Armchair Rants

The Effective Drug War

2011-01-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

This picture has been on my computer forever, not sure who took it, but I believe it speaks for itself.

If you know where it's from please say so.

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Wasted Travels

2011-01-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

I am currently in Australia, and at least half of the travelers are English.

That's cool, but they only seem to live for three things.

Drinking
Hooking up
Sleeping

Many travelers go to a foreign land and spend their whole year abroad in one or two small towns partying. Why travel when you can do that at home?

Doesn't it make more sense to work a bit at home at a 'proper' job (as opposed to the minimum wage jobs all the travelers work) and go traveling afterwards?

That way they get to actually see the continent rather than a few tourist towns. They also don't have to worry about money.

Just my opinion though.

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"It's legal because it's safe"

2011-01-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

"It's legal because it's safe" - Tagline for 'Happy high herbs'

Happy High Herbs is an Australian party drug store that sells 'alternative' drugs and claims them all the be safe. Somewhere society got the idea that if a drug is legal than it must be safe. In reality it's more that if a drug isn't popularly used for fun and doesn't have a medical use it's illegal.

Why is morphine in a hospital accepted and safe, but morphine/heroin outside not? Can't someone become addicted to morphine in the hospital? (yes)

Lets look at some drugs and see if the legal ones are really safe.

Deaths in the United States in a typical year:

Tobacco kills about 400,000
Alcohol kills about 80,000
Cocaine kills about 2,500
Heroin kills about 2,000
Aspirin kills about 2,000
Marijuana kills 0

That's 482,000 deaths by legal drugs and 4,500 deaths from illegal drugs.

Now I am NOT saying illegal drugs are safe, many more people use legal drugs which makes their numbers much higher.

All I am saying is that just because something is legal, does not make it safe.

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"Don't do drugs"

2011-01-11T21:13:00.000-08:00

"Don't do drugs" - Common saying.

What they really mean though is "Don't do narcotics".
Drugs are everywhere and we all use them everyday.

Today alone I've already had..
800mg of ibuprofen (Tylenol)
caffeine (coffee),
Anandamide (Chocolate),
Theobromine (Chocolate),
Casomorphins (Chocolate),
Sugar (Debatable if a drug or not)

And probably dozens more I can't be bothered to look up now.

So it's absurd to tell people not to use drugs when they are everywhere. Without them we'd die. Next time be sure to specify narcotics, but not even that as many legal drugs are worse than narcotics...
but that will be another post.

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Weed Is Not Dope

2011-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

Weed/cannabis/marijuana effects your body with the chemical THC. Harmless and fun. But everywhere I go people always refer to it as 'Dope'.

"Let's go smoke some dope"
"Oh those damn college kids, all they do is smoke dope all day"
"Don't be a dope by smoking dope"
"Sick dope man"
etc.

This is inaccurate, misleading and potentially dangerous.

Inaccurate/misleading:
Dope is short for dopamine. The chemical in the brain that makes you feel good.
It's also one of the main chemicals in meth, so whenever someone says 'dope' they should be referring to meth, not weed.

Edit: It has been pointed out that weed DOES produce dopamine on the reward pathways. Regardless it seems weird to refer to a drug as dope when that's not the main drug. Besides that 'dope' just sounds dangerous.

Dangerous:
Say a high-school kid smokes weed with his friends (common) and everyone around him - his school, parents, friends, teachers - refer to weed as 'dope'. Now pretend little Bobby gets offered to smoke some dope, but this time it's actually meth. As far as Bobby is concerned it may just be weed processed different which is why it looks different.
Now Bobby develops a meth habit and dies.

Dope != Weed
Dope == Meth

Stop giving weed a bad name by giving it the same name as dangerous drugs.

Discuss and Follow.