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

Y'know, I posted somthing, but it hasn't turned up and I can't remember what it was. Ectasy - causes long term paranoia and depression.

And memory failiure? (see post 219)

Ahh, I'm sure that wasn't there earlier.
It loks an awful lot like I smoke to much of that stuff know, but i don't, honest.

Smoking ecstasy? Am I behind on the times or something? I'm impressed CMaster

Well, the conversation was originally abot cannabis.
Altho smoking ectasy does sound interesting

I have only two things to say.
1) Fynn, I would have thought you of all people on this site, with the exception of one other might be able to spot me having a bad day. I've already apologised for my rather ill-tempered outburst and I ain't gonna do it again.
2) On the plus side, post 188 has made it into my 'User's Guide on the Blues Shark'.

Rather Random!

So Ecstasy does have side-effects, are they more or less, better or worse that those of smoking/drinking?

Mel

Random is what happens when you come back from holiday to find a friend appears to have lobbed a shrapnel grenade into the bunker with you and the rabid rats.

In the long term, the answer is: different, and to some extent unknown. That doesn't help at all does it?

It also depends on the level of use - one glass of wine a week probably won't cause you any damage but a bottle of vodka a day probably will.

Laboratory tests on rats (which have a very similar brain structure to ours) indicated that as few as two doses could cause irrevocable changes to the way in which the brain works.

As an aside, the number of Ecstasy related deaths doubled in the last year according to the latest report from the Centre for Addiction Studies at St Georges hospital in South London.

As well as methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (mdma) and methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (mdea), there is apparently a new variant paramethoxyamphetamine (pma) doing the rounds. Can't say I've come across it yet.

so the one off drink wont harm, but the one off ecstasy drug might appears to be the conclusion, which is probably why it's still class A.

Mel

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2163416.stm

Can't be that bad for you then. Or are they all saying that they did 'cos they're nerds and want to look

Yeah, and all those reliable, delivered on time IT projects, you'd hardly know would you?

Certainl;y goes some way to explaining certain pieces of software.

I wonder which 72% of me tried it without telling the other 28% me about it?

Damn - I work in IT in the finance sector - surprised plod aint following me all day long........

it's a good point tho' i have a friend who works in the upper echelons of the business world. High powered multi million pound deals and all that.

I was staggered at the amount of drugs going around in these circles. Cannabis and cocaine still seem to be the favourites. Looking at the people, the lifestyles and so forth of those I've met, it would appear that a large proportion of UK (and US) business is fuelled at the top level by Class-As and Class Bs. I understand why, these people have pots of cash, work all day everyday and, in my experiance, are incapable of relaxing in the small amount of time off they have without some form of external aid.

Just so you don;t all think drug users are all on the streets or in uni's!

I was being serious - as a minimum one spliff a day man.

Certainly using cannabis has had little effect on my work - whereas alcohol caused me no end of problems - so I gave up booze my career took off at that point......

Also IT so mine was, perhaps, based on experiance. Other than that, not sazying owt!

So, just to add a twist to all this, what do people think of companies drugs testing their employees?

Personally I think it is OK if used to detect usage / effects during work hours (ie you had a joint on the drive in or something) but not OK if it's used to discriminate on what you did last week. I know cannabis stays in the system for up to 4 weeks (which is one reason why the army lets you have 3 weeks off ) but can a blood test distinguish between a joint at lunch time and a joint last saturday nite?

Well I only smoke when I am between contracts, it slows me down too much.

But this news piece is unbelievably sloppy.


'A survey about cannabis use has found that people who work in the technology industry are the most likely to have tried the drug.'

Most likely compared with what? All jobs? All professions? All ways of passing the time? Did it include those in jail, for example? Or students? Or the retired?

And what does 'work in the technology industry' mean? If you drive a forklift in a computer factory do you 'work in the technology industry?' If you put together the network for the 10-person company you work for do you 'work in the technology industry'? Is bio-tech 'tenchnology'? TV? The music industry? Aerospace? Arms manufacturing? Does 'Telecoms' include call-centres?

'The results reveal that almost a third of those who admitted they had tried cannabis worked in the technology and telecommunications industries.' - But did they work in tech and telecomms at the time of the survey? Or had they worked there at some time? I ask, because the second number will be substantially larger than the first.

'Overall the survey found that 72% of those questioned admitted that they had tried the drug at one time or another. Almost 92% of the people that work in the technology and telecommunications industries answered "yes" to the survey's question asking if they had ever smoked cannabis.'

Ok, this is a more accurate way of presenting the information.

'"but the high proportion of users in the IT sector is considerably higher than we suspected." The industry sector with the second largest group of admitted users is the financial world in which almost 79% said they had once been users of cannabis.'

I wonder if that has to do with the demographic - the age range of the people who work in those two industries? And what exactly *is* the financial world? Does the local branch of Lloyds TSB count? If you design and build IT systems for exchanges are you in 'the Technology Industry' or in 'the Financial World'? Or both? If both, do they count you twice?

'Least likely to be cannabis users were those employed in the leisure and travel industry. Only 61.5% of those questioned that worked in this group confessed that they had used it.'

Not a suprise. But this group presumably includes everything from pool attendants and aerobics instructors to cabin crew and tour guides. The former will be wary of being busted while travelling; the latter will have a greater focus on fitness and health and are more likely to get high on endorphins anyway. Not enough detail to be interesting.

'About 22% of those questioned who work in the teaching profession said they tried the drug on almost a daily basis.' Now that IS interesing. Poor buggers. I would need a little extra to get me through the day if I worked for the Department of Education, or whatever it is called these days.

But I dislike the sloppiness in reports like this. It is anecdotal evidence masquerading as fact.

B

For 'former' read 'latter' and vice versa.

That will teach me not to preview.

*waves to Ben*

the stats for the 'teching industry' seem about right to me

W***E

**shambles off on holiday to get very, very stoned while painting her room and listening to mark and lard - the perfect holiday!**