I drink moderately, maybe slightly more than moderately, but I'm not addicted. It's been known for me to go a whole day without any beer.
I drink moderately, maybe slightly more than moderately, but I'm not addicted. It's been known for me to go a whole day without any beer.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
Haha, wow. I can see that this is getting compicated. If it's a poll, rather than trying to classify them based on their degree of harm and addiction (because who cares, the answers are what matter), how about if we just list them?
- Alcohol (occasional)
- Alcohol (moderate)
- Alcohol (excessive)
- Tobacco, inc. cigars, chewing tobacco (occasional)
- Tobacco, inc. cigars, chewing tobacco (moderate)
- Tobacco, inc. cigars, chewing tobacco (excessive)
- Perscription Sedatives (occasional)
- Perscription Sedatives (moderate)
- Perscription Sedatives (excessive)
- Marijuana inc. oil, hashish (occasional)
- Marijuana inc. oil, hashish (moderate)
- Marijuana inc. oil, hashish (excessive)
- Cocaine (occasional)
- Cocaine (moderate)
- Cocaine (excessive)
- Salvia
- "Magic" Mushrooms
- Ecstacy
- LSD
- Opium / Laudanum
- Heroin / Morphine
- Amphetamines (Speed / Meth)
I didn't include a degree of use option with the hallucinagens or ecstacy because no one has ever wanted to use them every day; I didn't include them beside opium because no one really uses opium anymore (and especially not laudanum, this isn't 1822) so if anyone here's tried it it's probably been a once or twice thing; and I didn't include them beside heroin or meth because I've never heard of a "moderate" meth user.
Plus, you know, giving three options for every recreational drug would stretch out the poll needlessly since I doubt there even are any meth or heroin users on litnet.
I think we should axe the word "addicted," and replaced it with "excessive," because often people use drugs to excess by choice, and also there are few people who would outright claim to be "addicted." Also, that's kind of a judgement call, isn't it? If we do it simply by how often you use, it takes all judgement out of the equation which makes things more reliable. If anything, I think we should decide specifically what we mean by "occasional/moderate/excessive." Here's my take on it:
occasional = less that once/week
moderate = at least once/week but never every day
excessive = almost always every day
So what do you guys think?
Polls, polls, polls, are fun.
Last edited by JuniperWoolf; 07-01-2012 at 02:53 AM.
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
I think that's a very good list, and would be sufficient. Perhaps instead of prescription sedatives, we should use the category of benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium, Klonipin, etc.) and instead of tobacco we could use the more scientific approach and label it nicotine, the active ingredient. These are just minor details, but I do have a couple of other suggestions as well. First, I think salvia, psilocybin (mushrooms), and LSD should be combined into one category, and have mescaline (peyote) included as well. Perhaps it could be called hallucinogens or psychedelics. Ketamine should probably be included in this category since it is popular, although it is actually a dissociative.Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf
Secondly, I think we should have an opiates category which would include codeine, hydrocodone, morphine, and heroin. Brands such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, Lortab, Fentanyl and Demerol would all fit into in this category. Even though Demerol and Fentanyl are actually narcotic analgesics, this way there would be no need to include all the different brands by name.
Lastly, I think Adderall should be included in the list of amphetamines since it is widely abused. This way, there is no need to create a separate prescription drugs category. Oh, and crack should be probably be listed along with cocaine just to be thorough. Some of the younger members may abuse various deliriants and dissociatives such as diphenhydramine and DXM, as well as inhalants. There is also a class of drugs known as research chemicals which include tryptamines such as 5-Meo-DMT and phenethylamines such as 2C-B that were very popular at one time, but you can't include everything. There's even the new synthetic cannabinoids to consider, as well as designer drugs such as mephedrone and MDPV (bath salts), but I think that's taking things to far. Users of these drugs could even select cannabis or amphetamine.
The study (and use) of drugs is a fascinating hobby, although I caution anyone thinking of going down that road. When it comes to frequency of use, I think it would be best to use the labels occasional, weekly, and daily instead of moderate and excessive. We would never be able to agree on what is considered excessive, for one thing. I also prefer the more neutral language of abuse and dependency, as used by the medical profession, however I don't have a problem with the word addiction, either.
Oh, and Scheherazade had asked why I think it's best not to use the system of Category I, II, and III. Well, I don't think it's accurate because the DEA has included marijuana and LSD in the same class as heroin and crack. Supposedly marijuana has no medical use, which is a huge issue right now. Drugs such as LSD and MDMA (ecstasy) have also been proven useful in the field of psychology. Even cocaine and amphetamines have medical use. Why can't the DEA admit that psychedelic drugs have medicinal use as well?
"I have never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." - Henry David Thoreau
You think there're that many druggies on LitNet to take advantage of all those options?
Last edited by Mutatis-Mutandis; 07-01-2012 at 06:42 PM.
Well, probably not.
"I have never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." - Henry David Thoreau
Lol. And what about a 'how honest are you' poll afterwards?
Before sunlight can shine through a window, the blinds must be raised - American Proverb
I am rather touche and overly cautious when it comes to drugs. Even tend to avoid commonsheesha (or tobacco in any form) Maybe I can say I have never had any type of drugs (even tend to avoid medicinal drugs and try to cure myself by changing dietary habits in case of some illness) but I have been told I look high quite a lot of times!
I wonder where would I be if I actually start consuming drugs.
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
If I didn't have this disease that has prevented me from smoking pot (the coughing would hurt my throat), I think it most likely I would've been a pot-head. It's the crowd I hung around with.
Well, there are people who would do mushrooms (grows natural) who wouldn't do LSD (acid, chemicals), so I wouldn't combine them, but I do think peyote should be added beside mushrooms (because it also grows naturally and induces hallucinations). Let's throw salvia into the "grows naturally" option too, I just seperated it initially because it's legal.
I agree that "excessive" is also a judgement word. I like your suggestion of using the terms "occasional, weekly and daily." Sometimes people miss a day, so let's make it "almost always daily."
Benzo is a prescription sedatives so no need to get specific with a big long list of pharmaceutical terminology that most people don't know anyway when we can just use "perscription sedative" as an umbrella term, we really don't want to elongate the poll too much.
"Crack" is different from cocaine, they shouldn't be lumped together. Crack more addicting and is the cause of much more social harm. Specifically, poor people, people in the gutter smoke crack, whereas I know that a lot of people in my age group do coke at parties or something once/month maybe and are none the worse for wear. I wouldn't put crack on the same level as cocaine even though it's a derivative (in the same way I wouldn't put heroin on the same level as opium). No one here smokes crack, I think it's a safe bet to just axe it. I doubt anyone does heroin or meth either, but whatever, maybe we'll be surprised.
If there are any other opiates or amphetamines not listed, I think the umbrella catagories "amphetamines" and "opiates" will serve, if we were to list all of them things would become convoluted. I think it's still intersting to seperate modern opiates (heroin, morphine, ect.) from opium and laudanum, let's see if we have any classical narcotics romantics on litnet, seems the place.
Revised suggested poll options:
- Alcohol (occasional)
- Alcohol (at least once/week, not every day)
- Alcohol (almost always daily)
- Nicotine, inc. cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco (occasional)
- Nicotine, inc. cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco (at least once/week, not every day)
- Nicotine, inc. cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco (almost always daily)
- Perscription Sedatives (occasional)
- Perscription Sedatives (at least once/week, not every day)
- Perscription Sedatives (almost always daily)
- Marijuana inc. oil, hashish (occasional)
- Marijuana inc. oil, hashish (at least once/week, not every day)
- Marijuana inc. oil, hashish (almost always daily)
- Cocaine (occasional)
- Cocaine (at least once/week, not every day)
- Cocaine (almost always daily)
- Salvia / "Magic" Mushrooms / Peyote
- Ecstacy
- LSD
- Opium / Laudanum
- Opiates, inc. heroin, morphine
- Amphetamines inc. Speed, Meth
Last edited by JuniperWoolf; 07-02-2012 at 02:42 AM.
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
I like a tall cool one from time to time. I’ve never done any so-called illegal drugs, largely because I’ve always had a job that subjects me to random drug testing. Also 99 times out of 100, when the doctor prescribes medication, I’ll flush it. Medical Doctors in this country are the worst drug pushers of all. I thank my mother for clueing me in to the evilness of the medical profession; growing up, we’d have to have an arm off or a sucking chest wound for her to break down and give us half a baby aspirin.
Anyway, aside from the addictiveness of a drug, there’s a dangerousness scale, or rather a ratio. It goes something like this: A is the amount of the drug that will kill you. B is the amount of the drug that will get you to a desired high. Therefore A over B tells us how dangerous a drug is. A very dangerous drug, like heroin, is only around 3 to 1. That says it doesn’t take too much more heroin to take you from high to dead. Alcohol is around 12 to 1, which is still relatively dangerous as drugs go; every year there’s going to be a couple of frat boys or who kill themselves with Jack Daniels. Marijuana comes in at around 150 to 1, meaning you’d have to smoke a truckload of the stuff to kill yourself.
Here’s the tricky part: Over time, B usually increases, but A basically stays the same. This is intuitively obvious: over time an alcoholic is going to need more and more booze to get drunk, and that will take him closer and closer to the magic number that will kill him. The same thing goes for heroin. Marijuana, however, seems to work backwards. A pothead needs less weed over time to get high.
Perhaps I should move to Humboldt County in Northern California and cozy up to one of the many glaucoma specialists there.
Uhhhh...
Es are Es are good; he's ebenezeer good!
lol, Sancho, that was my mother, too. As an adult I'm like "wha...? You could have given me a baby aspirin????"
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
I wasn't sure if we were allowed to discuss drugs at all on the forum but I had considered starting a thread on substances and the writing process. There is a long history of this, and I would be curious to know what other writers have to say. Perhaps we can discuss it when this moves to Serious Discussions or I could start a new thread later.
Hey I remember that song!Es are Es are good; he's ebenezeer good!
"I have never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." - Henry David Thoreau
Wow, that's interesting. Whenever people who drink a lot find out that I get drunk after one or two drinks, their reaction ("you're lucky, I don't even feel it after a six pack anymore") always made me think that people who drink often develop a sort of physical immunity to alcohol, like it would take more than the usual amount to kill them.
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
I heard that alcoholics start to get drunk very quickly due to the damage their liver has sustained - not that I'm suggesting you are alcoholuic Juniper.
I was surprised by how young some are who succumb to liver disease/ damage after years of drinking.
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