Am 10.10.2011 07:29, schrieb John Smith:
On 10/8/2011 7:26 PM, RHF wrote:
On Oct 8, 5:39 pm, John wrote:
On 10/8/2011 5:13 PM, Thomas Heger wrote:

...

Alcohol is a drug in a way and cigarettes make quite addictive, but
that
was not, what I meant with illegal drugs.
I mean stuff like crack or heroine. These create a certain kind of
physical addiction, that is very hard to cure and forces the addictive
person to use these substances, unless they want to get severe pain and
health problems.

Like any substance, the price depends. It is a question of the way,
these substances are produced and not of the stuff itself. In
Afghanistan a great deal of the raw material is produced. This could be
bought there for relatively moderate prices. The processing to a
drug is
usual chemical work, that any good pharmaceutical plant could do.
...

In areas of So. America, Coca Leaf is legal. I think the wife and I
were on a train in Bolivia when we had our first cup of coca tea --
delightful stuff! As good or better than coffee, indeed a mix of coca
leaf with coffee beans is an ideal pick-me-up!

Coca tea should certainly be available here in the USA ... and, like
pot, the government should keep their noses out of others business and
what plants they consume ... if you are in public and endangering
yourself or others, different story ... if you are committing a crime,
different story, etc.

It was an insane plan to ever attempt to outlaw God given plants. I
don't know what insanity ever made it seem different, what thinking made
us wish to punish people for using plants, etc. ... but someday we will
have to return to sanity and tell the control freaks to mind their own
business and quit locking up people for using plants and committing no
other crime(s.) For one thing, we simply can't afford it, never could,
really ...

Regards,
JS

Some of the Marijuana Growers in the Northern
California Sierra Foothills have also been
trying to grow Coca Plants on Federal Lands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
.

Well, I definently don't like the "high" of marijuana, but coca is so
much like coffee as a pick me up that I can see real value in it ...
indeed, I believe coca-cola used to actually contain cocaine ...

It wasn't until this century began that drugs were illegal ... I can
remember that my grandmother still had supplies of opium and cocaine and
guarded them religiously ... doling them out for a toothache here,
someones insomnia here, etc.

The original argument, why to make drugs illegal, was basically that
people were duped into becoming addicted and supporting the "medicine
show man" selling his "tonics."

Well, times have a changed, everyone knows about drugs ... we can
decriminalize them now ... the only people who will become addicted are
those who wish to ... no one is going to be duped into it ...

Any substance is somehow a drug. So let's talk about narcotics - maybe.

If you consider all the suffering related to these drugs: mental and
health problems, loosing jobs, families and friends, a LOT of money and
possibly life. So warnings should be there. But it's not really a
question of the law and criminal investigation, if someone is taking
these substances.

On the other hand, this is not wanted neither, because consume has
negative side effects. But making this stuff illegal and consume a crime
makes matters much worse, since the addiction cannot be properly
treated, the stuff is mixed with any kind of toxins and the price for
the dose is getting very high, what inevitable leads to related crimes.

This is all a great big ugly mess. Most countries do not really solve
these problems, but have half-baked programs, that can make matters even
worse.

So people should start to think it over and calculate the benefits
against the costs and find a possible solution.

A solution would be a cure of addiction. Sounds like a silly proposal,
but there are certain therapies, that seem to work and are seldom used:

One way stems from Israel and that was to sedate the addictive person
during the detoxification.
Another way use a specific drug, but I forgot the name. It was kind of
hallucinogen plant from Westafrica.
The substitution with methadone seems to create more problems than it
solves, what leave the controlled hand out of the real drug.

something else:
this thread has still the title ' Small gun, the serious protection
you need ...' and is posted to 'rec.sport.golf' ;-)

Greetings

TH