aged people (stigma towards drugs)

[viljo]

My mind has finally ticked over and I have begun to support legalization of at lest dependancy substances like cannabis and exstacy two of the most common and widely used.

lately I've ben talking to all of older people not alot but most say I have very good points like,
the war will never end-
legal system is unfair-
reabillation system's arn't working and are unsafe-
police seem to question there own conduct-
we could provide these substances safely, instead of backyard labs-
lots more
most of you reading this already know most of these you have said them to me.

The response I'm getting is simple it's making them crazy, look around they say.
So i point out the differnce between dependency and addictive, and I also say your always gonna have some rotten eggs out there.
but mental health and people who have lost control over the addictiction is why they refuse to agree.
Is this just old age? I ask

ijc wrote to me and i think he went to a conference about cannabis and mental health, alot of people have taken interest.
It seems to me that there not going to budge? some people get really upset with me when I mention the word! legalize

What can be done about this?

Perhaps more effort is needed on explaning the difference between levels of addiction,
also saying it's a predisposed condition isn't enough, I still lose my own argement.
honestly sometimes i just don't know, i really think at lest dependancy drugs is the way to go.

 

[Sprax]

I used to be against legalization of addictive substances like heroin and amphetamine. After looking into the issue though and taking a lot of time to put things into perspective, I actually think legalization of use and possession is positive for all substances – and complete legalization for some. Some people have no problems with drugs and should be left alone. Others are serious addicts and need help, not punishment. Control is still positive though, not selling to minors etc for instance.

I think many older people share the (rather simplistic) views I used to have (and I’m not THAT old) that drugs are scary and scary things should be forbidden. What they fail to realize is the harm that the war on drugs causes.

So how do you convince people? In short, I don’t think you do. At least you don’t go all the way at first. If someone is totally against drugs you might start by demonstrating how something like cannabis, for instance, is actually quite harmless and how such a thing hardly merits the enormous costs in terms of police, courts and prisons, plus social costs etc.

One step at a time…

 

[viljo]

hey thanks sprax, I like what you wrote.

 

[doticeman]

There is another problem; the average citizen today, although having a lower trust in the government, still believes that their government is doing what they can to help them, ie. the prohibition of certain substances. Many people do not realize that the government is there to put through the legislation that the people want as apose to dictating it. I believe there needs to be a renewed sense of can-do attitude toward the govenment, and this goes for more than just drugs. We need to realise that the government is here for us and not the other way around. We do pay a great deal of money to keep them running so why not start saying how you want that money spent etc. As for legalisation, no government wants it (not entirely sure what their reasoning behind this actually is) so the majority of the sheepish population will not want it either!

 

[Crimzen]

EXACTLY
i find that most people think that its the government which dictates the rules to us and we must simply obey them because they're the government so they must be right
this is nonsense and its how dictatorships and control happen
the government also seems to have a bit of an attitude of "we're right, all the time, no matter what"

im a bit of a hypocrit because im not involved in politics at all, but if we could all just do something about it, this is a solvable problem

 

[doticeman]

The thing is how do we get to the change? what system is to be put in place.

What if we increased the size of county councils and decreased the size of each county. The country would have looser laws and laws could be changed and refined or withdrawn within each county. At the county council there would be many members to debate upon issues and any member of the public could come in and participate in the debate. Then someone could represent the council on a country wide level and maybe further on on a global scale.

 

[tryptonaut]

The problem is not older people, the problem is narrow minded people. There are a lot of narrow minded younger people too, unfortunately, but then people also tend to become more narrow minded when they become older. I don't know what is the problem, but lots of people I was friends with when we were young (like 18-20) are now narrow minded, and against everything they don't do themselves. They were adventurous when they were young, they tried some drugs, maybe had a bad experience with some of them, now they are married, have kids, and they just settled into the mainstream, and adopted the mainstream beliefs.
I guess when you become older you are more worried about safety and stability than when you are young, it becomes harder to keep an open mind - but some people still do. I have sworn to myself that I will always keep an open mind. And although I'm only 33, I see that most of the people my age become different from me already. They seem to have forgotten their dreams, and become the same narrow minded old people we always disliked.