Legalized? Given the experience of Portugal, yep, legalize them. And at was only late in our history that we made drugs illegal. Once upon a time you could buy cocaine, pot, and even opiates in over the counter concoctions. And even this easy access did not destroy america. You just had some opiate addicts which was no problem for their meds were cheap and easy to buy. Look, drugs are here to stay, and there will always be a demand for them. So why burden down our justice and prisons, with drug users and sellers? Not like this has ever stopped drug use. Make them legal, tax them, and offer up rehabs if people want to get off of them. We would probably see the same thing as Portugal saw. No increase in the use of hard drugs. It really is the only sane and intelligent manner in which to address drugs. We should have learned from Prohibition, and there were many lessons learned from it. And yet, we learned nothing except that Prohibition never gets rid of the drugs involved. We just turn people who think they should own at least their own bodies into criminals and tear apart families, while corrupting the police who can make lots of cash from illegal drugs. Like the police during Prohibition enriched themselves from the mob who paid them off.
Yep I remember you could also buy leeches for black eyes and bruise's. Paragaric ' spl ' was handed out over the druggest counter too. I think they say Coca Cola had cocaine in it. And I bet that peace pipe the indians had was pot.
I stopped smoking pot long ago, and I am 75 today. I stopped when I got married and had kids. I stopped drinking at the same time and lived clean and sober 50 years. But today, I smoke or vape sativa during the day, but not every day, a couple times a week, when I am in the mood, and vape a bit of indica at bedtime, for it really helps me to sleep without waking up half a dozen times as I would normally do. Well I should say that indica knocks my old arse out. lol So, it is just for rest. I think it is a wonderful medicine, at this stage in my life. It has improved the quality of my life no doubt about that. For this plant to be illegal in many states, is a travesty. For there are so many people who would benefit from this plant. It is such a shame that the lies that have been told about this plant still creates people who think it should be illegal. It is the safest drug there is, and much safer than booze and has more medical uses than booze. But it should be legal not for just medical use but for recreational use. This nation could use a lot more pot users for it mellows most people out and makes them more understanding and easy to get along with. It tends to make people fell empathy for others, and less stressed out. And unlike booze does not make you fight or feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof. lol. So, I plan on partaking in this plant for as long as it makes my quality of life better. And at my age, I would rather use this plant than ever get on some opiate which are highly additive and hard to get off of. When I stopped smoking long ago, the pot, I never had any withdrawals. I guess one might get psychological addicted to pot, but hell, I am psychologically addicted to lots of things like good coffee and cappucino, and enjoying a nice sunset while vaping a bit of smelly sativa.
Yep,. I remember the Pargaric too. My mom always kept a small bottle for something or the other, perhaps it was colic that small kids had. I learned later it had some kind of opiate in it. I never knew of anyone who abused the stuff. I recall that when my own kids were small, you could go to a drug store and ask for codeine cough syrup, and just sign for it. I think you can no longer do this. Yep, Coca Cola, contained cocaine once upon a time. It pepped you up. I would not doubt if the original Dr. Pepper came with some coke too, given what the name of it is. Pepper. The friendly pepper upper as the commercials of my youth said, although that was long after coke was used in coca cola. We used to trust adults to their own bodies, but now the gov't actually in practice owns our bodies. For if we put something in the body of ours that they now own, they will punish us for doing this to their body. The absurdity of it is seldom questioned by those of us who think that they should own other bodies and punish us if we put into their body something they don't agree with. I think the point at which a gov't assumes ownership of my body we have just lost the most fundamental freedom there is. When it can own my body, the other rights and freedoms are taken away easier. It say much about any gov't that insists upon owning your body or my body. Of course they will try to give you a good reason why in practice they own your body now, and many people get conned into it for such reasons. But in reality, you just lost the only thing that should be your god given right to own.
I liked soda fountain's in all the drug stores except when mama would call and tell them to fix us up with a does of castor oil, that stuff was horrible. Put all the cherry coke and shaved ice you want to nothing covers the taste that stuff up.
I believe in the old Dupont motto - Better Living thru Chemistry. I have smoked pot off and on for the past 50 years and still enjoy it immensely. I take a handful of various drugs to regulate the ol' ticker and cholesterol. I think if you don't need drugs to treat what ails ya, then you are in a great place.
I will sometimes drink a glass of wine but only a few times a year. Cant find any cheap wine I like anymore. I like sweet wine not dry.
Well all my friends who took colesterol lowring drugs had heart attacks, So go read about those things before you get sick, Just my opinion of course. Aspirin is the best heart med you can take.IF your not allergic or take a drug it interacts with of course. My colesterol is to the moon since I was young, triglycirides too, I read high colesterol is good for your heart, I know it has been good to mine for going on 7 decades now. My doc pushes it so much I just tell them I take it to shut em up. Never listen to anyone though, but do research .
lol Now that is funny. I have such fond memories of such a soda fountain, in the small town local drugstore. The soda jerk even wore a uniform, white, with those little while caps they wore back then. Gosh, those were the days. When I was in the 3rd grade, I had a little school business going on. At this same drug store, you could buy a small bottle of cinnamon oil. You would take toothpicks and shove them down inside the bottle with the oil in it, and then soak them for a couple days. They would absorb the oil and I sold these cinnamon toothpics, for a penny a piece. Of course, I always smelled of cinnamon, which also advertised the toothpics for me. The profit was tremendous, and I always had money in my 3rd grade pockets. Oh, yeah, you cannot cover up the most detestable of oils, castor oil. But my mom thought it was some kind of cure all. If you wanted to skip school, and acted sick when you came to the breakfast table, the promise of a good dose of that oil, always made me get well rather fast. Choosing to go and catch the school bus, or staying home to listen to soaps on the radio with a belly full of castor oil...well, it was not hard to choose to go and catch the bus. lol She also had Cod Fish Oil, I think, no, it was Cod Liver Oil. And it makes me gag just a little when I recall the taste from 70 years ago. Some things are just unforgettable. But this was back in the days when some illness would get you a teaspoon of sugar, with a few drops of kerosene mixed in. I cannot recall what it was used for though. But I think after one dose of it, when I was 5, cured me forever of what ever sickness called for it. lol
Yep had the cod liver oil. And if that wasn't bad enough some quack told her we were enemic 'spl'! So she made us eat half cooked liver 3 times a week.And brains and eggs. Pickled pigs feet [ I never even tasted one of those] , what a diet these people had back then. My granddaddy would pour raw eggs in a glass and drink them, Yuck! He lived to be 81 died back in the mid 1950s so guess it wasn't too bad for him. But we had a good life in city and country.
Ah, I recall the brains and scrambled eggs fresh from our hen house. And we grew the hog that supplied the brains. I recall them as tasting pretty good. You know, we grew all of our veggies, canned them for winter, and later on used a deep freeze for much of it. We grew our own meat, beef, pork, chicken, and our own eggs. Going to the grocer involved buying coffee, sugar, flour and corn meal. And things like spices, and I never had a can of veggies from the grocer until I went into the military. We also had a diary, so we of course had raw milk, made our own butter milk and churned out our butter. We used lard from the hogs we killed. It is so unreal to think about how we ate way back then. And how we raised our food. We had an orchard which supplied us with apples peaches and pears, and we had two huge grape vines that supplied us grapes for jelly and wine. Raised our peanuts for parching, and had two huge pecan trees. Ah, those were some good times to grow up in so long ago. When men were men, and women were women, and being gay was to be in a carefree happy state of mind. No one locked the doors back then and a coca cola was a nickel. If you brought your bottle. And before we got a tv station here, we all ganged up in front of the radio, and listened to programs, like the Lone Ranger, Lum and Abner, and on Sat. Nights, the Grand Old Opry. But we were talking about drugs....lol. But on this farm, with lots of cows and cow patties, those gold topped mushrooms that would grow out of the older cow patties and which were highly hallucigenic, well, we knew nothing of the effects of those mushrooms. But I sure wish we would have known about the effects of those gold topped mushrooms. But not a soul knew about them. We were told as kids that all mushrooms would kill you even if you just tasted one. And of course, some of them will indeed kill you with no known antidote.
Sounds like you had a great childhood. We still can some of our food but not much gardening now, Also seems you live in the south with those kind of trees. We have pear ,but apple and peach don't do good here. No long enough freezes for dormacy. I had an apple tree I called my ' one apple pie tree', it would bloom,feeeze,bloom,freeeze. Right now just have a few veggies in greenhouse. And some hydroponics squash tomatoes,peppers. Took break from chickens 2 yr ago. Plan to get 4 hens in spring.
If the drugs are taxed and you don't use the drugs then you would not be paying the taxes used for their rehab so where would you be paying for their rehab?
Yes, I would, but I would like it more if I didn't have to pay at all. I work hard for my money. I want a decent house in a good neighborhood. I want my kids to get a good education. I make choices in my life so that I can attain those goals, and one of those choices is to NOT spend my money on cigarettes or illegal drugs. If they want the freedom to poison their bodies (which I'm fine with) that community needs to pay the bill for maintaining itself.
See. I disagree with the last part of your post. The only one responsible for paying is the person who made the decision to put it in their body. If someone else wants to help them out then that is on them. Me? I didn't do illegal drugs when I was younger. Well other than pot that is. In my older years I've experimented with a lot of them. Don't like pot anymore cause it just makes me plant roots. Blow? I love blow. But I'm mature enough to control it. I might pick up a gram or a tiner every couple months but know If I wake up and want a line instead of coffee it's time to leave it alone. Meth is ****ing amazing. But the crash and dope dick made me not want to do it anymore. Molly is pretty ****ing amazing. But around here it's a tiny bit of MDMA mixed with meth. (Gee if it were legal ya wouldn't be getting stuff that had been stepped on so many times that ya don't know what you're getting) The point of all this? You can do them responsibly while being a productive person and a good parent. If you aren't responsible then ya can't expect anyone to help ya. You are morally responsible for everything you do.
Sadly we are glad she is in jail, not for better part of her life but she had plenty of help and opportunities to change including treatment centers she entered and left. . At least we know she is safe not that jail is safe but safer than the streets. Sometimes I almost smother thinking about her in that place locked up. Woke up one morning gasping thinking about her in that place. But drug addicts don't care about anything but the drugs. She has almost put my daughter into insanity and she has two grandsons to raise from daughter. One was born addicted to herion my daughter had to care for and that was very hard. But both boys are fine now, very handsome kids and smart one on honor roll in school. But now they have to start all over raising 2 kids. I don't have any answers really.
I think that there is too much money going to politition's and others to make it legal. If they wanted to stop this scurge on society they could have years ago. Drugs have destroyed complete nations and made many ultra rich. Bush opened back up the poppy fields in Afgan. And Obama made sure they stayed open. They will hunt down Americans to pretend they are fighting war on drugs, yet unless a cartel gets too greedy they basically go untouched. Before the 1960s most Americans never even heard of drugs. Every since every American is in need of prescription for depression and every teen is cool if the ydo drugs. I personally saw a young college athlete scream himself to death on acid in ER when I was a teen. Didn't sound human like some kind of animal noise came from him. ER doc grabbed me and said " you want to do drugs" the doc was crying because they couldn't do anything but watch him slowly scream himself to death. I heard his last weak scream. Somethign you never forget, reason why I didn't like drugs or ever want to smoke pot. I can thank that dr in 1965 and the poor perfect specimen of a young Georgia Tech football player who lost his life for it.
There is a much simpler, much more effective way of dealing with the war on drugs. However the united states society does not have the appetite for actually engaging in such measures. Prohibition has been tried numerous times, and numerous times it has failed miserably. Perhaps it is finally time for the society of the united states to experience the full, overwhelming weight and cost of their desire to see illicit substances made legal for recreational use, and comprehend just what they are asking for. As those indulging in such substances die off in large numbers through overdosing, and left to decay where others must walk through their daily lives, the significance of their decisions will be made quite clear to them. No one will be able to claim ignorance, and that they had no idea of just how dangerous the use of such substances was. Eventually there will be no one left to become addicted or die of overdoses, and the matter will solve itself. That is ultimately what is desired, is it not? If individuals wish to knowingly engage in reckless and criminal behavior, they will suffer the consequences of their actions one way or another. They are obviously being done no favors by their government fighting so hard to keep them alive through prohibitions and regulations, so perhaps it is time for a change of pace, and the consequences of their decisions made as plain as day. When children have to see their parents, siblings, and friends laying dead in the streets and on sidewalks as their bodies decompose while others have to walk over them, they will understand the true societal cost of the use of illicit substances. They will no longer question what is wrong with the recreational use of illicit substances, as they will understand why such narcotics were prohibited in the first place. If the public does not wish to accept that there are certain substances that should not be used, then allowing them to experience the folly of their decisions is the most logical course of action. The more the matter is resisted and fought, the more they are glamorized and desired by the public. It would be the most logical course of action to engage in, seeing as how everything else has failed. It is a simple, cost effective approach to the problem, and devoid of anything resembling either racial inequality, or political bias. No charges for those who traffic or use such substances, no medical aid for those that overdose. All die equally, and the problem eventually solves itself, potentially within the course of a single generation.
Happy belated birthday! What is Sativa? I know some people take Kratom' spl' for opiate withdrawals. I know 2 people who have family who are on opiates and always giving out before next dr. appt. Now the prescription drug cartels are going after that herb or whatever it is. One son keeps a supply of it for when he gives out of meds.
I dont think it should be that draconian. Education and corpse disposal is still on the table. Also if we are going to resuscitate the four hundred pound guy still grasping his big mac after a heart attack we should probably do it for the overdose. Legalization, taxation, and education is an option that has not been tried. Treat drugs just like Tobacco and alcohol.
Oh yeah, I grew up on a cotton farm, a big one. I saw us move from hiring blacks and I picked cotton with them and this is when I learned to love black music, for these black families were so musical and such carefree people, or so it seemed to a lad. But progress never stops and by the time I was 9 or 10 we bought our first John Deere cotton picker, and the colorful days of hundreds of workers picking cotton in the fields were over. And it happened overnight here. We got paid by the pound to pick cotton, and this is how I earned by Country Fair money for the fair always came right after harvest. And in a rural area, where you knew everyone, including the black families, going to town to attend the yearly country fair was a huge deal. It was kinda like Xmas, but for me, even better. The lights, sound and the smell of cotton candy is still embedded in this very old memory. Yes indeed, I grew up in the best of times here in the deep south. But I cannot say the same for the black folks, for this was a segregated south back then, and yet when you grow up in it, you don't see anything bad about it until you get older and start to think about it, not as a white person, but as a human being. It was so wrong, the way we lived and treated those black people. I knew it was so wrong by the time I hit 12 years old. And what helped my change in perception about this was that back in those days in a farming community, surrounded by dirt poor black folks, many of my friends were black kids my own age, and we played together when we got the time after harvest, and during the winter months, and this made me more aware of how wrong it was, this segregation, and the attitude of many whites towards black people. Of course what some people do not realize, that even with this segregation, the white folks in our farming community looked after the dirt poor black folks. I know it sounds kinda superior even to voice this, but I lost track of the times that black women, mothers, would show up at our back door(for they could not use the front) to ask for help, whether it was medical care for them or their children or for food and other things. And I never knew white families to ever turn down needy people. And yet this was an era where a black man had best not look for too long at a white woman. So, I am not trying to make this look better in regards to black people, for it was horrible, and still is when I think back on those times. So, growing up in the south was great for white people, but not very good for black folks. Which is why so many went north, thinking they would escape racism, and the treatment, to only find in most places the racism was up north too, but just a bit more in the closet. But it probably depended upon the area you lived in. But it was overt in the south. And yet living under those conditions did not take the joy away from these people, for I remember them always being so happy and cheerful, even in their great poverty. I am still amazed by this, for I just do not think the whites would have been so accepting of their lot in life, in those times. Anyways, this thread, I have turned into looking back at life in earlier times. And an america very much different than today. And yet, of all of the times that I could have grown up in, even with the problems back then, I see myself as so lucky to have grown up in such times. In the country, on a cotton farm which later converted to soy beans in the 60s. And this was back in the times when the gov't would pay us to plow under cotton. For they figured out all of the acreage and to keep prices up so farmers could make a living, we and others had to destroy a portion of the crop each year. Good thing we got paid for it though. And this was non GMO cotton. lol.
I grew up in Atlanta and Stone Mountain Ga. We had a apt in Atlanta and land in Stone Mountain. But never grew anything on it but 'fish'haha. We had 100 acre lot with 10 acre lake and 6 fishing boats. $1 a day to fish, $2 to rent boat. I had 2 black nannys and 2 white nannys and only liked one of the black ones didn't like either of the white ones. I liked her so much mama had to fire her because I cried when she went home. We played with their kids and mama always gave them extra. Ones husband worked at Gordons Potato Chip ' now Fritolay' and made good money. He always brought us little cardboard Gordon Chip trucks. But truth is equal rights did more damage to them under liberal leadership and victimhood they were a lot happier and had a better chance to see their sons grow up than they do now. Now most are on drugs, crime or killed. Back then most of these people had pride and morals and instilled it into their kids. Anytime you have to groups of any kind of diversity one will always push to rule over the others. Nature. I like all people but would rather visit them in their own culture and lands than us invade each other. We whites need to stop taking from others and not benefiting them as much as we are being benefited , imo. Stop taking resources from poor nations without helping the people instead of giving to their dictators. I think that life was more healthy so we didn't need as many drugs like we do today.
While I am not an expert on pot, and my knowledge comes from the 60s, there are at least two strains, sativa, and then indica, and the buzz is different. Sativa always gave me energy, made me want to play one of my guitars and make up new songs and riffs, and made even a can or pork and beans taste wonderful. lol It gave me a huge appetite, where everything tasted so much better. Indica on the other hand, gave what my crowd back then termed as "lead a**", and made you want to just sit and stare. It also made me very sleepy. I never liked it like the sativa, but in old age the indica really helps me to sleep. It is kinda like a sedative to me, but not sure if it effects all people in that manner. Yep, those opiates are bad news, unless of course you need them for severe pain. With the crack down on opiates, I know some people my age who actually need their Vicodin, for quality of life but this insanity has made doctors paranoid and they stopped prescribing them for people who actually need them. We always react in an insane manner when it comes to drugs, and hurt the people who need them, in order to cut down on the abuse of those who do not need them for pain. I read something about Kratom, once you mentioned it, and indeed people use this plant to help them get off of opiates. And yes, our gov't has been trying to make that plant illegal. Makes no sense at all. And they are trying to make it illegal even as we are guarding the poppy fields in afghanistan! And those poppies end up as heroin here in the states. And there is more heroin now than ever before. So the addicts when they can no longer get the pain pills, buy heroin, which is cheaper than pain pills bought black market. And the purity is not consistent, and so we have ODs out of the woo woo from heroin. Our gov't is so wise, huh? In regards to my own use of pot, I just started not vaping it, until the new year. I do this a couple times a year, just to make sure the stuff is not hurting my mental state. No withdrawals, as one might have with opiates. And if I find it is making me less mentally acute, I will stop using it. Or if it were to cause other problems. I see it as a very good medicine, personally, making my quality of life better in my old age. And the fear mongering I listened to for decades in regards to this plant were based upon lots of lies. For this is a great plant for the aging, IMO, although I can only speak for myself. I personally know of a couple of people who smoked it long ago when I did, and never stopped as I did. And they are in their 70s, retired and still use it. If it were such a bad plant, you sure cannot tell it by being with these old tokers. All of them are in good health today, better than me. And yet with other drugs, this is not the case. So, IMO, pot is the safest plant, and it has medicinal value and should be 100 percent legal in every state. Of course, it should be illegal to use it and drive or to sell to kids. But to tell adults what they can and cannot use, and imprison people for exercising the most basic god given right we should have, treating adults as children is untenable for me, or anyone who believes we own our bodies and not anyone else, including the gov't. It is a matter of the most basic right that we should have. And anyways, all drugs at one time were legal and this nation did not implode. We lost the war on drugs and yet are still fighting them, wasting treasure, filling up our prisons, and tearing apart families. In this case, the attempt at a cure is so much greater than the disease itself.
