I’m overweight… I guess that means sugar destroys people’s lives. Why haven’t they banned sugar?
The UK taxed sugar (to try and curb soft drink consumption, thanks Jamie Oliver) and it just resulted in the non-diet/zero versions of everything containing both sugar AND sweetners. They managed to stay the same price and now all taste like shite, but I guess it’s cheaper for the poor corporations who had to comply (by changing their drinks entirely rather than paying the tax).
But… most places have banned these drugs. I’m not following your logic. Are you saying they should be legal because we’re free to ruin our health in other ways?
Drugs feel amazing. Getting high is like the fucking grand canyon, one of the things in life that lives up to the hype. Doing drugs makes you happier than you thought you could be, and there are a lot of people who don’t have a lot of reasons to be happy.
We shouldn’t pretend that drugs are bad, mm-kay. Drugs are awesome. That’s the problem. They’re too awesome. It’s an awesome overload, and you end up not wanting to do anything except for drugs.
People who do drugs are not evil. They’re having fun, experiencing new things, making friends and bonding over shared experiences. You tell a bunch of kids that drugs will ruin their lives, and then somebody at a party passes them a joint or offers them a bump of coke, they’re going to realize you were full of shit.
Like, let’s say that there was some weird flesh-eating bacteria that was specifically found only on water slides, but only on a few water slides. Now it’s your job to convince all the children of the world to avoid water slides, because of the small possibility of bacteria. It’s a serious problem, and it would be correct to tell everyone to avoid all waterslides everywhere, even if only a small percentage of waterslide riders died horrible deaths. So you tell people waterslides might kill you or maim you in excruciating ways. But if you act like waterslides aren’t fun, you lose all credibility. Most people who ride the waterslides don’t die, and they go on to tell everyone how much fun they had on waterslides, and that doesn’t make them bad people.
Found the guy that skim reads a comment and then draws a silly conclusion.
I read & deeply comprehended the whole entire thing. It was excellently written and insightful and I am sincerely happy for people who can enjoy drugs responsibly and it does not interfere with their productive lives,
I have friends who enjoy mushrooms and LSD and alcohol and cigarettes and cocaine and abusing things like Adderall and Vyvanse and they all seem a hell of a lot happier than I am, but I just don’t want anything to do with it because
take my perspective for what it’s worth, I am a complete teetotaler, the only thing I put in my mouth or my body are nutritious foods, water, and prescription medication. In my childhood the fear of death was put into me regarding drugs, and my dad was an alcoholic and then he turned to cocaine and it all freaked me out, the way cocaine changed my dad was terrifying and has left me forever unstable, and I listened to Nancy Reagan when she said “say no to drugs” and I am permanently in that mindset, for better or for worse.
It is about distinguishing addictive and damaging drugs from useful medicines with a low chance of addiction. You are not going to convince me that the majority of people that have used meth or crack are fine. Where as weed or lsd I would.
I will!
The majority of people that have used meth or crack are fine.
Now, don’t get me wrong: meth is fantastically addictive. It’s the most physically addictive drug there is, as far as I’m aware. And the fantastically high addiction rate for first-time users of meth is: roughly 30%.
70% of people who try the most addictive drug in the world don’t get addicted, and go on to do other things like play tennis or do their taxes or switch to weed instead.
I am not just talking about addiction, I am also referring to the physiological damage it does.
Yea, plus many people addicted to that shit end up doing bad things, Rob, steal, sell to kids, etc.
That’s the same with heroin. At some point you’re addicted as hell and have no money left, so what do you do to get that relief from it again? Prostitute yourself, steal stuff and sell it, rob someone. This is literally an endless cycle. You become more addicted so you have to make more money. Since drug addiction imposes a high risk of losing your job and house you have to become somewhat criminal. The only ways out of this are either 1:dying from the drugs, 2: being able to get off of them(what often is literally impossible without help and even if you manage it without a stable living situation(house, job which both are hard to find as an ex drug addicted homeless person) its not unlikely that you start using them again) or 3: finding a place where you can get them for free. One of these places exists in Berlin where heroin addicted can get free medical grade heroin for free.
Tried meth once. Felt like Adderall. I could see why people abuse it, but I didn’t feel the need.
That’s cause Adderall is meth.
Or meth adjacent. I don’t know the chemistry.
I have no words almost…
But your little declaration somehow perversly juxtapositions the odd 100 000 deaths from drug overdoses in the US alone last year.
Yes, since it’s such an awfully negligent way of thinking.
I’d worry some poor young soul listening to the type of ‘adult individual’, falling into a fentanyl addiction, for example, thinking it ‘fun and safe’ forever ruining their life.
a more accurate analogy would be toxic chemicals in the waterslides that build up in the body, that takes a while to be expelled out
It’s more complex than this even. Not all drugs are that toxic. In fact some of the most addictive aren’t even that toxic at all like heroin. It’s things like addiction, overdose, lack of clean supply, and the side effects that make it dangerous.
Even ones that are destructive to the body aren’t always because of the chemicals they leave behind. Take meth for example: it’s bad because of how much strain and immediate damage it causes, not long lived toxins. In small doses it’s reasonably okay and is even prescribed by doctors sometimes. At amounts addicts do with the regularity they do them the damage builds up faster than it can be repaired by the body. MDMA, Amphetamine, Ketamine, and cocaine are similar here I believe.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, I mainly know about drugs from doing them and researching them online.
They did a piece on nicotine a while back that opened with how amazing it is followed by how it fucks up your body over time.
Drugs are honestly pretty meh. I’m not saying they can’t be fun and or that they are evil or anything, but I feel like you are seriously overhyping them.
I used to a lot of drugs and lots of different kinds too. Sure I had fun and I don’t massively regret it. But since I quit all drugs (including alcohol) several years ago I really have to say there are plenty of other things in life that are just as fun as drugs, if not much more so. There’s only so much you can experience with drugs and it gets old fast.
Would it not make them bad people if waterslides were that dangerous? They wouldn’t be lying, but they would be encouraging people to endanger themselves.
If there are even a few water slides that dangerous, then all water slides are potentially dangerous.
Arrogance, social pressure, and sometimes just plain low IQ.
That is indeed a description for those that widespread demonise drug users.
This is the kind of thing said by someone who has never spent any amount of mental energy trying to understand drugs and drug use in any way. This is not a thought someone develops organically through experimentation and reasoning. This is a line parroted by idiots and it’s the kind of thinking that criminalizes and stigmatizes drug use and gets millions of people killed.
Drug use is bad for health and absolutely does have the potential to spiral into a destructive addiction. Alcohol is a drug, by the way.
With that said, criminalizing drug use barely helps anyone - but the distribution must remain illegal.
Making distribution illegal just leads to people getting a bad supply that leads to overdoses and poisoning.
You are acting like a helicopter parent. Stop it. People have the right to make decisions about their own bodies and health.
Also you really want to ban all recreational drugs? Congrats you just removed one of people’s only outlets and caused more suicide, self-harm, and mental health issues.
Furthermore not even all drugs are addictive. Classical psychedelics actually are used to cure addictions, it’s highly unlikely you become addicted to one. It’s also one of the least dangerous forms of addiction you can have, and is better than whatever other addiction you would develop instead of if it weren’t there.
People have right to make decisions about their own bodies and health
Drugs are one of people’s only outlets
Don’t you see the issue on the intersection of these two points? People usually don’t make a free choice to go for drugs, they do it to make their life feel more bearable.
Solution? Don’t rally for drugs, rally for improving life conditions so that people wouldn’t try to escape reality.
distribution must remain illegal.
The cost of criminalization consistently outweighs the benefit, particularly when criminalization is paired with a dysfunctional criminal justice and incarceration system.
Courts disproportionately punish the young, poor, and colored, which is why you’ll never see a Sackler behind bars. Prisons harden younger people into more professional and organized crooks while they break older people and rapidly transform them into invalids. And criminalization of distribution without curtailing consumption just drives up prices and encourages cartelization and police corruption.
Sheriff’s gangs in California and Texas work hand in glove with the military police in Mexico and the CIA/DEA to transport protected cargo over the border, fattening everyone’s wallets under the pretext of drug prevention.
Sounds like more of a criminal justice issue than anything. It’s important enough to work on it instead of admitting defeat.
The fact that you say “drug use” as a blanket statement proves that you don’t know what you’re on about. There are a lot of drugs with a lot of effects, and even most controlled substances have approved medical applications (opiates for example).
You should look at drug scheduling in the US, which mostly captures if drugs have a medical application.
On a personal note, I hope you never have to face the kind of pain that makes you consider legal or illegal drugs as an outlet.
I know many drugs are used for medical purposes, but this is normally a “lesser evil” kind of situation where drugs are prescribed under heavy control to mitigate the effects of bad diseases and terrible symptoms.
US is actually quite lax at times on their regulation in that particular sphere.
On a personal note, I reciprocate yours.
So this machine is driving at high speeds and is incredibly dangerous and if it crashes while you are in it or riding it you’ll probably die.
Why are people using cars and motorcycles? I don’t get it!
Not a great analogy honestly, you can drive a car your whole life and your odds of dying in a car accident are probably like 1%. Meanwhile your odds of dying, or at the very least having very serious health effects, from using hard drugs your whole life are basically guaranteed.
Both of you are somewhat right. Drug abuse causes an increased risk in getting a bad medical condition. However, if you always drive faster than you should and don’t give a fuck about road laws(which is kinda the equivalent to abusing hard drugs) you might also end up in the hospital one day.
