im looking forward to the roadside tests for doped drivers... so many are caught with it in the car these days, and will be in for a shock when the new tests appear ... in Australia @Terrordales , they have the tongue swipe test that picks up 4 types of drug... some of the offenders are shocked when their told what their system has in it ...then pay the price ..
I've only had that once, on the way to the Nimbin Mardigrass. Nothing to see here, the copper couldn't believe someone could be so excited about having a drug test.
@Moons while I've enjoyed this debate, I think we will have to agree to disagree mate, you know how these threads turn out in the end and I genuinely don't want to fall out or upset any one. I stand by my views (and respect yours). My views are based on the people I know who smoke it, some of whom have been smoking weed since before I was born. They contribute to their local community and society as a whole, are responsible adults and shown no signs of paranoia, mental illness and who certainly pose no risk to anyone but them selves. They don't publicly advocate its use and are discreet, for fear of public demonization. These in my view, are the silent majority of users in this country who you will never know, suspect or hear about My point being that they should have the opportunity to make these choices for themselves (as I wish I could), free from persecution rather than live in an Orwellian world which make choices about what you can and cant do in the privacy of your own home. If you look for the bad in society, you will always find it I will bow out of the debate now, ultimately it's never going to be legalised in our lifetime so your fears are unlikely to be proved or disproved, but I will say one last thing.... Fear is the path to the dark side, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering
What's doing the damage is skunk , it's like having a pint of whiskey compared to a pint of beer in respect to the original Lebanese red , Maroc gold , and black where you could still be in control to certain degree . Skunk is man made instead of being natural like the mentioned . It's almost defeated the object skunk ...there just totally out of it spending all there toxic state trying to get themselves together rather than actually enjoying themselves .
Equitable reply, indeed you are the bigger person I have to say. I tend to write one way...usually at the jugular, my apologies for that. I'm more pessimistic about a Western world with everything of the best being populated by people wanting to step off when they have so much compared to the rest of the world. I want a society of people wide awake and wanting to contribute. It's bold I know, but given our blessings we should aim high.
That's not going to happen by banning canabis though. Wanting to ban something you have no experience of that possibly millions of people in this country enjoy is the kind of divisive nonsense that makes this country the society-free "every man for himself" place it is. Divide and conquer. Lets add immigration too. Not illegal but millions of people would have it so.
Sorry - I beg to differ - I have as close a relative as is physically possible for me to have that has had mental health issues for the past 4 years due to 25 years of 'happy' cannabis use - I don't know if he will improve and NO ONE from the pro lobby can tell me either. They merely speculate with non science. I also have friends in the mental health profession, one of whom states if you are going to take anything, the last thing you should take is the high strength stuff - the legislation does not differentiate between the strengths of the stuff, I don't either as we are talking across the board changes. Sorry if that is me laying it on strong buddy, you had no idea - but I do have very first hand knowledge of the 'high' points of drug use. As for Alcohol, I worked the door in city centers for 3 years and find it, in the wrong hands, is appalling and am sickened by it's excuse makers and advocates. I personally think any opiate for the masses, be it TV, facebook, alcohol or any form of drug - is 'them' winning over 'us'. I'm very content it's not a world view held by many.
I agree with this. What I don't like generally is unhappy curtain twitchers interfering in other peoples lives over subjects that have no effect on them one way or the other apart from in their "what if this happened" imaginations. As a general outlook, "get on with your own life and leave others to theirs" has more merit.
Whilst this thread is about cannabis, your comments could be used by the legalise heroin groups to justify their needs and wants. I've never taken cannabis or heroin but have had to sort out the mess that can and does occur afterwards.
Perhaps we should step back and ask why there has been an explosion in drug use of all types in the UK over the last few decades, rather than criminalise anyone and everyone caught up in it. It's noted that the numbers of binge-drinking youths is dropping off fast. This is a bit off-the-wall but Radio 1 breakfast program in the 90's has a lot to answer for IMO. We banned it in my house. Every Monday morning it was a competition to say who "had it largest" and "who could remember the least" about the weekend due to being the most "out of it". This followed on to Tuesdays when the DJ's were still having difficulty remembering with the unspoken undercurrent of "If you can remember what you did, you didn't take enough drugs". It's a cultural thing and Aunty Beeb was at the heart of it. When it has this level of acceptability, railing against and criminalising the actual users and followers of this culture is missing the point.
I know plenty of people who smoke weed, a few like cigarettes, not many I would let use any power tools, a couple really paranoid some who really have no go and do nothing with themselves but smoke and drink, lots of people smoke while driving, I would say the number that have turned out fine over the number that haven't is much lower, the people it's worse for is the ones with mental health issues, though alcohol is not very compatible with poor mental health either. I think if asked when your children were small is it something you hope they get into when their older most people would say no, that's a good indicator for me.
You do not know if your relative would have had mental health problems anyway. The chicken or the egg? If you are over the limit, but driving fine when some arse crashes into you, you get the blame and another accident is put down to drunk driving. Lies, damn lies and statistics! To be clear, I'm not in favour of legalising anything. So is breaking the speed limit and more effort is put into catching people who do this so if you base your decisions on the strength of society's reactions, it appears that speeding is taken more seriously so must be a worse crime? Do you ever do that?
The easiest and most profitable society to govern (UK Inc) is one where people only leave their houses to work and shop. By slowly chipping away at civil liberties this is where we're heading.
I'm not justifying anything the police focus on, if indeed they do focus on that. All I'm saying is that if something happens infront of you, you deal with it. Drugs, whichever one you care to abuse, are illegal, that's it, illegal. If you're caught with them, knowing they're illegal, or infact under the influence of them, same as caught committing any other offence, you will and should be subject to police action. Three 13-14 year olds broke into a house on their school holidays to smoke weed. Most crime in our area is committed by drug abusers of some sort. I'm not here to justify/ support anything or anyone and I appreciate that everyone has their point of view. I'm just saying, it's illegal, so you shouldnt be doing it.
I'm not sure I agree with all of this business about skunk being all anyone smokes nowadays. Sure, our mutual friend has smoked a fair bit of that, but he also likes a bit of thai stick, which is all over the place (especially since the stuff tends to be full of seeds, so it sort of ensures it's own reproduction!) or sticky black, which is a PITA to roll with I've heard. He recently got through some dirtbar from the seventies (NOS!) which was just about the same in strength. Not great, but takes the edge off an evening. Apparently. The way I see it, if you already have mental health issues then it's not for you. If you smoke and drive you're a tool, and these morons that tell you that it's perfectly safe are daft. It's safer than drink driving- that doesn't mean that it's safe. Other than that, in the places where Marajuana use has been legalised, tax income has gone right up and violent crime has gone right down. I can only assume that people who would drink are smoking instead- we're all aware or the perception of the average smoker compared to the average drinker. In conclusion, it'd be nice if it were legal, and I very much doubt that there would be any real negative effects with legalising it. We might get people bragging about it for a few weeks but that'd be about it. Since it's not legal, let my friend do his business in peace.
Well with the curtain twitching, chipping away at civil liberties and the government using the BBC for thought control, we appear to have the paranoia box ticked. I'm off to raid the fridge as I've got the munchies. Just sickness and heightened senses. Any volunteers? Sorry, just having a giggle. Oh there's another! Who needs weed?
Though I'm trying really hard not to promote the idea of legalising drugs, the lions share of the mess I would suggest is the direct result of the illegailty of both drugs. People who smoked dope didn't go crazy when I was a lad, but there's no denying that they do now. Apparently as well as THC there's a balancing constituent in natural strains that is now refined and used as an anti-psychotic drug. This is largely missing from skunk. That's what I understand, I might have got it wrong. If you bought the stuff in the newsagents maybe the balance could be controlled. Heroin? different problems and apart from people od'ing it's got to be breaking and entering, mugging, gang warefare? I know you have insight and respect your take on this subject.
