Quote:
|
The other waste of letters you produced is plain bovine defacation!
|
Muahahahaha!!! :bow:
I needed that, thank you!!! :fart:
Now, you ask about the social aspects. For those who have used drugs in a regular basis, itīs in plain view. But most havenīt reached the state of true understanding to realize that. Most users wonīt acknowledge they even have a problem.
There are several downsides to drug use, and fewer upsides.
The downsides are easelly overlooked, like the simple fact that the numbers show a huge majority of hard drug users have started their way up through smoking pot, and drinking heavy liquor.
There are some users that wonīt go further, and smoke pot for years without ever trying other substances. But the majority will use it to climb the drug ladder to heavier stuff, like cocaine, speed, or even crack cocaine and heroine. And i donīt think anyone here disputes wether heroine or cocaine is bad for you, am i right?
Itīs not that pot is dangerous by itself, because it isnīt. Smoking a joint isnīt anymore dangerous than smoking a pack of Marlboros. Itīs the
consequences of smoking pot that are dire.
Weed smokers tend to form tight groups, like "tribes", and most of the time they shut out anyone who isnīt a smoker like them. In that respect, pot has a visible social consequence. Long time users tend to atribute more importance to pot than they do to other things, like a girlfriend, going to the movies, hang out with (non-smoking) friends, and sometimes even their own families.
Pot users are also ostracised by society, making them feel even more set aside and isolated, seeking refuge within the "tribe".
Most people will place pot users in the same basket as hard drugs addicts, because they see all drugs as an evil thing, and see every drug user as a thief and a criminal. This means pot users will see their jobs taken away by bosses who donīt know any better.
Because most people donīt understand that drug addiction is infact a desiese, most users go about without any treatment, and usually end up in prison. In my country, over 70% of the prison population is inside for drug related crimes, and some 80% or more are using drugs even while in custody. Some inmates have become addicted while in prison, after a life of non-use in the outside. Some 60% of the prison population are also HIV carriers and suffer from AIDS that they caught while doing time, due to the lack of clean needles and the sharing of the few available, by the entire addicted population.
Soft drugs users are also often part of fringe groups, that donīt quite fit in societyīs gran scheme of things. Groups like the punks, the headbangers, motorcycle gangs, radical sportsmen, rastas, etc etc. In these groups, smoking pot is almost a requirement, a get-in card. But the "normal" society will always try to push these groups out, making them almost outlaws and misfits. Not because these persons are "evil" or "criminal", but simply because they use drugs, wich are often misunderstood and wrongly seen as synonim of violent or criminal behaviour. I know this, because i too am part of such groups, and iīve been ostracised and discriminated all my life.
But then why am i
against legalizing drugs, if i think like that, you may ask?
I am against legalizing drugs because, although i know legalizing them would make fringe groups more accepted in society, making them legal would cause a huge number of new users to climb the up the ladder into hard drugs! And also because legalizing one drug would set up a precedent to legalize another, and soon every drug would be as legal as booze.And hard drugs
should definitely be viewed as a BAD thing.
But lets not kid ourselfs. Drugs should not be legalized, but they should definitely be discriminalized. No one should ever have to go to prison because they smoke dope. As they shouldnīt be imprisioned because they sell drugs to fund their addiction. Drug dealers who do it for the money should, but those small time dealers/consumers that do it to get their daily fix should not.
Europe is now almost totally discriminalized, wich means you can have drugs on you, as long as its for your own use, and not be arrested or your drugs taken. I believe America is still sadly far away behind on that.
TO BE CONTINUED.
