Quote from: alephi on August 21, 2013, 10:12:29 PM

Playboy has some great articles. Some of the stories are ok too.

To me "Stink" tends to conjure up images of going down on a pussy and being greeted by the odour of wee.

Anyway, I was going to discuss drugs cos when I was still mis-spending my yoof I did try out quite a few at various times, with the exception of the opiates.

At the time Cannabis resin, or dope, as it used to be called then, was cheap, available and pretty harmless in moderation and I viewed alcohol and cigarettes as much more harmful. I never, ever experienced any kind of withdrawal or dependency on anything except cigarettes and amphetamines, and of course, the mother of all hangovers from cheap cider Embarrassed

Amphetamines was a bit scary because of the horrible come down but I never felt that taking more would help because it was about fatigue from being awake for ages, as well as the strong feeling that it was fucking up my body fast.
I also sampled LSD, magic mushrooms and ecstasy and could only describe the experiences as profound, interesting and great fun.

Some years later I got run down by a car and had months in a hospital bed with pelvic and spinal injuries. I was administered morphine and I was just in a dream for some days. About 2 weeks after, they abruptly stopped the morphine and I had a few really horrible days and nights. That withdrawal period must have been a cakewalk compared with withdrawal from a long term dependency on on any opiate or alcohol but it was enough to reinforce the view that the way we understand and use drugs is wrong.

Specifically the language we use with them is very important in the sense that we refer to coffee, cigarettes and alcohol individually and the rest simply as drugs, when the effects and differences between them are profound and important to understand. Clearly some people drink and develop issues with it while others can moderate their use and the same is true for the other drugs.

Existing laws, the war on drugs and the absurd political dialogue around them are wildly disconnected from rational and informed debate. A strictly rational analysis of the issues brings me to conclusions which strongly suggest many of them should be legalised and regulated maybe like tobacco and alcohol, with revenues being used to assist public health and education. The reduction in the cost of drug related crime, DEA activity, policing and prisons alone would be worth it, even before any tax and legitimate profits from the colossal revenue stream involved.

I remain of the view that the opiates, with the possible exception of coke, are addictive way beyond being very, very, very nice, which they are too. I walk a mile away from them and I don't really know what's best with these.

I also have the view that cannabis resin and the milder forms of marijuana are harmless, fun and good for my creativity, apart from the damage from smoking it very occasionally.

Caffeine and nicotine are my staples, beer makes me fart.

Occasional use of LSD, Ecstasy and magic mushrooms, well, Grin

Well said.

The only issues I have with your post is that coke is not an opiate (cocaine comes from the Coca plant) and that you should be careful with Ecstasy. After all, ecstasy by definition is MDMA cut with meth. Most of the time you'll never know how much of the relatively harmless MDMA you're getting versus the more harmful methamphetamine, so it's good to be careful lest you develop an addiction.