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ORIGINAL: samboct

K-

Enjoyed your posting a few pages back on the racist basis for drug laws- bit of an eye opener.

We don't understand the causes of addiction. Unfortunately- we spend very little undertaking research on addiction- especially compared to the vast sums for incarceration. Furthermore, we've finally got some tools that might help with the job such as fMRI.

Some of the statistics I saw I think in Science over the years was that by their mid 30s- drug use (marijuana) has tapered off several orders of magnitude from the teen years- thus suggesting that as the brain ages, something is changing in marijuana receptors. I think there was a distinct contrast between marijuana and alcohol use by the way- alcohol use does not taper so dramatically. There's some interesting stuff going on here that I don't know of anyone having a handle on. But I haven't looked at it in awhile either.

On a strictly personal note- a few of the domme women around my age I've met in person on these boards prefer marijuana to alcohol. It's actually a bit striking, since most women pushing 50 aren't that interested in pot. I'm wondering if there's some linkage between BDSM and marijuana use in a middle aged population.

On the heroin toxicity debate- - having an LD 50 in primates of 7-8mg/kg would translate to 0.5 grams in a 70 kg human. While this may be a lot of a street drug- there are plenty of drugs like ibuprofen which are sold in 800 mg capsules so the volume isn't really a problem. Melt 0.5 gram of a compound- it won't be hard to inject- it's just not that big a volume. On the other hand- it doesn't sound like 0.5 gram of pure heroin is that easy to come by.

I thought William Burrough's novel "Junky" did a great job of showing what an addicts life could be like if somebody's interested.

And Tweak- enjoyed your posts too. We're on the same page....

kdsub-

One big problem that's not been discussed about mandatory treatment -aside from the lack of legality and constitutionality- and please see A Clockwork Orange if you like the idea of mucking around in people's brains- where do the people trained in successfully treating addicts come from? Because the psychiatric profession hasn't done well at all in terms of dealing with addiction- either drug or alcohol. The people who are effective treating addicts and getting them to either reduce their use or transition to less harmful drugs are other addicts. Same principle as AA.

Sam

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ORIGINAL: samboct

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The people who are effective treating addicts and getting them to either reduce their use or transition to less harmful drugs are other addicts.

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The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.

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As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.
And if he didn't say it he should have.

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Because the heroin induced brain changes change how you function in life...believe me I know how people change...and never for the better...They are not the same people...they are a useless burden on society in their condition. I’ve listed over and over the results of this change. It makes no difference if they get the drugs on the street or from the clinic.
Butch

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Oh definitely did... and I think it's lame to misquote figures in history till your fantasy comes true. But to each their own. I expect others will waste their time pointing this out to you too.

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The BASIS for this thread was to discuss the global commission's report on what to do about drugs as a WHOLE problem