Have you ever used Cocaine?

[m1garand23]

Nope.

But I'm against all drugs (Yes, weed as well), and would love to see them made completely illegal.

Well, except painkillers ofcourse.
Come to think of it, in what category does morphine fall? I know the doctors insisted I used it when I broke my arm.

captcha: high time
How appropriate

Morphine is derived from the opiate family, from which heroine is is also derived, provides an euphoric feel to it and a total allivation from all forms of stress and most pain. unfortunatly it is these feelings from which the addiction comes from and a small bottle of medical grade morphine is worth a hell of a lot on the black market, in britain it is classed as a class A drug and highly illegal for sale by an un-authorised vendor. On another darker note it was used by Dr Harold Shipman to murder his paitents.

OT: No, never tried it and in all honestly never want to, weed is the furthest i have streched. but i do agree with the legalisation as it is the only way i think to control it, and to make it safer. same with all drugs, except meth that stuff simply ruins lives.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I haven't tried cocaine yet, but I would probably try it. I am not the type for addiction and I am not overly bothered by drugs.

I don't really have an opinion on if it is moral or should be legal. Much like alchohol, drugs will effect everyone in different ways, I like alchohol for how it numbs me and makes me feel more courage, joy and nostalgia, but some people turn for the worse with alchohol.

The same applies to drugs, it's not so much the drugs as it is the people that use them I have an opinion about. If someone enjoys a sniff of powder from time to time, but is a real stand up kind of guy that doesn't let drugs effect their life, then who am I to say what they are doing is morally wrong?

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

Yes, used to do a lot in my late teens and early 20's but I really can't stand uppers these days.

I don't see anything wrong with it morally, the morals of the cartels that make and ship the stuff is a different matter but stuffing a chemical up your nose is no issue to me.

Legally I think the best thing would be to have it available from licensed pharmacists on a kind of prescription system to at least attempt to keep track of who was getting hold of what.

 

[flarty]

So you've lost me? I was trying to say that cannabis is not all the natural safe drug (which it is) RJ17 seemed to believe it was. I'm not sure what your point is. If you want to bring slective breeding of dogs in to it, maybe pedigree dogs would be a good example especially with the birth defects many suffer from. But why are we talking about dogs? Maybe you've had a joint and your mind is now wondering?

My point was that you were using very selective arguments to try and argue your point.

The fact that cross-pollination is not a natural process has no bearing on the efficacy of cannabis as a substance.

The reason I brought up dogs is because the breeding of dogs and cannabis is actually very similar. Despite the wide variety of breeds and appearances, all domestic dogs are part of the same genus, which is why they can breed with each other. The same is largely true of cannabis. There are two sub-sets of cannabis, Indica and Sativa, that nonetheless fall under the same genus, and can be bred with each other. All subsequent strains of cannabis arise from nothing more than cultivating and selecting certain characteristic traits from these two strains.

Your argument seemed to be "Well, there's artificial pollination going on, so drugs!" when in actual fact, we've been using artificial selection on pretty much every living thing we've domesticated for thousands of years. The wide variety of cannabis plants is simply another extension of that, and in no way is it comparable to the breaking down and altering the chemicals of the cocoa plant to make cocaine, or the even harder laboratory science that goes into making stuff like heroin.

Cannabis may not be a completely safe drug (though studies show that it is more harmless than tobacco and alcohol), but it is by far the most natural substance any drug dealer is going to offer you outside of shrooms.

Oh right, so because it grows out of the ground and isnt process in a lab it isnt a drug?
I'm pretty sure that isnt how drugs are defined. Which isnt my argument, my argument was it isnt completely natural, as you've said its subject to artifical selection (it doesnt matter how long its been practiced for, its called artifical for a reason) and it isnt completely safe, due to "artifical selection" cannabis is a lot stronger than once was and can increase the chances of suffering from psychosis
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/03March/Pages/smoking-weed-cannabis-psychosis-symptoms.aspx

And thats not even mentioning the criminal element involved
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6319541.stm

(also i'm pretty sure you could of found a better example than dogs, like corn for example?)

 

[Unsilenced]

This thread is likely going to be locked down...they don't like talking about drugs on this forum.

But the topic hasn't been locked yet so I'll say this:

Drugs are man-made substances, weed grows naturally. As such, weed is not a drug and there shouldn't be anything that keeps people from enjoying their "herbal supplements".

...

Um...

Ok, disregarding the whole idiocy of the "natural means it's good" thing (Lolopium), cocaine actually is refined from a plant as well.

There are plants/fungi/etc out there that can fuck you up. They're still drugs. They're psychoactive, therefore they are drugs.

You said yourself, "cocaine is refined from a plant". That means it's man-made. There's no cocaine plant out there you can go out, find, and do some lines from. It has to be prepared, therefore it is a drug.

The plants/fungi/etc out there that fuck you up, if taken by themselves, aren't drugs...they're plants/fungi/etc that can fuck you up.

And I never said "natural = good", I said "Weed grows naturally. As such, weed is not a drug and there shouldn't be anything that keeps people from enjoying their "herbal supplements". Specifically: weed. I don't believe I ever made mention of any other plants/fungi/etc, nor did I ever make the connection that we should go out and start eating/licking/sniffing everything we find in nature.

In short, all I said was that weed wasn't truly a drug, and I stand by that.

But they're still drugs. The fact that these things occur in nature does nothing to make them better, and if you agree with that, then I have to wonder what you think the difference is between a refined plant like cocaine and one that's picked like weed.

drug/drəg/
Noun:
A substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular.

Note that there is no exception there that says "Unless it's all natural and organic and shit."

Weed's a drug. So are shrooms and opium.

*sunglasses* Deal with it.


EDIT: Also, do you have any idea how much effort man has put into making weed what it is today? A caveman could not go out and find the type of plants people smoke these days. That took a few hundred years of work by... you guessed it, man.

 

[guitarsniper]

Only "hard" drug I've ever done is Nitrous, which was pretty awesome, but is like a Cheese Steak. Amazing, but best used infrequently.

 

[Mint Rubber]

To OP: no, cocaine should not be made legal. Drugs in general should only be used when presciped by a doctor for a serious medical problem.

It's not my intention to preach. You're free to do whatever you want.

Keeping or making things illegal is a far cry from "you're free to do whatever you want."

You can always buy cocaine and risk going to jail, there's nothing stopping you beyond your own sense of reason. If the threat of going to jail stops some kids from doing cocaine, I say the system is working as it should be.

Now to the point of this thread: I don't understand why some people are saying that legalizing drugs like cocaine would stop the problem in itself. Cocaine is still bad and people would still become addicted or would OD from it, unless it's magic cocaine that makes you smarter and sexier with no downsides.
I think there are 2 levels of arguments presented here:

1)There's nothing inherently wrong with drugs like cocaine. What's wrong is the whole drug trafficking business that kills people and destroys lives. The state should just bug off and let the people choose for themselves.

2)Use of hard drugs like cocaine by healthy people is wrong in itself. Hard drugs can lead to dangerous addictions and unforeseen consequences like overdoses. The state's duty is to protect its citizens. In this case the people should be protected from their own self-destructive tendencies.

The main point of contention is, in my opinion, not the legalization of cocaine but whether use of cocaine is bad in itself.

This is what's troubling me about this thread: I believe that use of cocaine by healthy people is bad in itself. And I seem to be in the minority here.
Perhaps I'm not keeping up with the times, but in my mind the cons far outweigh the pros.

Like I said, risking the cons of cocaine just because it "feels good" for a certain amount of time or because it "helps me get laid" (like someone said) is not a reasonable thing for me to do.

I'm not gonna talk about legalizing cocaine because it's obviously not going to happen unless you live in the movie Equilibrium.
A case can be made for marijuana, but I'd put it in the same category as tobacco. People should be able to smoke the stuff in the privacy of their own apartment, but not in the street or in a restaurant where they make can make others accessories to their lung cancer.

 

[PlatinumRenegade]

Absolutely NOT! This is a drug that is exceptionally bad for you and had many bad side effects. I do know a lot of people who enjoy weed, but that's a plant, not a chemically made drug. I have never done drugs and don;t plan on ever doing them.

 

[Shpongled]

Although, after a little research on how dangerous cocaine really is, I have decided it's more dangerous than I first thought, but I also maintain that it isn't as dangerous as heroin or crystal meth (according to David Nutt in the Lancet). Cocaine is the 4th most harmful drug to people (which is weighted by number of people using it) so since cocaine is more used than meth and heroin, I still think its not as bad as those two.

I know the study you're speaking of and that measures "overall" damage (both for society and the individual, right?). Heroin is a much worse drug to get into because of the obscene dependence potential, downers are VERY susceptible to becoming habitual, and heroin is the king of downers. Cocaine dependence doesn't happen as much because its a party drug. Short term speaking though, an average dose of cocaine would be much more likely to kill a newbie than an average dose of heroin. With heroin, if you know the purity and your body weight/tolerance you can dose perfectly safely, with cocaine there is no safe dose.

It's long term damage vs short term damage. Cocaine won't hook you in as much, but it can kill you with any dose. Heroin (and meth) will seriously hook you in and destroy your body if misused, but used responsibly it's unlikely to bite you in the ass on a dose by dose basis.

Also;

Absolutely NOT! This is a drug that is exceptionally bad for you and had many bad side effects. I do know a lot of people who enjoy weed, but that's a plant, not a chemically made drug. I have never done drugs and don;t plan on ever doing them.

Guess where cocaine comes from? All that white powder is is essentially refined plant matter, and it's only a short leap from an innocent looking poppy field to china white ready to mainlined. Let's not base our judgements of drugs on utterly arbitrary things like whether it's home-grown or "chemically made"(?).

 

[rayen020]

of the drugs i have tried, cocaine isn't one of them. And it won't be. Reason one is because i saw saw requiem for a dream and that shit scares the hell out of me. Reason two is i've had a few friends go down that road. it didn't end well for a few of them. Reason three is i'd like to prove all those D.A.R.E. officers wrong by doing all the "gateway" drugs without actually moving to anything "harder".

captcha; mouth watering

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

Short term speaking though, an average dose of cocaine would be much more likely to kill a newbie than an average dose of heroin. With heroin, if you know the purity and your body weight/tolerance you can dose perfectly safely, with cocaine there is no safe dose.

I'd have to say I think that's wrong. If you know the purity of coke and your body weight/tolerance you can do exactly the same thing. Opiates have just been used more extensively in medicine and continue to be used so there is more written on the matter.
I also have to ask quite what you think an "average" dose is.
It may well be that the average amount used illicitly by people who have no idea of the purity and their tolerance may be closer to the amount needed to OD than the average amount used by opiate naive individuals is to the amount they need to OD, but that doesn't mean that there is no safe dose of one while there is of the other.

captcha: jump the gun.. hope that doesn't turn out to be prophetic.

 

[flarty]

To OP: no, cocaine should not be made legal. Drugs in general should only be used when presciped by a doctor for a serious medical problem.

It's not my intention to preach. You're free to do whatever you want.

Keeping or making things illegal is a far cry from "you're free to do whatever you want."

You can always buy cocaine and risk going to jail, there's nothing stopping you beyond your own sense of reason. If the threat of going to jail stops some kids from doing cocaine, I say the system is working as it should be.

Now to the point of this thread: I don't understand why some people are saying that legalizing drugs like cocaine would stop the problem in itself. Cocaine is still bad and people would still become addicted or would OD from it, unless it's magic cocaine that makes you smarter and sexier with no downsides.
I think there are 2 levels of arguments presented here:

1)There's nothing inherently wrong with drugs like cocaine. What's wrong is the whole drug trafficking business that kills people and destroys lives. The state should just bug off and let the people choose for themselves.

2)Use of hard drugs like cocaine by healthy people is wrong in itself. Hard drugs can lead to dangerous addictions and unforeseen consequences like overdoses. The state's duty is to protect its citizens. In this case the people should be protected from their own self-destructive tendencies.

The main point of contention is, in my opinion, not the legalization of cocaine but whether use of cocaine is bad in itself.

This is what's troubling me about this thread: I believe that use of cocaine by healthy people is bad in itself. And I seem to be in the minority here.
Perhaps I'm not keeping up with the times, but in my mind the cons far outweigh the pros.

Like I said, risking the cons of cocaine just because it "feels good" for a certain amount of time or because it "helps me get laid" (like someone said) is not a reasonable thing for me to do.

I'm not gonna talk about legalizing cocaine because it's obviously not going to happen unless you live in the movie Equilibrium.
A case can be made for marijuana, but I'd put it in the same category as tobacco. People should be able to smoke the stuff in the privacy of their own apartment, but not in the street or in a restaurant where they make can make others accessories to their lung cancer.

I dont think anyone here is questioning for a minute how potentially harmful any drug can be. The point of the matter is if people want to do drugs they will regardless of legality. Making them illegal only serves as a means to empower criminals with a way to make money, increases how harmful the drug is and which in turn presents the government with an oppurtunity to waste billions on fighting a losing war on drugs. It also attaches a stigma to drugs so when someone develops an addiction they will feel less inclined to seek help out of shame or any other unnecessary negativty as a result.

The solution is'nt prohibition, its education and regulation.

 

[flarty]

of the drugs i have tried, cocaine isn't one of them. And it won't be. Reason one is because i saw saw requiem for a dream and that shit scares the hell out of me. Reason two is i've had a few friends go down that road. it didn't end well for a few of them. Reason three is i'd like to prove all those D.A.R.E. officers wrong by doing all the "gateway" drugs without actually moving to anything "harder".

captcha; mouth watering

Its heroin in that film, not cocaine.

Best of luck with that. If you're down to 3 a day, then giving up should be a doddle. I was smoking between 6-10 a day, and managed to cut down to 2, usually in the evening. Once you get down to 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, you're doing it more out of habit than out of any chemical need. Going from that to none was pretty easy for me.

Thanks, but unfortunately it's not that easy for me. It won't stop me from quitting, it just makes the whole thing a ***** to do. I wake up with cravings in the morning and go to bed with cravings in the evening. >.>

lollipops matey thats what i used to kick the habit. I felt hardly a craving after 2 weeks and still going strong after 2 months. Also started drinking less as a result.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

To OP: no, cocaine should not be made legal. Drugs in general should only be used when presciped by a doctor for a serious medical problem.

It's not my intention to preach. You're free to do whatever you want.

Keeping or making things illegal is a far cry from "you're free to do whatever you want."

You can always buy cocaine and risk going to jail, there's nothing stopping you beyond your own sense of reason. If the threat of going to jail stops some kids from doing cocaine, I say the system is working as it should be.

My understanding of "free to do whatever you want" is actions that don't have that threat looming overhead. And believing that the system works fine the way it is is probably even worse than trying to make the system more repressive. At least the latter implies that those behind it care about the matter. Thinking things are fine the way they are is the height of apathy and disinterest - I would certainly hope people with such a mindset are having nothing to do with any policy concerning the greater issue of drugs.

Now to the point of this thread: I don't understand why some people are saying that legalizing drugs like cocaine would stop the problem in itself. Cocaine is still bad and people would still become addicted or would OD from it, unless it's magic cocaine that makes you smarter and sexier with no downsides.

Bad for you? Of course it is. My argument is not against that, it's against this "it's for your own good" mentality adopted by governments. It's a mentality that hasn't worked for one.

Another thing people don't seem to understand is that the problem can't be stopped, not without an immensely intrusive, repressive, all-powerful, totalitarian system. It's irritating to hear people speak in such absolutes. The world is made up of billions of people and not everyone is going to do exactly what you want them to, and yet they still talk of "stopping" the drug problem, a problem that those trying to stop it have managed to fuel instead. The problem however can be minimised, and I believe legalisation would go further towards this than this frankly stupid "war on drugs".

 

[Wayne Bridges]

haha funny...Im just on caffien withdrawal now

the "requiem for a dream" song is playing in my head....

EPIC! I love requiem for a dream! But no, i haven't ever sued any drugs like this.

 

[loc978]

Cocaine, just as a substance... is pretty bad stuff. Never done it myself, but I've known plenty of people who have really messed themselves up on it. Also known a few people who have used it occasionally and socially who are just fine.

Just one thing about it that makes it indefensible for legalization in my eyes, though: the Colombian blood that was shed to get it here. Very few drugs would actually wind up getting more people killed if they were legalized and easier to acquire... cocaine, however, is one of those drugs.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Taking cocaine is as stupid as snorting pine needles.

It's fucking pointless, and will damage your septum.

 

[Padwolf]

I am against the harder drugs, after many family members using them for most of their lives, and seeing the affects of that, how unhealthy drugs have made them, and how much bad it has done to all of their lives, I have never really seen the good in them. Smoking and doing hard drugs are what killed my grandfather in the end. My dad used to do drugs, he has done most of the hard drugs, it did nothing for him, didn't make him a better person, didn't make his life any better. If anyone else wants to take them, that's their responsibility, and I will happily leave them to it and never look back, I don't want to be around people who do drugs. I have never done drugs, never saw the appeal and I never will.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

Winners Don't Do Drugs.

...For Serious.

 

[Guffe]

Never used any illegal drugs.
Never will, I know there's the never say never thing but yeah, still, never!