Julia - to try and answer a few of your questions.
This is my opinion only, i dont push this on anyone and would just say again, everyone should be allowed to do as they please without having others try and make them conform to their views.
Is recreational drugs just as phase?
Good question, not sure, but i think i will use them on and off until i leave this world of ours.
I dont ever plan to be in a nursing home, i'd rather be dead than there. Who wants to not be able to remember your own name and not have control of your bodily functions, not me.
I don't measure life by how long i live, i measure it by the experiences i have and the fun things i do. I'd rather live to 40 and have done as much as i could rather than live to 100 and have done very little.
At the same time i dont have a death wish and plan to go on as long as i am enjoying myself.
Reasoning behind drug use?
I use them to further enhance an already enjoyable experience. Also, with E, it is the type of people in the club or group and the atmosphere, everyone is happy, no fights, no issues, how life should be. Thats why i avoid boozy places, its hell.
Without being smart, it is very difficult to explain to someone who has never used it.
It also opens up your mind, i dont know how to explain that either.
Its not to fill an empty space, its a choice, like when you go to the pub and have a few beers, i might go out and have a line of coke and a pill of E. I think this is a big part of the problem, many people just cant get their head around this because they have been brain washed by people saying ALL drugs are evil and will kill you. Its just not true.
Of course drugs can kill you, so can exceeding the limit and driving recklessly, so can consuming too much alcohol, so can smoking too many cigarette and even if you drink too much water it can kill you. What i am trying to say is that everything in moderation is fine.
If you lost your job for whatever reason, would you buy drugs if it came to a financial choice between that and food?
Of course not, you are getting confused between drug addicts and recreational drug users.
Its like alcoholics and the guy who has a few beverages with his mates. The alcoholic will of course by more booze before he feeds his family but your average bloke on the street will not.
Okay - on legalising drugs you ask,
Re legalising drugs: to do this would be to say to young people who have never used drugs (and older people too for that matter) that it's fine.
Just roll up to your friendly family pharmacy and get your week's supply of whatever paid for by the taxpayer. Just to go with the free needles and the state run hygienic injecting rooms.
I do not advocate legalising all drugs, drugs aint drugs as far as i am concerned (just my opinion). This is another HUGE problem, you cant just have a blanket statement that says they are all good or bad, you have to judge each individually.
Saying that, i'd legalise weed. coke, MDMA (E), mushrooms to begin with and look at the others.
I just believe peolpe should be able to have a choice. Making them illegal certainly does not work, look at the mess we have got ourselves into. Young people will always experiment, so you may as well at least let them get clean substances so they know 100% for sure what they are taking.
Of course some numpties will still abuse them as they do with everything, numpties are numpties and they always will be numpties.
You say - Yes, I know drug use has been with us always. And yes, I appreciate that legalising drug use would largely eliminate much crime, but given the drug induced psychoses I have seen with the consequent permanent effects on personality and general health, not to mention the destruction of relationships, I don't believe legalisation of currently illicit drugs will ever happen. The majority of Australians are too sensible to allow it.
All i'd say to that is, we have been trying to go along the path of illegalisation of drugs for some time now. It does not work, crime grows, people are not educated and usage continues to grow expodentially.
So those who are too sensible too allow it, may just be the cause of the problem.
Time to start thinking Australia, look at what is really happening and provide a sensible solution.
You say - To those of you who advocate legalising drugs such as heroin, amphetamines, ice, and whatever else happens to be fashionable, could you describe just exactly how you would envisage this happening.
Do you pick it up from Woolworths along with your groceries?
Do you rock on up to your friendly GP for a prescription along with your antibiotics for the latest bacteria?
Who would pay for your drugs? The tax payer?
Just a little detail on how exactly you envisage this nirvana would be welcome.
Once again - each drug needs to be looked at on an idividual basis just as they do at present with legal prescription drugs, same process.
Just as prescription drugs all vary in strength and effect so do the non prescription drugs.
Prescription drugs are more than capable of taking you out of this world for good, if you are stupid enough to dose yourself over the recommended rate.
Same thing applies for every drug, dose is the key and knowing what you are putting inside your body which comes back to education.
I'd say let people have weed and E in cafes like Amsterdam. The others let people get from a chemist with a prescription from a doctor. As for price, happy to pay the same as the street value but knowing i was getting a clean product.
Not sure if that helps or if i have even explained it very well?
But, at the end of the day, people are using these substances by choice and they will continue to use them at an ever growing pace.
The current system is a total shambles for eveyone, its just a joke.
The Ned Flanderers have got it wrong and until they realise we need change the debarcle will continue...........................
JW