MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
As they are licensed and inspected I do not think that can be true. Is it that its the same folk growing but they have moved into the legal market?
Back in the late 90’s/early 2000’s there was a web forum dedicated to cannabis growing/production called Overgrow that proved so popular that it was shut down/raided by the Canadian government around 2005, I was on it a lot in the early days and occasionally worked as a moderator/tech and nutritional advice for the hydroponics forum and out of this came an explosion in home growers.
A mate from Ayrshire moved over to BC in 2004 to work on an illegal grow and now has a few large legal grows supplying the commercial market, the amounts of money generated from the production/sale of what is a weed is quite staggering.
If Labour wanted to generate a few billion then legalise it in this country, follow what has worked in other countries and do it now.
I guess at a level above the Scottish govt, someone decided that it would require too much resources to combat generation upon generation of poverty. So they hit reset, handed out ‘hot-shots’, and hived out any kids to better-heeled foster parents.
? I’m not saying you are wrong that fixing multigenerational poverty is a huge challenge and people at a loss to do anything other than intervene on a case by case basis might well feel it’s too hard to solve so do little - but that’s not quite what ethnic cleansing is about and suggesting it is does a disservice to all the victims of genocide globally as well as making it too easy for government to shrug off the legitimate complaint of institutionalised poverty as ridiculous exaggerations.
As for any perceived population, encroaching onto the highland estates.
drugs are problem in every small highland town, indeed they might be more of a problem there than in the big cities. I’m sure that most highland estates would actually welcome working age population growth now.
The theory is that the USA feared an increase in the African population. Was AIDS engineered to achieve population control?
ah, sorry I didn’t realise we were dealing with conspiracy nonsense.
the idea of a state deciding what I am allowed to consume/take is utterly absurd and throughout my life I have ignored the law
How about if the state needs to pick up the pieces / cover the costs? There is a point at which your freedom to do as you wish impinges on other folks freedoms. Speed limits are an obvious place where this sort of principle is used.
I am particularly thinking of the human wrecks I have seen in the big cities worldwide. Their healthcare costs must be huge.
How about if the state needs to pick up the pieces / cover the costs? There is a point at which your freedom to do as you wish impinges on other folks freedoms. Speed limits are an obvious place where this sort of principle is used.
Where did you pluck the speed limit simile from? - it doesn't belong nor make sense in this discussion, I was commenting on the understanding we were talking about drug regulation and illegality, personal drug use does not impinge on others safety (with notable exceptions).
Living in a small fishing community here in kirkcudbright i've lost 6 mates, and could name another 3 from drug overdoses, could legal heroin on prescription have saved them?, in a few cases, yes for sure.
I think we’ll see decriminalisation at some point in the U.K. Not smoked weed for ages but if I could pop to the shop for an edible on a Friday night to chill out I might once in a while.
Amazes me how many younger folk are into Coke and I see it everywhere in my town. Obvious trips to the toilet etc. Dealers mass marketing via WhatsApp etc. Easier than ordering a pizza.
OK maybe a poor simile - its where restrictions are put on personal freedom for the good of all. absolute personal freedom does not really exist. I'm with you on prescription heroin. I thought you were advocating full legalization of everything.
personal drug use does not impinge on others safety (with notable exceptions).
Thats the point - about where we draw the line. I think cocaine in combination with alcohol is responsible for a lot of violence. I see no harm reduction argument for liberalising laws on it, I see good reason to keep it illegal I think in the case of cocaine useage of it does impinge on others with the possibility of violence
Was it not the case that marijuana was criminalised in the US because it was feared that post-slavery black people using it might become rebellious? I believe Queen Victoria consumed dope to aid her in childbirth, fair oot! Drug laws are all tied up with politics, business, the DM, hypocrisy. Blimey just think of all the deadly crap that is fast food, sugar, alcohol and fizzy pop. The legal availability of graded, light to heavy duty weed could keep people away from the more dangerous stuff. MJ is not a gateway drug any more than mother's milk is.
Was it not the case that marijuana was criminalised in the US because it was feared that post-slavery black people using it might become rebellious?
Yes . J Edgar Hoover the head of the FBI and Harry J. Anslinger in the 30s completely racist. As much against Mexicans and Black fork I believe but different accounts vary
MJ was the gateway to smoking bloody cigarettes in my case. I'd made it all the way to 19 without smoking, it took me 10 years to stop!
In the end I quit both and my life miraculously improved.
TJ after I wrote that it occurred to me it came from 'Whose Law, What Order' by Chambliss and Mankoff. Without recreational drugs we may well have missed out on the lakeland poets, Sigmund Freud, William Burroughs, Ernest Hemingway, Hockney, but with legalisation we may have saved the lives of Hendrix, Joplin, Jones, etc etc.
Legalising weed solves the smoking side of it as good reliable edibles are suddenly an easy option. I'm not sure whether impatience would mean a rise in smoking it or not, though
Pretty hardcore ritualistic stuff, but as it’s an endangered species, it’s incumbent for us to legally cultivate it here in the uk.
Consumption is another matter:
This is why we need a rational drugs policy based around harm reduction. many of these synthetics are pretty nasty
That is grim reading. I got a load of vape awareness stuff from my daughter’s high school, I thought they were overreacting tbh. But those are worryingly high percentages to be full of shite.
but with legalisation we may have saved the lives of Hendrix
Jimi died as a result of taking sleeping pills and mixing them with alcohol, vomiting in his sleep and choking to death. Not alone in making that mistake.
Worth purchasing a kindle for this alone:
The Emperor Wears No Clothes: A History of Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana https://amzn.eu/d/0hPCvgzE
Hemp was too much of a rival to the emerging petrochemical fibres (rayon, nylon).
though, imho it was more about centralising revenue streams, to be channeled into the arms industry, Israel, etc).
I've not really read most of this to be honest and I'm not sure if my point here is even relevant but I'd just like to say that the hard drug scene at this moment at least in Britain is awash with synthetic drugs called nitazines. These are found in most pill or powdered substances and are bad news.
According to my wife who works for Milton Keynes addiction recovery services the staff are now seeing this synthetic drug in pretty much everything sold on the streets.. even in cannabis!
Apparently there is pretty much NO heroin on the streets right now and it's been substituted for this synthetic stuff which is in many cases way stronger than heroin and the users often overdose as they have no way to know what amount is safe. The Taliban have almost stopped all heroin production which is what Britain was being supplied with so that's the reason for the disappearance of traditional brown heroin. Like I said I'm not sure if this is valid to the initial points raised but it certainly puts a slightly different stance on things if you don't even know what drugs you are even being sold?
That might apply to drugs like weed or LSD but it currently appears that pill/powder stuff is being cut with this stuff before it gets to our shores so any legalised or regulated agency may not be able to obtain "clean gear" so users will still be forced to use what's going around.
Anyone heard or read about Theresa May's husband will no doubt be aware of his export empire hidden under a sugar company.
Also there's way too many factors involved surrounding use.
I am debating whether to book a consultation for medicinal use.
Apparently, over in Canberra they have decriminilized cocaine as an experiment. They didn't want to appear eliteist so they have included Ice and heroin too.
They have also done something positive over there regarding the use of physchodelics for use with pshychtherapy.
Go Oz, leading the way.
I watched a video on Vice news about a German weed dealer who said that he needed to get out of the business as all the weed he was selling was cheap Albanian crap that was sprayed with synthetics. The demand by all accounts was very 'high' for the stuff.
Nasty Fentanyl shite sprayed worldwide
So a friend told me cough cough
I though that heroin is the synthetic version of opium?
Afaik, the whole “queen Victoria smoking cannabis to ease her menstrual cramps” turned out to be an urban myth.
Pre-petrochemical era, most medicines contained marijuana (coca-cola and tinctures of opium, too!).
Opiates, such as morphine and codeine, are natural opioids found in the opium poppy. Synthetic opioids, such as methadone, are chemically made. Heroin is a semi-synthetic opioid: it is made from morphine that has been chemically processed.
Best reference is Terence McKenna’s ‘Food of the Gods’.
Puts all these drugs into their historical context.
for me, only offering alcohol as the only legal recreational drug, discriminates against men and the disabled,
for men, all that alcohol does is make their testes shrink, placing them on a continuum of misogyny somewhere between Andy Capp and Jack the Kipper. Give them a car and they think they’re Ted Bundy.
how does alcohol discriminate agains the disabled?
it makes it quite difficult to navigate a slippery toilet, even with a walking stick.
the only work-around is to replace the wheelchair with a commode. Davros-style?
I though that heroin is the synthetic version of opium?
Not really... to my basic knowledge, heroin is refined opium.
If you are in hospital and need strong pain killers, you might be given Codeine or Morphine depending on the severity of the pain, but they are all what is called 'opioids', and are all basically 'Heroin'.
Now we have synthetics such as Fentanyl which can be hundreds of times stronger.
It makes a very strong argument for regulated 'safe' drugs for people with addiction isssues.
I know, as I lost my younger brother to hard drugs...he died of an accidental overdose in a squalid flat in Bradford, the toxicology report mentioned morphine, cocaine, and serveral different types of temazepam/diazepam type stuff.
Incredible the number of people on cycling forum clued up about recreational drugs.
Is there a connection ?
The same detrimental effect on men can be caused by cocaine and/ or solvents.
It’s not the ‘drugs’ we consumed in this lifetime, but the quite staggering amount from previous incarnations.
It left some of us with an unquenchable thirst for urban planning…
(viewer discretion advised)
Wouldn't touch heroin nit needles with a 5000 metre pole
It smells pure toxic one time I watched a friend setup in front of me outta the blue
Nasty nasty stuff
Morphine is processed opium. Heroin is morphine with an extra OH group added. IIRC. Heroin ( diamorphine) is used medically.
Fentanyl is 1000 times stronger - doses are in microgrammes not milligrames hence if you have a poor batch of heroin and decide to spice it up a bit with fentanyl its very easy to get dosages very wrong hence the ODs on fentanyl
I think its a bit alarmist to say all illegal drugs are contaminated. I do not believe this is so. Recreational drug takers are quite discerning about their stuff ( not addicts - they will take any old shite )
Look on wedinos results, most stuff is not cut with other stuff.
I can get weed on prescription now in Germany (private prescription, the public health insurance won't cover the costs).
Got my delivery today.
https://tinypic.host/image/unnamed.2aONMa
'roach' !
Incredible the number of people on cycling forum clued up about recreational drugs.
Is there a connection ?
I doubt it. Just that a significant % of the population take drugs - and I also had a professional interest that let me to read up on a lot of stuff and took me into corners of this world many never see
Do we think weed will ever be sold legally in th U.K. I think it is only a matter of time.
We have (restricted) legal access to nicotine and alcohol, which also raises taxes which “could” be used to help with rehab and wider issues.
There are costs to the NHS, society and the environment too.
Yes. Its coming.
Do we think weed will ever be sold legally in th U.K. I think it is only a matter of time.
I can buy it on private prescription from curaleaf so its already legal in the uk if you have a prescription.
The legalisation for recreational use in Germany and Spain is based on being a member of cannabis growers club. It was only legalised a few months ago so it will probably be December before I can get any from that source and I don't think it will be any cheaper than the prescription route. Possession now isn't a problem, and neither is vaping in public (apart from close to schools).
They only allow the cannabis bud to be distributed, no edibles which IMO is the most stupid implementation I can imagine, and encourages people to smoke or vape it, which while not as bad as tobacco for health still isn't great. And when I started smoking tobacco as a younger man, it was because I had first started smoking cannabis.
I have bought an oil infuser now, which I much prefer to vaping, it takes an hour or 2 to feel the effects, but it is a more pleasant high IMO.
I have been in a fair bit of pain for a month or 2 with a back problem, and I find it helps me sleep. However the quality of sleep when using cannabis isn't great, just quite a bit better than suffering through the pain.
When the CDU return to power next year, they will probably outlaw it again though.
I thought this might add to this discussion. Its one of my bugbears with prohibition - it wastes so much police time
Brian Paddick has made a lot of sense during his career. Very progressive, sensible policies put forward which have been inevitably shot down to pander to the right.
It baffles me that the US, which for half a century pushed the 'reefer madness' narrative, finally legislated for legalization in many states while most of Europe and the UK trails behind.
Unfortunately, due to the influence of right-wing rags like the Mail, Express, Telegraph etc. we are unable as a country to have a grown up debate on this.
It is v complex and not one that is solved as has been discussed by prohibition. Not mentioned much though is risk in the workplace from drugs that are not legal. Whilst the railways and big construction companies have policies, education, testing and even where more enlightened, support programmes, thousands of small-medium companies don't have anything in place. Where physical jobs, heavy machinery etc is in use, the amount of risk introduced where people are still intoxicated must be immense. Nick at https://positivematters.co.uk/about-us/ really knows his stuff if that sounds of interest to anyone.
Testing is reasonable, but only for safety issues IMO, and then the test should be for levels causing impairment, not for having a puff yesterday
The war on drugs has failed.
Au contrarie, I like their music and they do seem very successful.
France are restricting areas where people can smoke tobacco from 1st July, with fines of 135 Euros.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7873veygv2o
What is a recreational drug?
something that gently wrenches one out from one’s goal driven mindset?
maybe the answer comes from the most unlikely source:
anti-psychotic medications.
these arent just one drug, they’re actually combinations of multiple different kinds of drug, each trying to block a distinct neural pathway.
the problem with such drugs like Olanzapine is that each component drug within the medication tends to be antagonistic to the other.
so users find they may double in weight, be drowsy, anxious, euphoric, alert, etc.
seperate, these components out, and you will have a large panapoly of treatments for every modern ailment; “I need to study/ I can’t switch off/ I’m too energetic/ I’m too fatigued…”
sadly, the pharmaceutical companies have never explored the potential of each component. Possibly quite a lucrative potential.
Users of anti-psychotics conmonely complain of extremely dry sinuses. So much so that they feel like they’re choking as they drift off to sleep.
naybe not a cure, but possibly a means to alleviate cystic fibrosis?
likewise, a different combination of components drugs is found in Clozapine.
users report that this is quite possibly the greatest recreational drug they’ve ever experienced, the only downside being the risk of developing a fatal autoimmune condition. Hence the regular blood checks as a condition of it being licenced.
but, if you’ve got three months left due to cancer…wow!
but in the meantime, legalising cannabis is the closest thing you’ll get to clozapine, albeit with a different side effect profile.
I've never taken clozapine but I know many many people who do. I've never heard one of them describe it as any kind of fun. They either take it and tolerate the side effects in order to live as well as possible, or avoid taking it.
The side effect most likely to cause death is constipation.
My brother died destitute, from a cocktail of smack, coke and and black market downers, so I've avoided this thread so far.
We (as in my family and I at the time) did everything we could and it was useless. The police didn't care, they just wanted him off their books, and to be fair it's a social services issue rather then a criminal issue, IMO, but guess what..there's not much of that...
I'm of the firm view this should be tackled as a public health issue rather then a criminal issue. Take the control from the dealers. regulate, control...rehabilitate... the overall cost to society would be far less if we can get over it and tackle it.
The irony is my grandma put 4 grand into his account to help him relocate/get a new flat in a new town or whatever... it was still in his account when he died...he was so out of it he didn't even realise he had a means of escape, or to buy more drugs. my dad had disowned him by that point, and I just didn't know what to do.
I'm no angel, I did E's and speed and a bit of coke when I was younger but somehow I snapped out of it... I sometimes drink more than I probably should, and it's not unknown for me to smoke the occasional doobie but for those that truly do have a problem... there's just no real help.
I just think the money spent on enforcement would be better spent on education, health and social care.
And the violence in the black market drug trade, it's a different world, it really is... - that can be stopped if we give addicts proper councilling and free drugs in a controlled manner.
And work place drug testing, outside of operating machinery etc... I've worked in offices where if they did a supprise test, they'd have to fire half the workforce on the spot, lol!
The war on drugs hasn't failed, it's won. Drugs won.
I can't edit now.. I didn't realise this was a bumped thread, I thought it was new!
So correction, yes I have posted in this thread before!
Drugs like Clozapine (actually a combination of many other drugs) cause a whole panapoly of effects. Some wanted, most unwanted.
the trick is to select the specific drug which blocks specific neuroreceptors.
that’s closer to the model of antidepressant SSRI’s. really getting down to finding what neuroreceptors need to be blocked, and discarding all the other irrelevant stuff (weight gain, restless legs, constipation, fatigue, drowsiness, dry palate). That’s discrimination used correctly.
you may need restless legs for the “ten under the Ben”, but whether accessing ‘Largactil’ in its standard form, or by travel sickness meds, means that you also get a bunch of other effects.
If only we could pick and choose these neuroreceptor blocking agents in an over the counter form…
worth noting that nicotine boosts dopamine, making all other drugs feel super-duper.
hence its status as a ‘gateway drug’.