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

I have to admit to never having tried it, just like I've never been so drunk I don't know what I'm doing and I've never smoked, not even a puff. It's not because I'm a goody 2 shoes, it's because I'm a control freak.

I am however addicted to chocolate Though I give it up each lent to prove to myseld that I am still in control

The article was an interesting one, she does appear to blame others but she also lays a lot of it on herself, she knows that if she really wanted to she could quit, the part where she says she gives a dissapointed sigh each time she does something wrong shows how she blames herself.

I think she is right though, I think there should be more education, I only know what I do from playground tales and background reading. We once had Leah Betts Dad come to talk to us at school, it was an effective presentation, it made people think twice but it was very one sided.

Mel

Regular, heavy user, for a long time (sorry, used to be ), but I wouldn't say addicted. Drought hits and you go on and do what you normally would be doing - studying, reading, watching tv, going for walks, work, going to the cinema, whatever - not a bother, you sleep a bit lighter for a couple of days and that is it (at least for me and mine ).

Education is the most important thing, give people the info to make their own, informed choices. With drugs it would have to include the legal drugs, and then (if true) it would be 'effects similar to alcohol, except no violence, no hangover, and you are highly unlikely to end on the streets begging to support your cannabis habit (I have never, ever seen anyone begging to get money for there next joint, or even heard of it, unlike say heroine or alcohol) but weed is illegal kids'. It is not really good anti-drugs education.

I did find her a bit patronising, she doesn't seem to have seen addicted people coming off (sorry I mean '...quite unexpectedly, stopped...') stuff that is truely nasty, say alcohol or heroine, because she wouldn't be whinging about interupted sleep and vivid dreams if she had......
BCNU - Crescent

The fact of the mater is that she didn't expect the come downs, if she had she might not have got involved in the first place.

Also she was a heavy user for 15 years, that's a long time to use anything and then go cold turkey.

Maybe you find her patronising because you are educated?

Mel

thank god for different points of view eh?

i smoke a couple of spliffs a night, more at the weekend. would i say i'm addicted? mmmm.... probably, in much the same way as i'd say i'm addicted to chocolate or watching coronation street - its something i do.

i don't feel i have to justify myself. how many of us who drink socially at the weekend or have that medicinal glass of red wine every day feel they're addicted to alcohol (denial? more than just a river in egypt )

education is the key though. the 'war on drugs' has been a monumental failure. the more you tell someone not to do something, the more curiosity will get them. we need to arm people with the pros and cons of drug taking and leave the choice up to them. scare-mongering doesn't work. i wonder how many people have heard all the terrible things that blow is supposed to do, tried it, found that they'd been mislead and told half-truths - they then disbelieve everything and may go on to try harder drugs? that seems far more dangerous to me.

*Gets confessional bit out of the way* was a very occasional light user when i was a student, and not really since - don't really mix with people that do it much so don't often get the opportunity. I don't drink during the week at all (too old for boozing on school nights these days ) but drink quite a lot at weekends - say a bottle of wine over the course of saturday evening/night and half a bottle over the course of sunday. Never did any ohter kind of 'drug'.

I think that if you stop doing something and you feel that you need to do it again to feel normal/better then you have some level of addiction.

I can (and occasionally do) have dry weekends and don't feel bad for it - a bit better in fact . When smoking dope gets to the level where you feel the need to light up a joint in the morning before you can do anything else then you have a real problem, same as with drinking.

A slight side point, when I did mix with a crowd that smoked a lot it was easy to get hold of other drugs, I was regularly offered speed for example. A kind of 'if you liked that why not try this' atmosphere. It would have been easy to get into things that are much worse for you than cannabis.

I'm sure I had a point when i started this

Lady in a tree, depends what you mean by addicted, e.g I smoke a joint or two almost every day, you could say I was addicted, but then if I drank a glass of red wine everyday would that make me an alcholic?

I am a fairly heavy smoker, but can leave hash alone when required (eg exams, before interviews, when i will be driving, so I would say I wasnt addicted, but then if I am addicted surely the first reaction is denial. I would say I'm addicted more to the nicotine, if I abstain from hash I do get cravings but these are normally sorted out by a puff on a ciggie.

I doubt anyone will admit to being addicted to hash (on this site) but I have to admit, hash, like any drug could be psychologically addictive and perhaps at some points in my life I have depended on it too much.

>i wonder how many people have heard all the terrible things that blow is supposed to do, tried it, found that they'd been mislead and told half-truths<

I don't want to be difficult, but isn't the education a waste of time in that case?
I've used, lightly in the past. I don't have a mental state remotely resembling Lee perry's, Peter Tosh's, or even my mate (the paranoid schizophrenic, for those who remember that far back in this conversation ). I don't have lung cancer, like that which killed Bob Marley.
So I can assume that the attribution of these things to cannabis is a half-truth because they haven't happened to me when I smoked half a dozen joints in 1995?
I don't think so. The first step in 'educating' people about drugs and their dangers is that they approach said education with an open mind, surely?

I'm pretty straight at the moment, maybe i need to get loaded then come back

what i meant is isn't it more dangerous to 'frighten' people away from drugs with mis-information than to admit that, for some, cannabis is a good way to relax and its no more scary than alcohol?

when i was at school we had the obligatory 'just say no' talk, drugs were made out to be terrible, soul destroying substances (which in many case, of course, they are) we were told one puff of a joint and you'll inevitably become addicted to heroin - which is clearly wrong. there seemed to be no middle ground. i think we need to be sensible and practical when it comes to drugs education.

That's fair.
The 'smoke dope today die of heroin overdose tomorrow' school of drugs 'education' is complete and utter b*****s, to honest, and I've always felt so.
Or as Rat Scabies once memorably remarked 'If you can think of anything more likely to force kids into the arms of the local heroin dealer than Princess Di saying 'Say no to drugs', then I'd like to see it.'

That's fair.
The 'smoke dope today die of heroin overdose tomorrow' school of drugs 'education' is complete and utter b*****s, to honest, and I've always felt so.
Or as Rat Scabies once memorably remarked 'If you can think of anything more likely to force kids into the arms of the local heroin dealer than Princess Di saying 'Say no to drugs', then I'd like to see it.'

Shock horror! .

I would agree that cannabis has harmful side effects, but these are mainly apparent when smoked. But in comparison to most other drugs including alcohol and tobacco, it is very safe. Smoking can give you cancer + heart disease, regardless of what you smoke.

Current research suggest most other side effects of cannabis are reversed if you stop consuming the drug for a prolonged period. Lee perry I belive still smokes copius amounts and is not your averge light to medium user.

I couldn't comment about your mate but smoking has does not cause schitzophrenia (sic), most people with this condition develop it in thier late teens or in there twenties. Sure this is when most people experiment with hash, so althogh hash *may* precipitate latent schitzophrenia, it dosnt cause it.

The whole idea of education on drugs is to say "this might happen if you take it" or "risks include..." the purpose is also not to say "try it its harmless" (which you may get off your peers) but to give the *facts* and allow people to make there own mind up, not the just say no or scare tactics, they are lies as most user will never experience these problems.

The need for decent education on drugs is to avoid the incorrect polarised arguments.

If you abstain before driving I hope you only drive about once a month becuse I believe that it can stay in your system for several weeks

A friend of the family lost his arm in an accident where the driver was stoned/high, there is no excuse, just like there is none for drink driving.

Mel

I am strongly reminded of Tallulah Bankhead's comment when told that coccaine was addictive 'of course it isn't', she is reputed to have said, 'I have been taking it every day for years, so I should know'.



I know I am not addicted to cannabis because I can use it and not use it. I don't use when I am working because it slows down my mental abilities the next day. I tend to work for 6 or 8 months or so and then take 4 - 8 weeks off, so we are talking about quite destinct changes of pattern here.

In fact the things that annoy me most about cannabis are that I tend to put on weight when I smoke it and I *do* get mildly addicted to nicotine. In fact the last time I stopped smoking cannabis I continued with the tobacco, and now (yesterday and today) I am stopping smoking tobacco. Now *that* I do miss.

The fundamental question is do we consider it to be acceptable to let people f**k up their lives?

Or do we want to live in a society where freedom is restricted so that no-one actually can? And whatever makes us think that would actually work?

B

I didn't, and wouldn't say my friends schizophrenia was caused by cannabis. You'd need to go back and read all I said earlier about his condition.

I'm all in favour of educating people about the dangers of all drugs, but I think in the case of drugs were no long term tests have been conducted, then that education *has* to include all the things that *may* result from heavy usage. Once we have properly established, clinical tests, then you can start to approach it differently.

A very interesting point, and one that i wonder about constantly in my job. Just about every time we have a drug fuelled murder, an alcohol fuelled riot or a net fuelled peadophilia case...

I didn't, and wouldn't say my friends schizophrenia was caused by cannabis. You'd need to go back and read all I said earlier about his condition.

I'm all in favour of educating people about the dangers of all drugs, but I think in the case of drugs were no long term tests have been conducted, then that education *has* to include all the things that *may* result from heavy usage. Once we have properly established, clinical tests, then you can start to approach it differently.

A very interesting point, and one that i wonder about constantly in my job. Just about every time we have a drug fuelled murder, an alcohol fuelled riot or a net fuelled peadophilia case...

I think my failing in this conversation is that I just can't see the attraction to smoking/drugs or even dunkeness. They all seem a complete waste of time and I just don't understand why people do them.

We all have emotional difficulties at some points in our lives, sorry if I sound like a harsh b***h but just learn to cope with them, drugs are not the answer. I was bullied as a kid, I survived.

A lot of people do it for fun you say, well maybe they ought to get out more, there is more to life, and if like the article you need it to stop feeling alone, maybe if you weren't drugged up all the time you wouldn't be alone in the first place. If you feel that you need drugs to make spending time with your friends more fun, maybe you ought to consider changing your friendship groups.

Rant over just need to get it out of my system, it might also spark some interesting replies I'm sure, you have to understand however that I have little experience of drugs other than seeing them ruin my friends lives, I'm bound to be anti them.

Mel

I dive about once every six months (i live in a city therefore dont require a car) and normally abstain for about a day. Hash does stay in you system for a round a month (depending on tolerance and usage)but I dont think that would actually constitute being stoned if your last smoke was a month previous! Thing is there is a limit for booze and an absolute zero tolerece for drugs, a very tricky area .

If it's zero tolerance and you have an accident having only abstiened for a day you might just find yourself not driving at all!

Mel

Cannabis stays in the system for about a month. Hence one reason, as I believe was mentioned earlier, why the army and the like have 3 week holidays and why cannabis is not as popular in prisons as harder drugs (which disappear from your system in hours to days).
Given this, i would venture that 'stays in the system' and 'is active' are two different things.

I think the personal differences on effect are something that really does need to be researched further. I know of 2 people for whom cannabis does nothing. Well, one of them it gave her a headache and that was it. The other guy it occasionally works. However, that may be complicated due to chronic depression (which existed well before he tried ganja). So presumably if some people can be (relatively) unaffected and take or leave it, then there is a good chance that there are other people for whom the effects are equally increased and they, presumably, would find it easier to be addicted. Personally I've never had hallucinations off it, but I know others who get it fairly regularly (although that can be down to type of weed as much as owt else).

If that'ss how I waffle when straight, imagine me stoned......

The worst drug is alcohol.
I know several chronic alcoholics and their lives are distroyed, and they cannot have conversations, jobs, anymore.
When at Uni, I knew quite a few really heavy users, simular to the chronic alcoholic state they HAD to have a splkiff in teh morning to get going.... Then throughout the day. They might have missed a few lectures, but its not completely screwed up their lives, and I know of two who now have steady jobs, both of whom have adjusted their comsumption in line with their work.