feather wrote:
In my case, it went hand in hand with a desperate desire to get away from shit I was carrying around. There were at least two motives pushing me toward hard drugs.

irrepressible wrote:
well that would depend on the persons' make-up. If someone takes heroin and the effect takes away all the pain they experience in life, all their problems and life issues then it becomes a potential addiction.

Some people become alcoholics as it changes the way they feel to one they prefer. I don't much care for how i feel after a drink so I never became an alcoholic.

My opinion changes based on circumstances. Hard drugs are an adults choice, if there are no children around, as far as I am concerned. If adults are going to do it and stay clear of children while they do it, it's their choice. If adults are going to do it and be around children, they need a good bonk on the head before being sent on their way away from kids.

Softer drugs, like weed... under the influence around kids, not really a problem, but I would prefer adults and teenagers wait until the younger ones are asleep and in bed for the night before engaging in such activity. Although if you do a lot of it, since it is a slight hallucinogen you probably shouldn't do it with kids in the home (yes, I have had some medical grade stuff, and enough of it to screw with my mind, so I know it can fuck with you in a serious way).

The legality of all this stuff, I think people should take a lesson from Amsterdam... legalize it and be done with it, reasoning? Because, once it's legal a lot of people will loose interest in it because it no longer holds that "rebellious" statement. If it's available everywhere, all the time, the sneaking around and doing something deemed 'wrong' and the rush some people get from doing that will disappear. Yes, there will still be hardcore druggies and issues with it, but I think it will lesson the fun in it enough that drug rates and usage will go down. Again, keeping yourself away from children while under the influence would be a must in my book...and with the harder stuff, keeping yourself away from kids for 24-48 hours from the moment you start doing it would be required as things like meth/speed and coke can seep out of your body and can be transferred through touch in minimal amounts (and even a minimum amount could effect a child in a bad way).

Anyway... in my own town? Well, the closest one to me, there is like a one stop shopping center for just about anything, and if they ain't got it they can either point you in the right direction or have it within a few hours. But I also think they should have someone clamp down on them as they are dealing the hard stuff to teenagers and kids, which in my mind is wrong (especially when they are trading this stuff for sexual favors to kids). And having had, recently, a very bad experience with acid and coke, I can safely say its not something even a teenager (16-17) should have access to, let alone anyone younger...I barely held on to my sanity, a teenager/child would not do well with access to either of those, specially when the two are combined.

round here people love pills and meth lol its not hard to tell who, heavy users are zombies. people make meth labs anywhere. then they end up tearing the place down. but theres so many. if you go around being goody two shoes and respecting the law you probably wont come into it. but then doctors get the goody two shoes ppl hooked on painkillers and other stuff.

Looks like I need to bookmark this.

feather wrote: Because slavery is legal in the United States, and a poor and easily exploitable under class equates to cheap labor.

Remember, the 13th Ammendment says "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.", which gives outfits such as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation of America or Unicor making bank of Prison labor.

At the same time, we have the some of the most draconian drug laws that affect the poor and disenfranchised (higher sentences for crack vs powder cocaine, original marihuana prohibition featured prominent stories about white daughters being tricked into miscegination by 'jazz musicians' and the devil weed).

Prisons are a wonderfully complex racket of deriving profit from pure human misery and the prison industrial complex and justice systems in their current form in the US needs to be radically altered to a fair and sustainable model.

I seem to have been around drug users/dealers for much of my adult life.

There was the crack addict prostitute I met in the psych place I stayed at for over a year - we would get special extentions to go to 'narc anon' meetings - when in reality we were out doing stuff I am now utterly ashamed of. One evening she took me to a dealer in battersea - the dealer we visited ended up beaten to death for owning money to another dealer higher up in the 'chain'. The addict I was friends with had two teenage daughters who she had sent off to private boarding schools paid for through prostitution - as she became more and more addicted to crack and her looks faded and her behaviour became more erratic she was unable to earn enough to keep up the payments but she was desperate and determined that they would have a better and different start in life then she did. She died a few months after leaving the psych facility - she was beaten and raped - her kids were taken in to care. She would have been devastated.

When I left the psych ward I was put in a housing association flat - my neighbours were dysfunctional, untrustworthy, thieves, liars, fun, charming, generous - addicts, Both had been through the care system and had been given a flat and little to no support. They were in and out of prison for shoplifting and non payment of various fines - they were crazily protective of me - would share any drugs they had with me except heroin - they did not want me to get addicted like they were. I saw them both od many times and both take another hit almost as soon as the ambulance had left. Both are now clean.

My next experience was via a 5 year relationship with and addict/dealer. He had a code - he bought enough gear to pay for his own habit and dealt only to 'functioning addicts' that were over 21 - this was for two reasons - he didnt want to deal to anyone likely to bring attention to him and he did not want to deal to kids/vulnerable people - amongst the people he sold to were nurses, television personalities and 'ladies who lunch'. He never cut the stuff he bought and would always try it first.

From my time with him I learnt that a lot of deaths are caused when better quality heroin is suddenly on the market and people accidentally overdose. You can be a functioning addict. Methadone is an evil dirty drug that does nothing but substitute the dealer on the street for the dealer that is pharma. Not all dealers and addicts are the same. I remember one of the people he sold to got pregnant - he had a dilemna he did not want to sell to someone who was pregnant - but he also did not want her to have to find a fix elsewhere - from those with fewer morals then him. For a month she with his helped weened herself off - the rest of her pregnancy was drug free and her child was not born an addict or with any immediate health problems - if she had gone on to a drug programme or elsewhere it could have been very different.

I tried heroin once during that relationship - I have no memory of what it was like as I passed out within seconds of it hitting my system - I never tried it again nor did I want to. The experience frightened the shit out of my ex - he spent the entire night checking I was breathing and regretting letting me try it.

Lastly I have the experience of volunteering in a homeless shelter. Most of those who came through the doors were heroin addicts - those not addicted to heroin where alcoholics. A high percentage of those that used the centre which was specifically for young adults had been in care - some I had known as kids in the care home up the road from where I lived as a child - Some were homeless because of their addiction but the majority became addicts after they had become homeless - the drugs helping to get them through each day. Most spent their time 'working' to get the money for their next fix - whether that be through selling the big issue or shoplifting/begging/other criminal activities.

Those that wanted to get off the drugs had few options - detoxing in an alley or shop doorway was not going to be possible - it would leave them far too vulnerable. Waiting lists for rehab places took up to six months - by then half of them were dead or in prison. Those lucky enough to get a place in rehab basically got to stay there until the drugs were out of their system and then turfed out back to exactly the life and people who had started the addiction in the first place.

In my life time I have known many different dealers - those who don't touch the drugs themselves and have nothing but contempt for those they supply to, dealers who do so to cover the costs of their own habits rather then risk other criminal behaviour - those who deal on a small scale and those who deal to whole counties. I have met drug users - some functional, some totally dysfunctional. I have tried nearly everything going - from weed through to crack - I an honestly say I have never been addicted to any of them - alcohol I have struggled with - alcohol is my particular demon - a demon which is freely available on every corner.

it's a respectable trade, i say. it just happens to be illegal.

i actually dealt weed and ecstasy for a brief period but i kept smoking my profits.

Thoreau, thanks for sharing your experiences as well as everyone else. It takes much courage to be so open and I admire that.

Your story reminds me of someone I knew that was selling crack a long time ago. He had a code as well not to deal to children and pregnant women. Listening to his experiences, I became aware of how many people walking all around us have secret drug habits and function quite well. I was also told how many working class people preferred to use coke because it leaves the body's system so fast and is not as detectable.

I also know a few females that are abusing painkillers and using them to get a 'high'. One of them accidentally over-dosed and passed away a few years ago. The other will not eat much and is thin as a rail. She is in denial and blames her weight issue on other things.

Its a shame really. I wish there wasn't a such that exists in our world. So much darkness and death surrounding it. I think the creators of such nastiness intended to really dim out the souls of the masses with drugs. Throwing them into our streets just like poison candy. I am hoping we can soon counter this problem.

feather wrote:
Exactly how I feel about it. Makes me realise our system isn't designed to make people 'healthy' and help them with drug problems. All of these vacant and abandoned buildings could be made into homeless shelters and drug treatment centers.

feather wrote:

That is the biggest problem feather detox beds. They are very very limited. The amount of times i was ringing around for months to get someonea bed in detox and the addict was begging for help to get a bed ..A few died while waiting months to get into detox.. The main question is why are detox beds so limited also why is Ibogain illegal. Ibogain takes away cold turkey and changes brain chemistry and cures most addicts.Ive even heard reports of it healing people with bi-polar and schizophrenia.

kit carruthers wrote:
Respectable trade

If you are growing a few plants where ever for personnel consumption then thats the only way its respectable. If your a fucking witch Dr or Shaman living in some jungle surrounded by the shit, and using it for " spiritual " journeys well hey ho no problems

Every other option is full of violence, death, and manipulation of people be they low level dealers or users.

But of course people only see the end product, a nice little bag, not all the shit that goes before it.

Its not a dig at you but your post just seemed to sum up the denial for me



The rest of you pot smoking fuckers sort your selves out , dont forget unless you grow your own or no somebody who has a few plants, somebody died for you to get wrecked

The thing that really boggles my mind is the amount of people that use drugs,I would think that if your a successful drug user you are in the very small minority,and probably have exceptional emotional,mental,and physical realization of yourself,and your probably one in 10000 or more.

I really think weed should have been legalized years ago,and if you did a across the board legalization of drugs,everyone meaning other countries also would have to follow this lead, or internal wars in the countries where the drugs are still illegal would be a constant blood bath, and more internal power struggles, and more corruption than could be imagined.

The drugs, even if a across the board legalization occurs,there still will be manipulation of them to make them more potent,it's a vicious circle.
As for a moral opinion on drug use I think to each their own they hurt their families,friends,and strangers at times,and they should also realize it's a dangerous game,and they are the prey in today's criminal justice system.

I can't sit in judgement of anyone,I can just react if their world effects mine in a negative way,what else can you do,heal the world?

entran­ger­mer­cen­ary wrote:
i know people's lives are getting ruined by drugs. that's the user's fault not the dealer's. i know people somewhere along the supply line are getting popped. that's just business. it's the risk you knowingly take when you're in that line of work.

as a libertarian and a drug user i see nothing wrong with it. they just supply a demand.

if one happens to be a drug enthusiast it's a logical career choice.

kit carruthers wrote:
So your not bothered that a few people will end up with a" cap in the ass" as they say in the hood Drive by shooting etc

entran­ger­mer­cen­ary wrote:
not in the slightest. they know the risk when they get into the business.

to be a drug dealer it helps to be a sociopath.

That's some attitude there kit. With that mentality, well, there's nothing good waiting for you in the end of the road.

Hexhammer wrote:
oh i'll be just fine.

i think actions count more than attitudes.