How To End The Heroin Epidemic

[TheOldSchool]

Adult use in Colorado has increased, and as pot becomes mainstream, use will eventually increase all around.

Good. Hopefully it replaces alcohol use for many people.

Potheads stink.

So do ignorant old drunks who still believe Reefer Madness

 

[MikeK]

Until people get to the point where they can face life without being high, drug addiction will be a problem. There is no difference between the heroin user with a needle in his or her arm and a bong in someone's mouth. It's a matter of degree. None of them want to live. Life is too hard. They can't face it.

[...]

You never tire, which is a good thing because you serve as an effective conversational drum to pound on. Your absurdly fanatical commentaries precisely reflect the Reefer Madness and the demented drug warrior mentalities which have cost the American taxpayers trillions of dollars in utterly wasted revenues while producing zero positive results.

So keep on with your ridiculous Wack-a-Mole rants which afford those of us who understand the facts about marijuana and the counterproductive nature of the drug war to educate those who have been brainwashed but can still think for themselves. Without your nonsensical diatribes we'd have to start off cold -- which isn't easy.

So, thanks.

 

[MikeK]

Potheads stink.

Thank you for a carefully structured presentation.

 

[MikeK]

People don't know they're drug addicts until they use. Relaxing laws and decriminalization drugs only encourages use.

Do you mean if heroin became legally available you would rush right out and get some? Or do you mean only other people would do that while the special folks like you would stand by and criticize them?

 

[MikeK]

The pot addict started on cigarettes and alcohol. So when will you support criminalizing them?

If you someday discovered that marijuana is not addictive, wouldn't you feel kind of stupid?

 

[TheOldSchool]

The pot addict started on cigarettes and alcohol. So when will you support criminalizing them?

If you someday discovered that marijuana is not addictive, wouldn't you feel kind of stupid?

It's not addictive. So...

 

[TooTall]

^^ dannyboys...when you get a minute, go visit the 1,000s of miles the Wall would cover and notice the terrain. Get a contractor to come out and quote you a price to build 10' of it as high and thick (and deep, Mexicans love to dig tunnels) it would have to be. Then multiply that figure by a mile. A mile is 5280 feet. So 1 mile would be 528 times more expensive than the price your contractor quoted you. Then multiply THAT figure by say 1,500. That's just the beginning. Then the manpower needed to patrol this vastly expensive wall, around the clock, forever, would likely quadruple that YUGE figure for just the cost. Then there's the constant maintenance of the wall; which from the damage the Mexicans would do to it on a daily basis, just for fun if not to breach it, would be that manpower figure again.

You cannot stop drug addicts. These people's fate is the predictable outcome!

Yes, but you could stop the flow of easy heroin into the country. An addict would be much better off smoking pot than not waking up at all for his 7 year old to find him dead in the morning after shooting up.

The heroin addict started on pot, but it didn't have enough kick to it.

The pot addict started on cigarettes and alcohol. So when will you support criminalizing them?

Pot is easier to get in school for teens than cigarettes and alcohol.

 

[TheOldSchool]

^^ dannyboys...when you get a minute, go visit the 1,000s of miles the Wall would cover and notice the terrain. Get a contractor to come out and quote you a price to build 10' of it as high and thick (and deep, Mexicans love to dig tunnels) it would have to be. Then multiply that figure by a mile. A mile is 5280 feet. So 1 mile would be 528 times more expensive than the price your contractor quoted you. Then multiply THAT figure by say 1,500. That's just the beginning. Then the manpower needed to patrol this vastly expensive wall, around the clock, forever, would likely quadruple that YUGE figure for just the cost. Then there's the constant maintenance of the wall; which from the damage the Mexicans would do to it on a daily basis, just for fun if not to breach it, would be that manpower figure again.

You cannot stop drug addicts. These people's fate is the predictable outcome!

Yes, but you could stop the flow of easy heroin into the country. An addict would be much better off smoking pot than not waking up at all for his 7 year old to find him dead in the morning after shooting up.

The heroin addict started on pot, but it didn't have enough kick to it.

The pot addict started on cigarettes and alcohol. So when will you support criminalizing them?

Pot is easier to get in school for teens than cigarettes and alcohol.

The illegal market for it is far more developed. In Colorado, where the illegal market was dealt a crushing blow and is obsolete for people 21 and over, youth marijuana use has gone down.

 

[MikeK]

It's not addictive. So...

But you already knew that. So it's no discovery.

 

[TheOldSchool]

It's not addictive. So...

But you already knew that. So it's no discovery.

So what are we doing here...

 

[Brynmr]

You cannot stop drug addicts. These people's fate is the predictable outcome!

And for good reason. Life is suffering and some cannot handle it so they turn to drugs. The real problem begins when they have to steal and do worse to feed their addiction.

 

[MikeK]

The illegal market for it is far more developed. In Colorado, where the illegal market was dealt a crushing blow and is obsolete for people 21 and over, youth marijuana use has gone down.

And it will go down even more -- as it has in the Netherlands since they decriminalized it in 1976, What the Dutch have learned is once the lure of the illicit has been eliminated most of the kids have lost interest -- which is to be expected of adolescents. If we ordered them to use it they would rebel, protest and refuse. Count on it.

 

[MikeK]

So what are we doing here...

Hopefully, educating those who are receptive.

 

[WillowTree]

The heroin problem in this country is not because of marijuana or Mexico...or Colombia, or any other producer in Central America. It's based out of our very own U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Rolling your eyes? Think again.

Twenty or so years ago Big Pharma came out with a "safe and non-addictive" pain killer for post-surgery patients and patients with chronic pain. It was called oxycodone, in case all you Rush Limbaugh fans have forgotten.

Big Pharma reps ASSURED the doctors in this country that it was not addictive, so docs started prescribing it for all kinds of pain problems. Then Big Pharma made an announcement: Guess what, docs? IT IS addictive! (How A Big Drug Company Inadvertently Got Americans Hooked On Heroin | Huffington Post) So physicians started cutting back on prescribing and cutting off their patients. But too late. So our neighbors to the south started filling in that gap:

"""The heroin scourge has been driven largely by a law-enforcement crackdown on illicit use of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and drug-company reformulations that make the pills harder to crush and snort, drug officials say. That has pushed those who were addicted to the pills to turn to heroin, which is cheaper and more plentiful. "Basically, you have a generation of ready-made heroin addicts," said Matthew Barnes,special agent in charge of the DEA's Seattle division.""" Heroin Makes a Comeback

I hate to tell ya but you just contradicted your dumb self!

 

[Brynmr]

As it should. The government ban on marijuana was initiated by the Department of Prohibition, which had nothing to do after alcohol was made legal again. I personally know of many people in their 50s and 60s who have smoked a lot of weed over the years, meaning since they were in their 20s, and none of them have become raging, brain-damaged lunatics. Personally, it's not for me or else I would have to move to CO.

Gary Johnson

 

[MikeK]

You cannot stop drug addicts. These people's fate is the predictable outcome!

And for good reason. Life is suffering and some cannot handle it so they turn to drugs. The real problem begins when they have to steal and do worse to feed their addiction.

Well said -- and perfectly true. The drug war affects us all in a very negative way, and it does absolutely nothing positive for mainstream America. It serves only a few special interests.

 

[MikeK]

Pot is easier to get in school for teens than cigarettes and alcohol.

Very true. And legalizing it will put an end to that in the same way as the Repeal of Prohibition put an end to the availability of bootleg booze. Today marijuana is readily available to kids while alcohol is not.

 

[Lewdog]

I just read an article the other day that was done by some big university. Heroin was the #1 most addictive drug, Opioids were up there, tobacco, alcohol, and barbiturates. Marijuana wasn't in the top 5.

Putting drug users and sellers in jail, especially with mandatory sentences doesn't work. It hurts the budget, not only because of prison operating costs, but because it then leaves children without parents and creates a never ending cycle. Is there an easy answer? Nope.

 

[Moonglow]

You cannot stop drug addicts. These people's fate is the predictable outcome!

And for good reason. Life is suffering and some cannot handle it so they turn to drugs. The real problem begins when they have to steal and do worse to feed their addiction.

Like work a job for 40 years...

 

[Brynmr]

You cannot stop drug addicts. These people's fate is the predictable outcome!

And for good reason. Life is suffering and some cannot handle it so they turn to drugs. The real problem begins when they have to steal and do worse to feed their addiction.

Well said -- and perfectly true. The drug war affects us all in a very negative way, and it does absolutely nothing positive for mainstream America. It serves only a few special interests.

We need a different way to treat the problem. I have some ideas but no one will go for them until society stops hating people who turn to drugs.