dbd33

I fail to see how you can live in Canada and not be exposed to "drug cases". When you are in a pub and people step outside without putting on their coats they're going out to share a joint. When you see people sitting on their porch drinking a beer there's a 50% chance that what's in the other hand is a joint. We keep weed here, primarily for guests; my accountant usually has a toke when he visits. That's just usual for Canada. Last week, in the UK, we were offered both marijuana and cocaine socially; the only difference I can see is that while it's usual for ordinary people to smoke here it's not usual for them to use cocaine whereas, in the UK (at least in Brighton) ordinary people seem to take cocaine the way they drink beer.

Meth and crack are another thing entirely. While I see people who are way out of it on one or the other every day these are not the bank managers and insurance brokers who share lines and joints; these are people who live in the park.

Bleech

Everytime we've been invited around to a Canadians house for a beer we've always been offered a joint as well. Even people who you'd never expect it from. Went around to a friends parents house and her Dad rolled up a joint in front of us without batting an eye. It's the norm here, cheaper than beer, doesn't make you want to fight and tastes better than some of the local brews. Welcome to BC!

Bleech

Forgot to add, I am just talking about weed, not crystal meths or coke, completely different thing.

dingbat

Much of the weed that is sold to kids round here is boosted with crystal meth. Young smokers cannot differentiate between boosted weed and unadulterated stuff. Kids cannot easily boot alcohol so they buy weed which anyone can locate with minimum effort. My Gr 12 kids school has a smoke pit - the kids openly smoke weed in there, despite the school claiming that there is a zero drugs policy. Self-confessed weed smokers are often adamant that they don't touch meth. Then they get the results of the test and panic sets in. While cocaine and meth are in a different league to weed, use of any one of them pre-disposes kids to try something else. I am an absolute beatch about drug use amongst the kids I work with, I have been to too many damn funerals.

montreal mike

I may come across as naive or innocent or bland or all three, but I stopped going to pubs aka taverns some 35 years ago. Nowadays I might have two beers a year at home, or the odd glass of wine for special occasions. I quit using pipe tobacco in 1992.

So here is one addiction I got rid of and one, mercifully, I never had.

As to drugs, the closest I ever came was the stench of a marijuana cigarette coming from the guy in the row behind me at the (now non-existent) Montreal Forum when I went to see Rod Stewart there some 15 years ago.

flipflop

i think people forget that weed is a mind altering drug,i have someone close to me that smokes a hell of a lot of weed, when he,s smoking it he,s the most chilled out person in the world, when he runs out he,s like a baby thats lost his rattle, determined to make everyones life a misery because he hasnt got his fix. there is no drug that is a good drug, but people under estimate the hold that weed can have on you. you dont or cant be bothered to do anything, if you,re a depressive person then weed will magnify this, my daughters father died nearly 2 years ago of a heroin overdose, he started on weed and glue sniffing and went on to crack amongst other drugs. i suppose ive seen first hand what drugs can do so ive never been tempted to try it. hopefully my daughter will see what happened to her father, and that will be enough to put her off taking drugs. she,s seen the photos of her father aged 36 but looking 80, he was a good looking man, but after years of drug abuse looked like a walking skeleton, no teeth,grey hair, i wouldnt have recognised him if i,d passed him in the street. im sorry to be bleak, but its fact. if you take drugs you are on a downward spiral.

Rich_007

Yah mon Cheech. I'm bringing your Xmas Tree round later, it looks a mighty fine specimen. But some missing, I smoke um big leaf. Blahaha. I may not make it over.



Rich merry uh christmas an ting

buzz365

Im sure that whilst in kitchener last week i remember watching a news report stating the alarming increase of people now using advil3 as their drug of choice.

Calgal

My understanding is that a lot of the weed today is MUCH more potent and addictive (and hence dangerous) than the weed of previous generations, and has been proven to cause brain damage; and like cigarettes contains some very noxious Chemicals - so it's no longer the "innocent" drug that many believe it to be.

It is readily available in schools here, and all of my kids have been exposed to it and witnessed it's use at school (among other things like Vodka and white Rum passed off as 'water' in innocent looking beverage bottles). It's probably the scariest part of parenting that I've had to deal with, and hope it never directly affects my kids. So far, so good! If I can just get the youngest through the next four years of High School..........

Rich_007

Fact: THC (the active contents that faruk your head up) increased x 10 since the mild stoner hippy days of old. Plant mutations have been specifically developed by herb growers. Underworld peeps have siphoned off the best agri-brains in the business paying far more money than mainstream science can ever offer, to ramp up THC content and get better/stronger herb for the mind-muddled masses.

It's a business, like any other. Success is all in the research, sales, and marketing departments. I'd say they're doing pretty well. Risk is a problem though

The lunatics are on the grass - Pink Floyd.

Rich.

Pony

Coke has become a more socially acceptable drug in the UK. Prior to leaving the UK, and on visits back there I can tell you coke is seen as OK by many.
I have friends who hold well paying, high powered jobs. Amongst people I know regularly snort coke, one friend holds a £300,000 a year job, and one a job in government. Both do coke at weekends (and not in a club atmosphere might I add, these are people aged 35 and above). When I was growing up I remember thinking that coke users were low life's outside my circle of acquaintances let alone circle of friends.
Coke in my opinion is a pandemic in the UK, as is meth here in the US. Friends used to pay £60 (approx. $100 USD) for a gram, but because of the wide availability the price is now £25 (approx. $40 USD).
A friend in England died as a direct result of coke abuse, he was a diabetic and this contributed to the tragedy. Patrick was just 34 years old, an only son who left behind two distraught and shocked parents.

The quoted 5% seems a fair figure and not sensationalized at all. In the village I left I'd say it was 80% to 90 % of all people aged 16 to 45 had tried coke. I'd go so far as to say it was 60% of all the same group who regularly took coke once a week. The problem became so prevalent that the landlords and landladies would spray WD40 on the smooth surfaces in pub toilets to try and curb its use (so the coke would congeal if poured on to a surface to be snorted) - of course friends just used 'bullets' (small devices made and sold legally to facilitate coke use.

Oh and Weed, yeah it was used regularly. All the people I know who took coke also smoked pot. Weed can lead to other drug addicitions. Pot dealers are, or know, a coke dealer - thats exactly how our village became hopelessly hooked on coke. . .

ImLivingTheDream

Hypotrical gits!
You're all more than happy to drink 10 pints of Stella or 2 bottles of red, yet you condone Weed. Get a grip people, drinking is worse than mild drugs and more social problems are related to drink than drugs.
How many people do you see fighting whilst smoking a little weed as to drinking 10 pints of larger?
Case closed.... next.

ImLivingTheDream

Nomination for bollox quote of the year.

Iain Mc

Au contraire, I think you may have managed that yourself with your first post on this thread. I hope for your sake you manage to avoid anxiety, panic attacks or any other mental disorder later in life: I've seen it and it's not pretty.

Alchohol abuse is certainly a huge problem in the UK among the younger generation right now, agreed absolutely - people don't seem to want to confront this and it's only getting worse. Weed, however, is not some harmless problem free substance with no downside, however much you may wish that to be the case.

Pony

Are you suggesting that the majority of people who don't smoke pot are the type of people who drink "10 pints of Stella or 2 bottles of red"? Or maybe your saying that pot smokers are sensible drinkers whilst everyone else is an alcoholic? Perhaps AA should pass out reefers at meetings, and instead of reciting the serenity prayer they could recite a portion of a 'Cheetz and Chong' movie . . .

Maybe, just maybe, those of us that don't condone pot use are also the same people who don't condone excessive drinking, or violence . . .

A lobotomy can also remove violent tendencies