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

opps - when are we going to get a spell checker?

... it's *actually* true this time!

what's that famous catch-phrase again...

I worked for a small market research for a while, and i can well imagine how they got these results.

The key thing is to find out what they are *hoping* to discover, and then make sure the results reflect that.

In this case, there is one key phrase you haven't highlighted, Bill (?) -

>>
"Obviously, cannabis users work in a variety of professions," said James Malach, creative director at technology firm TongueWag, which commissioned the survey, "but the high proportion of users in the IT sector is considerably higher than we suspected."
<<

Co-incidentally, this 'shocking' revelation about cannabis use in the technology industry was commissioned by... What specific area of the 'tech' industry do you think TongueWag are in?

cya
spiff

What amazes me is that they call 60+% low.

Mel *obviously shielded to the number of people who actually do drugs*

The statistics were 'tried', not 'do' reguarly.
I think.

I don't think anyone really knows how much use there is, well maybe you could hazard a guess if you're on the selling side.

But then again, you can only ever take statistics for a certain area, you would have to make a complete census to really gauge the level of use and then half the population would probably lie

Mel

Easy to get hold of?! It took me 6 years! Then again, I wasn't about to buy from strangers in a pub, had one bad trip and that was enough. I have been advised to get some for medical reasons, shame they couldn't prescribe it as well! Still least its now waiting for a free evening, I can relax at last!

Canabis isn't legal anywhere in the world. It's difficult therefore to leaglise it as this then would make the UK the world centre for drug dealers who deal in everything, not just canabis.

Decrimilisation means there is no penalty for having a certain amount of cannabis or for certain 'coffee shops' to deal it. As it is still illegal this stops big business getting involved and all the drug dealers moving in. Ths is the system they followed in the Netherlands which seems to have worked for them.

I think so long as it the system is used carefully it should work ok. Though there wont be people saying...just of to amsterdamn for the weekend!

Will the others say just off to England for the weekend instead though?

Mel

Wow missed a fair bit in the last week!
Just to stir up a thing about prescription drugs and E, not a great comparison as prescription drugs are given under controlled conditions, so I'd ignore such stats its not really on to compare them.
E.G
1/3 of people taking asperin/brufen for arthritic conditions will develop complications including stomach ulcers, surgery is safer (1:10000 for serius complications), but the perceived risk is greater. So I think the problem with comparing E to prescription medicine is that we percive the risk of prescribed drugs as low (some belive they are virtually harmless), when in fact many are very dangerous, exactly why they are prescription only drugs.
The fact may be that E could be as "safe" as many prescripton drugs, but the fact that it is taken impure and uncontrolled (or as a coctail)makes it much more of a gamble.

its legal in canberra, capital city of australia, you are allowed to grow upto 6 plant less than 1 meter high

So maybe we should make E prescription. Diagnosis - Party goer, prescription E, would it be available on the NHS though

Mel

Yeah, I think that was the point. That a non-controlled substance, when you look at the statistics, actually seems safer than many prescription drugs and could be made even safer through regulation of MDMA dosage/purity by the government. This argument is even more compelling in the case of herion (which, I think, is just one hydroxyl group away from morphine, addictive but harmless).

Question: Even if all drugs were made legal and sold or prescribed in a controlled manner, would the current (criminal) dealer and supplier network try to undercut these prices? I find it hard to believe that they would just shut up shop and admit defeat.

Anyway, it's early and I can't function without my just-got-to-work cup of tea.

Ste

Morphine, addictive, but harmless.

History's most famous morhine addict-a fat lunatic called Hermann Goering.

Not a good advert is it?

Dammit. No, not really.

I'm sure there is such thing as a Morphine overdose, but the argument is that if Heroin is regulated the dosages can be standardised and people can safely take it.

Ste, who has just realised he capitalises the names of drugs, but not the word 'god'.

I was only being facetious, really.

I follow the argument, and even agree with it to a certain extent.

Morphine, harmless?
Erm, you weren't being serious were you blues?

It was me who said it. Veterans who become addicted to morphine (small 'm') after battlefield injuries have been known to happily take a regular dose for the rest of their lives with no ill effects.

Simple - if all drugs were sold in a controlled manner, the real addicts would get fed up with the controls and go to the dealers And the lack of tax would make it profitable, just like tobbacco smuggling.

Morphine is semi harmles (I don't know all the facts so am covering my a**e a little here!) when taken in small doses, however, some relatives of cancer patients believe that it was the morphine that killed them rather than the actual cancer just because of the need for extremely high doses to kill the pain

I think the price of drugs would come down if they became controlled, but as has already been mentioned the tax levels would increase. Whether it would mean that the black market prices would come down I don't know, it depends on the current price and the estimated price plus tax. It also depends on the quality that the black market could supply.

Are the reasons that drugs ruin lives mainly due to monetry problems or are they to do with the personality changes and the fact that they are lying high on the floor for a large proportion of their day?

Mel