I'm totally on-board with opposition to the pointless 'War on Drugs,' but what I'm not cool with is when pundits and other public figures on the other side of the spectrum PUSH for its wide-adoption and integration into everyday lifestyle akin to alcohol -- like the article's author is doing here -- which I feel is equally detrimental because there have been many well documented cases of people succumbing to the spel…
> what I'm not cool with is when pundits and other public figures on the other side of the spectrum PUSH for its wide-adoption and integration into everyday lifestyle akin to alcohol While I agree that people should be cautious about taking any mind altering drug, from what I've seen alcohol seems to be even more dangerous (compare your first link with the information here[1] and here[2]). The big difference is that…
Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
131–140 of 144 posts
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
7 billion people are not going to think in a critical way. It didn't happen when we had 1 billion, nor 2, 3... And the difficult is growing. To deal with it is the only reason politics was created. PS: we are asking the same: better regulation and education (and more boards of discussion) is the foundation of a great state.
Indeed, but is non-critical thinking a default, or the outcome of systems put in place? I.e. Which root cause is being assumed?
That's the way I see it anyway; one big gradient. I don't believe the world is so black or white that the entire population exists on one extreme or the other.
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#133“LSD comes from bacteria.” This is wrong. LSD is synthesized from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye. An oversight like this throws the authors entire credibility into question. Know your subject matter.
It most certainly does not. I'd hazard that 80% of the population doesn't even know the difference between bacteria and fungus. They are both single-celled organisms and for most people, biology class was a long time ago. It's equivalent to a terminology simplification that doesn't take away from the central point of the article.
Seriously? They teach this in 5th or 6th grade science classes in American public schools. I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge that mushrooms are fungus but not bacteria.
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#134I've noticed that weed from legal shops is dressed up and made to look great. More than half the time, I'm disappointed. Sometimes it'll be rock hard or it will look great and taste like garbage. I really miss the black-market stuff I used to get in college. Back then, if it looked good, it was good and if it looked like crap, it was crap. No gimmicks. I still remember when I could touch and sniff weed before I bough…
There was during the gray-market period in Washington, following the legalization vote but before the regulation was finalized. Dealers with well publicized (prominently in local newspapers) websites and phone numbers, you'd give them a call and a few minutes later they'd pull up to wherever you were. All they were missing was the app.
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#135I've noticed that weed from legal shops is dressed up and made to look great. More than half the time, I'm disappointed. Sometimes it'll be rock hard or it will look great and taste like garbage. I really miss the black-market stuff I used to get in college. Back then, if it looked good, it was good and if it looked like crap, it was crap. No gimmicks. I still remember when I could touch and sniff weed before I bough…
Looks like you want more of a greengrocer type of store rather than a pharmacy.
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know about the other poster, but while I do experience all of those, I also have visual noise, color flashing and movement, even with my eyes open in bright conditions. The best description is that I basically don't see flat even colors anywhere. There is always some amount of colorful noise. It's not that bad, and I can mostly tune it out. But it is always there. I know phosphenes are normal, visual stuff th…
Visual snow[1] and scintillating scotoma[2] are associated with migraines and can be seen with the eyes open in the light. But, again, I am not a neurologist, so I would really recommend you see one to have this properly diagnosed by someone actually qualified to do so. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_snow [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#137[flagged]
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Drugs desensitise people to life's "regular highs" which makes them seek out stronger, more stimulating experiences in their lives, which makes them want more money (since these experiences tend to be expensive), which makes people more competitive in the workplace/marketplace (and more likely to be dishonest and prioritise short term gains)... This makes it harder for non-drug-users to compete in the workplace/mar…
>> Just like legalizing alcohol means everyone is forced to drink alcohol? Well the fact is that most people drink alcohol, even kids causing more or less harm to others and to themselves. The regulation story is not really that pretty once once you see the effects on poor people/families! Now replace alcohol with cocaine or heroine and see some ugly effects. I would allow alcohol and drugs only if I could enforce a…
Most people drink alcohol =/= people are forced to drink alcohol. You've moved the goalpost.
> minimum age of 22-23 and proper education
Teens keep finding ways to drink and smoke, even though there are laws about selling to 18-21 year olds. The laws make it slightly harder, but in no way make it impossible.
> I would allow... I believe people should be allowed to control their life.
These two things are not compatible.
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#139[flagged]
Would you please stop using HN for religious and ideological battle? That's not what this site is for, and we ban accounts that do it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Well, hot dang. HN seems to be about sharing information and discussion, I merely did the former, also, an ideology is a belief system, religions are basically a set of values.
If you read the text you should see it's just snippets of facts (historical in nature, and yes those two people have their agendas for the interview as far as illumination and answering questions go you can get a sense of it from watching them, arguably nothing malicious whatsoever for the masses, quite the contrary.) mostly from the links with quotes. The links themselves are fact dense from experts in their fields. Writer/scholar/researcher, and KGB defector.
"Eugene Michael Jones is an American writer, former professor, media commentator and the current editor of Culture Wars magazine. Jones is known for his writings from a perspective which defends the Catholic Church in American society and overviews the decline of the Catholic communities which were assimilated into the secular American mainstream after the 1950s."
"Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov (Russian: Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Безме́нов; 1939 – 1993), known by the alias Tomas David Schuman, was a Soviet journalist for RIA Novosti and a former PGU KGB informant who defected to Canada."
-W
I'd say the one who flagged the posts is the real problem, no idea what the hair up his ass was, problems with certain facts I guess. Looking at your posts, there seems to be a systematic problem with how the site works, wouldn't it be better if there wasn't this proclivity to censorship and knee-jerk flag/downvoting. It seems to lead to an echo-chamber effect. From whoever is arguing, this ideological battle thing though doesn't seem to have much of an argument regardless, 1-2/7 posts he would feebly at best as I don't see an argument, accuse me for it, weak stuff.
The point about how ideological "battle" destroying curiosity, I don't understand frankly, people interested in the truth wouldn't be hands off, rather they would engage, those who want to of course, when "ideologies" clash I think there's a "the axe sharpens the sword" effect and ultimately the more useful or truthful argument prevails, people with weak beliefs surely tend not to seek confrontation, not that I was or wasn't doing that.
Not sure If I get it, I'm not an ideologue in general, I'm not sure what that would even mean, everyone has ideals and values, changing as they may be, sure I have "I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things." But that doesn't say much, as surely the same applies to you and most people, ugh guess there's no escaping the echo chamber of acceptable ideas in this format, as long as it has centralized authorities. Subjectivity rules.
Re: Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are wildly uninformed about these experiences. There's no "truth" that they show you. You just... have an experience. And then you think about it. And then maybe it changes you, maybe it doesn't. Just like any other day, only turned up to 11, dose-dependent.
Why are you so convinced that they don't show you any truth?
> [Y]ou may see the content of your brain, and the world around you, in a different light. You may find some 'truths' this way, but there is no guarantee.
Or... They let you see some things that might teach you some truths. YMMV.