Hard News: People Take Drugs
228 Responses
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Rich Lock, in reply to
sex offender registration that makes Garth McVicar jizz in his pants
The implications for the space-time continuum if that particular Möbius strip of infinitely repeating feedback ever happens are too horrible to contemplate
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bmk, in reply to
Exactly. It works similar with heroin I have never heard of any one O’ding from smoking heroin where it is sadly all too common when injected. That’s why it would good if drugs could become so cheap that people no longer felt the need to inject and would smoke instead.
This is where I think the harm minimisation model can be really effective. Teaching people to take drugs in better ways. IE if you can snort it – do that rather than smoke it – if you can smoke it do that rather than inject it.
I have known a lot of drug users and the ones who have gone down the IV route I quickly dropped from my acquaintance as from there I have seen no good come. Where I have known plenty of high-functioning addicts who consume in other methods.
I think that is where methadone is so helpful too in that it gets the addict used to swallowing rather than injecting their drugs.
But it could well be simply that I am biased against IV use from the personal experiences I have had with people who have used that way.
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Sacha, in reply to
one of the biggest obstacles to researching the placebo effect is that it is difficult to monetize
Funnily enough, that applies to most non-conventional treatments too (including those pesky unpatentable herbs and suchlike that have been used for centuries).
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
unpatentable herbs
MMMMM.... unpainted herb...
Damn those pesky helicopters. -
I’d done my spiel about the way they’ll move in a breeding swarm- she said sadly, “You should build them a tunnel-”
It's not building the tunnel that's tricky, it's teaching the little fuckers to use it.
Nothing to sell if you’re giving out placebos, therefore no drug companies lining up to fund your research.
Well that's not true. Someone's selling those wrist band things for lots of money, I'm sure you could sell placebo pills for money as long as you didn't cross legislation and call them medicine. "Life enhancement pills" or something with a swanky brand name.
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JackElder, in reply to
I’m sure you could sell placebo pills for money as long as you didn’t cross legislation and call them medicine. “Life enhancement pills” or something with a swanky brand name.
In all seriousness: isn't this the entire point behind mainstream chemists selling homeopathic remedies? As in, homeopathy is basically a way for people to self-administer placebos and thus obtain relief via the placebo effect?
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mildgreens, in reply to
meth is a drug delivery system, just as crack is to cocaine, smack to heroin and (to a lesser degree) hashish is to cannabis. Meth is metabolised into amphetamine by the host. It is not more dangerous than amphetamine ("speed" was class B, BTW) it is more illegal because it is more concealable and 'worth more per gram' both features independent of the pharmacology suggesting it is prohibition that makes the meth more criminal and in being criminal it is then associated with other criminal things, like acquisitive crime, dispute resolution by violence and threat/duress, and other crimes of dishonesty, theft shoplifting fraud etc.
(I could reasonably argue that whisky is also a drug delivery system but for different logical reasons, but I hope my point is made)
The salient point to make here is where in other jurisdictions that mimic much of what makes NZ Police lie about methamphetamine harms, its prevalence and its social dangers, we see that the* tougher Police come down on cannabis, the greater the harms created by the meth markets.
It is not like this is not known about, NZ National Drug Policy formulation documents circa 1990's highly indicated and 'all drug' policy that recognised HIOLISTICALY the interconnections and harm reduction opportunities. That meth has become so prevalent is no accident, nor merit in meth itself. We manufactured this problem by allowing Police to make up health policy on the fly, and politicians who having sold you the problem, offered the 'vote for me' solution.
(*Prof James Roumasett, Economics, Hawaii State University - google "Pokalo and Ice")
Legally regulated cannabis markets have greatly reduced the net harm from other drugs (including alcohol) such that it should be a given harm reduction that will achieve more in a matter of one growth cycle than can/could be achieved in one parliamentary session. From all accounts this would save a country more than Kiwisaver/Working for Families budget forecasts that attracts the journalists and commentators from far and wide. Yet pro-legal regulators like myself are branded loony-tunes. Look who benefits from such labels? The Police. The Pollies. The Gangs. The Lion Foundation.
We are just not serious enough about what is broken because we we have been brainwashed it cannot be fixed.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
meth is a drug delivery system, just as crack is to cocaine, smack to heroin and (to a lesser degree) hashish is to cannabis. Meth is metabolised into amphetamine by the host.
Smack and heroin are exactly the same thing.
Crack is the free base form – as opposed to the salt form – of cocaine hydrochloride, and there’s actually a chemical process involved in making one into the other. The effects, albeit largely because of the delivery method, are very different.
By contrast, powder speed in the NZ market will generally just be pure meth cut 1/10 with glucose.
But … … amphetamine sulphate, dextroamphetamine and methamphetamine aren’t the same thing, and it does appear that meth is associated with more harm than other amphetamines.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Someone’s selling those wrist band things for lots of money, I’m sure you could sell placebo pills for money as long as you didn’t cross legislation and call them medicine. “Life enhancement pills” or something with a swanky brand name.
How about calling them "Magic Beans" apparently they will boost the economy by 4% and we all get wage rises. Perhaps John Key's wristband works after all.
But it really doesn't matter because The World ends tomorrow. -
Perhaps John Key’s wristband works after all.
OMG. That would totally explain his popularity in the polls.
Some parallels from science fiction:
Damon Knight’s 1992 novel “Why Do Birds…” featured a ring (or bracelet?) with the power of persuading others to agree with the protagonist.
(It ended with the End of the World, too. … Which in this case isn’t as much of a spoiler as it might seem.)Slightly less parallel would be the “Luck Machine” of E.C. Tubbs’ novel.
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And what would the Bay of Plenty Times make of this ? from http://flavorwire.com/164538/take-a-fear-and-loathing-inspired-road-trip-to-vegas#more-164538
An excerptFear and Loathing in Las Vegas Greyhound
Take a ‘Fear and Loathing’ Inspired Road Trip to Vegas
4:30 pm Tuesday May 17, 2011 by Lorenzo RagionieriOf all the literary road trips we admire and revisit, none are as zany and dare we say, enviable, as Raoul Duke and his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo’s drive from LA to Vegas in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And because we’re not nearly reckless enough to do the trip justice, we’re enlisting you to relive it for us. That’s right. We’ve teamed up with Greyhound to encourage you to live out some of the standout road trips in American literary history, and this one tops our list. Romp around Vegas and pop into some of the spots mentioned in the narrative. Reports from the field are not only welcome; they’re expected.
Can I suggest that Public Address team up with NZ Railways Road Services (do they still exist?) For an" Ultimate Nostalgic Great NZ Sex Drugs and Alcohol Road trip "
"My generation" indeed --reruns of "goodbye pork pie" gonna create havoc
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Rich Lock, in reply to
Well that's not true. Someone's selling those wrist band things for lots of money, I'm sure you could sell placebo pills for money as long as you didn't cross legislation and call them medicine. "Life enhancement pills" or something with a swanky brand name.
True, but the necessary clarification is on your own post - within a strict regulatory and ethical framework, researching and monetizing the placebo effect causes real headaches (ahaha).
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TracyMac, in reply to
In all seriousness: isn't this the entire point behind mainstream chemists selling homeopathic remedies? As in, homeopathy is basically a way for people to self-administer placebos and thus obtain relief via the placebo effect?
(Disclaimer: I am a qualified homeopath, and I think there's more to it than just placebo. Don't ask me what, precisely, and to be frank, I don't much care if it does turn out to be placebo.)
HOWEVER, yes, exactly. And it amuses me this point has been made in the same forum where certain people have expressed their vociferous opinions against homeopathy, when at the very most, from a skeptic's perspective - barring outright fraud - you're spending money on something that supposedly does sweet F-A.
Much like vitamins, because the people who buy vitamins the most (the middle-class "health-conscious") are certainly not suffering from any deficiency diseases. I certainly don't see the level of hysteria against that or, say, acupuncture. Or cosmetics, for that matter.
The inconsistency bugs the hell out of me.
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And returning to the point about the P-user who was sticking a needle into his/herself without it actually having a payload, you do get an endorphin rush from having needles stuck into yourself in non-drug circumstances. This is why the kinky people like doing it. Not saying this is what they were getting out of it, but it doesn't strike me as being totally unlikely (obviously it won't have the same impact as a drug-drug, but it may have enough of an effect for it to be not just about ritualistic behaviour)
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BenWilson, in reply to
I'd never really thought about it like that, but yes, quite likely an adrenalin rush is a natural consequence of being punctured for perfectly sensible biological reasons.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
(Disclaimer: I am a qualified homeopath, and I think there’s more to it than just placebo. Don’t ask me what, precisely, and to be frank, I don’t much care if it does turn out to be placebo.)
So, you are qualified in something you cant answer questions about or even seem to care about. How much did this qualification cost you?... or is that part of it?
I guess things like homeopothy are way of reminding us that we don't know everything and that, in itself, is a good thing. -
Things like homeopathy are more a way of reminding us that humans are, in general, and more than occasionally, irrational.
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Ok how about this then, the folks there decided that some people didn’t like walking through clouds of smoke to get into buildings. They put a proposal to the city council, it was put out to public ballot and the majority imposed their tyrannical will on the minority.
In New Zealand's case, rawly, that'd be a majority preferring its air served with vehicle emissions isolé.
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David Chittenden, in reply to
war on drugs
Interesting international initiative here to try to get politicians to 'end the war on drugs'
http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/?fp -
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Guess you signed too? Quite fascinating to see how fast the petition is growing :)
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HOWEVER, yes, exactly. And it amuses me this point has been made in the same forum where certain people have expressed their vociferous opinions against homeopathy, when at the very most, from a skeptic’s perspective – barring outright fraud – you’re spending money on something that supposedly does sweet F-A.
It matters because some people may use homeopathy as their ONLY treatment. It matters because charging vulnerable people huge amounts of money for tiny amounts of distilled water is disgusting behavior.
I remain vociferously against both those things. Color me intolerant.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Color me intolerant.
Okay, but I may go outside the lines.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Okay, but I may go outside the lines.
Ah, post-modern tolerance.
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While we are on the subject of Drugs. I think we should be taking a little more notice of the pressure "Big Pharma" is putting on Pharmac. Key say's he "will not sign if it is not in the interests of New Zealand"
The kind of pressure put on the US Government to protect "Big Pharma" is despicable. And the effect could be disastrous for our health system.
Drug Company Used Third-Party Medical Groups to Influence Regulators
These people are predators. -
Sacha, in reply to
Key say's he "will not sign if it is not in the interests of New Zealand"
I trust you spotted his weaselly qualifiers about the "overall" balance of NZ interests, In other words, whether his paymasters reckon the gain for farmers and bankers outweighs damage to evereryone else via Pharmac and copyright changes, etc.
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