7 Facts About Drugs That Will Make You Question Everything You Know

originally posted by: mamabeth

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: RomeByFire

Don't forget that caffeine is also a highly addictive legal narcotic. That is one that isn't mentioned as often because it isn't known to be destructive.

I used to drink a lot of coffee and I started having problems with my blood pressure,
trouble sleeping at night...It took me a full year to get my body used to less caffeine.
Now,I can't even eat chocolate after mid day or the caffeine in it will keep me up.

Caffeine is one of the only stimulants that I've experienced a crash on. I took a caffeine pill once while I was in the Army to stay up for this class. After lunch I got so lethargic as well as depressed. I was so depressed that it actually scared me to the point that I threw the rest of the pills away.

originally posted by: primus2012
a reply to: intergalactic fire

Yeah its about being able to get high when you want right?

Well were i live it is 'legal' to grow and smoke cannabis for private use, so that wouldnt be a problem for me no.
I don't do drugs anymore, legal or illegal, I have experience with many different kind of drugs though.
I'm also of the believes that if you never did a certain drug you have no right to speak by it.

But it's not just about getting high it goes way further, rights and freedom, responsibility and laws.
I fail to see why you can't use any drugs as long you don't harm your fellow being.

If you want that people be responsible of their own life, stop treating them like children and animals.
The government don't want people to question their believes, lives or reason why we are here. They only want us to work and obey without any questions asked.

On another note you can blame people wanting to get high in this sick world

Nope...Huffington Post is one of the least credible news peddlers out there...note I did not give HP the moniker of being a viable news source!!!
You claim to be a veteran, but you have these attitudes?

originally posted by: daveinats
Nope...Huffington Post is one of the least credible news peddlers out there...note I did not give HP the moniker of being a viable news source!!!
You claim to be a veteran, but you have these attitudes?

What's wrong with being a veteran and having my attitudes? Also, congrats on being so closed minded that you write off an article because of your bias.

Caffeine is definitely near the top of the list as one of the first gateway drugs we're introduced to. Also on this list even closer to the top in my opinion is sugar. A simple compound with addictive qualities that leave you wanting more. reply to: RomeByFire

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I have conflicting feelings about the issue of drugs. I know from personal experience that Cannabis, particularly the strong skunk varieties, can really, really badly affect a person's mental health. It can get horrendous, very quickly - full on psychotic break, the brain simply starts to malfunction, you get voices in your head, all that sort of thing. Dangerous stuff in my book.

Heroin is an opioid, and therefore in theory, should be a peaceful/pleasant drug to use - which it is, extremely, and that is why it's so highly addictive. The social stigma & crime surrounding users, would be eradicated by a program like the one in Switzerland. I like the idea that the addicts themselves even started to have unprompted natural urges to rejoin mainstream society, once they could see for themselves that they were being treated with dignity & care as people with a medical condition rather than 'scumbag smackheads'.

If prohibition were to end, and there was a major set of reforms put in place by each nation state, then of the two drugs described above, I would actually rate cannabis as the riskier, more hazardous drug (if strong varieties are used, in excess, over a long period of time). I honestly believe that, because opioid addiction doesn't lead to the most unpleasant mental states that cannabis can unlock. With it being truly psychotropic, cannabis is far riskier to the mental stability of the uneducated user when compared to a depressant like heroin. I think most psychiatrists would agree that there has been a huge rise in the number of patients presenting with schizoid conditions as the result of the super-strains of skunk weed. Education and milder strains would probably significantly reduce the scale of the problem. Heroin addiction is presently more soul-destroying than cannabis use in most of Western culture, but primarily because of the stigma, the crime, and the ignorance concerning the problems which arise because of its use. Reform & education is needed, and Switzerland seems to offer up the solution.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Cannabis' risk to mental health has been proven to be negligible and very slim. Mild alcohol use has more damaging effects on the brain than anything cannabis can do to you. Yes, that includes the high THC concentration strains too.

Besides I can't believe you are actually trying to make an argument that heroin addiction isn't as bad as marijuana use. Have you actually encountered these drugs before?

originally posted by: angryhulk

originally posted by: saadad
Can someone write 1 reason why would a healthy individual use drugs? Thank you!

It has nothing to do with being healthy. It has everything to do with exploring your reality.

If an individual wants to ingest a psychoactive compound that makes him believe he is a turkey for an hour, that's his choice. It's our lives, our minds and our consciousness.

And for you that individual is healthy? For me he should visit doc for mental health or neurons brain doc, not using drugs to shapeshift into Turkey.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

People are different and drugs can have different effects on those different folks, due to mindset and physiology, and we should educate folks about the good and bad and let them proceed to use, or not, from a confident, non biased pool of information.

And heroin... there is a whole lot of misinformation and hysteria about that drug, and as more folks are getting caught up in it's use and pharmaceutical equivalents, it would be smart to address it in an educated manner, which is difficult due to the incredible stigma ...

but I'll write a little about my own experience with it, keeping in mind that it is true that happy, healthy people do NOT get into trouble with ANY drug, contrary to common misinformation, and also knowing most will think me a filthy pariah for admitting my use.

Most of my previous and subsequent drug use was enthusiastic, experimental, non-habitual and as informed as is possible with a taboo subject matter... and opiates were in my repertoire in a veeeery careful manner for a number of years and I still know people who carefully manage their respectful use and remain free of addiction...

but I threw caution to the wind (a pretty girl was involved) and used it on too many consecutive occasions and I found myself addicted... and am now "lucky" to be able to function on a legal, daily dose of methadone, most likely until I die barring some medical breakthrough... and I thank those brave folks making methadone available to the public, even though it can be problematic due to the invasive strictness and stigma attached... otherwise, I feel more "normal" than I ever have.

Now, contrary to common misconceptions from seeing junkies in a stupor, opiates can enable one to think clearly and be very productive in an efficient, happy manner... or, when sitting quietly and on a higher dose, drift off in pleasant daydreams, but they don't generally put one in a stupor with a moderate dose and they don't change perception or mental function noticeably... they just infuse one with a generally pleasant sense of well being.

Another point of interest is that habitual opiate users rarely get ill when their opiate is available... this would be interesting to study if science were allowed to.

But there's one major bit of info I'd like to address about opiate addiction that is something I wish I had known ... the withdrawal effects are not merely unpleasant and a strong person cannot "handle" them.

They do worsen as the time using lengthens, but it wasn't, for me, like the oft described "flu symptoms" I thought I could handle... even at first, when it was lesser, the withdrawal was horrible and impossible to articulate with any degree of accuracy.

My withdrawal experiences had my brain and nervous system screaming from total non comfort.. . not all of it was pain, exactly, though that was present with the severe leg/back cramping, retching, puking, diarrhea, soaking sweats, staccato coughing from a broken autonomic system and delirium...

but the worse thing was a rawness and amplification of one's senses and thought processes. Everything in my universe was bad and wrong... any light was too intense and searing, while dark was a too-dark void of lonely, eternal misery... all temperatures were wrong, all smells were rotten or sickly, all touch jolting, all sounds crushing...

there is also the inescapable, intense awareness of existing in every long moment of a miserable, hellish existence that no scream would be loud enough to express... there is no ebb in the onslaught... it doesn't get better, until perhaps days later that might as well as be an eternity, and nobody knows the agony if they haven't experienced it and it's so bad that most who have gone through it cannot even address it in memory due to associated trauma.

So the folks who just aren't "strong" enough to quit have to battle a physically broken brain that delivers discomfort, of a greater or lesser degree, ALL the time... until the required chemical is provided... and when one manages to quit, that effect is still there, just under the surface, until one day they decide to feel normal again and rinse, wash, repeat.

Anyway, a public service message... of a sort.

1. In 2011, 4.2 million Americans aged 12 or older (or 1.6 percent) had used heroin at least once in their lives. It is estimated that about 23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it. (www.drugabuse.gov...)
2. "...The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled...". (content.time.com...)
3. THE death of Philip Seymour Hoffman from a heroin overdose on February 2nd left the extraordinary actor’s fans ...Switzerland and the Netherlands pioneered this “Heroin Assisted Treatment” (HAT) approach in the 1990s, and both countries later adopted it as national policy. HAT trials have also been run in Spain, Britain, Germany and Canada. The evidence suggests that HAT slashes heroin-related deaths and HIV infection, since users are shooting up under medical supervision. (www.economist.com...)
4. Gang violence in Denver is on the rise. Only 4 months into the year, the city is on track for its most violent year since 2010 according to the Denver Post. As of this week, 120 people have been injured in 61 gang-related assaults. With an average 150 annual gang-related assaults occurring yearly over the past five years, 2015 is shaping up to be a banner year. 4/21/2015 (dailycaller.com...)
5. May be true as the dealers go to the client.
6. The exact cause of substance use disorder is not known. A person's genes, the action of the drug, peer pressure, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and environmental stress can all be factors...At least half of those who become addicted have depression, attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or another mental problem. A stressful or chaotic lifestyle and low self-esteem are also common. (www.nlm.nih.gov...)
7. Not true, personal experience.

Again: Huffington Post is a poor steward of 'news'. More like a Clinton News Network (CNN)...

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
Fact Two: Portugal decriminalized all drugs -- and injecting drug use fell by 50 percent.

Not exactly, what was decriminalized was drug use, selling illegal drugs is still a crime.

Beyond all of this, there are indisputable medical facts about legal drugs versus illegal drugs. The fact that marijuana has been illegal for decades while alcohol and very strong prescription opioids and stimulants are legal shows that the whole war on drugs isn't based on evidence nor actual harm but instead either ignorance or another agenda entirely.

For example, alcohol is medically far more dangerous than let's say marijuana. It's inarguable, and those who say otherwise are either lying or completely ignorant of the fact.

For example, the toxic envelope for alcohol, which means the difference between the desired effect or onset of effect and the toxic level, is very small. At the extreme end are opiods which have a very small window between the desired effects and toxic or even lethal effects. Moreover, alcohol is far more addictive than some illegal drugs, and besides barbiturates has the worst detox of all drugs, even worse than heroin. A person can literally die from alcohol detox. Alcohol causes more lethal car accidents and also violent crime than most illegal drugs, although this data is moderated by the fact that alcohol is far more available and used than most illicit substances.

Many prescription drugs such as OxyContin are also extremely addictive and have a very small toxic envelope, again making them a risk for accidental overdose.

Let's contrast this with the medical and social data for marijuana. It is extremely safe regarding the toxic envelope. For example, the dose to achieve desired results is literally about 1/1000 a potentially lethal dose, whereas that may be the difference let's say between 3-4 alcoholic drinks and 20 or 25. For heroin that might be merely doubling or tripling your dose. People have been known to overdose on prescription painkillers easily too due to a low toxic envelope.

Marijuana is far less addictive than either, medically. This doesn't mean that it's not addictive nor that there aren't effects, but we are comparing what society says is bad versus the reality.

This doesn't even mention psychedelics, which have been used for millennia across the world for spiritual purposes.

There is the whole old hippie conspiracy theory that Big Brother bans any substances that open the mind and make someone awaken, but allows substances that control people or suppress their awareness.

I advocate:

• Decriminalizing all non-violent drug related activity of any kind, other than selling to or providing to minors
  
• Legalizing everything for consenting adults
  
• Regulating for safety and accurate labelling re: dosage & variety/ingredients etc.
  
• Consumer education
  
• Medical doctors and/or pharmacologists present at point of purchase who can review medical history and prescriptions for possible adverse interactions or contraindications, and make a recommendation and offer caution/warning on that basis... but leave the ultimate choice up to the consumer after having given them that information and after they've signed something saying it was given to them
  
• Keeping DUI laws (though in the case of cannabis I think it's a bit of a misnomer and difficult to enforce with any fairness)
  
• Shifting resources from the "war on drugs" towards the above efforts, and towards reducing and eliminating poverty
  
• Opening up clinical studies of all kinds on these substances to determine definitively their effects, benefits, and therapeutic uses
  

Peace

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

Show us these indisputable medical facts about legal vs illegal drugs. Show us a source that is not something akin to High Times or Cheech & Chong Fanclub etc... Let's really compare how safe illegal drugs are as compared to legal ones. Let's then get into why you think someone taking a prescribed drug is comparable to someone taking an illegal one. If you take "legal" drugs that were bought from a street dealer, they have already become illegal drugs. Oxy isn't legal if you're buying it from a pusher or stealing it from your mom.

Then let's really delve into the conspiracy on how the man wants to keep us from expanding our minds by making psychedelics illegal. Druggies use this argument, as you pointed out it's a hippie conspiracy, and in your context you are equating hippie to druggie.

originally posted by: AceWombat04
I advocate:

• Decriminalizing all non-violent drug related activity of any kind, other than selling to or providing to minors
  
• Legalizing everything for consenting adults
  
• Regulating for safety and accurate labelling re: dosage & variety/ingredients etc.
  
• Consumer education
  
• Medical doctors and/or pharmacologists present at point of purchase who can review medical history and prescriptions for possible adverse interactions or contraindications, and make a recommendation and offer caution/warning on that basis... but leave the ultimate choice up to the consumer after having given them that information and after they've signed something saying it was given to them
  
• Keeping DUI laws (though in the case of cannabis I think it's a bit of a misnomer and difficult to enforce with any fairness)
  
• Shifting resources from the "war on drugs" towards the above efforts, and towards reducing and eliminating poverty
  
• Opening up clinical studies of all kinds on these substances to determine definitively their effects, benefits, and therapeutic uses
  

Peace

Do you mean for all illegal drugs? So you'd expect logo'd meth labs to pop up on the corners of your neighborhood with medical staff on hand to legitimize everything? Or coc aine/heroin refineries and perhaps parlors? Bring back the opium dens of old? Or are you just talking about pot shops like in Denver or Seattle?

originally posted by: saadad

originally posted by: angryhulk

originally posted by: saadad
Can someone write 1 reason why would a healthy individual use drugs? Thank you!

It has nothing to do with being healthy. It has everything to do with exploring your reality.

If an individual wants to ingest a psychoactive compound that makes him believe he is a turkey for an hour, that's his choice. It's our lives, our minds and our consciousness.

And for you that individual is healthy? For me he should visit doc for mental health or neurons brain doc, not using drugs to shapeshift into Turkey.

I have a feeling you maybe read too much into what I was saying.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

awesome post bruv. Been saying this for years, always looked at as a nut job 👍

a reply to: primus2012

Not exactly. It certainly wouldn't be "the opium dens of old" under the conditions I described and envision, and I'm thinking more along the lines of a locked special area of pharmacies and supermarkets that ID is required to enter. But... yes. ALL drugs, provided there is regulation for safety, and professional medical assessment on a person by person basis to establish who is at greatest risk for complications or interactions. After which... it's up to the consumer, and the consequences are their own responsibility.

We allow consenting adults to be responsible for putting literal poison into their body every day. The only difference I see here is stigma, and "what it looks like." Neither of which mean anything to me at all. I'm no more offended or perturbed by the notion of state sanctioned meth labs popping up in my neighborhood under the regulated and educated conditions I describe, than I am by the sight of homeless shelters.

To be clear: I'm not describing a free for all. Hence the aforementioned regulation. But that's what I advocate, yes.

Peace.

Let's just set the record straight.

The OP's assertion that all drug should be legalized is born of ignorance.

The OP did not actually do research into this subject.

Here is the proof:

When meth is produced, it creates toxic chemical by-products, so the OP making lies about how drugs only hurt the user is despicable.

Unlike many common street drugs such as marijuana, coc aine and heroin — which are all derived from naturally occurring substances found in plants — methamphetamine is a synthetic drug which is the result of a complicated and highly dangerous chemical manufacturing process.
www.narconon.org...

The OP needs to gain some perspective, and much needed intelligence, and learn to differentiate between a naturally derived substance, and synthetic poison pharmaceuticals.

a reply to: ArMaP

That's a fair point. People often misunderstand what "decriminalization" means. It is in reference to using. Selling is always still illegal in a decriminalized area.