Marijuana is its own special category, but club drugs (which for some reason include date rape drugs), inhalants and steroids are all in a “miscellaneous” category together?
Also, note all the ridiculous drug propaganda lies.
Do they go on to mention any negative effects?
I love the idea that this isn’t a smear campaign but a promotional one haha. You’re right this article mostly reads “Apart from some shakes and wanting more later, these are all a great time” lmao.
Where is the alcohol section that causes probably the most deaths per year?
It was in a separate lesson, which was similarly filled with bullshit.
It’s better than D.A.R.E. which is what a lot of us got.
I had D.A.R.E. and we also had “Officer Friendly” come to our elementary school and tell us all the ways drugs would kill us horrifically.
shnertin a faaat line in my D.A.R.E. shirt
The fact it still teaches the “gateway drug” shit tells me it’s outdated as hell.
Hmm, I went looking around and it seems opinions are mixed?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_drug_effect#History suggests one longitudinal study found a causal link, but another meta-study found a correlation without enough evidence to indicate a causal link?
When you gotta hang out with people (who most likely do/sell other drugs), no risk that you’re going to get an offer to try something else.
Not really true at all in Canada. Once again this is just the side effects of weed being illegal being mistaken for the fault of the substance when it’s not.
Water is a gateway drug. Never met a hard drug addict who hadnt started by drinking water prior to hard drug use.
Shit! I totally forgot that weed is a gateway drug.
Quick someone get me some black tar heroin!
I remember my old boss asking me what the effects of cannabis were. I was like “which cannabis? Indica, sativa, high CBD, high thc, etc” Cannabis is like wine, but different strains have different effects. There are stains that I use at night that leave me happy and couch bound, and there are strains I use on a weekend morning that make me clean my entire house
Being able to pick your strains sounds nice
Decades ago, my school’s drug info was similar: every drug had a single entry (‘euphoria’) in the Pros column and a massive list (ending with death) for the Cons column.
brb, going to the club with my friends so we can do steroids, hopefully I can find some psychotic marijuanas too
And they’re making a fucking mess of the pharmacological and social definitions of “drug”. It’s the propaganda version of that “ackshyually tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable” brain-rotting idiocy.
Depressant, stimulant, those refer to the pharmacological activity; it’ll include even things not socially considered as drugs, such as caffeine (stimulant) and alcohol (depressant). In this sense marijuana is not its own class, it’s THC is a depressant.
That “club drugs” category is a fucking mess in both definitions. Ketamine is an anaesthetic, thus likely a depressant; ecstasy is mostly a stimulant with weak hallucinogen properties, pharmacologically they’re nothing alike. And socially they’re closer to caffeine (as things that you ingest willingly) than to date rape drugs (things that people give you against your consent).
And even the division in social drugs depends on usage. Marijuana for example can be used for clinical or recreative reasons; abuse is of course bad, but frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if most marijuana smokers had better lungs than I do (I don’t smoke weed but I smoke tobacco - nicotine is a depressant BTW). Same deal with the date rape drugs, alcohol could be used as one.
Aaaaah, sorry for the rant. What I want to convey is that yeah, I get why this infuriates you. It infuriated me too.
You sound really judgey about forget-me-nows
Not only can alcohol be used as a date rape drug, it’s the most common one. It’s safer for the assailant to give you a stronger drink than you think you’re getting than to give you something like roofies. Additionally bartenders will gladly do it as it’s not uncommon for someone to want a double.
I could have sworn nicotine was technically a stimulant because it has vasoconstrictive properties.
And I don’t know anyone who has ever put off going to sleep in order to take more depressants.
I fucked it up - thanks for pointing it out, fixed it. (I switched them because smoking a cig relaxes me quite a bit.)
Nicotine is absolutely classified as a stimulant.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a user misclassify it—I imagine it has something to do with smoking or dipping mitigating withdrawal (thus relaxing) more than the drug’s actual effects.
Weed is a gateway drug to the fridge.
lmao
The “gateway” drug thing was taught to me through DARE in the 90s. But has been confirmed propoganda for decades. Calling Cannabis (marijuana is not the proper name) a “gateway” drug is like saying water or air are “gateway” drugs. Sure, a crack head has probably smoked weed, but that isn’t what got them into crack.
I would guess that these materials are, either, very old or they categorize cannabis differently because it is so common. It doesn’t help that it is illegal in half the country and legal in the other half. So any state with cannabis not, at least, decriminalized will still have the talking points for the 1930s.
Seriously. How undereducated is the general population to still be willfully ignorant that “marijuana” is literally BS Spanish “Mary Jane” and not what anyone prior to the utter failure that still is the “War on Drugs” has ever called any part of the plant? FFS. 🤷🏼♂️
I’m begging everyone to watch the intro script of Reefer Madness, its honestly comedy gold how horribly its aged
Thankfully, she knows from her father, who uses cannabis medicinally, that it is not a “gateway drug.” Especially since the pain I am using it to treat now was one which a doctor originally tried and failed to treat by throwing multiple opioids at it and I’m not doing fentanyl today despite that. Two days of withdrawal was a bitch though.
Are you sure you’re taking enough?
Taking enough what, weed or opioids?
I’m glad to hear you are off the opioid train. Have lost family members to it and my father is currently been on them for years. I tried to get him on the THC train, he even has a medical card, but he claims to not like the effects. I live in a recently legal state so I’m waiting until I can show him a store with a wide variety to try. I know there is some strain that will help with his pain and suffering without the effects he didn’t like.
I’m luckier than others in that I hate the effects of opioids, so unless it is actually doing some pain killing (fentanyl did wonders when I was in the ER with kidney stones), I just wouldn’t want it in my system.
But I also know that there are plenty of people it does work for who use it because they are legitimately in pain and either were hooked on them by a doctor and can’t get off or just can’t afford an alternative other than to score something illegally to solve their pain issues due to our capitalist healthcare system.
I realize you have to simplify things for kids sometimes, but this is not the way to do it.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug.
Having to deal with a drug dealer that wants to also sell you actually addictive drugs is the gateway.
Legalize pot, sell it at the grocery store, and you will watch the number of addicts in general fall precipitously. I guarantee it.
I buy THC drinks online from 3Chi. I haven’t had an urge to try anything harder (in fact, I’m a bit scared of anything that might affect my heart (aside from booze becaus3 we all do at least one very stupid thing), and the only thing I do want to try but only with a good support group around is shrooms).
I wonder what the stats in Canada look like now.
The “gateway drug” thing was a lie in 1985 and its a lie now.
Weird how cigarettes and alcohol are not ‘gateway drugs.’
Don’t forget shampoo!
My D.A.R.E. officer made sure we all knew that shampoo is a drug because it’s a chemical compound that physically affects our bodies. I definitely had fewer issues with drugs after learning that I was already a ‘drug user’.
That’s actually a pretty good way to think about it though. Drugs are just chemical compounds and different compounds have different effects on the body.
Are you sure that D.A.R.E officer was not secretly cool?
I had fewer issues with drugs after doing drugs, having a great time, feeling better the next morning than if I’d had 4 pints of beer.
That’s because from a health perspective, alcohol in particular is an “end state drug”. It’s what you die with. It ruins you. Not as fast as heroine, but just as thoroughly.
So if I just occasionally have a beer with dinner does that mean I could also enjoy a bit of light recreational heroine for dessert?
light recreational heroine
The best dessert.
Yeah, I really wonder who writes these, and what their outlook on their job is. They have to know that the content has some pretty strong omissions or false inclusions there for political reasons.
Having to deal with a drug dealer that wants to also sell you actually addictive drugs
Clearly marijuana has some serious kind of habituation, and it’s equally clear that many people that use marijuana are problem users. Addictive? No, not by any strict definition of addiction, since you won’t suffer serious adverse effects if you stop. OTOH, I’ve known at least as many problem marijuana users as problem drinkers
I bet it’s a useful plant and that’s why people use it daily.
Oh, guess what, it’s time to take my meds, I’ll be back after a few bong hits before I go back to work.
The question isn’t whether Marijuana is habit forming. Obviously for some percentage it is. The question is whether Marijuana use in and of itself encourages or preface additional drug use. My position is that it does not and by legalizing Marijuana we would find that it is the interaction with black market drug dealers which correlates instead.
The question is whether Marijuana use in and of itself encourages or preface additional drug use.
I would argue that in many ways it does. Marijuana is–or was–illegal. Alcohol is legal, but age restricted. If you are willing to use a substance that is (was) entirely illegal, you are more likely going to be willing to try other drugs that are legitimately addictive, because you’ve already crossed one of the major hurdles. If alcohol had been illegal for the same amount of time that marijuana had been, then I would agree that alcohol was likely a gateway drug as well.
I’m in favor of de-scheduling marijuana entirely. But I think that it’s disingenuous for people to act as though there weren’t serious problems with chronic and underage marijuana use.
After a quick search through us history, alcohol was banned around 1920 and lasted for about 13 years. The marijuana ban that we all know of happened, get this, in 1970, and states began pushing back only 3 years after. So, alcohol was banned far longer than marijuana. The d.a.r.e. campaigns and other propoganda coupled with the inability to do scientific studies on the drug created the mass panic. There were not serious problems, other than some politician needing a platform.
So, alcohol was banned far longer than marijuana.
…What? The 1970s were 50 years ago. And marijuana was illegal long before it was classified as a schedule 1 drug under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.
You’re going to have to provide some source for it being illegal. Arguably, it was contentious in the 30s, but the first official ruling was 1970.
It also seems like you don’t understand that it being banned 50 years ago is not the same as it being banned for 50 years.
It was banned in 1970, but 3 years after, states pushed back.
Alcohol was banned in 1920, and 13 years later, it was unbanned.
You are coming across as very emotional about this, but you are showing how little you have researched. I don’t have time to bring you up to speed if you are only going to keep your fingers in your ears while you shut your eyes and scream how right you are.
Have a good day.
It also seems like you don’t understand that it being banned 50 years ago is not the same as it being banned for 50 years.
Dude, it is literally illegal at the federal level at this very moment. If you use marijuana, and you buy a firearm, you are a felon. The ban may not be fully enforced in some states right now, but the feds can, at any moment, and on a whim, go into California and Colorado and arrest every single person working at a dispensary and charge them under federal drug trafficking laws, and send every single one of them to prison for life.
I would ask what you’re on, but I’m pretty sure I can guess.
It was banned in 1970
You are coming across as very emotional about this, but you are showing how little you have researched.
Ironic.
1951-56:
Stricter Sentencing Laws
Enactment of federal laws (Boggs Act, 1952; Narcotics Control Act, 1956) which set mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses, including marijuana.
A first-offense marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years with a fine of up to $20,000.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html#:~:text=Enactment of federal laws (Boggs,fine%20of%20up%20to%20%2420%2C000.
Alcohol was banned in 1920, and 13 years later, it was unbanned.
The prohibition was protested long before it was finally repealed.
Uneven enforcement and the continued circulation of illegal alcohol led to widespread lawbreaking, corruption, and a nationwide backlash. Opposition to Prohibition by elected officials and grassroots organizations in New York, including Governor Al Smith, Congressman Fiorello La Guardia, and the Manhattan-based Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), increased throughout the 1920s.
You’re saying that it has nothing to do with marijuana itself that make it a gateway drug, only that we’ve made it illegal.
That means anything we make illegal is a ‘gateway X’.
If you are willing to use a substance that is (was) entirely illegal, you are more likely going to be willing to try other drugs that are legitimately addictive, because you’ve already crossed one of the major hurdle
It’s honestly rather ludicrous to still see 60’s propaganda being parroted. You’re on the internet, dude. There’s no need for you to be that ignorant.
YOU EVER SUCK DICK FOR WEED? BOO THIS MAN BOOOOOOO!!!
At least it’s broadly kind of informative in description of some of the categories before the ‘continued’ section. That may seem a low bar but I guess efforts to educate on this topic have set such a drastically low bar in decades past that it’s encouraging to see it lifted slightly off the floor. The categorisation scheme takes a bit of a nosedive when they get to marijuana which for some reason has its own category, also for all the drugs and categories they describe they make the mistake of failing to describe the effects that make people want to use the drugs in the first place. I can see why they might be hesitant to do that, you don’t want to actively encourage people to use the drugs, but I remember when getting similar lessons on the topic thinking that it was an obvious omission because it’s hardly like people took the drugs, repeatedly, because of how much they enjoyed the “impairment” especially as I has my own first hand experience running directly counter to it. The failure to address the positive sensations taking such drugs produces that have caused people throughout all of human history to seek drugs out, damages the credibility of the information since it clearly sought to discourage at the cost of objectivity.
They put pcp alongside shrooms and LSD. That’s insabe.
