h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Someone you know but not very well (and they're not a friend) comes to your house to drop something off. On the way out they also mistakenly drop on the path a small bag with some rather nice cannabis heads in it (a couple of joints' worth). You know you will see this person several times in the next week or so. What, if anything, do you do with the weed?

Hey kea

I'd give them some of it back.

Smoke it! Then change your tag to 'chilledoutsloth'

*waves to Pedro*

Hey you two - had both those suggestions in RL Besides I think I'm probably going slow enough as it is

Actually I'm interested in what other people would do in this situation (rather than advice about what I should do). I could be wrong but because it's drugs it seems different than if it was say money or something personal, which is why I was interested in what others would do.

Hi Kea
It is a tricky one. I don't know what i would do. It is only weed afterall, it would be different if it was heroin or something. I would most likely hand it back.

I'd give it back, without any comment beyond 'you dropped this the other day'. I certainly wouldn't get all pious about it; that would be hypocritical...

In the case of a stronger drug, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd want to be rid of it one way or another as soon as possible, though.

I think I would flush it down the loo... I know I'm very boring and all that. If the person dropped it, he won't know it was at my place. And can bl**dy well support the habit without my help.

If it were heavier drugs, I migh call police. Perhaps.

Cigarrettes, I would just nick!

The other suggestion I've had is to keep it and give it to a friend for christmas (which, for me, is preferable to flushing it). I'm unlikely to smoke it myself (for various reasons) but if I give it back I have to acknowledge that I know the person smokes. Which seems kind of weird because it's not something I would know about this person otherwise.


Milla if it was say half a carton of ciggies would you still hang on to it?

I'd give it back if it were weed, money, cigs . . . if it were something like heroin I'd probably flush it.


az

Please don't flush it! There are enough problems with the chemical content of our recycled water as it is - the sewage powers that be can chlorinate it and they can filter it and they can blast it with rays from SuperGammaThetaBlah but they can't take out the bleach from toilet cleaners, eostrogen from the pill, and now heroin and pot from Azahar's and Kea's households. Where do you two live again? I want to be your neighbour...

Wilma glugging her Evian

Carton as in 10 packs of cigs in a big box? First, I guess it might make enough of a thud, that the owner might notice... And I might alert the person to it. Not that cigs are harmless, but atleast not illegal.

Wilma, I forgot about the environment! I'll burn it on my barbecue at midnight next time

Oh yeah, missed you out, didn't I?? Naughty, flushing things down the loo like that ...
Can I come dance around your barbie and sniff the air?

W

Yeah, burn it on the barbie, and make sure you have lots of food to go on after it.

I'd give it back the next time I saw them. As far as I'm concerned it's theirs, so I should return it to them whether I approve of it or not. What they do with it is their choice not mine. If it were something 'more illegal' I would feel uncomfortable hanging on to it, so if I couldn't give it back to them immediately I would hand it in to the police, just saying I found it on the street.
It seems to me that you feel embarassed about letting them know that you know that they smoke rather than disapproving of it. If anyone should be embarassed in that situation it should be them not you.

Well, on a charitable day, I would give it back, or at least contact them and say 'while you were over the other day you dropped some stuff...'. See if this person is decent enough, then they deserve to be put out of their misery and their mind put at rest - if they are a smoker then they have probably been spending the time since they lost the baggy thinking and worrying about the most paranoid place they could of lost it in.

on a less charitable day, I would not give it back, I would contact them and say 'while you were over the other day you dropped some stuff... but when I went out to pick it up a dog suddenly ran into my garden, ate the bag and ran off.'

Then I would sit on the sofa with a good movie and a few tubes of Pringles.

The right thing to do is to give it back, the wrong thing to do is to keep it. Destroying it would be petty & pointless though it might get you 'Leter of day' in the Daily M. if you wrote to them.

Pointless statistic from yresterday's Evening Standard: '40% of young French drivers killed on the road had cannabis in their blood'.

I bet 100% of them had oxygen in their blood as well!

I get a little worried. I see a huge difference in having drug residues in the blood compared to having oxygen to keep them alive... How come cannabis is not seen as a drug to you? Why is it pointless? Is it pointless to mention that drunk drivers kill themselves, passengers and other people now and then?

In short, how can drugs be OK?

The tests used today do not actually detect cannabis in the body, but downstream chemicals from the breaking up of cannabis. These chemicals can reside in the body for a long, long time after cannabis use - six weeks is the usual time quoted.

So the people could have been clean for over a month, but still test positive for cannabis. Until later...
BCNU - Crescent

Oops! Totally forgot about the environment, Wilma. But if it *was* something like heroin I sure wouldn't want to have it in my home, so then I guess I'd call the person and ask them to come and pick it up right away. I wouldn't take it to the police as it might cause some uncomfortable questions (and I'm a lousy liar) and who knows, they might dust the plastic for fingerprints.

Come to think of it, I'd probably also call the person if it was weed - no temptation for me there since I don't smoke the stuff (might have a moral dilemma in the unlikely circumstance of them dropping a bottle of rioja reserva that remained intact ). Likewise if it was money - I'd call them. Probably with a packet of cigs I'd just leave it on my bookcase until next time they came over.

I wouldn't really consider the embarrassment issue as it wouldn't be embarrassing for me.


az

OK. The statement only mentioned that cannabis was in these peoples' systems. It dodn't mention:

1) How much cannabis was in the system
2) what other things were in the system (such as alchohol, NSAIDs etc)
3) How much sleep the individuals had...

You get my drift. Saying they had cannabis in their bloodstream is irrlevant unless the person saying it wants to prove a point to people who don't question anything they read.

Human beings are drug users. The concentration of drugs we take might be (well, it is) excessive but we take drugs because they are natural part of our lives. Making psylocibin mushrooms illegal is a perfect example of how thre 'drugs are bad' media/political agenda has corrupted people's minds to the point where there can't be a rational debate.

Take mushies once. If you don't like them don't take them again.