Bad Batch Of Heroin

[nessa]

I suppose a lot of my concern relates more to some of the tricks being used by criminal minded to make money in just any way they can

 

When the cases are being reported of young children or even teetotallers having freebies laced into other products - and thus they became immediately vulnerable to either pyschosis or robbery or assault and worse and of course later addiction problems sometimes.... and then sliding down the slippery slope into crime activity themselves ... becomes a vicious circle imho

 

Sorry got no answers - but yeah I do think its vital to get greater awareness and education in place asap imho ....

[nessa]

well I am guessing the following media article which refers to some British Lancet research may fuel this dialogue a bit mores....

 

Booze included in substance abuse chart

March 23, 2007 - 4:41PM

 

An Australian drug expert has backed the inclusion of alcohol in a new ranking of the world's most dangerous substances, designed to tackle addiction problems.

 

A new analysis in leading medical journal The Lancet calls for new British classification of drugs to reflect the physical and social harm they wreak.

 

The chart - a compilation of expert opinion - places heroin as clearly the most dangerous, followed by cocaine, barbiturates and methadone.

 

Two legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, were included for the first time, ranked number five and nine respectively among the 20 most dangerous substances.

 

Amphetamines took eighth place, cannabis ranked eleventh and ecstasy was further down the list at number 18.

 

Population health specialist professor Wayne Hall, from the University of Queensland, welcomed the rankings, saying it puts the dangers of various drugs in perspective.

 

The biggest revelation was the extent of dangers posed by alcohol and tobacco, Prof Hall wrote in the same journal.

 

"This shows that we should certainly be putting a lot more time and money into alerting the community to the harms that they cause, especially alcohol," he said.

 

The analysis also proved that cannabis was less harmful than the Class A drugs it was commonly grouped together with.

 

"While it's certainly not a harmless drug, it's not in the same league in terms of the harm it causes, as many people seem to believe," Prof Hall said.

 

He said while the rankings were proposed to overhaul UK drug classifications, Australia should consider the implications, especially in relation to alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis.

 

"I think we should seriously examine this and think about the ramifications of changing the emphasis we place on certain drugs," the professor said.

 

© 2007 AAP

 

ps I am not sure if anybody has access to the Lancet to see if any more detail is offered perhaps?

[Lonan3]

Some food for thought in THIS ARTICLE in The Independent (yes, the same Independent that recently went back on it's campaign to legalise cannabis).

 

Alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than many illegal drugs including the hallucinogen LSD and the dance drug ecstasy, according to a new scale for assessing the dangers posed by recreational substances.

Drug specialists say the current system for ranking drugs - class A for the most dangerous to class C for the least dangerous, as set out in the Misuse of Drugs Act - is irrational, arbitrary and "lacking in transparency".

 

Scientific evidence shows that heroin and cocaine are correctly ranked as class A drugs as they do cause the most harm. But LSD and ecstasy come close to bottom of the league in terms of harm caused, yet they are also labelled as class A.

Alcohol is legal and widely used but comes fifth in the "harm" table, ahead of amphetamines and cannabis, which are ranked as class B and class C respectively. Tobacco is also ranked as more harmful than cannabis.

 

The league table of 20 drugs drawn up by drugs specialists is intended to provide a scientifically based model for policy makers of the harm they cause. It shows that the dangers they pose bear little relationship to the official classification, on which the penalties for drug use are based. The eight drugs ranked as most dangerous include two that are unclassified while the eight judged least dangerous include two class A drugs.

 

The study, which took five years to complete, is published today in The Lancet. Professor Blakemore said: "We hope that policy makers will take note of the fact that the resulting ranking of drugs differs substantially from their classification in the Misuse of Drugs Act and that alcohol and tobacco are judged more harmful than many illegal substances."

 

I'm simply saying 'food for thought' because, on a personal level, I am hypocrite enough to believe drugs to be evil - including my own addiction to tobacco.

[Chinahand]

Just to say in reply to Roxanne, I've not said NO stimulated substances - just less!

 

Which leads on to my next point - legalization will no doubt create a huge increase in usage - the social problems these drugs create are directly linked to their prevelence in society For us the drug of choice and hence the one that creates the biggest problems (by volume!) in our society is alcohol.

 

When I lived in SA ganja was grown by the Zulus high up in the mountain passes. When hiking you'd suddenly come accross a small plantation, about the size of a cricket pitch - it'd be a two day hike to get up there and the police etc just didn't bother - they had bigger problems on their hands! Legalize the stuff - well the farmers down in the Free State would be putting down hundreds of hectares of the stuff before you could say weed.

 

The Zulu would be out of the market - with no resources to compete against mechanized farming - and think what would happen to the price!

 

The social stigma would be gone, and the price a fraction of what it once was. Usage remain constant - not a chance!

 

The same argument applies for ectasy, amphetimines etc if ICI got involved.

 

These are addictive substances, and I am not convinced they are mutually exclusive - people have a drink, then head out and have a puff etc. More types of drugs would be mixed and taken in a night out. And because these substances are all addictive in different and hugely complicated ways the risk of overall consumption increasing is very high. I don't believe the argument that if dope was legal no one would drink and every one would smoke - quite the opposite, people would do both.

 

I am not at all sanginine that this would result in reduced problems with addiction and people not using drugs to numb and accept the difficulties of life - rather than working to reduce those difficulties.

 

For most addicts by the time they realize the drugs don't work its too late.

 

I catagorically don't want a society with more people dependent on mind altering substances.

 

If you legalized all drugs less dangerous than alcohol and did this Lancet survey again in 10 years time the rankings of dangerous and socially disruptive drugs would be different, I very very much doubt that overall the addictions in our society would be better, and I strongly suspect they would be worse.

[Fido]

There are veiled pleas in this thread for what is currently an illegal substance to be legalised.

 

There are people I know on this forum who 'enjoy' smoking dope and would like to see it legalised. That's great. For them. But what about the many people who have adverse effects when smoking this drug, a drug that we are often told is harmless.

 

It is not harmless. To some people it is extremely dangerous. If you want to take the responsibility for the consequences of effecting those people's lives because you find dope is ok for you, then so be it.

 

To legalise it is for society to in say "it is OK - go ahead try some".

 

That stuff simply isn't OK.

[Max Power]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the likes of cannabis and ecstacy are not addictive in themselves, unlike alchohol and tobacco. Just that the pleasurable effect can be a bit morish. They can be taken or left with no cravings?

[Fido]

Cannabis Addict Murdered Two Friends

[Chinahand]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the likes of cannabis and ecstacy are not addictive in themselves, unlike alchohol and tobacco. Just that the pleasurable effect can be a bit morish. They can be taken or left with no cravings?

I've personal experience of a friend going through ecstacy addiction and the paranoia and mental problems it can produce.

 

Picked randomly from the internet, but fits with my experience: Ecstacy Addiction

 

Dope - I think the jury is out on chemical addiction, but firmly in for psychological addiction.

 

This is a point I've tried to emphasize - it doesn't really matter to me whether its chemical or psychological - the fact is the person changes - monging about with mates smoking weed and letting the days slip by. Too many people have talent and allow it to be wasted. For me the boozer every night or smoking weed are prime examplar of that.

 

Pink Floyd put it quite well:

 

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

 

Tired of lying in the sunshine

Staying home to watch the rain

And you are young and life is long

And there is time to kill today

And then one day you find

Ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run

You missed the starting gun

 

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking

Racing around to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

[Lonan3]

Further to the Independent article, this is the graph showing the results. All drugs were marked on the physical harm they caused to the individual user, their tendency to cause dependence and their social harm, including their effect on families, communities and society [such as crime and NHS costs]. Each was given an overall harm score by two separate groups of experts which yielded roughly similar results.

 

 

GLOSSARY

Benzodiazepines: Wide-ranging class of prescription tranquilisers

Buprenorphine: Opioid drug used in treatment of opiate addiction

4-MTA: Amphetamine derivative sold as 'flatliners' and ecstasy

Methylphenidate: Amphetamine-like drug used to treat ADHD

Alkyl nitrites: Stimulant often called amyl nitrites or 'poppers'

[Max Power]

So, very much like alchohol dependance?

[slinkydevil]

Cannabis Addict Murdered Two Friends

 

See page 12 & 13 of this thread.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

When the cases are being reported of young children or even teetotallers having freebies laced into other products - and thus they became immediately vulnerable to either pyschosis or robbery or assault and worse and of course later addiction problems sometimes.... and then sliding down the slippery slope into crime activity themselves ... becomes a vicious circle imho

I am not sure if you were joking here. People aren't going to become thieves or violent from having from the occasional, unwanted addition of another drug to their drink or other drug.

 

 

 

I really do not see the point in this super skunk. I used to occasional smoke cannabis but not again. That skunk is awful and a few puffs and you are glued to the setee feeling rotten. Too strong.

 

It does seem worrying that so much of the cannabis around is really strong skunk. It is unnecessary and it is no wonder that more side effects and long-term effects are seen. It is excess.

 

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the likes of cannabis and ecstacy are not addictive in themselves, unlike alchohol and tobacco. Just that the pleasurable effect can be a bit morish. They can be taken or left with no cravings?

 

That is the point though! A 'bit morish' is a bit unspecific. Any drug can be psychologically addictive. The want it more and more because of the 'escapism' it offers. I know a friend who was going through some really tough times and rather than drink regularly he used to sit in his house and take ecstasy on his own(though sometimes speed, which is physically addictive). Took him a while to snap out of it and get back to uni but he did so. Yet I know if tempted with anything like ecstasy, speed, or alcohol he would take it. Though it is the very moorishness that evolves into addiction.

 

This is a point I've tried to emphasize - it doesn't really matter to me whether its chemical or psychological - the fact is the person changes - monging about with mates smoking weed and letting the days slip by. Too many people have talent and allow it to be wasted. For me the boozer every night or smoking weed are prime examplar of that.

 

I definitely agree. Bad drug use is the case of the person who constantly smokes weed. I used to live with someone at university but he only barely got through university. I don't know how much of was his laziness or the weed but you see the person and the actions as a whole and it was quite hard relating to someone who was half-mashed off their face all the time. Yet he never drunk alcohol at all.

[Chinahand]

So, very much like alchohol dependance?

I presume your talking about dope and ecstacy - Yes.

 

Like a drug which causes huge social problems. From the Lancet's figure if abuse of alcohol is ranked at 100, then abuse of dope is at 72 and ecstacy is at 59.

 

But the use, and abuse of these two particular substances is restricted due to their legal status - so the like to like comparison with alcohol isn't a fair comparison.

 

If you register (for free) the entire article is available on the Lancet website - its an interesting read. Though I can't at the moment work out how to use the figures to be able to say to my kids - "Yes go on - take this substance without worry there is no significant risk."

 

I can't say that about alcohol (please note I am not saying ban booze - I'm saying it must be consumed with caution), I definitely wouldn't say it about ecstacy or dope.

 

My problem is I do not think they are comparing apples with apples - if the vast majority of the country consumed ecstacy once a week - I think that's a reasonable statement for alchohol - then I think the social costs of this consumption would be higher than the figures used by the Lancet.

 

I'd like to see critiques of the report which try to analyse this - unfortunately I doubt they'll get headline news, but that's the media for you!

[Rog]

There’s far far more involved than the physical effects of the drugs themselves, there’s also the nature of the ‘people’ who use the stuff.

 

It’s very true that if you lay with dogs you will get fleas.

 

There’s also the whole rotten drug ‘scene’, the associated crime, the illegality, the diseases, and more.

 

I wonder, for example, how many people would be quite so happy about swallowing an ‘E’ if they were to stop and think just how the tablets got to the dealers hands. Or just what went into the E they were taking.

 

Or worse yet, cocaine. Or heroin.

 

How ready would the addicts be to shove the stuff into their veins that had been imported into the UK wrapped in a French Letter that someone had stuffed up their arse in order to evade customs.

 

Come to think of it they probably wouldn’t give a damm. Such is the nature of addicts. And those are the kind of ‘people’ that you would want to mix with? The world would be far better off without them.

 

Even cannabis in its various form. Worst of all probably ‘soap’. Now there IS rubbish and so very popular with the British market. A means of making a little go a long way the stuff is padded out with all sorts of crap. Beeswax, turpentine, milk powder, ketamine, boot polish, henna, pine resin, aspirin, animal turds, ground coffee, barbiturates, glues and dyes plus carcinogenic solvents such as Toluene and Benzene to name but a few.

 

There’s nothing wholesome about drugs or the drug scene even if the theory is that the drugs in some cases are not as harmful as some permitted drugs such as alcohol. There’s far more involved than just the filth itself and so far more to be taken into consideration.

 

When a person buys his ‘gear’ he’s doing far more than just buying some illegal substance, he’s doing his bit to maintain the whole filthy rotten business and all that goes with it. Legalise it I say, and let nature take its course. That will soon achieve what the law can not.

[When Skies Are Grey]

A means of making a little go a long way the stuff is padded out with all sorts of crap. Beeswax, turpentine, milk powder, ketamine, boot polish, henna, pine resin, aspirin, animal turds, ground coffee, barbiturates, glues and dyes plus carcinogenic solvents such as Toluene and Benzene to name but a few.

 

Now thats my kinda party dude.....