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?

Lots of addicts have had painful child hoods and terrible experiences which they try to 'fix' by self medicating with whatever they feel 'full' and numb with whether it be alcohol drugs food etc. For a brief time the drug of choice takes away the pain. That person you are looking down on was someones little boy/girl who didn't get the love that luckily it seems all our children seem to. It can happen to anyone who tried to fill that gap with something external. Some of the attitudes here are disgusting and without any compassion at all.

I might have been more convinced of the harmlessness of weed/skunk if I had not spent so much time reading the posts of MNers such as MaryZ whose children's lives have been wrecked by it.

Of course I can't guarantee that I can keep my own children safe, I can't physically stop them from being exposed to these drugs, I can't be sure they'll never be foolish and take them.

But at least I can say: "look, this is what Society thinks about this stuff, I am not the only person to tell you it's dangerous, it's illegal, you will be breaking the law".

i am just shocked - this is mumsnet

is this really a class issue? i dont know anyone who uses illegal drugs (note the use of illegal for the pedantic who want to point out that caffeine and lemsip are drugs)

it seems the messge from this thread is that middle class drugs are fine and im a big sappy prude.
and if they arent fine then nor is chocolate, or ibuprofen.

ah, but herioin isnt cos that ones addictive read lower class not like cocaine. thats ok. oh and e s are ok too.

and i should just stop being silly and accept that its ok for professionals to use drugs, the morality and illegality should not really be an issue (despite the fact im paid to uphold the law)
and i should forget everything i know and see because iabu.

maybe if you saw what i saw you would think differently, i dont know.
maybe we need the equivalent of taking people who drink and drive to the morgue....

its easy to distance yourself and justify it when you dont actually see the affects.

nancy but arnt there issues in portagal with huge amounts of people who have been stopped with person use amounts not attending the programs they are surposed to to avoid prosicution?

and police, docters and social workers who are 'on the ground' disputing much of the data the gov there touts that claim its had a possitive impact?

Vicar no one has said any of those things you sound a bit deranged like you've been at the pipe

I don't have a 'moral' problem with drug taking. My issues are criminal ones and health ones.

Morality doesn't come into it.

It's not just money that makes coke different to heroin, especially since they are about the same price now.

The reason that heroin users are generally called junkies and coke users are generally called recreational users is because that is the actual truth. The guy breaking into your car to get money for drugs is most likely a smack head, not a coke user.
The coke user is more likely to be your dentist or your kids teacher. Thats not to do with class, thats to do with reality. Heroin will take over your life and destroy it, coke, for the majority of users, won't.

Personally I think both coke and smack users are utter morons, but I wouldn't turn down a spliff. Not all drugs are equal, saying that is like saying that Oxycontin is just the same as Calpol.

cory

It really is like cars... the harmful/harmless force comes from the user and not the object.

A car can absolutely kill you, and will if you do not handle it properly (not just you but others also).

Likewise, a drug really can ruin a person's life, leave it in absolute tatters. If it is not used with sufficient wisdom and moderation.

Not read thread but

I have thought the same OP for a while. MN seems to be very drug-friendly esp for a parenting site.

I've seen lives been destroyed by what others describe as 'soft' drugs. They aren't harmless and can have multi-generational repercussions.

OP - Why are you so bothered about other people's attitudes to drugs?

I don't think anyone is suggesting you should take some or that they are not capable of harm.

And of course you know people who use illegal drugs, they just don't tell you because you are in the POLICE!
You can't seriously be that naive, can you?

I'm sure there's many a police officer who is fond of a dabble of a weekend.

I expect they have random testing in the police? So they probably don't?

OP - do they do random testing?

Vicar

You are under a duty to uphold the law, and so of course you have to defend it.

How do you feel about alternative drugs that are legal, things like herbal 'incenses' and smoking blends that can be bought over the internet?

Sock - that may be true.

But I would have thought it's hard to fake figures showing that: drugs related deaths, infection by HIV, petty crime and number of addicts is down.

At the very least it brings the problem above ground.

Maybe it isn't the answer but, equally, our policy doesn't work either.

...scared i think to patronise people who are talking about their own real life experiences because it doesnt "fit" your own pro drugs agenda is low, i dont feel ive dismissed anyones experiences even though i dont agree with them - lifeisontheup and the poster also speaking from personal experience have a right to air their experiences without someone playing amateur psychologist and espousing the cause and effect are different - sometimes drugs are the cause and sometimes they arent.

in my brothers case they were not the cause, he took drugs because we had a shitty childhood, but at 30 he is still an addict, his drug of choice changed.
in my sisters case they were, and she was the one who died.

Hang on vicar - are only people who have had negative experiences with drugs allowed to share their own real life experiences without being patronised?

mr sunshie - i really do not know anyone in my social circle who uses drugs - my sister died on heroin
my brother didnt die but i dont have contact with him, he is a fuck up who i dont want around my kids, or around me. i tried to help him and he stole and abused me.

there are my only experiences of drug users in my social circle. why would i want that?

i choose my friends now a days. i do not see my family.

I think it's people in general with a lasso fayre attitude. I was in a shop in Windsor when a blue rinse granny came in needing a hat to keep the sun out her eyes. I pointed out the cap she picked had a huge cannabis leaf on but she giggled and bought it anyway.

Vicar
I honestly and sincerely have not set out to patronise anyone, and am terribly sorry that my message has come across to you that way. I am a seeker of truth and mutual understanding. I hope you believe me, but can do nothing if you do not.

I also absolutely do not have a pro drugs agenda, and would be delighted if someone were to change my mind.

I am a seeker of truth first and foremost, and will turn my opinions on a dime if sincerely convinced.

Another life ruined Tiggy

yes we have random drug tests. the test to get in is hair - can go back years by testing hair.

so because i dont like the mn penchant for casual drug abuse i am now deranged, been on the pipe and a liar?

alright. whatever.

Vicar
Also, please understand that I do have a very real, profoundly negative understanding of drug-related life problems. Its just that I have tapped these back to a different source than you have.

And my negative experiences have not blinded me to the positive (which are real).

I agree with Catgirl.

I don't get what the actual issue is here? I mean that genuinely.

We're adults on an adult site talking shit about stuff we think, stuff we've done, stuff we've said.

People on here who say they do or have done recreational drugs are simply talking about their lives and their experiences.

I don't think anyone who does drugs on here think it's 'cool' or that it's making a statement about anything in any way.

Some people just can't get jump-up-and-down outraged about drugs - and don't believe drug taking inevitably ends in tragedy and disaster.

People can and do dabble in drugs without adverse effect.

Most of us with children, who have enjoyed recreational drug use in the past, don't do it now for obvious reasons.

fair enough scared - at least you have not resorted to personal insults....

off for a bath - been on here too long today.