Drug Dealers in Campbeltown

[ionnsaigh]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/8601315.stm

Very interesting, seems the resigning experts at least agree with me, regarding the criminalisation of our young people.
By banning drugs.

[blueboyno1]

Side effects

According to the Darlington Drug and Alcohol Action Team, mephedrone can cause nose bleeds, nose burns, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, blood circulation problems, rashes, anxiety, paranoia, fits, and delusions.[2] According to Crew2000, other side effects may include poor concentration, poor short-term memory, increased heart rate, abnormal heart beats, anxiety, depression, increased sweating, dilated pupils, the inability to normally open the mouth, and teeth grinding (gurning).[4] A survey conducted by the National Addiction Centre, UK found that 51% of mephedrone users said they suffered from headaches, 43% from heart palpitations, 27% from nausea and 15% from cold or blue fingers.[29] Because of its similarity to cathinone, John Mann, professor of chemistry at Queen's University, has posited that mephedrone is likely to cause impotence with long term use.[30]

Can anyone except (Ionnssaig who would come up with some excuse to suit his arguenent ) please tell me why you would want to pump this kind of sh*t into their body and why it should not be criminalised. And please dont use alcohol as an example i am talking specifically about this drug.

[Govangirl]

And please dont use alcohol as an example i am talking specifically about this drug.

I have been trying to stay out of this discussion lately as it was just going round in circles. Sorry Blue but alcohol needs to be mentioned before Ionns harps on repeatedly about it. All the above side effects do come with taking alcohol BUT as EMDEE has already pointed out, alcohol would be banned if we suddenly 'discovered' it today. There's now nothing that we can do about alcohol - it's an established social drug but I agree with you Blue - why now, when we know the effects of alcohol, would we want to introduce yet ANOTHER drug into our young people?
Personally, I am disappointed that this latest drug advisor has resigned and claimed that by banning mephedrone, it is criminalising young people. I agree only with him over the idea that legally sanctioned punishments for drug users should not constitute a main part of the armoury in helping to solve our young people's drug problems - they should be given as much help as possible - but we need to start by limiting them in some way. This advisor seems to see it in exactly the same way as the Government - either ban it or let the dealers make a mint out of others' misery.

So I've been thinking (oh dear!). Perhaps this won't work but is it possible drugs like cannabis and mephedrone be classed as controlled substances? You can only get them through a prescription or even some sort of arrangement with a pharmacy, you would be given warnings about the dangers, you would have the amount tracked in order to trigger any intervention, etc. etc. in pretty much the same way as other drugs are given out to people with illnesses. Or is it too simple? Surely users just use dealers because they have to?

Personally speaking, the worst substances I've ever encountered are nicotine (a senselessly addictive poison) and alcohol (yes, I do indulge but in the last 20 years have never once got out of my head - can't see the point, I live there) and grew up with tragic consequences of the latter so we can't kid ourselves. However, we should take lessons from these and I think if we don't think outside the two ideas of banning them (Govt.) or making them freely available (Ionns), we are letting our young people down.

[blueboyno1]

Hi G.G. As you know i too have been trying to stay away from this thread for the same reason as youreself .I know alcohol is a big problem and causes mant deaths each year I have lost a brother of 38 years old who left a wife and four kids becauseof it .But it is an established fact in society and has been going since the year dot ,to even think that it could ever be banned would in my mind just be silly because it will never happen .The thing is this drug is quite new and it has already caused 25 deaths ,surely now is the time to ban it and make it harder to obtain rather than let it freely be bought over the counter .If it was left as it was then the 25 would soon turn into 250 then 2,250 and so on. Prevention is better than cure .

[EileenH]

I too haven't said much lately on this thread, simply because I felt that I had made how I feel about drugs perfectly clear and don't want to keep repeating myself. However, I would like to point out that my nephew was prescribed methodrone to try and wean him off the other drugs. At the start he had to go into the chemist everyday and take it, in front of everyone in the shop. Later, he kept it in my mums fridge where he would go and get his daily dose. For a wee while this worked as he wasn't filling his body with other poisons. As time went on, it wasn't enough and, as well as the methodrone he started back on the hard stuff. It gave him a bigger kick. All it did was encourage him to keep using as he thought, because the Doctor prescribed it that it was acceptable. Where did that get him? Supposing I live to be 100 I will never agree to drugs being legal. I've seen the after effects.

[Govangirl]

It won't make a difference but I think your nephew was more likely to have been given Methadone which I think is a heroin substitute? Not clear on it but I THINK Methadone and Mephedrone are different?

And I know where you are coming from but we have to find a way in between an outright ban and allowing anything on the streets. I just think an outright ban creates more problems.

[EileenH]

Whichever it was, it was a prescribed drug and didn't make any difference to him. He would have taken the legal drugs along with the ones bought on the street. A lethal concoction. When you are an addict you don't care what you take as long as it gives you the high you're looking for. Alchoholics are the same. There's not alot can be done to make alchohol illegal now but that doesn't make it right that certain drugs should be legal just because alchohol is. That would just add to the problems that already exist. Children should be educated that both alchohol and drugs are not safe to take.

[blueboyno1]

Exactly the way i feel about it Eilleen and what i have been saing all along you cant make children aware of the dangers of drugs by making them legal ,you are just sending the wrong signals.

[ionnsaigh]

However, we should take lessons from these and I think if we don't think outside the two ideas of banning them (Govt.) or making them freely available (Ionns), we are letting our young people down.

Yes we are letting them down, however I've never remotely suggested making them freely available with the exception of
Cannabis, incidentally weed has been legal in the past, and has been used by various society's for Thousands of years.
One of the reasons it enjoys it's current status, is down to guarded big business interests ( paper manufacturers) .

OK lets ban Bubbles
( Mephedrone ) how long do you think before a new and perhaps more deadly substance reaches the streets, one or two weeks max. The only way to control drugs is to legalise them, which is not the same as making them freely available.

[ionnsaigh]

Yesterday, my son and his partner had a night out in the local. There was three legal and three illegal drugs for sale. Now at least with the controlled legal drugs, they knew what they might be buying. The other three could have been mixed with any number of substances.

[blueboyno1]

Blueboyno1 shakes his head in disbelief and once more leaves this merrygoround.

[ionnsaigh]

Blueboyno1 shakes his head in disbelief and once more leaves this merrygoround.

Then another haunting tune, draws him back.

[EileenH]

I see in our local paper today there's a story about a guy who had a stock of methodone,not prescribed to him by his Doctor, obviously intended for someone else. I submise that he bought it on the street, probably from the person who it was prescribed to. So, by obtaining this drug legally on prescription, did this person then become a dealer on the street selling it for money for heroin? Who pays for the methodone that then goes on to be sold to line the pockets of the drug abuser? Certainly not the drug addict!

[Bertie]

Unfortunately Eileen there are always people out there willing to profit from someone else’s misery. They are loathsome characters who have no conscience over their actions and are only interested in making a quick buck. It matters not to them that, in making their money, it is depriving someone of their legally prescribed medication, in order to sell it on to another user illegally. They probably get a feeling of kudos for being a big man on the street but they are what they are... parasites and scum.

[ionnsaigh]

So, by obtaining this drug legally on prescription, did this person then become a dealer on the street selling it for money for heroin?

Technically they are, however there appears some evidence to suggest, that some of this, is being sold by pensioners.
I think that the wee bit of extra money, buys little in the way of drugs, it helps pay the gas bill mind you. Tragic I know.