Cannabis

[veloman]

Dont normally contribute to serious topics; normally stick to cricket or cycling in Off Topic but; I urge fellow Villa fans to think very carefully about this topic. Of the people I work with, I would estimate that 60% are cannabis users; however they happen to be prisoners.Of the remaining 40%, perhaps 30% are dealers but from my conversations with the dealers, who are mainly asian, they wouldnt touch it. I'm sure there are people who can smoke the odd,or even regular joint and get away with it but you will have to believe me when I say that some of the most vicious murders have been committed by"habitual" or "heavy" users. You would all know some of the cases but I darent quote them on here.

I agree that heavy use of alcohol is equally bad but why exacerbate a problem by legalising this stuff.

Finally, for those of us with children; would you be happy or even ambvilalent about your child having access to this drug?

Not meant to be a self-righteous lecture - just another point of view. Cheers

[maqroll]

Peasants do give cannabis a bad name though, because weed is an amplifier to who you are.

Not really true at all, weed isn't really an amplifier of anything - certainly not your character.

With regards to legalisation, well, decriminalisation I think we will see in the next 15 years. The tide against mindless blanket prohibition is just beginning to turn.

Well said on both points.

[claret75]

More or less everyone I know that smoked weed regularly were pro legalisation, but pretty much all of them have ended up **** up one way or another.

Maybe you're a jinx

How can you say that when you've no evidence, you don't know me Gringo.

[claret75]

I aim to please.

FWIW, I'm ambivalent on cannabis. I don't smoke it, more to do with the fact that I think smoking is a filthy habit than any problem I have with cannabis. I'm not entirely up to date with the latest politics on the matter, but I did spend most of my life from my late teens through to my late twenties (I'm 31 now) in the company of people who smoke weed on a regular basis, some of them did nothing but smoke the stuff. One of my mates went a bit paranoid a couple of years ago but he was taking the piss with the sheer volume he smoked. Everybody else seems to have turned out okay. They never seemed to have a problem getting hold of it either, and I doubt anybody who is in this thread has ever had major supply issues either, beyond the occasional weekend where their dealer has been dry or out of town. I dont know anybody who has got in serious trouble for smoking it either. Some people I know have been raided and fined and had stuff confiscated, but that is as bad as it ever got in the circles I mix in. Others have more extreme/unjust stories I'm sure, but the logic that weed should be legal just because beer is legal is insane. Other than being an easy position to attack if you are pro weed, it holds little value in the real world.

I'm pretty ambivalent on it as well tbh, i was just feeling a bit argumentative earlier

[b6bloke]

I have been through phases on the stuff and just came out of one, a few months on it a few years off with a puff in social circles. The funny thing is that when smoking it I could come on here and justify its use all day.

Everybody is different, some people I have seen on here can just smoke it of a weekend and go through the week without it fine, thats cool in my opinion but what stopped me this time around was that I notice more than I did a few years ago, about myself and others around me.

A mate of mine has been an addict for a good 18 years, I use the term addict as that is his description. I was around his one night and we went over to his mates and everyone there had the biggest bags of weed EACH, we smoked and chatted and had a really good night but then I was still shocked at the amount of weed so decided to bring it up and boy was it the life shock I needed.

The all referred to weed as their mistress, smoke it before work, driving and of an evening, they were all honest with no justification what so ever.

One guy told me that he had attempted to get off it and had to turn to booze to relax and then found himself drinking loads of an evening to compensate.

Another who I had noted as very intelligent (and I pointed this out) told me that he did have the intelligence to do more but would never be able to due to the weed.

The paranoia is an individual thing in my opinion but I noticed a short temper and lack of tolerance in others and myself.

For me, well I have a busy social life, I go to the gym, go out for a drink (even on my own) I read, work hard, I have a lot of ambition in developing my career.

When I slipped back on the weed it was chilled, I love the conversations, the humour and everything that goes with it but that night made me take a look at myself.

I had stopped reading, I had no motivation at work, in fact everything I had been doing to progress my career had been put on hold, even the gym which I love was either missed out or cut short and I found myself looking forward to a smoke. I had stopped going out as much and spent more time playing xbox with my stoner mates and never hit bed before 1am.

I decided to come off it and was moody (think it was the nicotine) and I felt restless for a few days. I am writing this because I have woken up this morning and for the first time in ages feeling fresh, looking forward to going to the gym and have decorating and loads of other stuff planned for the day.

If you can do it now and then fine but it can begin to take over your life but again everyone is different.

Oh yeh its nice to eat food and know when to stop

[MrWeedMcGrass]

The trick is to avoid doing it regularly or you start getting 'mentally addicted'. I cannot even contemplate working under the influence of THC. And reading anything is pretty much impossible unless it is a very interesting novel or a magazine. It will take you about half an hour to go through a page anyway.

And as I have said before , it depends on your personality as well. I have never felt addicted to it to be honest. Yes , you do look forward to smoking on the weekend but its the same as looking forward to doing anything else you like doing.

If you have loads of money and don't need to work then you can happily smoke it everyday.

But the above applies to any drug to be honest(Exception being some stimulant class drugs). I doubt i would be very productive under the influence of alcohol as well. And don't think I will be progressing much career wise if i turned up to work drunk everyday(Unless you are god aka Paul McGrath).

Generally , I have seen all the arguments against weed can be applied to Alcohol as well. Unfair that one is legal and one is not.

[b6bloke]

The trick is to avoid doing it regularly or you start getting 'mentally addicted'. I cannot even contemplate working under the influence of THC. And reading anything is pretty much impossible unless it is a very interesting novel or a magazine. It will take you about half an hour to go through a page anyway.

And as I have said before , it depends on your personality as well. I have never felt addicted to it to be honest. Yes , you do look forward to smoking on the weekend but its the same as looking forward to doing anything else you like doing.

If you have loads of money and don't need to work then you can happily smoke it everyday.

But the above applies to any drug to be honest(Exception being some stimulant class drugs). I doubt i would be very productive under the influence of alcohol as well. And don't think I will be progressing much career wise if i turned up to work drunk everyday(Unless you are god aka Paul McGrath).

Generally , I have seen all the arguments against weed can be applied to Alcohol as well. Unfair that one is legal and one is not.

You see you are a good argument, you do it of a weekend only and thats great, I tried that but couldn't resist having a toke midweek so that rules me out straight away, some may say I am weak but like has been said, everyone is different.

I will still have a smoke socially but have made a commitment to myself not to buy it.

I think the importance of this thread is not to argue for banning or legalising it but for smokers and non smokers to see others habits and how it affects them and maybe take something out of it.

[Stu_The_Villan]

Legalise it. Its one of the 'safest' drugs around. Safer than alcohol anyway.

Free the weed.

[Gringo]

Legalise it. Its one of the 'safest' drugs around. Safer than alcohol anyway.

Free the weed.

The Beeeeeb"]Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin' says Prof David Nutt

Alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack, according to a study published in medical journal the Lancet.

The report is co-authored by Professor David Nutt, the former UK chief drugs adviser who was sacked by the government in October 2009.

It ranks 20 drugs on 16 measures of harm to users and to wider society.

Tobacco and cocaine are judged to be equally harmful, while ecstasy and LSD are among the least damaging.

Harm score

Prof Nutt refused to leave the drugs debate when he was sacked from his official post by the former Labour Home Secretary, Alan Johnson.

He went on to form the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, a body which aims to investigate the drug issue without any political interference.

One of its other members is Dr Les King, another former government adviser who quit over Prof Nutt's treatment.

Members of the group, joined by two other experts, scored each drug for harms including mental and physical damage, addiction, crime and costs to the economy and communities.

[wiggyrichard]

I dont get this? So this bloke is saying that alcohol is more dangerous than cocaine, pills and heroin?

Give me a break!

[chris_avfc]

Legalise the Ganja!!

[Chindie]

Because of the criteria used there, alcohol is at a disadvantage because of it's widespread consumption compared to the other substances.

I'd also consider weighting something that can kill you quite easily (like a dodgy ecstasy tablet/too much heroin) much more heavily than something that requires severe misuse or long term misuse to cause severe harm.

[mjmooney]

You COULD kill yourself with one single drinking session, but it would be difficult.

[wiggyrichard]

You COULD kill yourself with one single drinking session, but it would be difficult.

Yes you could Mike, but that can be said for one line of coke, one 'E' or shooting brown for the first time.

[mjmooney]

You COULD kill yourself with one single drinking session, but it would be difficult.

Yes you could Mike, but that can be said for one line of coke, one 'E' or shooting brown for the first time.

That's exactly what I mean. It would be pretty hard to do with booze, comparatively easy with heroin.

[Chindie]

You COULD kill yourself with one single drinking session, but it would be difficult.

Hence my mentioning of severe misuse - you'd have to be an astronomic binge to manage it, assuming you were a healthy average person.

A shifty reaction to heroin, taking slightly too much for your own body to handle, or a single dodgy E could kill you, all of which would be considered normal use for anyone else.

[kidlewis]

the problem is that many of the illegal drugs are unpure, mixed with dodgy shit and with some, people are using shared needles and other tools which result in the spread of disease.

The deaths related to those drugs would reduce if it was regulated so the strengths and what those drugs are mixed with were safer than what goes on at the moment.

If you take some of those illegal drugs and it's distribution and compare it to alcohol and pubs,

it's like going to one pub to buy a lager (illegal drug A) and it is 5%, yet the supposed same thing in the next pub is 35%.

that would result in a lot more people dying from alcohol.

the whole thing needs regulating and decriminalising because upping something from Class C to B will not stop anyone who is currently doing it, carrying on do it.

you could put the death penalty in place for drug taking and people will still do it.

not sure when California vote on the weed, I hope it gets passed mainly to regulate the ridiculous strengths of skunk that are around at the moment. Some stuff is really mellow and nice to smoke, these stronger strains turn you into a mong.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

The correct and right thing to do would be to ban alcohol tomorrow but the people who make the laws and the sheep that vote for them won't.

I would be 100 % behind this.

If weed was at the top of the list people would fall over themselves to get on it with "See, look I told you ! We are right, they are SO wrong". Funny, when it's booze it all goes quiet. How strange but so very predictable.

The graph provided is about right IMO from what I know about the various items on the list apart from booze as it is more harmful than it suggested.

[LondonLax]

A lot of the problems with illegal drugs comes from the face that they are illegal and there is no regulation in their manufacture or any guide to the dosage.

It would be a lot easier to kill yourself on a single night on alcohol if it were made illegally. Perhaps labelled as 10% when it was actually 55% strength, mixed with turpentine or some other chemical to thin it out etc etc.

[mjmooney]

Generally speaking, kidlewis is right.

In an ideal world, I'd make all drugs legal and regulated. But that ideal world would be one in which people are educated, sensible and have a sense of proportion.

Unfortunately that ideal world does not exist. Given the problems we already have with alcohol abuse, I can't see how making the other drugs more easily available could be anything other than catastrophic.