;-)
Matt
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/25/colorado-auto-deaths-marijuana-use/
I’m still sitting in the airport in Miami where it’s 85 degrees...... waiting to board a plane to go home to snow.......... Cozumel and Key West were a good time !!
Thin the herd.
As I said....it works. There might be some teachable moments with their program. It's something the folks might consider.
Below is a recent piece in the Washington Post that was written by Singapore's Ambassador.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/singapore-is-winning-the-war-on-drugs-heres-how/2018/03/11/b8c25278-22e9-11e8-946c-9420060cb7bd_story.html?utm_term=.d1f65298281f
Singapore is winning the war on drugs. Here’s how. Mar 11, 2018
Regarding the March 2 news article “At opioids summit, Trump suggests executing dealers to help end crisis”:
Singapore is one of the few countries that have kept drug abuse under control. We take a clearheaded approach.
We invest significant efforts to prevent drug abuse. The government works closely with community groups, parents and teachers to educate youths and the general public on the harm and consequences of drug abuse. Drug abusers undergo compulsory rehabilitation programs to help them kick their drug habits. Upon release from rehabilitation centers, ex-abusers receive help to reintegrate into society. Tough laws and effective enforcement are a strong deterrent against drug sales and consumption. Stiff penalties punish those who disregard the law and deter others.
Singapore’s anti-drug strategy has worked well. Singapore has one of the lowest rates of drug abuse in the world: 30 opiates abusers per 100,000 people, compared with 600 in the United States. The U.S. opioid crisis has been declared a public-health emergency; 64,000 died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2016. In the 1990s, Singapore arrested more than 6,000 drug abusers annually. By 2016, this number had gone down to about 3,000.
Any suggestion that Singapore’s judicial process is “shrouded in secrecy and misinformation” is inaccurate. Cases are tried in open court and are reported. The death penalty is imposed only for the most serious offenses, including drug trafficking. Singapore does not take joy in the death penalty. But Singaporeans understand the need for it and strongly support it.
When expressing sympathy for drug traffickers, let us remember the immense harm drugs cause abusers and their families, especially children.
Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, Washington
The writer is Singapore’s ambassador to the United States.
At least parts of unit 6C and 5B will be safe again...
Smoking in public will probably just be a ticket.....
Towns or cities refusing to allow dispensaries is probably no big deal. The pot heads already get their weed on the streets.... and I doubt they’ll be looking to buy their weed at government regulated stores.... especially since it will now be legal for all the pot heads to grow it.... They sure won’t be waiting until 2020 to get it at the stores......
Nope. Cigarettes are not a controlling substance, in essence, they don't make you high. Smoking weed is similiar to drinking 1/5 of whiskey on your way to work or on lunch break. NO employer has to keep you on staff if you show up and piss hot or have any kind of a blood alcohol level.
What you do on your own time by getting high is your business, just like kicking back with a cold one. Just don't bring it to work.
But if a guy got drunk on his day off on Saturday..... Should he be fired on Monday ??
If a guy has a 6 pack of beer after work on Monday..... Should he be fired at work on Tuesday.....???
Being intoxicated or high at work is a cause for discipline........
I had to escort, or take home, a fellow engineer once that got busted for failing a piss test at a surprise screening one day. Had alcohol on his morning cereal instead of 2% cow juice.
I have already heard of a nurse in our state that had a medical marijuana prescription..... That won her case when she was refused hiring solely on her drug screening.
I totally agree with you on being responsible and sober at work in all occupations....
As in Denver.... We at my work will still not be allowed to partake in marijuana ..... and I don’t know of any cops who want to..........
-I think it’s a waste of time and taxpayers money for Police Officers to be arresting people for possessing a half a marijuana joint.
-With medical marijuana laws.... It’s a total joke to get a MJ Card. You pay your hundred bucks.... Get your bull shit card and then you are legal. EVERYONE does it. Then the only ones who get arrested are the poor people who don’t have a hundred bucks to get the card.
-Everyone is smoking it here who wants to anyways...... So why not TAX THE HELL out of it and make pot heads pay taxes on their marijuana and growing supplies..... just like I pay taxes on my beer.
When the Romans were placed in chains after a thousand years of luscious and ludicrous living one man was heard to mumble through chaffed lips: " What in the hell were we thinking".
When the remaining illegal actions of a nation are depleted and sold off to carry the weight and costs of its social identity and way of life the next step is extinction by its own hand. Never a bloodbath easily discovered. A simple drip and realized only when there is nothing left. The legalization of drugs complimenting the present social divide will drown this nation in a slow and agonizing death. As its coffers rise so will its coffins and that is the ultimate price that Rome itself could not afford to pay.
The varied threads from the spectrum of minds that post here that I have read permits one, after reading them, an insight into the world as they see it. That would be if you are paying attention, coherent and can read between the lines.
I can say in all honesty I believe, I believe, that I have burned through more hemp than a Midwest cornfield and have leveled a mature forest in the Notheast to make the paper to cradle it. I can safely say I also believe not a person here who knows so much about the effects of MJ long and short term has as many seed burns in multiple car seat as I have.
Those who favor to legalize drug use and MJ, I will also say unequivocally, being perfectly clear and respectful of your opinions; "you don't know what the fuq your talking about". Maybe, but doubtful, that warning and clear echo from the deep past " What the hell were we thinking" will slay that dragon that waits us. Don't bet on it with the foresight this nation has honed to a razors edge to see forward and up only to see the soles of their shoes.
Now you can rant on and embarrass yourself in response with the alcohol analogy. The two, drugs and alcohol are opposite ends of the vice spectrum hailing from a different time. place, PEOPLE and culture.
Money...........Money............Money..........Moneeeeeeey............MONEEEEEEY.
So Rocky...... You baked your mind with pot over the span of your life..... But wasn’t it illegal ????
Maybe we should have some more gun laws too...... I’m sure that would prevent gun violence........right ?? Not.
The Government doesn’t need to make it illegal for me to bake my brain with weed. I’m not going to partake in it anyways......
....not true. Believe this or not some people may have wanted to but decided to pass on smoking 'because' it was illegal or fear, and now legalizing drugs may give them the green light and freedom to investigate.
The Rock
Ticks me off that people think a buzz is more valuable than the lives of fellow drivers, walkers or road users (yes, it's a DUI)... And it feels like people think they can get away with it much easier than alcohol for some reason.
Then again I'm sort of a straight edge who has never enjoyed drinking or drugs - including college. Not the most exciting guy around I guess :)
Not here to debate it, just point out that one broad stroke of the brush has always been a poor way to paint a picture and call it complete. There are still people in this world who are capable of making an informed decision and can live a happy life not “fitting in” with everyone else.
That’s one of the problems with society, there are ZERO consequences for ones actions. This country is quickly going to Chit. A nation willing to lower the “laws”, instead of enforcing them is in a steady decline.
The Singapore example is interesting but the US won’t ever follow suit until we stop our shenanigans in the Middle East that has cost probably in excess of 2 trillion at this point.
I am adamantly against drugs in all its forms and compositions and have seen the darker and heartbreak side of destruction these compounds can inflict. I was blessed to follow myself and my own decisions when I was a young man irrespective of what the crowd had decided to do. I was indebted to my own consent. Some were not so lucky and when alone I cry hard for them in their memory, the beautiful people and friends they were. Had I known then.......on the positive side it makes you a teacher.
The Rock
The Rock
JTV: yes, booze leaves pretty quick, but not in an hour or two's time...
BB - at the time of a pre-employment drug screen, yes they can refuse to hire if you have trace amounts of the signature found in cannibas oil (also in dope). Same with alcohol. If you are going to operate heavy machinary, a medical prescription may jeopridize that, no different than any other strong pain killer. Now if you have a prescription and what you do will not harm yourself or others while using it, an employer cannot touch you, regardless. But you will need to disclose your use as a medical need.
As I said before...Actions have consequences. Remove the consequences and the rule of law disappears. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d lay money down that that dude thought twice about “Sharing” a joint with someone he didn’t know from that point forward.
My father and his sentiments to drugs would have been the same as Mike's father. The only difference was after he knocked the guy out he would find out where he lived and once he came to his nightmares would just begin. People dealing drugs in S. Philly knew and feared the street law of Angelo Bruno: deal drugs, he finds out, you're dead. Literally. That is the way it was back then, straight up no B.S. Ironically the very street law that Angelo Bruno decreed led to his bloody sudden end. The young hoods were taking over and the lure of fast incredible cash was too much even for a man of Bruno's power to hold. If my father had discovered I was smoking bud like a chimney even though I never dealt it, I, his own son would have been through it. We knew the rule as did everyone else and there was no excuses. Bad business and even worse the news for those who took the chance. Today try making it 2 blocks in a tank through Philly where the drug lords control the streets.
I laugh when I hear people say you can't win the war on drugs. I beg to differ because there most certainly is a way to save our youth but America does not have the stomach for it.
The Rock
As I said earlier, I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt for quite some time, but you have forever changed the way I’ll (and probably a whole bunch others too) read anything you post. You have become PutZ #2 to me.
I don't think Pig is liberal by any stretch but he can speak for himself.
The Rock
You gonna pass that thing at some point? ;-)
I've met more successful pot smokers than heavy drinkers. I've also seen more lives ruined by alcohol and tobacco than MJ. Just simple facts, not justification for any of those drugs. I've consumed all of them to varying degrees. Given my choice of only one, I'd take MJ, but the appeal for any of them is wearing off.
Personally, I think many common prescription drugs are far more dangerous than all of those. I watched the affects of depression medications on my mother. I called them her zombie drugs, because that was how she acted on them. Far worse than any recreation drugs I've experienced.
Matt
If one is going to use pot, it would be much better to either eat it or use it as suppositories.
Legal at the state level or not, it is still a federal crime when filling out paperwork to purchase a firearm if one is either using marijuana for medical or recreational reasons.
No doubt prescription drugs are the bane of this country. They hand them out like candy and their devastating effects on patients is surpassed only their profits. Sad how the elderly are preyed upon.
The Rock
JL's Link
Switzerland’s Experiment With Addiction Treatment
Prescribed heroin cuts crime and saves lives.
By Cédric Gouverneur
Yesterday 1:38 pm
“I started taking heroin as a way of coping with my psychological problems,” said David, 50, an addict for 25 years. “It destroyed me. I lost my job as a watchmaker. I ‘borrowed’ money from my girlfriend, and my friends. I ended up on the street. To fund my habit, I became a user-dealer.” Every day for 18 months, he’s been attending an injection center attached to the Geneva University Hospitals, where, under the experimental heroin-prescription program (PEPS), he is given a syringe of diacetylmorphine—heroin manufactured legally by a Swiss laboratory. “The program has allowed me to rebuild my life, and pay my friends back.” He looked at his watch: “I’ve got to go. It’s time for my treatment.”
The 1,500 patients at Switzerland’s 22 PEPS centers have all tried unsuccessfully to kick their habit with drug-replacement therapy. Marco, 44, said: “Methadone didn’t work for me. The side effects were terrible, and I didn’t get any tranquilizing effect. So I was taking other drugs on top of it. I’ve been registered here for the last six months. I’ve put on weight, and cut my heroin use by 80 percent. Eventually, I want to get clean.” Chantal, 54, an addict for 30 years, said: “The treatment gives me structure. I don’t have to chase after my dealer any more.” Jeff, 54, had just injected his daily dose; his pupils were dilated, and he spoke in a loud voice: “My quality of life has definitely improved. It’s stabilized my day. Before I got into the program, I was a dealer. I was cunning, I found ways to get money, I did stuff.”
Yves Saget, an addiction nurse, said: “Addiction happens when taking drugs becomes the only strategy for dealing with difficult situations. We don’t say ‘fix’ here, we say ‘treatment.’” He explained: “The brain becomes dependent, and needs heroin to maintain its balance. At this center, we are treating 63 patients with diacetylmorphine. Medical heroin is pure, unlike the drug you buy in the street, which is cut with caffeine, paracetamol, and other substances. Street heroin isn’t satisfying, so addicts often take other narcotics with it, or alcohol, or psychotropic drugs such as benzodiazepine. Our dosage, which is individually tailored, allows patients to live as normal a life as possible.” He added: “We emphasize good citizenship—patients must treat our staff and the neighborhood with respect. This is their treatment center, so it’s up to them to protect it.”
“Getting their lives back on track”
“Heroin on prescription gets them out of the vicious circle of antisocial behavior,” said Pedro Fereira, a psychiatrist. “They don’t have to buy the drug for themselves, so they don’t have to resort to desperate measures, such as theft or prostitution, to get money. That gives them psychological breathing space to get their lives back on track, set goals for themselves, and rebuild relationships with their family and friends. And they get access to a psychiatrist, too.” Every patient is assigned a nurse, a doctor, and a psychiatrist.
Medical prescription of heroin, available in almost all cantons of Switzerland (Vaud adopted it this summer) and tested timidly in Canada, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands, is a response to the crisis of open drug scenes. Heroin use in Switzerland rose sharply in the 1980s. Zurich psychiatrist Ambros Uchtenhagen said: “Most users were young people who had fallen out with their families.” Switzerland attracted addicts from across Europe and the overstretched Swiss police tried to limit the public nuisance—theft, violence, the dumping of used needles—by confining them to areas that soon became known as “needle parks.”
There was even one next to the Federal Palace, the seat of the Swiss Federal Assembly, in Bern. “Members could see people injecting right outside their windows,” said Daniele Zullino, an addiction specialist. Ruth Dreifuss, federal councillor for health at the time, said, “It was like a scene from Dante’s Inferno.” Dreifuss is a Social Democratic former president of the Swiss Confederation, and since 2016 has chaired the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which brings together former political leaders who advocate state regulation of the drug market. She recalled: “An economy of misery and squalor had grown up, involving prostitution and small-time trafficking. It was a tragedy. Health-care professionals found themselves in a battlefield situation.” Repeated injections and dirty needles caused abscesses that required emergency treatment. “We had deaths from overdoses every week,” said Robert Hämmig, a psychiatrist. “AIDS was exploding, and tritherapy didn’t exist at the time.”
To limit the spread of HIV infection, “Contact Netz opened the world’s first injection room in Bern in 1986,” said Jakob Huber, a former director of the society. Such facilities initially had no impact on crime. Thilo Beck, chief of psychiatry at the Arud (Association for Risk Reduction in the Use of Drugs) centers in Zurich, said some patients had had adverse reactions to drug-replacement therapy. Hundreds of heroin addicts were evicted from Zurich’s Platzspitz Park, but just moved into the abandoned Letten Station; in Bern they moved from Kleine Schanze Park to Kocher Park.
“It was a stalemate,” said Huber. “Change comes when suffering is intense, and visible. That’s when we, the actors on the ground, proposed a solution”—the prescription of heroin to addicts for whom replacement therapy didn’t work. A 1995 survey found that 65 percent of Swiss people considered drugs a major problem in their country; today, only 15 percent do so.
“We created a forum that brought together the federal state, the cantons, and the affected cities,” said Dreifuss, “to allow the different actors to get to know each other’s viewpoints. Open drug scenes couldn’t be allowed to continue, but shutting them down would mean finding other solutions. Everything we’d tried had failed. The doctors prescribing methadone suggested allowing them to prescribe heroin. Methadone has been prescribed in Switzerland since the 1960s, so we were mentally prepared.”
Government is largely by consensus
The cantons are responsible for health care, but epidemics and narcotics are the preserve of the Federal Council. On May 13, 1992, it approved a five-year trial. Dreifuss told me: “We adopted temporary, emergency legislation that can’t be voted down. It’s an example of Swiss pragmatism, trying out a policy even before the law is changed. We’re a small country, and government here is largely by consensus.” Jean-Félix Savary, general secretary of the Romande Addiction Research Group, said: “There are also differences in medical and philosophical culture between Switzerland and France. Switzerland is influenced by Calvinist culture; Catholic countries clearly find it more difficult to tackle issues such as drugs or the end of life.”
This led to the four-pillars policy: prevention, therapy, risk reduction, and repression. In 1994, the first injection centers for prescription heroin opened, most in German-speaking Switzerland. Today, the centers—including one in a prison—are managed by public hospitals and private clinics supported by the state. Despite opposition from the far-right Democratic Union of the Centre and some members of the conservative Liberals and the Christian Democratic People’s Party, the Swiss have approved this policy with votes in 1997 (rejecting a proposed repressive policy by 70 percent), 1999 (approving the federal order formally establishing the PEPS program by 54 percent), and 2008 (approving the four-pillars policy by 68 percent).
The Rock
If you believe this your already stoned...:).....politicians said same about the lotto...SMH
Money ,man and aspirations in the same room. Bad combination once mixed.
The Rock
AwHunt73's Link
Legalize the plant is what I am saying. I believe we would all be better off.
