Cannabis - Time for a re-think?

[The Phantom]

8 minutes ago, Barlow said:

Is he one of these?

Nope.  These are all dealers and traffickers.  No sale or transport of the merchandise has ever happened.  In fact the home growing is specifically so you don't need to have any dealings with these delightful individuals. 

He like me, is well qualified, educated and holds what most would consider to be a good job with significant responsibility. 

Although I'm sure you'll believe that because he grows and consumes something himself without any involvement in the worldwide drugs market, he's a scumbag.  Good job he's not Welsh... 

[Barlow]

15 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

Nope.  These are all dealers and traffickers.  No sale or transport of the merchandise has ever happened.  In fact the home growing is specifically so you don't need to have any dealings with these delightful individuals. 

He like me, is well qualified, educated and holds what most would consider to be a good job with significant responsibility. 

Although I'm sure you'll believe that because he grows and consumes something himself without any involvement in the worldwide drugs market, he's a scumbag.  Good job he's not Welsh... 

Oh no, you're not one of these "I'm a sensible cannabis taking adult and hold down a good job with responsibilities etc" types are you. Who likes a spliff each morning with their coffee before work.

I've worked with people who take a joint in the morning and probably lunchtimes too. They are not good team players, although maybe they are with other stoners.

I long ago said no to employing tobacco smokers (all that downtime each hour, and the inevitable ciggie break at the first bit of stress "I need a ciggie, I've just had a bad phone call". To say nothing of the stench on their return). I'm not sure if that is against the laws of discrimination, it probably is these days.

Although to be fair, the old stoners just don't generally 'do' stress. And they are quite happy to leave all that to others.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Barlow

[The Phantom]

24 minutes ago, Barlow said:

Oh no, you're not one of these "I'm a sensible cannabis taking adult and hold down a good job with responsibilities etc" types are you.

Yes I am thanks.  It's good to be appreciated. 

[Roger Mexico]

33 minutes ago, Barlow said:

Yes, I think this is right.
25 years ago, although it was generally accepted there was this cannabis stuff around, the vast majority of the Isle of Man believed there would never be heroin on the Isle of Man. Really. Cocaine more-or-less too.

If you think there wasn't heroin on the Island 25 years ago (I suspect more than now if anything), then you really have no idea.

[Ramseyboi]

41 minutes ago, quilp said:

Is this even remotely funny? How do images of paedophile sex-traffickers relate in a debate about cannabis?

Barlow has some pretty strange views around cannabis. I wouldn’t even call them antiquated as they aren’t old fashioned, just a bit bizarre/Methodist.

[The Phantom]

50 minutes ago, quilp said:

Growing under lights, an idea would be to germinate and raise seedlings at 8 to 12 week intervals, rotating that way keeps the crop on the go all year round and help with the 50g limit, no pothead would relish the idea of having to dispose of any 'live' excess and turning the product into consumables might get past the limitations. The 50g limit is equal to approx. 3/4 of an ounce, probably what a regular user would get through in a month, though for some, consumption will be greater. At £20 a gram, that's £560 per month though I've heard that some people over here are desperate enough to pay £30-£35 a gram which is astonishing. It appears that when someone gets lifted on possesion over here the cops are using the £30 per gram as the baseline, probably because it looks better in the media, the reality is usually different.

You can only do this with Autoflowers however. 

An interval system won't work with traditionals kept together, as they need different light frequencies/timings between the vegetative and flowering stages.

(so I'm told) 

[Barlow]

18 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

If you think there wasn't heroin on the Island 25 years ago (I suspect more than now if anything), then you really have no idea.

Yep, that is my point.

I say 25 years ago because I had just got a new job and remember chatting to various folk about the Island, and drugs etc. I could see it, but very few people I knew, including MHKs and senior civil servants. I was more-or-less ridiculed for my views and was on a number of occasions told that heroin was not on the Island and never would be. Ask anyone involved - police, social workers etc - of the day. Maybe such people would be more in tune with the reality, but around that time that hard drug incidence just started to become common place in the newspapers reports.

[Barlow]

26 minutes ago, Ramseyboi said:

Barlow has some pretty strange views around cannabis. I wouldn’t even call them antiquated as they aren’t old fashioned, just a bit bizarre/Methodist.

Your remark is in reply to an erroneous assumption made by quilp.

Incidentally, just so you know, I was growing cannabis over 40 years ago. Whether that was here or not I wouldn't like to say, but in this respect I probably know as much about the stuff as you do. You kids have it on a plate these days.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Barlow

[Ramseyboi]

9 minutes ago, Barlow said:

Yep, that is my point.

I say 25 years ago because I had just got a new job and remember chatting to various folk about the Island, and drugs etc. I could see it, but very few people I knew, including MHKs and senior civil servants. I was more-or-less ridiculed for my views and was on a number of occasions told that heroin was not on the Island and never would be. Ask anyone involved - police, social workers etc - of the day. Maybe such people would be more in tune with the reality, but around that time that hard drug incidence just started to become common place in the newspapers reports.

If you think police and social workers didn’t know those drugs were here in the mid 90s when they and the drs surgeries were dealing with heroin addicts almost daily, then I really don’t know what to say.

You must be living on a different island and talking to different people to the rest of us.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Ramseyboi

[Barlow]

16 minutes ago, Ramseyboi said:

If you think police and social workers didn’t know those drugs were here in the mid 90s when they and the drs surgeries were dealing with heroin addicts almost daily, then I really don’t know what to say.

You must be living on a different island and talking to different people to the rest of us.

No. My point was that maybe police and social workers, as an exception, were aware. But the general public not so much. Or rather, in fact, not at all. Heroin on the Isle of Man was widely denied, at that time.
 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Barlow

[Ramseyboi]

24 minutes ago, Barlow said:

No. My point was that maybe police and social workers, as an exception, were aware. But the general public not so much. Or rather, in fact, not at all. Heroin on the Isle of Man was widely denied, at that time.
 

Ah fair enough.

The general public knew as well, unless they were incredibly secluded from the rest of society.

Between them Heroin and cocaine covered all areas of society from the down and out druggie to the high flying exec and most areas in between.

[Barlow]

I knew exactly when. As I say I started a new job. 1996. It was a fun time on the Island, my professional and social life was bouncing, houses prices were rock bottom, Studebakers was rockin' and things were looking up here, after a decade and more of economic downturn.

I will try and make my point clearer. I saw the situation pretty well. Fresh pair of eyes and all that.  And so would the various agencies - they must have, such as police, social workers etc. But without exception all the people I chatted to about the Island through my work, and that included politicians, businessman (they were still all 'businessmen' then) civil servants etc, said the Isle of Man was a wonderful place that did not have the drug problems that the UK  mainland did, never would do, and that heroin would never come to the Isle of Man, that would be unthinkable. 

Socially I had friends on a small estate in Port Erin. My views on the Island regarding class A drugs were literally laughed at and I was patronised for not knowing the Island (actually I did, I was from the Island and knew it well enough). Some months after, that small estate in Port Erin had its first heroin dealer convicted, and then another and then another. Port Erin in some quarters found the nickname of Port Heroin.

The Isle of Man was asleep. Maybe it still is.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Barlow

[Barlow]

54 minutes ago, Ramseyboi said:

Ah fair enough.

The general public knew as well, unless they were incredibly secluded from the rest of society.

Between them Heroin and cocaine covered all areas of society from the down and out druggie to the high flying exec and most areas in between.

No. Not at all. I'm not talking now, last year or the year before. But the 1990s.

I'm not saying it is necessarily relevant, but as a reference, about the same time that house prices started soaring then so did the prevalence of illegal drugs.

[The Phantom]

23 minutes ago, Barlow said:

I knew exactly when. As I say I started a new job. 1996. It was a fun time on the Island,

Yup, mid to late 90s one of cool kids we used to hang out with somehow managed to get himself into Smack and effectively wrote his future off whilst still a teenager. 

[Passing Time]

25 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

Yup, mid to late 90s one of cool kids we used to hang out with somehow managed to get himself into Smack and effectively wrote his future off whilst still a teenager. 

Not so cool then