On 2003-06-23 16:19, j 9 k wrote:
ive never seen a drug dealer check a kids id.
j9k
No joke. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I can say that when I was in highschool, it was easier to get heroin than a beer because there was no unregulated market for booze. If you wanted you either had to be 21 (or have an ID), get someone who is 21 to buy for you, or steal it from your parents.

For the hard drugs, you just need money and the street smarts not to get your ass kicked/killed by shady characters.
The merits (or lack) of drugs is a stupid question because the statement automatically infers abuse and addiction. Never does one hear about positive uses of substances that also have addictive side effects.
For instance, ecstacy had a tremendous success rate in marital counselling, however, as we all know it can make you manic depressive with extended use.
Cocaine has been used for ages as a local anesthetic much like morphine, but as morphine does not lend itself to social use, it stays on the good side of the drug list.
Marijuana of course is the motherload of bad reputations (and if anyone is interested in why that is -at least in the US, lemme know I'll post some links). And while it does have some side effects, it comes from the hemp plant which is one of the most versatile substances on this planet. It has been used to make clothes since the dawn of time and military uniforms for WWI & II (all of which lasted immeasurably longer than cotton or polymer-plastic based products), sails and rope for boats, it has medical value far beyond just cancer treatment and has an amazing nutritional value.
The difference between these and most 'acceptable drugs' is that illegal ones are, in addition to having side effects (which almost anything that we intake does) is that the illegal ones do not require sophisticated equipment to produce and as such cannot be part of a controlled market as any joe off the street with a patch of dirt or a chemistry set could make. Obviously there are exceptions and I don't condone people getting high to the point of uselessness...
but this whole drug war BS is far too political to actually make sense within the parameters in which it's usually discussed.
People abuse drugs because they are unhappy, bored, don't know what it can do to them, or combinations therein. Taking away drugs does nothing to change any of those factors. And if people's safety from drug abuse is the real issue, remember that tobacco kills more people worldwide every year than any other drugs combined. So our 'legitimate' tobacco empires in the US are actually the largest drug cartel ever. And they have govt. support. As was already mentioned, booze is the same.
Anyway. I've gone on long enough. Rantus endicus.
Sam
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dehuszar on 2003-06-23 21:07 ]</font>