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
Same article free, archived

California seems to be a dysfunctional narco-state now, especially the rural areas.

Individuals can grow their own, as long as there is enough water, and as long as the police and fire department protect you;

otherwise, the cartels seem to control the entire illegal economy, as well as the legal economy, the political system, etc, possibly the police
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The LAtimes article you linked is fantastic. Not at all hyperbole. I have been to some of those communities recently.
Now that the bottom has fallen out there is at least less water pilfering from aquifers everyone depends on for food.... but still you see the scars of sad, no-way-out, rural "missing persons" and death.
 
Opal

Opal

Premium Member

Psychedelic Research in 1950s Saskatchewan

In the 1950s, Saskatchewan was home to some of the most important psychedelic research in the world. Saskatchewan-based psychiatrist Humphry Osmond coined the w...
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

In the 1950's Canada was using LSD to treat alcoholism. The success rate was better than lobotomies.
 
ScorpioMaria

ScorpioMaria

Well-known member
Opal said:
If that's what you need to believe. I saw a thing by Roger Waters. His best friend. Yes, they did LSD. It was not the reason for his psychosis though.
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Health problems​


Through late 1967 and early 1968, Barrett became increasingly erratic, partly as a consequence of his heavy use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD.[13] Once described as joyful, friendly, and extroverted, he became increasingly depressed and withdrawn, and experienced hallucinations, disorganised speech, memory lapses, intense mood swings, and periods of catatonia.[9] Although the changes began gradually, he went missing for a long weekend and, according to several friends, including Wright, came back "a completely different person".[9]

One of the striking features of his change was the development of a blank, dead-eyed stare. Barrett did not recognise friends, and often did not know where he was; on a tour of Los Angeles, Barrett is said to have exclaimed, "Gee, it sure is nice to be in Las Vegas!"[9] Many reports described him on stage, strumming one chord through the entire concert, or not playing at all.[75] At a show in Santa Monica, Barrett slowly detuned his guitar.[76]

books.google.com

Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd

Syd Barrett was an English composer and purveyor of some of the most intriguing music ever written. Famous before his twentieth birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London's famed UFO club. With a Fender Telecaster and a primitive Binson echo unit, Barrett liberated the...
books.google.com
 
Opal

Opal

Premium Member
ScorpioMaria said:

Health problems​


Through late 1967 and early 1968, Barrett became increasingly erratic, partly as a consequence of his heavy use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD.[13] Once described as joyful, friendly, and extroverted, he became increasingly depressed and withdrawn, and experienced hallucinations, disorganised speech, memory lapses, intense mood swings, and periods of catatonia.[9] Although the changes began gradually, he went missing for a long weekend and, according to several friends, including Wright, came back "a completely different person".[9]

One of the striking features of his change was the development of a blank, dead-eyed stare. Barrett did not recognise friends, and often did not know where he was; on a tour of Los Angeles, Barrett is said to have exclaimed, "Gee, it sure is nice to be in Las Vegas!"[9] Many reports described him on stage, strumming one chord through the entire concert, or not playing at all.[75] At a show in Santa Monica, Barrett slowly detuned his guitar.[76]

books.google.com

Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd

Syd Barrett was an English composer and purveyor of some of the most intriguing music ever written. Famous before his twentieth birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London's famed UFO club. With a Fender Telecaster and a primitive Binson echo unit, Barrett liberated the...
books.google.com
Click to expand...
That is what schizophrenia does.
 
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