Silk Road forums
Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: asdfsquared on January 25, 2013, 09:21 am
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*clearnet warning* http://casapalmera.com/myths-about-drugs/
This place claims to be a functioning drug treatment center in Del Mar, California. Outside of San Diego, I believe. I thought I'd share some of their enlightening 'drug myths'.
Myth #7: All drugs abusers are middle-aged men.
Anyone can become a drug addict or abuser. In fact, over the past years, the ratio of men and women drug users has slowly become more even.
Myth #9: Once detoxification ends, if the addict does not return to drugs, changes in the pathways of the brain will return to their original healthy state.
While the pain of withdrawal symptoms may end, complete heath is typically never fully returned, brain damage usually remaining for the rest of a person’s life.
...what? How can a company that specializes in treating drug abuse be so uninformed and dense?
Has anyone in Silk Road been to rehab? Were the counselors mostly spoon-fed propoganda machines like 'Casa Palmera', or did they seem experienced and understanding of the reality of drug use?
I've found that once you spend some time observing the drug culture, the truth about drugs is scary enough. Why do the powers that be feel the need to lie about them? I don't get it.
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My experience in a 30day rehab program wasn't all bad. Sure, some discussions or activities just had me laughing on the inside, other aspects have stuck with me. You also have to realize that there are a LOT of different varieties of addicts in rehab programs, and different people will react to different rehabilitation exercises differently.
Just for perspective: When I was in my program, the drugs-of-choice for the other addicts around me was about 30% alcoholics, 25% heroin, 15% pills, 15% cocaine, and 15% 'general addict'(multi-addictions possibly). The ages ranged from 18 to 75(really). Male to female was about equal. Just like in the popular drug rehab tv shows, our counselors as well as the chief doctor in charge are all recovering addicts. My particular doctor was formerly a neurosurgeon who fell into a prescription pill/alcohol addiction which led him to lose his license, go to treatment himself, and spend years in recovery before starting his own treatment center.
For anyone wondering: I'm clearly no longer sober. However, I don't regret the time/money I spent going to rehab. I learned a lot about myself, some reasons why I enjoy drugs, and I'd like to think I use a lot more responsibly now. Whatever the case may be, I definitely am in a better place in life with regards to family, love life, work, etc.
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That's super cool. I know a few people who have been in rehab and it definitely sounds interesting. I don't think rehab works though unless the user is ready.
In my experience with counselors and government employees however, the ARE mostly just regurgitating propaganda. I wonder how they'd feel if they ever realized they could be replaced with a tv and vhs cassette on repeat..
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As a rule, I never really trust people who have a nicer house then me but want to take me or my family's money all the same so they can "Help Me". I think regardless of how nice the ocean side view from the treatment center / spa might be, people only really change when they are ready to. So anything a pay for cure establishment has to say I normally just take with a grain of salt. If they really had the answer to addiction they would have overcome their addiction to money as well and offered people real help for free. Instead they seem to prey on the hopes and dreams of addicts and their families by offering a cure that is often only available inside the addict themselves.
I am probably a little biased on all this though, when I was young my mom put me through two separate in patient care facilities that even at the time seemed like nothing more than a grab for cash that did little more than introduce me to a new world of drugs I likely never would have known before going there.
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Myth 0: Rehab clinics provide objective information about drugs.
These are commercial institutions and benefit from getting as many customers possible. This alone would bias their information to the point of making people believe they have a problem, regardless if that is actually so.
It goes terribly wrong at #3 already, stating that cannabis causes cancer. It surely does when smoked mixed with tobacco in the typical joint, but it is hard to prove that a joint is more dangerous compared to an ordinary cigarette. Thinks like lack of coordination are the point of taking a drug: you take it because you want it to alter your mental function for some period of time. Alcohol does this, cannabis does this, opiates do this. There is no symptom listed that is specific to cannabis there, try playing a game of memory while driving a car and remembering the license plates of all the cars you encounter en route. This doesn't work well if you have been drinking either, or even if you have had a short nights sleep.
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I don't think rehab works though unless the user is ready.
Agree 100%.
These are commercial institutions and benefit from getting as many customers possible. This alone would bias their information to the point of making people believe they have a problem, regardless if that is actually so.
This is also very, very true. Rehab's not cheap, and I was amazed at how many people I met that were in there for their 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th time etc. It seemed like those "repeat-rehab-ers" would go out, relapse, get in trouble, then come right back through the revolving-door-rehab-system.
Like was said above, rehab CAN work, if someone wants it to work. However, a lot of people who go to rehab are their because they are court-ordered, and they really have no interest in change.
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I suppose a lot of people end up in there due to court order, but also pressure from family, employers and what not.
There are various methods that -can- work, as long as you are motivated, and that doesn't always require putting someone in an isolated environment either.
Being unable to use a drug isn't that likely to break addiction at all. If i were to be stranded on a remote island for a week, the first thing i'd probably want after that week is a cigarette.
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I was in rehab for four months of this year, and I agree with the person who said rehab does not work unless one is ready. I wasn't in one of those ridiculous luxury spa rehabs either, I was in a Hazelden treatment center for the first 28 days, then they shipped me off for 90 additional days for continuing-care. I'm not sure about brain damage ever healing, as far as I know it doesn't, but I could be wrong. I do know alot, however, about what happens when you go back to drugs after a period of absence. In rehab I went to 10 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every week, and what I heard over and over from people who have lived in addiction is that when you go back to drugs after being sober for ANY amount of time, you start right back where you were when you quit. Having relapsed myself, I have to agree, my addiction is at least as severe as it was when I was forced to quit. AA is based around service and helping others, following the 12 steps, being accountable, ect. I gather the objective is to keep you so busy, you don't have time to do drugs, and to keep your social network so thick and tightly woven that you always have someone to hold you accountable for your actions.
Sorry, I'm kind of rambling. But anyway, when I was in rehab, it wasn't like total hell. I wasn't constantly thinking about drugs, I had cravings every so-often, but it wasn't impossible for me to overcome. I also had my friends (the girls in the rehab with me of course) and my sponsor, which helped alot. But honestly, I firmly believe there is no cure to addiction. Whether or not you actively use drugs is up to you, but I believe someone who is an addict is always an addict, and when they pick up a drug (be it after 4 years or 4 minutes of sobriety) they will have an excruciatingly difficult time putting it back down.
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I was in rehab for four months of this year, and I agree with the person who said rehab does not work unless one is ready. I wasn't in one of those ridiculous luxury spa rehabs either, I was in a Hazelden treatment center for the first 28 days, then they shipped me off for 90 additional days for continuing-care. I'm not sure about brain damage ever healing, as far as I know it doesn't, but I could be wrong. I do know alot, however, about what happens when you go back to drugs after a period of absence. In rehab I went to 10 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every week, and what I heard over and over from people who have lived in addiction is that when you go back to drugs after being sober for ANY amount of time, you start right back where you were when you quit. Having relapsed myself, I have to agree, my addiction is at least as severe as it was when I was forced to quit. AA is based around service and helping others, following the 12 steps, being accountable, ect. I gather the objective is to keep you so busy, you don't have time to do drugs, and to keep your social network so thick and tightly woven that you always have someone to hold you accountable for your actions.
Sorry, I'm kind of rambling. But anyway, when I was in rehab, it wasn't like total hell. I wasn't constantly thinking about drugs, I had cravings every so-often, but it wasn't impossible for me to overcome. I also had my friends (the girls in the rehab with me of course) and my sponsor, which helped alot. But honestly, I firmly believe there is no cure to addiction. Whether or not you actively use drugs is up to you, but I believe someone who is an addict is always an addict, and when they pick up a drug (be it after 4 years or 4 minutes of sobriety) they will have an excruciatingly difficult time putting it back down.
So honestly I think the secrete to AA's success is the 13th step - Everyone have sex with someone now.
I think the program helps quite a few people but what I've noticed is that most people who stop using just replace that addiction with something else such as a little sex, obsessive meeting involvement, exercise, work or anything really. So I agree with the premise that once an addict always an addict but I think we can shift our behaviors a bit to decide what we are going to be addicted to. For me when I quite smoking cigarettes I immediately need to start working out. It becomes my new obsession and the way for me to alter my environment. What we miss about our drugs isn't always the drug itself but the way the drug made us feel different, special, happy, and there are other ways to get that feeling when the toll of drug use becomes too high.
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idk about rehab because ive never been
but a series of myths that I hear CONSTANTLY spouted out by the people I am around most of the time (college-20-somethings) is all the bullshit about 'shrooms/acid cause your back to bleed' or 'causes scars to form on your back/brain'
I even heard this fuckin asshole claim with 100% certainty that the reason lsd flashbacks happened were because when you did the acid, it would make your brain bleed, therefore causing scabs. down the road, when those scabs were punctured somehow, it would release the somehow still active lsd and make you trip again. goddamn moron!!!!!! sad thing is the amount of people in general public that believes in these myths
drug misinformation is the most embedded trait in most american institutions, especially public education. Something needs to be done to reverse the countless generations of people who have such a skewed and ignorant perspective on drugs based on misconceptions that have been fed to them and reinforced to them for years!!!!
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Obviously there are scare tactics at work here. Purely based on statistics one could argue that IV drug use increases the chances of contracting hiv/aids. This all works out very nicely if you look at the stats and do probability analyses. It however omits that the sole cause for this problem is people 'recycling' needles.
If you just look at the numbers without thinking about them you could conclude that heroin use causes aids. The reality of the situation is very different though: with programs that allow addicts to exchange used needles for sterile ones the hiv infection problem can be remedied entirely.
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Myth 0: Rehab clinics provide objective information about drugs.
I'd sooner trust Erowid and Bluelight over rehabs for objective general information about drugs, thank you.
For that matter, I so distrust rehab clinics, that I'd sooner trust the advice of heavily invested drug dealers over rehab clinics.
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I'm still in rehab. Outpatient treatment with methadone.
Ask any questions. It's been 3 yrs now.
They tell me all sorts of things, like drugs rot your brain. It's all about money. Rehab costs money and the longer they can 'treat ' you the better for them. I don't even need methadone, I never really used opiates. Haha. True. He probabion officer suggested methadone after I was caught with marihuana And labeled a drug addict. I agreed to the methadone because the only other option was a locked up detox facility. Ouch! For pot????
Now I'm stuck on methadone years later. Probation is long over with. I'm still spending about $80. / week on methadone treatment. Strange huh? My probation officer got me hooked on methadone. Someone is getting my money and it ain't the local pot dealer.
Apparently , once I finish methadone treatment ill be cured of drugs. Amazing. They won't let's get off the stuff. They keep convincing me that I need the methadone to stay normal and safe. It does nothing for pot. Duh. And of course pot isn't addictive anyway.
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Myth 0: Rehab clinics provide objective information about drugs.
I'd sooner trust Erowid and Bluelight over rehabs for objective general information about drugs, thank you.
For that matter, I so distrust rehab clinics, that I'd sooner trust the advice of heavily invested drug dealers over rehab clinics.
Hell yes! I try to make everyone aware of erowid and bluelight, drug users and non drug users alike! Such useful resources! :D
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Weed is the gateway drug. I'm so tired of hearing this and wonder where did it start? What does it truly mean? Is it because most lower budget weed tend to have other chemicals. (Laced.) Is it because most people that use drugs start off with weed in the beginning. (Using this theory wouldn't cigarettes, caffeine, and alcohol be considered gateway drugs?) My final theory is that weed isn't a gateway drug, but since weed is illegal. It allows for gateway "dealers". Thoughts?
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Weed is the gateway drug. I'm so tired of hearing this and wonder where did it start? What does it truly mean? Is it because most lower budget weed tend to have other chemicals. (Laced.) Is it because most people that use drugs start off with weed in the beginning. (Using this theory wouldn't cigarettes, caffeine, and alcohol be considered gateway drugs?) My final theory is that weed isn't a gateway drug, but since weed is illegal. It allows for gateway "dealers". Thoughts?
Ask any addict what was their first illegal drug, 90%+ will say marijuana. Sure, it can be argued that nicotine, caffeine and alcohol can also be considered gateway drugs, despite them being legal. While there's nothing chemically about marijuana or THC that tells your brain "hey, let's try heroin next!", marijuana still ends up being a "gateway drug".
The problem, in my opinion, lies in the education system(at least in the united states). From a young age, I was taught through health classes and programs like D.A.R.E. that "ALL DRUGS ARE BAD! ALL DRUGS WILL KILL YOU!". When I smoked my first joint and realized that I wasn't going to die, but rather had a quite enjoyable time, I realized that I had been lied to. It was only a matter of time before I began to think "what else was I lied to about drugs?" and became more curious about other substances. Over the years I experimented with and abused nearly every drug imaginable due to this curiosity.
THIS, imo, is what makes drugs like marijuana into a 'gateway drug'.
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Weed is the gateway drug. I'm so tired of hearing this and wonder where did it start? What does it truly mean? Is it because most lower budget weed tend to have other chemicals. (Laced.) Is it because most people that use drugs start off with weed in the beginning. (Using this theory wouldn't cigarettes, caffeine, and alcohol be considered gateway drugs?) My final theory is that weed isn't a gateway drug, but since weed is illegal. It allows for gateway "dealers". Thoughts?
I agree with this observation. Weed is not 'the gateway drug' in any scientific sense, but it often is the first illegal drug people will try. Someone used to drink alcohol and smoke cigs may be pretty inclined to smoke some pot at some point in their life. Most of people that do, do not develop a serious problem however.
The problem is with the eternal distinction between legal and illegal drugs, however. Someone could easily go from alcohol to opiates skipping the cannabis step entirely. With street drugs cannabis it is a very probably step in between, but without this the step between some prescribed morphine and opiate addiction is not unlikely either.
I doubt that if cannabis did not exist at all, there would be fewer opiate addicts. I suppose people would go from alchol to benzo's to opiates just as easily. The point where something becomes illegal seems to have little or no impact in many parts of the world. In fact, i suppose it would be easier to explain possessing 100 tablets of diazepam than explaining why you carry an ounce of pot in most of western europe.
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Marijuana kills brain cells..LSD makes you think you can fly. ..Drugs are bad. LMAO my all time fav three 8)
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LOL weed is a stepping stone, ya that ones classic also.. Shit if not for gods green gigglebush, i would have been an all out junkie by the age of 12 LOL
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That LSD makes you 'hallucinate', like see unicorns and multicoloured clowns and shit.
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Weed is a gateway drug in the same way car keys are a gateway to vehicular manslaughter.
The thing that I think is funny is that you could search these drug rehab sights for DAYS and never find any of the commonly prescribed heavy narcotics given to kids and adults on a daily basis through licensed medical providers as having any sort of a link to illegal drug use. Sure we gave little Johny a bottle full of antihistamines when he was seven to help him get his homework done but it wasn't until the little guy ran into Seedy Sal and his stash of plants that would finally help him sleep that he turned into an addict!
The fact is most everyone of these treatment centers will happily pump you full of chemicals for as long as you are willing to take them and proclaim you "Clean and Sober" as long as the drugs you are now hooked on come in a little brown bottle with a label on it because than you are working within the system and everyone is getting their fair share of your drug dollars rather than letting it all wind up in the hands of terrorists and evil drug cartels... it's the American Dream after all... long live the corporations!
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I wouldn't put it quite that bluntly, but there is some truth to it.
There always will be when there are drugs that are legal, and drugs that are illegal. I cannot seriously be convinced that someone that smokes a gram of a pot a day has a bigger problem than someone that drinks a litre of vodka a day. I suppose the US justice system would not agree with that and send the vodka drinker on his merry way as long as he doesn't break any laws, whereas as the pot smoker would end up in jail.
Luckily i do not live in the US, and could smoke a gram of pot a day i wanted to without any real legal threat. Benzodiazepines are treated in the same schedule as cannabis here, so would also be relatively safe to use legally.
By the time you get to opiates you do get the 'prescription bottle' difference though. And yes, it is very odd that having a gram of heroin on you gets you into trouble while having an equal dose (which may be a 3 months worth) of prescribed morphine tablets is no problem at all.
I suppose this gives some opportunity too though: just fill that bottle of benadryl with morphine sulfate tablets and off you go.
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Quote Unquote
"The User is forever chasing for for the rest of their miserable godamn life the impossible to repeat high from their first hit"
I SMELL BULLSHIT. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.
Maybe so..in regards to ecstacy ...maybe after a hundred or so real ecstacy tablets ...fair play as serotonin is quite the delicate neurotransmitter it kinda loses it's magic
Speed, Meth, Blow
Don't think so
Dopamine is one robust chemical messenger you can count on will be restocked top shelf
I spent three months snorting blow 2 to 4 times a week 5years into my heyday at sometimes at psychotic amounts and dare I say it the champagne hit the same sweet spot towards the latter.
Not sure about Opioids and and other psychedelics?
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this subject post will not take off as I thought it would. had potential...kinda lost its momentum in the first few replies. oh well.
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i just fucking LOVE how these mother fucking bitch ass propaganda spewing bullshitters called treatment facilities can just downright lie. Cannabis DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER U STUPID FUCKS. Never once ever in the history of humanity has cannabis smoking been a direct cause of cancer. ever. Why in the mother FUCK would you think that it does without any scientific evidence for it. on the fucking contrary, it has anti cancer properties and has been used successfully to treat cancer and is more effective for it than chemotherapy. Wow that shit pisses me right fuck off. sorry all
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Apologies for going off topic tangent
OK POT DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER
more people with umbrellas while it's raining does not mean umbrellas cause the rain simply there are more people carrying umbrellas while it's raining
the only difference between a cancer cell is it cannot use ketones whereas a normal cell can
WEED IS AS MUCH OF A GATEWAY DRUG AS ALCOHOL IS
the fact of the matter is pot is one of the first drugs one tries so the media sugarcoats the issue
if A trumps B and B trumps C then does C get trumped by A?
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Weed is the gateway drug. I'm so tired of hearing this and wonder where did it start? What does it truly mean? Is it because most lower budget weed tend to have other chemicals. (Laced.) Is it because most people that use drugs start off with weed in the beginning. (Using this theory wouldn't cigarettes, caffeine, and alcohol be considered gateway drugs?) My final theory is that weed isn't a gateway drug, but since weed is illegal. It allows for gateway "dealers". Thoughts?
When someone smokes weed and comes on silkroad and sees a wide variety of drugs they might want to try at first something like mdma and later to experience most drugs atleast once. Alcohol and cigarretes are legal so people who do them prob think that illegal stuff is "bad" and just doesn't come to places like silkroad or where drugs are.
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****Clear-net warning****
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misconceptions_about_illegal_drugs
****Clear-net warning****
Biggest list I know off. Some are ridiculous. Holes in the brain from MDMA? LOLOL
Shows the ignorance of the average unread person. Its amazing what some people will believe.
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Well, these often is a load of FUD when in comes to any drug.
I'd say there is basic truth to the concept that smoking cannabis can cause cancer. The realistic comparison is to judge it against smoking cigarettes. If you compare smoking a joint with smoking a (single) cigarette you'd probably end up with comparable risks. If you already smoke 30 cigs a day, having joint instead of one of those cigarettes doesn't seem likely to increase your chance of contracting lung cancer at all.
Risk assessment should be relative and fair. If we consider legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco as the limit to what is acceptable, it is only rational to legalize a pretty large number of substances. These would include cannabis, lsd, xtc, benzo's at the very least, and probably quite some more.
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Yeah, a lot of really good points have already been made about the "gateway drug" myth and education's role in all of this. I just want to point out that those education programs often originated with law enforcement. I used to be a cop, and used to teach one of those programs (please, DPR, don't throw me out, I have seen the light, I am a changed man). Cops are, generally, not very bright, and when you write a curriculum for them to teach, you have to write it for the lowest common denominator. Also, you're not shooting for the honor students, know what I mean? So, the concept of a "gateway drug" is relatively easy to grasp and was sort of scary twenty years ago. Maybe thirty. When I was doing this, maybe 15 years ago, it was a joke.
The whole law enforcement attitude toward drugs is a joke. It's a money game. Local sheriff's offices and police departments are after the sellers because they get to keep a large percentage of whatever money they seize, or the proceeds from the sale of whatever property, or the tax haul from whatever drugs seized. After 9/11, every police department from Mayberry to San Diego got money for SWAT upgrades, big ones, and now narcotics divisions which before might have had a single "wire" surveillance radio now had night vision, GPS trackers, FLIR cameras, and even National Guard helicopters at their disposal. But for all their fancy gear, they still rely on the same old buy/bust model they've used for decades.
I digress. I tell my kids to stay away from drugs. But when they grow up, I just might invite them to smoke one with their old man.
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*clearnet warning* http://casapalmera.com/myths-about-drugs/
This place claims to be a functioning drug treatment center in Del Mar, California. Outside of San Diego, I believe. I thought I'd share some of their enlightening 'drug myths'.
Myth #7: All drugs abusers are middle-aged men.
Anyone can become a drug addict or abuser. In fact, over the past years, the ratio of men and women drug users has slowly become more even.
Myth #9: Once detoxification ends, if the addict does not return to drugs, changes in the pathways of the brain will return to their original healthy state.
While the pain of withdrawal symptoms may end, complete heath is typically never fully returned, brain damage usually remaining for the rest of a person’s life.
...what? How can a company that specializes in treating drug abuse be so uninformed and dense?
Has anyone in Silk Road been to rehab? Were the counselors mostly spoon-fed propoganda machines like 'Casa Palmera', or did they seem experienced and understanding of the reality of drug use?
I've found that once you spend some time observing the drug culture, the truth about drugs is scary enough. Why do the powers that be feel the need to lie about them? I don't get it.
I've been to rehab and worked in a recovery home and the funniest myth I heard was that 80% of male addicts has had a homosexual experience but the only thing I learned from rehab was how to make an ashtray
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OK, since the title of the thread is top 10 most popular drug myths, and there isn't a list of 10 anywhere I thought I'd make one.
1. People thought they could fly and jumped out of a building on LSD.
2. MDMA causes holes in the brain. (ie, swiss cheese)
3. Marijuana is 20x more potent than it was 40 years ago.
4. LSD is stored in the spine forever.
5. Man thinks he is an orange/glass of orange juice after taking LSD.
6. Anyone caught selling LSD is automatically given a manslaughter/attempted murder charge
7. LSD is double dipped, triple dipped, whatever. (Just different dosages, all dipped once)
8. Niacin and passing drug tests
9. You are legally insane after taking LSD X amount of times.
10. You will go blind from light exposure on psychedelics due to pupil dilation.
I have seen the top two talked about on the news (but we all know thats the last source we can trust). I also saw a video where Oprah tries to give conclusive proof that MDMA causes holes in the brain. She shows a brain map of neuro-activity in an MDMA user and there are "holes" or gaps of inactivity and she's like, yep there it is, look at it. Only thing is that every healthy human brain has these spots, and she didn't show a "healthy" brain to compare it to. BUT, thats the mainstream media for you, fuckin' people will believe anything.
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Ah well, thats all non-science intended to seed fear. If i showed you a an activity picture of your brain while awake compared to one while asleep, you could easily conclude that sleeping totally fucks up your brain, disabling many regions while activating others. If a drug caused that, you'd be very affraid to take it i reckon.
But even if you do a sinle person test (which has no scientific merit) you should should a few diagrams: one before taking a drug, one while on it, and one taken some time later when off the drug. You will find that the first and last ones are very similar regardless of the drug used. It is the mis-interpretation of results that is used to scare people in such cases. If you drink half a bottle of scotch, you'll probably be unable to drive a car right after - but the true question is how you will be doing a week or a month after trying that. Most people will be perfectly fine a week later, even if they were so intoxicated that they could not even figure out how to use the key while under severe influence.
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Most addicts started out smoking cigarettes, so let's make those illegal too! They must be the gateway drug to marijuana!
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actually most addicts start out from drinking water or eating food or some shit. so water and food is the gateway to drugs
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Similar to that, I'm getting tired of the government using "associations" as a reason to ban substances.
"Legalization remains a non-starter in the Obama Administration because research shows that illegal drug use is associated with voluntary treatment admissions, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness, and emergency room admissions."
That is the broadest statement I have ever heard. You could associate anything with anything. Sex is associated with aids, so we should ban sex. Computers are associated with hacking. Ban computers! Stairs are associated with falling. Ban stairs! Life is associated with death. BAN LIFE!
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Weed is the gateway drug. I'm so tired of hearing this and wonder where did it start? What does it truly mean? Is it because most lower budget weed tend to have other chemicals. (Laced.) Is it because most people that use drugs start off with weed in the beginning. (Using this theory wouldn't cigarettes, caffeine, and alcohol be considered gateway drugs?) My final theory is that weed isn't a gateway drug, but since weed is illegal. It allows for gateway "dealers". Thoughts?
I think weed is only gateway because its illegal most places and once you do enough illegal things you begin to question why you shouldn't do others. Of course its not quite that simple..
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If weed is a gateway drug I think alcohol should get just as bad of a label. Many people try alcohol before they try weed. Not to mention alcohol is related to way more accidental deaths (I say accidental because weed most likely results in more violent deaths because of its legal status). LEGALIZE IT. 8)
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There is little scientific evidence against that indeed. Smoking some pot has been as normal as drinking some beers for me when grown up.
Fast forward a decade or so and alcohol proved to be rather addictive, and pot really did not.
This doesn't mean that either is a 'gateway drug' however: if you never drank alcohol or smoked pot in your life you could still get addicted to any other drug.
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Weed is the gateway drug. I'm so tired of hearing this and wonder where did it start? What does it truly mean? Is it because most lower budget weed tend to have other chemicals. (Laced.) Is it because most people that use drugs start off with weed in the beginning. (Using this theory wouldn't cigarettes, caffeine, and alcohol be considered gateway drugs?) My final theory is that weed isn't a gateway drug, but since weed is illegal. It allows for gateway "dealers". Thoughts?
A few things factor in, I think.
1. As noted, the illegality of weed means you're dealing with people who often have other illegal substances on hand.
2. The ridiculous "reefer madness" style warnings leave new pot smokers thinking "Wow, was that ever a load of bullshit. I wonder what else was all lies?"
3. Weed culture is closer to other illegal substances (in most places) than alcohol. This is largely due to illegality but is its own thing, too. So there are connections there other than the dealers - friends, festivals, etc..
oh and mustn't forget:
4. BOO! Did I scare you? Drugs are bad, m'kay?
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Perhaps being Dutch my perspective on this is different. Here we have coffeeshops that exclusively sell cannabis, just like liquor stores exclusively sell alcohol. The chances of being able to buy something like cocaine or heroin at a coffeeshop are no larger than at a liquor store, though some of both obviously do so backdoor sales.
This system has taken cannabis out of the criminal atmosphere typically surrounding cannabis transactions in other counties, so it provides an opportunity to investigate this 'gateway drug' effect in a situation where cannabis is sold like alcohol is, but no other drugs are sold on the same premises. In fact, coffeeshops aren't even allowed to sell alcohol.
Basically cannabis and liquor are sold under very comparable circumstances here, and no venue legally sells both.
So where does the gateway effect come in, exactly? If you look at things like festivals, raves and such, a fair amount of substances like mdma, aphetamine, cocaine and such are used on those. None of these festivals sell cannabis legally, while virtually all of them sell alcohol legally. For someone unfamiliar with drugs, the chances of having some X whilst drunk are much higher compared to someone being high on pot having some X, since they aren't often both easily available in the same place.
As far as other countries are concerned: is pot really THE gateway substance? Or do, in reality, large numbers of people go straight from alcohol to meth, coke or opiates without requiring using cannabis in between?