Drugs

[Kh3MiC4L]

<3 special brownies

[Fyoog]

Interesting article from last year where our governement set their own Drugs advisory council to definitively find out what is going on with drugs and their effects. Unfortunately without taking away from the validity of this artcile the chairman of the council was called David Nutt and he got sacked......Headline read: PROFESSOR NUTT SACKED!!!!

"Professor David Nutt, the government's chief drug adviser, has been sacked a day after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.

Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has asked Professor Nutt to resign as chair of the ACMD [Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs].

"In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt's comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs.

"We remain determined to crack down on all illegal substances and minimise their harm to health and society as a whole."

Nutt had criticised politicians for "distorting" and "devaluing" the research evidence in the debate over illicit drugs.

Arguing that some "top" scientific journals had published "horrific examples" of poor quality research on the alleged harm caused by some illicit drugs, the Imperial College professor called for a new way of classifying the harm caused by both legal and illegal drugs.

"Alcohol ranks as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone. Tobacco is ranked ninth," he wrote in the paper from the centre for crime and justice studies at King's College, London, published yesterday.

"Cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, while harmful, are ranked lower at 11, 14 and 18 respectively."

Nutt said tonight he was disappointed by the decision but linked it to "political" considerations. "It's unusual political times, I suppose, elections and all that. It's disappointing," he told Sky News. "But politics is politics and science is science and there's a bit of a tension between them sometimes."

Nutt clashed with Jacqui Smith when she was home secretary after he compared the 100 deaths a year from horseriding with the 30 deaths a year linked to ecstasy.

Smith also ignored the recommendation of Nutt's advisory committee that cannabis should not be reclassified from class C back to class B, leading to heavier penalties.

He criticised Smith's use of the "precautionary principle" to justify her decision to reclassify cannabis and said that by erring on the side of caution politicians "distort" and "devalue" the research evidence.

"This leads us to a position where people really don't know what the evidence is," he said adding that the initial decision to downgrade the classification of cannabis led to a fall in the use of the drug.

Nutt acknowledged there was a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness linked to cannabis use. But he argued that to prevent one episode of schizophrenia it would be necessary to "stop 5,000 men aged 20 to 25 from ever using" cannabis.

Nutt also renewed his support for reclassifying ecstasy from a class A drug to class B, saying the advisory committee "won the intellectual argument" over the issue but obviously didn't win the decision after the home secretary vetoed the move.

He said the quality of some research papers about cannabis and ecstasy was so poor the articles had to be retracted.

Richard Garside, director of the centre for crime and justice, said Nutt's briefing paper gave an insight into what drugs policy might look like if it was based on the research evidence rather than political or moral positioning.

Gearside added: "I'm shocked and dismayed that the home secretary appears to believe that political calculation trumps honest and informed scientific opinion. The message is that when it comes to the Home Office's relationship with the research community honest researchers should be seen but not heard.

"The home secretary's action is a bad day for science and a bad day for the cause of evidence-informed policy making."

Take from this what you will but it does prove a couple of points:
1) Drug classification is sometimes political, education is a better form of prevention than criminalisation
2) Alchohol is bad (damn!)

[DennisHuiberts]

lost too many friends..'nough said

+10000000

[Str8upDrew]

+10000000

damn straight

[tristancary]

im straight edge. its funny how when i tell people that i get mocked sometimes or people think im weird. i just choose not to indulge in drugs or alcohol but i dont pass judgment on those who do. it makes life and gigs a lot easier!

[Str8upDrew]

I used to listen to a lot of straight edge punk, and whenever i would go to a show people would mock me for smoking and drinking. But what can i say, i have my vice's, but it was damn good music.

More OT-
These guy's were so straight edge they didn't use anything, including instruments...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpiHjKyJrZc

[tristancary]

I used to listen to a lot of straight edge punk, and whenever i would go to a show people would mock me for smoking and drinking. But what can i say, i have my vice's, but it was damn good music.

More OT-
These guy's were so straight edge they didn't use anything, including instruments...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpiHjKyJrZc

YES JUD JUD! One of the funniest bands i have ever heard. the grindcore one is one of my favorites.

[DJZILCH]

yep - been there done that, i so remember those bender days of being awake for very long (sometimes just mixing and chilling with mates - bad habit!)

now that i have a daughter all the had habits been kicked off for many years - i dont even smoke cigarettes no more and very very rarely consume alcohol, decided to focus all my extra energy on going to the gym and that seems to be working - now im more concerned about my protein intake and how much bench i can push on my next workout lol

[photojojo]

im straight edge. its funny how when i tell people that i get mocked sometimes or people think im weird. i just choose not to indulge in drugs or alcohol but i dont pass judgment on those who do. it makes life and gigs a lot easier!

My son's straight edge. Or at least he's smart enough to make me think he's straight edge.

[MusicMeister]

I didn't do drugs throughout school and only dabbled in alcohol until I was in the military and alcohol use was commonplace. I never drove drunk - keeping my alcohol consumption to 1 drink per hour or riding home with a friend or taking a cab.

Once I entered the workforce I was working high profile jobs that could have me tested at any time. When you change jobs every 6-8 months as a contractor, and you're tested when you start - it just wasn't practical for me to every even try anything else.

After a short period of time with alcohol, I developed an appreciation for fine liquors. When you're spending $135 (or more) on a 5th of cognac you don't get drunk on the stuff. The cheapest thing I drink any more is Maker's Mark - and prefer to make my own beer (homebrew - woot!) and wine. When the stuff you drink is expensive enough you drink a lot less of it.... and you stock the cheap stuff for when your friends come over. :eek: