From: dan@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Dan Parmenter)
Subject: Re: Drugs in Britain
Organization: /home/fsg/dan/.organization
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 16:47:18 GMT

In article <BxII6v.5zJ@dcs.ed.ac.uk> djts@dcs.ed.ac.uk (David Sumpter) writes:

>   I originally posted the question about the drugs in America, and am
>interested how many people are taken in by the Goverment's linking of
>Cocaine with Crack and Heroin.  Cocaine is not like Heroin in the
>slightest and although well related to Crack is not nearly as
>addictive.  We don't have Crack over here, we have cocaine but it's
>expensive. God knows how I'd get Heroin if I was stupid enough to want
>some. 

Crack is a highly addictive, refined form of cocaine.  Incidentally,
different sources will tell you different things regarding how
addicitive cocaine actually is.  I don't believe it's actually
physically addictive, but as George Carlin says, it gives one the
strong desire to do more cocaine.  Your statement about finding heroin
"If I was stupid enough to want some" intrigues me.  Heroin and other
opiates have the worst possible reputation as drugs, and yet Heroin,
in spite of its addictiveness isn't nearly as harmful in the long run
as say, alcohol.

   In 1990,

   154 people died directly from use of Opiates

Probably from badly cut heroin, dirty needles and most significantly,
the availability of very good heroin.  In the US heroin use is on the
rise, primarily among people in the mid twenties and thirties.  Due to
the availbility of extremely potent synthetic heroin (dilaudid et al),
there have been a lot of overdoses from people shooting up their
"normal" amount and the concentration being too high.  Heroin is often
sold differently from other drugs, one doesn't buy by weight generally
but by the bag, where a bag is a variable quantity that is thought to
correspond to say, one "high".  Also, a lot of the risk of synthetic
hroin is reduced by snorting heroin rather than shooting up.  Shooting
up is risky for way too many different reasons - chief among them
difficulty in controlling dossage.  People who sniff it (this is once
again, a part of the emerging heroin culture) can control their
dossage easily by taking only a small amount at a time.

>Not only do E,speed,trips and possibly coke make you love one another,
>they are unlikely to kill you.

E, speed, psychedelics (I assume "trips" is acid/mushrooms/mescaline),
and coke don't necessarily make people love each other.  There is a
case in Massachusetts right now of a young girl poisoning her mother's
boyfriend with a lethal dose of lsd.  Is this possible?  People who
believe that any drug is a "love drug" are completely deluded. To my
mind, drugs only create possibilities, and the human mind fills in the
blanks.  The drug culture creates as many myths about drugs as the
anti-drug forces do.  

>BUT, there are bad sides to all drugs, and the unaddictive ones still
>cause people to be iratable when not on them if they use too much for
>too long. But, they are a damm sight better than what often goes on in
>Scotland. ie. Drinking 10 pints and smashing a pint glass in someones
>face.  

Scotland, the US, verywhere.  Drunken louts are everywhere.  In my
life I've encountered more annoying behavior from drunks than any
other drug-users (easily).  For some reason, potheeads never yell "Hey
fagggot*, get a fuckin' haihcut!" at me.  Imagine that.

*Faggot - American slang for homosexual, not a broom or a cigarette

- Dan
--
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| Dan Parmenter       |"I'm waiting for a time, when I can do without these  |
| dan@gnu.ai.mit.edu  | things that make me feel this way all of the time"   |
|                     |                            - Spiritualized           |
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