to be a little shocked at the laissez faire attitude to drugs on here?

[ThatVikRinA22]

at risk of sounding like your mum and pulling a cats bum face

im a bit shocked. Ive seen reference to drugs and recreational drug use on here before, and while i love the diversity of mn, im always quite shocked at what seems to be a majority? view that recreational drugs are just part of life, that its ok because 'professionals' do it too, that its not the same to be seen to use cocaine at the weekend as it is to be a shoplifter or prostitute with an addiction to herioin....

is it just that no one sees the murkier side of drug use?

i suppose i see the darker side because of what i do for a living, but even before that, i would never have been tempted to try. There are the wider issues with production, trafficking, crime, gangs, and the environmental issues in production
just one such story here

my brother was a heroin addict, and i lost my sister to drugs, one way or another, i believe drug use contributed to her death. Seriously, most the crime i deal with is in some way drug related. Two weeks ago i was involved in an attempted murder over cocaine and cannabis supply.

i am not some rabid campaigner, but this is mumsnet - are most of us parents? i find it odd that people can froth about the small stuff, that people get pilloried for some really bizarre stuff on here while threads about drug use get a fairly "meh" response. (yes its a thread inspired by the coke using teachers assistant....)

why is that? genuinely interested to explore why coke use is seen as ok, and wonder what is not ok?

if its ok for the TA to use coke at the weekend, is it ok for them to smoke crack? or use heroin? doctors were mentioned on the last thread....would you undergo an operation knowing your doctor or surgeon had used coke? or smoked cannabis?

if its just part of life, where would you draw the line?
do people not realise what it takes to get that gram of coke at the pub at the weekend?

I think suicide is illegal (or was until recently) wasn't it?

Suicide is not illegal.

Assisted suicide is, for the person doing the assisting.

*Suicide is not illegal.

Assisted suicide is, for the person doing the assisting.*

Just to clarify for the 'black is white' brigade that what I mean by my post is that the people who enable drug use are the ones doing the assisting i.e. the dealers and the ones who say 'legalise all drugs'

If you think replying to two posts of peoples personal experiences with that glib tripe is clever, you have problems, but you also prove the point I and several other posters have made.

MaryZed if the driver of the car had been drinking, would the brewers/distillers borne responsibility?

No. the arse driving unfit would have done - as in that case.

cannabis is big bucks. where there is money there is no morality - thats what ive found. fuck all. no honour amonst thieves quite literally - funniest thing ever was when a cannabis grower got his whole stash stolen and couldnt actually tell us thats that what had happened.....poetic justice does exist.

oh and the kid who we found cowering in someones garden cos he was accused of stealing someone elses cannabis stash - and of course he couldnt tell us that either.....he was being "sought" by the bloke whose stash had gone missing....

live by the sword, die by the sword.

"I have never been attacked by a drunk and neither have any of my colleagues."

Wow, you are very lucky. Even I have been attacked by a few agressive drunks, in public areas.

Vicar has been so civilised after people have disrespected her thread. I'm really sad that people can't respect that. Why don't all you 'pro droooogs' people start your own thread if your so sure of yourselves

MESSAGE TO ALL RIGHT MINDED PEOPLE- DON'T FEED THE TROLLS!!!!!

THE NEXT PERSON TO POST AFTER ME WILL BE A DRUG ADDLED NO MARK, WHO ROLLS THEIR GRANNIES PANTS UP, MAKES A FAT ROACH' (OR WHATEVER) AND SMOKES THEM BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T GOT ANY 'DROOOGS' (MAN )

Seriously- snide posts after people have posted such personal stuff?

You are really low........The sad fact (for you) being that by disregarding the deaths of our loved ones, you make your own argument look like a bunch of drugged up saddos just out for them selves- you can't hurt us any more than we have been............

Wtf are you ranting about, Doris?

Losing loved ones does not give anyone a free pass to not having their views challenged.

And I speak as someone who has lost loved ones.

Knew there'd be one

Those who know don't need to ask.........

My love and thoughts tonight are with those that have lost loved ones to drugs- be it users, victims of drink/drug drivers, police lost in the line of duty- the list goes on.

"My love and thoughts tonight are with those that have lost loved ones to drugs- be it users, victims of drink/drug drivers, police lost in the line of duty- the list goes on."

Thank you. And I'll join you in that sentiment.

YANBU

I hate recreational drugs, after watching a number of friends who 'casually' used them for fun become addicted and screwed up. My husband's friend has also smoked dope for many years and is now utterly paranoid and a complete mess. I have been drumming it into the dc's heads from a very early age about the destruction and damage it causes lives.

Australian Police frequently drug test drivers in accidents here as well as alcohol test them. Stoners cause accidents too and therefore are a risk to other road users, same as drunk drivers.
Cannabis use is rife in the country towns around us, because of low employment primarily. DH's cousin was a heavy user until his bipolar disease kicked in - he could have been sacked from his job in the mines for it because stoners underground are a menace to everyone else's safety. Some of the mines around us have drug testing kit on site and do random drug testing - it's not an automatic sacking offence afaik, but it would probably depend on each individual mine.

i will say it again : there is no evidence of lives being saved by drugs law.

i'm not claiming no-ones lost their lives taking drugs. just that the law has done bog all about it.

that's interesting thumbwitch - possibly if cannibis testing was done roadside drug-driving deaths could be reduced - but that hasn't been done in the UK. possibly in Austrailia they could claim a benefit through that enforcement.

there is no cannabis road side testing but you can arrest someone on suspician for being unfit to drive through drink or drugs - if we suspect drugs we can get a roads traffic officer who is trained to "fit" test and is specially trained to spot the signs of drug use, or if someone is obviously of their tits we can arrest anyway and sort out the finer points at the station.

and what i find really ironic is the fact that this thread has almost as many responses as the thread about letting a 10yr old watch Buffy....

im sure i wandered into a parallel universe.....

is cocaine less harmful and frowned upon within mumsnet than buffy the vampire slayer?

really. thats what i cannot get my head around.

You'd get a hell of a lot more responses about a 10 year old taking cocaine

Vicar, it's because no-one cares about anything that doesn't directly involve them.

It never occurred to me that my children might get involved in drugs. It wasn't an issue - they come from a "nice" family, live in a relatively "nice" area, go to a "nice" school.

ds1 met a guy when he was 12 who smoked dope. Within 6 months he was (unknown to us) smoking daily, by 14 he was heavily hooked on dope and on vallium (supplied by a friend whose mum had mh issues and ordered on the internet )

Because he was a sulky teenager, we only discovered all this later. It's easy to say we should have noticed, but it isn't that simple. ds has Asperger's and his behaviour was always slightly "odd". But the amazing thing was that his entire peer group was also using cannabis/weed/skunk whatever the local dealer sold and few parents realised.

Joints are cheaper here than drink. Some of them "lost" their phones/ipods and presumably used the money for drugs. ds was stealing from us, which we did realised and stopped. So he discovered he could "deliver" (he didn't accept it was dealing) to get a free supply.

I never thought I would be in a position of being the parent of an addict.

And even after we told people, the response was always "Oh, I wouldn't allow that" or "my children wouldn't do that" or "I've educated by children so they are anti-drugs" or "why don't you just punish him/ground him/take away his phone/ban his friends/whatever".

And because it is outside most people's experience, they have no interest in talking about it. They simply don't believe it will happen to their families. And when it does, people just presume you and your child have done something wrong - they simplistically say "it's the addicts choice, tough".

Whereas most people have to deal with censoring their children's tv watching, so it is more relevant and therefore they care more.

No-one cares about my son and his friends and half a generation (here) that is being fucked up by drugs and dealers. As long as their child is ok, they can happily talk theoretically about choice, and about deregulation, and about legalisation, and about "recreational drug use".

And I wish I was like them

Oh Mary

It's the thing that most petrifies me at the moment with DS2. We seem to be fairly OK at the moment, and I'm just hoping that every month he is a bit old he may walk away from it.

Those of you who talk about 'recreational drug use' as if it's a trip to the playground have no fucking clue what you're talking about when it's to do with your children.

'a bit older' obviously

They don't care though, BIWI, because it isn't (yet) their children).

People are very self-centred when it comes to this type of thing.

I think the older they start the less likely they are to become dependent.

So every year they can avoid it is a year better.

DS2 will be 18 in a few months. I'm hoping that once they can go out to the pub, the lure of drugs may lessen

And I know that alcohol brings its own problems, but I would far rather DS was in the pub than sneaking around doing something illegal with unknown/untold possible effects on his physical and mental health.

is cocaine less harmful and frowned upon within mumsnet than buffy the vampire slayer? *

Apparently so. Some of these children's parents probably watch soaps, they have some very adult storylines. The news can be horrendous and don't even get me started on what passes for tween music these days.

Parents doing something that is illegal seems to be more socially acceptable though.

18 was a turning point for ds. It was great - all of a sudden he could go to the local pub, have one pint and watch a match with his friends. It was the start of him settling (a bit). Interestingly, he rarely drinks much (occasionally he will, like most kids his age, drink too much but it isn't a daily or weekly occurrence at all).

The difference I see around here between teenagers/young adults and drugs/alcohol is that alcohol tends to be a weekend occupation (with the odd midweek pint and match scenario), whereas those on drugs (especially cannabis) it is a daily occurrence.

I would be as worried about a teenager having a naggin of vodka on the way to school or at lunchtime as I would if that teenager was having a joint. But I've never seen one, whereas I see kids smoking dope at bus-stops and outside schools every morning .