Dirk Chase Elredge, in his book "Ending the War on Drugs", argued that alcohol is equivalent to drugs such as cocaine and heroine. I wish I had it with me right now, I'd like to see the evidence he presented to back up the claim.
the hypocracy of our drug laws
- Thread starter scott3x
- Start date
Dirk Chase Elredge, in his book "Ending the War on Drugs", argued that alcohol is equivalent to drugs such as cocaine and heroine. I wish I had it with me right now, I'd like to see the evidence he presented to back up the claim.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
You can read everything you ever wanted to know about those three drugs, plus many pages more, in the book I've recommended several times, The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs. Elredge was obviously being a bit hyperbolic, since cocaine and heroin have major pharmacological differences and alcohol is distinctly different from both of them. Heroin is an opiate and opium has been used as a depressant for centuries, whereas coca leaf has been used as a stimulant for centuries. The ancient Peruvians noticed their llamas chewing the leaves and suddenly having renewed energy.
Nonetheless, alcohol has this in common with them:
- Impairs judgment
- Modifies mood
- Affects motor skills
- Is addictive
- Generates withdrawal symptoms after a single dose
- Has a psychoactive effect, over and above addiction, which can seduce some people into heavy long-term use
- Affects character, motivation, etc. after heavy long-term use
- Can cause serious health problems and even death after heavy long-term use
- Has been both legal and illegal, and causes more personal, health and social problems when illegal
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i have never heard of anyone getting withdrawal symptoms from one drink or even one night of drinking.
AFA heroin many deaths are the result of people vomiting and being too wasted to do anything but lay there and die. either way the death is a result of taking the drug. In that case the purer the drug the more likely this will happen and is actually quite common. The there is also the fact that quinine is used to cut it and is deadly. That is my understanding of it but of course a plain overdose is certainly possible for a novice user.
Cocaine overdoses are overdoses based on too much in a persons system.
scott3x said:
The problem with that theory is how accessible a drug like pot is. I could go get some from my brother's buddy right now. He's not a serious drug dealer, he just knows where to get pot. Middlemen exist in that business.
I don't think it really has much to do with legality at all. It has to do with how you feel about pot. Or drugs in general. I know I never tried coke or heroin, but it had nothing to do with their legality--it had to do with whether or not I wanted to get into hard drugs that I would end up addicted to.
Considering that the majority of our illegal drugs come from either South America or Canada, it's hard to see how terrorism is getting funded. Maybe Afghan heroin is making inroads since the war, but there's nothing to demonstrate that any terrorists are involved. Drug cartels, yes, but not terrorists.
Oil funds nations. The problem is that nations like Saudi Arabia support their local terrorist organizations. We import about 33% of our oil from the Middle East. Drugs, on the other hand, supports some Colombian and Mexican cartels...but that's about it.
As the President of the United States, he should have had better information. The thing is, he did. Information has been available on the effects of marijuana since the 20s. And in reality, anyone who has smoked pot knows what the effects are, so it's always been available. He decided that it was better to try and fight pot and other drugs. Which, by the way, is impossible.
1 in 100 Americans are in jail. Maybe I'm off in how many dangerous criminals are drug dealers, but if I am, I don't know what number to put on it. Hundreds of thousands, at least.
I really don't think it needs to be. We have 300 million people in this country. 2 or 3 (or ten) million dangerous criminals in the drug trade doesn't sound so high to me.
It's not about using morality as a guide. It's about doing what's best for the country.
And we already know that our politicians don't bother looking at other nations when it comes to legislation. If we did, we'd be in better shape than we're in now. But we have this ridiculous blind patriotism that makes our leaders believe that we know best. Always.
As in Bush. He's still President until Obama is sworn in.
Yes, gay marriage should be allowed. Allowing religion to dictate civil laws leads to us becoming the new Iran. Even if I was against gay marriage (not that I'd have any reason to be), I can't support anything that leads to religious law.
No, it actually doesn't.
John, sometimes you shoot yourself in the foot. JDawg is right in a sense- all you presented was the google home page, which makes no mention of FARC. It doesn't mean that FARC doesn't exist, only that you put next to no effort into making the case that it does, and its long history of funding via the drug trade. You seem to be of the notion that others will do your homework for you.
Would it have taken so much time to simply have googled it yourself and come with a link? I did it. Here's the first link that came up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Armed_Forces_of_Colombia
FARC is columbian and in some ways I think it could be considered a cartel, so it can be argued that it was already covered. There are, however, others in the drug business. Afghanistan, for instance.
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Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
What do you think a hangover is, dude??? It's alcohol withdrawal. That's why people cure a hangover by having a drink. I think you need to learn a lot more about this stuff.
hangover is from dehydration, nothing to do with withdrawal and 'curing' with a drink is just dumb.
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/withdrawal/a/aa000125a.htm
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/withdrawal/a/aa000125a.htm
You were just being lazy, rather than actually contributing.
And as Scott pointed out, FARC is a cartel, as I said. Not a terrorist organization. And while Afghanistan is in the heroin business, I don't know who's behind it. I don't think the Taliban was selling, but even if they were, they are not a terrorist organization.
Are you high right now?
Again, are you going to add anything of substance? I said that cartels were involved in the drug trade, but terrorist organizations largely weren't. We get most of our hard drugs from South America. That's what I said.
By the way, I reported your post. If for no other reason than your refusal to follow the guidelines for proper posting. You made a claim, then failed to provide an argument to support that claim. And then, of course, you degraded to minor, less-than-clever insults.