You assume a lot. I have the distinct advantage to live in a country where a law degree from a prestigious university costs less than 4k a year. I work full-time, and but for a few intervals, have done so since I'm 20. — Akanthinos

Right, so I suppose in the land of opportunity Canada everyone has lots of private tutors and goes to private schools?

Well, given that a good private school was about 2k a year back then, I mean, if your parents are doing relatively well and decide to dedicate ressources to it, then yeah, it's fairly accessible. Mine weren't rich in any way, they just wouldn't spend 5k a year on vacation trips.

But no, I've always paid my own university fees, while they mostly paid those of my sisters. My mom even made me pay my last year of private college after a philosophy teacher flunked me because of an administrative error. Even after I corrected it and got myself an 85% mark as a result, she insisted it would be good for me.

I haven't spoken to my family in the last 2 years. It makes it kinda hard to rely on them for money.

To throw all drugs into one category demonstrates simplistic thinking. — Janus

Better thinking is slowly catching on around the world it seems, but there is still much progress to make.

Cannabinoids, MDMA and hallucinogens are the substances with the better use to danger ratios, though cannabinoids need to be considered separately in themselves, I would say.

But really, for the better of future teens, yeah alcohol is bad. — Frank Barroso

And of course, there's Prof Nutt and his team in the UK developing their very safe alternative to alcohol - what's taking him so damn long??!!

The North Americans really are used to the easy life... My days, what has become of the world. Nietzsche's last men really are here :o

Do you smoke CBD weed? If so, for what ailments, or benefits? — Metaphysician Undercover

If I can afford it, I try and get a vape product of CBD, which is still quite expensive. The benefits are mostly anti-anxiety. It's also good for depression last I read.

The North Americans really are used to the easy life... My days, what has become of the world. Nietzsche's last men really are here — Agustino

Who said anything about it being easy? I mean, it's not war, but 37.5 hours of drudge works + 3 or 4 courses a session + study time does mount up to pretty much all of my waking hours. I mean, all my old peeps from law school complains about their 70+ hours work weeks and all I can do is grind my teeth.

complains about their 70+ hours work weeks and all I can do is grind my teeth. — Akanthinos

You all complain, that doesn't surprise me. Everyone complains today :s - you all wished you worked 0 hours, I have no idea what you'd do then though.

I never experienced any such withdrawal. I drank lots, smoked lots of weed, and every once in a while I would quit one or the other for a month or two to see what it was like. I don't remember any withdrawal problem. Eventually my usage lessened. I do have withdrawal problems when I quit coffee though. So if you judge the drug based on the withdrawal, coffee appears to be worse for me than weed or alcohol. — Metaphysician Undercover

What you experienced is not of concern to me, it is what the majority experience and while you may be an isolated case that contradicts the statistics, the fact is a large proportion do go through withdrawal and a great many other detriments to their health and well being. If you want to go on the defence because of your personal connection to it, by all means, but I don't know the real you or what you genuinely do, so stop blabbing about you and start showing me facts.

Note that Hallucinogens are not included in Timeline's list. MDMA (Ecstasy) is, and I think of it as a quasi-hallucinogen, which isn't addictive and isn't anywhere near as destructive as the other drugs on the list. — Janus

Those 'who engage in high risk consumption of drugs' include amphetamine-type stimulants, tranquillizers and sedatives, hallucinogens, solvents and inhalants, but LSD is no longer as popular as other drugs. What young people purchase on the market is mostly not pure MDMA and so the effects of an addiction to drugs varies because of the other substances laced to it and nevertheless still targets the same areas of the brain that itself can influence the continuity and dependency particularly around withdrawal and the psychological effects; developing a tolerance to a drug increases the need to consume more.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/23/study-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-safest-recreational-drug-lsd

I agree, we in the west find comfort in and blindeness to our privelidge. Although as I said in our last interaction, we are going to have to get used to lives of leasure. Unless, of course, the world goes to the dogs.

I agree, we in the west find comfort in and blindeness to our privelidge. Although as I said in our last interaction, we are going to have to get used to lives of leasure. Unless, of course, the world goes to the dogs. — Punshhh

That's not because there aren't new things to discover, new exciting opportunities to expand human knowledge, to improve society, to get closer to God, etc. It's because most human beings are lazy.

Those who are born hungry and think for themselves outrun those who are born privileged and think with the collective mind.

As much as Medical Cannabis is dismissed, so are the 'unintended consequences' that happens when the overall population has safe access to the drug.

An unintended consequence of the USA's new approach to the Opioid epidemic, even though I have discussed it at length with my Doc and he has with his colleagues and we can both see it coming, is the demand for Heroin since the pills are being cut off systematically, rather than based upon getting a person OFF the physical addiction to Opiates.

Pain control Doctors and addiction specialists have know for years that Cannabis helps a patient getting off of Opiates, if that is a route that the patient sees as the best way for them to get off the Opiates.

Now the numbers have fleshed it out and there is also a GOOD unintended consequence of Medical Cannabis being available to patients and that is, that EVERY state that has embraced the program have witnessed a decrease in Opioid overdoses in their state, a 25% reduction in Opioid deaths. If we could change just one life, save one human from an Opioid overdose, anything would be worth trying, right? I have listened to grieving parents expressing such openness to Medical Cannabis but it was already to late.

But what good would Medical Cannabis have on an addiction to another drug? Isn't that just trading one addiction to another? If it is trading an addiction, they are trading a physical addiction to a habitual addiction, surely there is a net benefit in that, right?
Are people who take IBuprohin everyday addicts? What is the opinion of society going to be when Medical Cannabis is as accepted as readily as an Opioid? Or when Medical Cannabis and it's derivatives, such as CBD's are next to the IBuprohin? Which would you choose for pain control if both were offered? KNOWING that the medical community we trusted to keep our pain under control, pushed an Opiate like OxyContin, as a 'little risk of addiction to the patient', which turned out to be the exact opposite of what OxyContin actually does to the body.

To add salt to the wound, the maker of OxyContin, Purdue, KNEW that it was addictive when they advised Doctors to increase the patients dose, if the patient is having breakthrough pain 8 hours into their 12 hour dose.

Which would you choose knowing the facts as best as I have presented them?

Who, the starving, or the comfortably off, I wonder would make best use of a life of leasure, including the trappings of leasure, drugs included?

A life of leisure is pretty much useless though, so I'd say neither.

Drug-testing kits are available, so anyone stupid enough not to ensure they are purchasing purity will obviously take somewhat greater risks than those who do.

In any case it can easily be seen that the risks with Ecstasy are not high at all if the number of deaths and even hospitalizations is compared to the numbers of people who take the drug.

Drug-testing kits? Do you realise just how unpractical that would be for the millions of kids out there that have access to drugs? 1/3 of teenagers who live where medical marijuana is legal obtain their drugs from other people's prescriptions. And with the ongoing defence of the use of drugs, these kids think that what they are taking is not harmful or that it is just another "consumer item" like young people who abuse anabolic steroids that completely disrupts their growth and health; until the effects become clear that is when they become conscious of how dangerous it is.

And do you realise just how absurd you sound by actually comparing mortality rates to the use of the drug? It is what the person, their family, friends, the community and the economy experience while they are alive that is the issue we are attempting to ascertain in order to prevent the prospect of death.

What are you talking about? Drug testing kits are freely and cheaply available on the net. It's cheap to say I "sound absurd" but I don't even know what point you are attempting to make in your last paragraph. :s

What I am trying to tell you Janus is that kids do not make informed choices about the drugs that they take. A person who is conscious of its dangers, who would sit on the internet and make a purchase of a drug testing kit, usually do not take drugs.

The North Americans really are used to the easy life... My days, what has become of the world. Nietzsche's last men really are here :o — Agustino

Nietzsche clearly never met an Australian woman. There are certainly a number of privileged whingers here who cry out in anger because mummy didn't cut the crusts of their jam sandwich correctly before stomping off to live a life of leisure, but how a person copes with the difficulties that they face and perhaps even uses it to their advantage is character that transcends nationality and gender.

A person who is conscious of its dangers, who would sit on the internet and make a purchase of a drug testing kit, usually do not take drugs. — TimeLine

That's simply not true; I have known quite a few MDMA enthusiasts who always tested to make sure they were getting the real thing. The world is full of many dumb people and a few smart ones. Legislating against drug use won't change that. You are barking up the wrong tree.

That's simply not true; I have known quite a few MDMA enthusiasts who always tested to make sure they were getting the real thing. The world is full of many dumb people and a few smart ones. Legislating against drug use won't change that. You are barking up the wrong tree. — Janus

Of course you do, and we can verify this by... your word? So, are you saying that we should legislate for drug-use? Having a conversation with you is indeed barking up the wrong tree.

Doesn't take much disagreement before you resort to insult does it?

I'm not interested in trying to sustain a conversation with someone who doesn't take me at my word when I report what I know from experience. Google 'drug test kit', and you might educate yourself a little. :-}

If you want to go on the defence because of your personal connection to it, by all means, but I don't know the real you or what you genuinely do, so stop blabbing about you and start showing me facts. — TimeLine

I can only you give facts when it concerns my own experience. Statistics are bullshit. So it's you who should stop blabbing, and show me some facts based in cold hard experience, rather than bullshit. When I was a kid, it was a well-documented "fact", that LSD causes chromosome damage. You seem to be spouting the same sort of "fact" about the addictiveness of marijuana.

I'm not interested in trying to sustain a conversation with someone who doesn't take me at my word when I report what I know from experience. Google 'drug test kit', and you might educate yourself a little. :-} — Janus

How does your word matter to me without any practicality in what you say? In the real world, a drug-test kit is not practical, not for the millions of young people who access drugs from sources like friends or acquaintances. If you have some facts, why is it difficult for you to just show me?

I can only you give facts when it concerns my own experience. Statistics are bullshit. So it's you who should stop blabbing, and show me some facts based in cold hard experience, rather than bullshit. When I was a kid, it was a well-documented "fact", that LSD causes chromosome damage. You seem to be spouting the same sort of "fact" about the addictiveness of marijuana. — Metaphysician Undercover

Since when is statistics bullshit? It may not be all-encompassing, but it does verify trends particularly relating to illness and mortality. Calm down and go back where you will see the plethora of information and facts that I have shown. Cold hard experience? What, all the young people I have seen damaged from the drugs that they have taken? Read my first post. No, I am not talking about addictiveness at all, again, go back and re-read what I have written.

Ok, so when most jobs are performed by robotics and software, what will people do, would they then be obsolete, or would they have to be creative and find something else to do?

Ok, so when most jobs are performed by robotics and software, what will people do, would they then be obsolete, or would they have to be creative and find something else to do? — Punshhh

Who programs the robotics and the software that does the jobs?

There will always be new and innovative things to work on, things that robots cannot do. The problem will be that most people will not be willing to or able to work on such issues, since they will take a lot of knowledge and expertise to work on. So the question really should be what should be done with those people, who now no longer need to work (cause robots provide for them), but now have all this free time? And I frankly don't know. But I think they will be sort of marginalized (a strange word, since they will be the majority), living in a sort of idiocracy, like in Brave New World, with lots of drugs, sex, and partying to keep them going. Entertainment will be a very big business.

In the real world, a drug-test kit is not practical, not for the millions of young people who access drugs from sources like friends or acquaintances. — TimeLine

Which is why the argument for being able to obtain some drugs from legalised sources would be a very useful way of minimising harm is a powerful one.

And do you realise just how absurd you sound by actually comparing mortality rates to the use of the drug? It is what the person, their family, friends, the community and the economy experience while they are alive that is the issue we are attempting to ascertain in order to prevent the prospect of death. — TimeLine

Not fully relevant to your quote I realise, but here is a question - would you ban dangerous sports and outdoor pursuits? Plenty of people get killed and injured in this way.

Entertainment will be a very big business. — Agustino

And education for personal growth, hopefully!

And education for personal growth, hopefully! — Jake Tarragon

Most people are interested in personal growth only because it helps them earn a bit more. But if money was no longer relevant since everyone was provided with life's necessities, then I doubt they'd be interested in self-development.

I dunno - the rich and leisured life gets boring very quickly without personal growth. There would be a market for educators of all sorts, that's for sure (and charlatans sadly :( )

Which is why the argument for being able to obtain some drugs from legalised sources would be a very useful way of minimising harm is a powerful one. — Jake Tarragon

Have you watched the show The Wire? There was a part of the series where they experimented with the idea of 'Hamsterdam' which was an attempt to fight the battle of drugs by legalising it in one area and it worked wonders for the community in general. The 'free zone' however was a hell-hole spreading disease and prostitution to continue their drug addiction. The Wire is probably one of my most favourite TV series of all time, you should watch it.

The simple answer, however, is no. To legalise what is very harmful to people is to programme disaster.

Not fully relevant to your quote I realise, but here is a question - would you ban dangerous sports and outdoor pursuits? Plenty of people get killed and injured in this way. — Jake Tarragon

Plenty of people get killed driving. You are committing a fallacy by asking this question as it diverts the attention away from what we are discussing. I would, however, ban the use of sports-related drugs.