>>http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,615683,00.html
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>>THings are changing over there, I wonder how long until America catches up (6 months, 60 years, ever?). Who knows.
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>I briefly scanned it; I understand it is about legalizing drugs.
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>Several drugs (but not the so-called "hard drugs") have been legalized a long while ago in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Some people claim that that actually helps to reduce drug consumption.
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>Hilmar.

However, if you walk down the main streets of their towns at night you will see the sidewalks sparkling in the street lights. The reason? Even though drug possession is legal and available at commercial prices, broken, puverlized glass from shop windows coats the sidewalks. Countless windows have been broken by drug users who were too busy trying to obtain the next high and opted to steal and fence stuff stolen from the shops instead of holding a job and working to make the money. Being freely avaiable now, many more were 'experimenting' and becoming addicted.

This speaks to the difference between addiction by 'hard' drugs and addiction by chemicals like alcohol and nicotine. Alcohol suffocates the user, producing the well known 'drunken' state or worse. As expected, nicotine accelerates the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter (defined) associated with pleasure, emotions and addiction, but not nearly as great or for as long a time as cocaine or heroin, which work the same way.

No one lost their rational reasoning process by smoking tobacco. And except for a few percent of any population that will become immediately addicted to alcohol after only one drink, few lose their rational reasoning abilities after drinking in moderation (one or two drinks tops). But, EVERYONE looses their rational reasoning ability after a single 'hit' of cocaine or heroin, and that irrationality stays with them after they come down from the 'high'. The next 'hit' is the total focus of their attention. Nothing else matters. Lovers, wives, children or other family, friends, religion, country, or any responsibilities which takes them away from their all consuming task of getting the next 'hit'.

As for as society is concerned, a coke-head is a dead weight. But those dead weights expects everyone else to carry their societal load. Suddenly, all their problems are our fault. Only movie stars glamorize the use of hard drugs and only because they make huge amounts of money and it doesn't matter if they are stoned out of their gourds for weeks at a time. But, when their habits affect their acting ability, and their income falls off or disappears they, too, become another societal dead weight. I, among many, was once asked by the Neilson rating service to view a special cable channel which featured a potentially new program staring Willie Nelson. His performance stunk up the set. He couldn't sing or even carry a tune and frequently wondered off key and off lyrics. He mixed up cords from various songs on his guitar, and it times stopped the band and started the song over, while making lame jokes about it while sluring his speach. It was bad. The show never made it on the air. I found out later that he was high on pot.


Besides, why repeat history? Prior to 1913 cocaine and heroin was available leagally to the population in the USA. That's where Coke got its name. It contained 0.5% cocaine in the original forumula. Laudnum was a common pain killer, it was not too expensive to buy. And, life then was slow and laid back, not the high speed, highly technical thing it is today. Farmers could mix their farming and addictions (to cure pain, of course) without too much problem. Their rows might be more crooked on some days than others, during plowing, but so what. Now, if your pilot doesn't fly the right vector, or your bus driver doesn't stay in his lane, or the train engineer doesn't notice the red signal lights a lot of people will pay for his "pleasures' with their lives.