Don't Do Drugs

Last year, there was a pretty big scare when 72 people were admitted to the hospital for drug overdose; of those 72 people, there was one death.

There was an article about this posted on Monday.

There's a photo of the young adult in the link below.

http://mynorthwest.com/980/2530442/...ed-in-2013-Gorge-overdose-want-to-warn-others

 

This is the discussion section so I will tell you this, there isn't a person out there addicted to drugs that doesn't know that they are "bad" and they "should stop". The public has been educated to death on the subject and time and time again it has been proven that education isn't even close to being enough.

 

The problem with drugs, and this goes for anything addicting: Is that they're addicting. Once you're hooked, it's very hard to break the habit and easy to fall back into it. Especially when you're in college and you're at a party or a rave/dance. It happens to any kid, any adult, anyone. It can happen just once and ruin someones life, even inadvertently.

A few years ago I watched Micheal Phelps probably the most talented athlete of this time with millions of dollars being thrown at him. Six months after he won eight gold medals in a single Olympics, had hundreds of offers and deals on his plate...

He smoked a bong at a party. Some college student took a picture of it, sold it to the press for god-knows how much. And BAM... His career was over for any sponsorship and/or advertisement just as quickly as it begun. Did he know this was going to happen? No. Was he stupid to still do it? Yes. He was a dumbass and his mom probably ripped him a new one over it. He did it probably because he wanted to or have some fun, but it still ruined him for a long time if not permanently because he was a college student trying to be "cool" or fit in.

I really don't have a solution to know what will solve the drug problem. It's a highly addictive thing that many kids will at least smoke once and be addicted for their rest of their lives. It is a sad article, though.

 

I adore how a good deal of this is connected directly to the Electronic music community. Personally, I find electronic music to be one of the most banal and most lack in structure when it comes to music. Often. It takes a really good song from this genre to make me feel like they actually tried. All the same, what musical atmosphere doesn't have its share of drug users? What? Are we going to say: "Don't go to Music Concerts, or you'll die"?

And yes, there's a drug community that exists in this day and age that's tediously obligatory. Many older people will chastise a young celebrity for even the least heinous of drug charges, but for the youth, it's another day in Dubie park. I've never smoked anything, and I don't drink. I'm naturally mellow, and I have an addictive personality. But I do use at least one harmful drug. Caffeine. God, I wish I'd never drank a single soda in my life. Nice little stimulant that makes you feel like dying is a good idea if you try to give it up, and it's so readily available. "Hmmm, I'm out to eat, and there's a Soda machine. I'll treat myself. And continue to treat myself everyday at every meal because even though I finally managed to give soda up, I now want this at every waking moment again." Is Molly=Caffeine. Of course not. But I don't quite judge the parents who don't let their kids drink soda at all... I used to too.

My advice: At least think about what you're putting in your body the first time you do it. Especially if that thing has billion dollar advertisers.

 

I dunno man, drugs are pretty cool.

But only certain kinds (bud, alcohol, shrooms and LSD), and only while taken in moderation (like most things). If you take the drugs that I mentioned in moderation, then it's possible that you can live a normal life while enjoying a high every now and again (granted that you don't have to take drug tests for work or school and your stuff isn't laced or anything, which is indeed a risk). This is good, because drugs such as these inspire epiphanies, great works of art/music, provides an escape from the mundane, evoke philosophical thought and a feeling of well-being among other things.

Unfortunately, people take said drugs, and other less than safe, highly addictive drugs that can lead to an overdose, and overdo them, which leads to a less than ideal lifestyle (addiction, possible permanent brain damage etc.) and potentially death. I think the problem is, not so much that people don't know that DRUGS R BAD, but instead that they don't know moderation, don't know what drugs are truly detrimental in the long run, and don't know which of them are physically addicting. Now, I'm not gonna propose that schools preach that some drugs are okay and some aren't.

Instead, think of it this way. Perhaps drugs are a form of natural selection? Kind of a ****ed way of think about it, but maybe (certain) drugs are a gift to those who can manage moderation, enjoy "enlightenment" and a break from the mundane and perhaps drugs are also a form of natural selection by eliminating those who're too weak-willed for moderation, or are too naive to research what's dangerous and what's less dangerous.

Of course, I'm probably thinking a bit too analytically here. Perhaps better education on the negative effects of drugs would be best, since people are generally too stupid to know what moderation is.[DOUBLEPOST=1401341774][/DOUBLEPOST]

Yeah, but, it can also help someone's life as well. One of my friends had been dealing with severe depression, anxiety, and a lack of sleep. I'd suggested that she either deal with a psychiatrist and be diagnosed with tons of potentially harmful, potentially addictive and expensive pills, or just start smoking bud again. She decided to take my advice and started smoking bud again, and she thanked me telling me how much better she can sleep now, how she's less anxious and more relaxed. And she does it casually, so she's not baked out of her mind every single day. I'm not advocating the use of drugs, but...some good does come from them. Disclaimer: weed is pretty harmless, legalize it yadda yadda yadda

I don't think he gives good goddamn about what his mom thinks, since he's worth $55 million and is pretty much set for life at this point haha.

 

It is drummed into our heads and yet people still take them. Most of the people at my work either smoke cigarettes (not an illegal drug but I am counting it here) or weed or both and one of the people I get on with best was trying to convince me to try Weed. He explained that it's not that bad, not addictive etc. but I refuse to be drawn into any drug use. Part of me is really curious but since I've never tried any of them then I don't know what I am missing and I would much rather stay that way lest I get addicted to another drug or somehow fall into the bad lifestyle. I am basically being better safe than sorry and the same with cigarettes but I know they are addictive and really don't want to get into that lifestyle. It's the same reason I don't drink tea or coffee, I really don't want to become dependent on any of them, they are not nearly as bad but I am fine the way I am currently. Chocolate, chocolate is my drug and that's all I really need : D

Of course, this is just my philosophy and I have just scared myself shitless into ever trying one. Other people obviously find a lot of relief in them and it is sad that a lot of them don't find the right moderation and get strongly addicted. It mostly comes out in the way of alcohol addiction but can go onto more severe drug use. No amount of education will stop that, I see it more as a psychological issue (but I study psychology... so I suppose that's how I see the world xD)

 

Bleh as a kid, I was constantly told by my parents to avoid drugs and stay away from people that use them. I followed their words because I knew what the consequences were if I were to take them. Back then, the worst part about taking drugs was giving you bad health problems. These days, it's all about overdosing and people killing one another over this stuff. Yea I don't take drugs and I hopefully never will take drugs. I dunno. Maybe I go the the deepest part of my life and I'm on the streets or somethin. Plz let it never happen D:

I wouldn't say drugs are SUPER BAD. There are far worse things out there than a simple pipe or a joint, but I think it's also something people shouldn't treat lightly. It's like eating food. Food isn't bad, but if left unchecked, it can lead to serious problems like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, ect. I think the reason why drugs are looked down upon is because the people leave it unchecked and let it harm their body and those around them. Since it's so addictive, the user really has no idea what's going on.

So yea. There's no real reason to take drugs, but at least be responsible about it if you plan to do so.

 

Not really... He lost all of the money he was going to get from ad revenues, etc... The companies dropped him as soon as they saw the picture. He might be worth some money, but not close to how much he could be.

 

As far as I can tell, it was only Kelloggs that dropped him. He still has a whole host of other sponsors that stuck by him.

 

For all you know you could just grab a burrito and die of food poisoning. Difference is burritos are legal and therefore the places who make/transport/sell them are submitted to a shitload of regulations and controls. Drug dealers aren' t.

Dunno if it' s a thing in the US, they seem far more interested in profitable repression than prevention, but in Europe there are a few centers for heavy drug addicts. They' ll test your stuff to check if it' s indeed what you were told it was. They' ll also make sure that your needle is sterile, that you won' t leave it where a kid might find it and that you won' t drown in your own vomit once you' re knocked out. If you were gonna take it with or without the help they might as well do help.

I also heard that testing stands are sometimes put in place in rave parties. You bring them your stuff, they' ll tell you what it really is. They realized long ago that no amount of searches can keep drugs out forever.

 

Awful quality but

That's essentially the argument that Gale uses to justify cooking crystal meth in Breaking Bad and, despite my general dislike of libertarianism, it's a pretty good one here. One could argue he is simply attempting to rationalize his behavior, as one could argue for most of Breaking Bad in general, but it's a point of pride to Walt as well that his product is unadulterated. Walt differs of course because he is concerned about ego more so than the quality of the drug, but the sentiment is still a notable one. People want to do drugs and so they're going to do drugs; we could simply say that stopping it is impossible and attempt to regulate the quality or just let people have at it (a crossroads we've reached with marijuana, not quite at some of the harder drugs).

 

The exact same argument could and has been used to promote sex ed. About that, I know that some of your states have an abstinence only pretense of a sex ed (those that also happen to have the most dreadful STDs and unwanted pregnancy statistics btw), but what about "drugs ed" ? Do you have anything like that ? In my country some doctors do pop up to teach students a thing or two about drugs (though it' s just for a couple hours tops).

 

I remember as a kid going to something called the "D.A.R.E." program... That's basically it for my education on anti-drugs, though I think they covered it again in health class which was a requirement for any kid to graduate high school. Though driver's ed we had to watch a video about drunk driving, that video scared me into being sober.

The sex ed thing here is a sensitive topic, mainly because some religions think it's just "taboo" to mention sex and/or birth control. I'm staying neutral because of my policy that I don't talk about religion with people, but that's one of the problems I heard.

It's interesting about your drug policies, it's sorta like prostitution which is illegal here, but elsewhere is not only legal, but they have fantastic health care. A lot of the times I honestly believe the U.S. is still stuck somewhere in the 20th century.

 

It' s bad because X said so, for reasons he' ll never ever bother to reveal to you mongrels, so just don' t do it. Don' t even talk about it. Let alone question it you Lucifer you. Sounds like bible thinking alright (not that it copyrighted it).

Problem is that never works, curiosity will kill the cat sooner or later. If you were to leave a dirty carton box on a public bench no one would pay it any attention. But if you were to write "do not open" on the box ...

So yeah, you might as well enlighten the kitten about what he' ll face should he not head your warnings instead of yelling "told you so" and laugh. Statistics are crystal clear about that, sweeping problems under the taboo rug only makes them worse.

 

For marijuana it's not as bad as let's say heroine or even better krokodil (I do not recommend looking that up unless you have a strong stomach). Marijuana doesn't have that risk of inevitable death that more serious drugs have. Anybody can get access to drugs if they want to, hell you could trip balls over some allergy meds if you wanted to.

My father has pounded this into my head time after time and chances are I am misquoted him x 1000 on this one because memory loss is a *****, but education isn't enough, we need to find out why someone decided to go to drugs and we need to treat that cause because there isn't anybody out there that does heroine that doesn't know that they are going to die if they keep it up. The sad part here is (and this is the one thing they don't tell you in those D.A.R.E classes, as I was in one as well). The Drugs work. They working really well. However, nine times out of then they don't work/do what you want them to do forever. For example a common quote from many ex drug addicts "The first high is the best". This more or less has to do with more serious drugs of course like heavy pain killers and heroine.

In fact (small story here) I can even say that I personally agree with what I've said above because after one surgery that I had done, good freaking lord the stupid amounts of Oxycodone they had me on gave me the best sleep and relaxation I have ever experienced in my entire life. Now before anyone get's on my ass about this, I am not saying go and do all the narcotics you can. I haven't gotten to the next part of the story.

After a while of being on them I wanted to stop because I hate medication like that (long story, my mom broke her back twice and then the doctor's ****ed up the surgery....twice. Now she can't walk very much and pretty much can NEVER relax without any sort of narcotic). So yeah, I hate them. With that in mind its fairly obvious that I tried to get off of them once the crazy amount of pain I was in was getting better. Going off those drugs was one of the shittiest experiences I have ever had in my entire life. Depending on how high the dosage is, you will feel like complete hell when you go off of those. I had the worst stomach pains/nausea, not to mention I couldn't keep much food/water down at all, and of course the grand daddy of them all: the pain. The pain came back of course because I was off of the thing that made it go away. So that was a mental/physical struggle for a while.


That story aside, if someone for example decides to go to drugs due to some kind of life struggle, the solution isn't education because chances are they already know what they got themselves into. Helping the person through their struggle and finding something for them to fill that hole in their life is a really good way to fix it.

For anyone who is studying any sort of mental health, or medicine in general I apologize for the butt-ton of paraphrasing I probably did in this. It's hard to remember the talks my Father and I have had over the years. Memory loss sucks.

 

Drugs are bad for you in the short or long term, it doesn't matter the specific drug. It feels strange to have people who condemn alcohol and cigarettes, yet seem to be lenient on drugs.

Not sure what to say about them really. Because they make you feel good, doesn't mean they're good for you. Didn't we all learn that about chocolate and fizzy drinks as children?

Of course, I must clarify, I mean in a purely recreational situation. Medical drugs are damn near crucial, where people are in situations where their bodies require some manipulation in order to fight pain, resist illnesses and such.

 

This is really exactly it. Everyone knows drugs are bad and will, eventually, damage your health in some way (the speed & extent of it varying with the drug, of course, something like marijuana will do comparatively little to your health over long periods of usage, whereas heroine addicts are rather... short-lived). They still do them. People know unprotected sex will eventually lead to STDs and/or pregnancy but they still have it. That's why sexual education classes that extol abstinence and try to scare you away from sex are, statistically, failures. It's more important, and more effective, to teach kids how to have sex responsibly and decide when to become "sexually active."

Drug education is a bit more complicated in that we don't really want to be promote "responsible" drug use (at least of harder drugs, but responsible usage of alcohol and marijuana is more acceptable). But people who turn to hard drugs generally are not very happy people to begin with. Drug use is common with the poor, for example. We need to look at why people are using drugs rather than just promote the overly simplified "drugs are bad!!!!" idea.

 

One of the reasons is obvious: because people want to look cool in front of their friends who sometimes end up turning out not really being their friends. One of my friends in real life who's two months, three weeks, and two days younger than me got involved with drugs at 16 because he was always trying to fit in.

 

That might be a reason when it comes to cigarettes and drinking, but in terms of Narcotics, cocaine, anything hardcore, etc. It doesn't have to do with "looking cool". It fills a gap in their lives that (at that particular moment) can't be filled by anything else.

If you wanted to feel amazing really quickly, go do heroine. I can guarantee you that you will feel fantastic. At first. Then shit starts to suck a whole hell of a lot. You'll need more and more just to get to half of what you used to feel like.

One of the problems is the beyond shitty "mental health care" in America. This stuff is so much more difficult and complicated than the stuff your Gym teacher talks about in 5th grade. In fact when it comes to people "trying to look cool", a lot of people are flat out ashamed that they got hooked on stuff like their pain pills that their doctor's gave them after major surgery. Is it their fault? No, no it fucking isn't. That stuff can grab you and won't let go.

It all goes back to how people weigh out their problems. For example, is someone's depression right now bad enough that they want that temporary eliminate all that pain? If they then choose to do some sort of major drug (as I have said before), their problems "right now" will be fixed. When something like that happens we as people can't help but focus on the here and now, knowing that it could be the first day of relief in months or even years.

Another example of this is something near and dear to my heart. My mother broke her back twice during her job as a physical therapist when she was younger (she caught an older woman who for whatever reason decided to through herself down the stairs) now she can't go a day without pain. Throughout the years the medication she has been taking has worked less and less and less, she could easily just ask her doctor to bump up her medication. Like I said before though, it might work at first but then it WILL wear off and the pain will come back and then some. It's just how it works.

If we fixed the problems that people were dealing with so that they didn't need to go to drugs, then it doesn't matter how potent the drugs are. If nobody uses them, it just doesn't matter what they do to you. Of course there are examples of people who just enjoy doing drugs, and to be honest how is that any different than vastly over eating or getting drunk on the weekends? At the end of the day, people will do what they want no matter what happens to themselves in the future. If people don't put the future into consideration this endless cycle of drug abuse will continue until they end of time.

 

It is nice to see a mostly drug free attitude here. I personally am enjoying two drugs in moderation these days - tobacco and alcohol. Those "socially acceptable" drugs. Which I've always found funny since they kill more people every year than most if not all the other drugs out there. However, due to the fact that I am not to the point that I am dependent on either of them (my tobacco comes from hookah, and to a lesser extent, cigars), I don't see myself trying to cut back on them. That moment when I can't work an 8 hour shift without buying a pack of cigarettes or some cigarillos, however, that is when I'll cut back.

As for the other drugs out there, I have never done them, or had any experience with them from my friends or family, so I don't have much input on that. I've always avoided drug users, whether it be pill abusers or marijuana smokers. Its not that I don't have friends or acquaintances that do drugs, I just make sure that I'm not around whenever they take part in those things.