There clearly is something wrong with me. I have never 'done drugs'. Though I was in my teens when the young folk in Australia started widely using "weed" to get a high. It was something that I never came into contact in a social setting, which is a bit weird in a way, because somehow I missed it all.
I was married in the late 1960's, and my social life for the next few years was more about young children than the party/dance scene, and somehow I missed it all, for which I am glad. I did however smoke cigarettes for a few years, but gave that up some 40+ years ago.
My sister, somewhere in the 80's I think was rather gobsmacked that I had never tried it. She lived in Adelaide and I lived in Brisbane, so completely different social sets were we involved in. I think to this day, she is still amazed that I hadn't tried it. Oddly, no one ever offered it to me, and I never saw any of my friends smoking pot, or indeed doing anything with drugs. If they did, it was not near me.
I am not necessarily a "goody-two-shoes" - but it was something I never had any wish to find out about, and no one I knew did it.
As a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, I was aware that many of the patients "did drugs" and we had some rather hilarious and scary events where patients were high on something. I recall one guy standing on his bed screaming that sharks were swimming around his bed trying to get to him!!
Once a few years later, I found a small packet of weed on the ground near my car, looking as if it had fallen out of my car. It didn't, for usually I was the only one who was in the car. I picked up the little packet, saw it was some grass/weed and quickly put it in the rubbish bin, with my heart pounding. If the police had arrived, and there was no reason to think they might, it would have been presumed that I had the drugs for my own use. Maybe.
Now I do drink wine, though I don't do it to get a "high". I don't set out to get drunk and these days barely have more than two glasses of wine at a time, unless I am at a major event. I can't recall the last time that happened. It doesn't much. As I live alone, I don't drink when I have to drive home!!! I have no designated driver. It is only me.
The history of marijuana is interesting. I am aware of course that drug taking has been a part of modern civilisation. I accept that some people need to have the "high" that drugs give. However, I am extremely aware of the lows that scome with it. So many folk become addicted to it, and spiral into a chasm that is so deep they can't get out of it. Their lives are ruined. They become dysfunctional. They start to resort to crime to pay for their ever increasing living costs and drug payments, and they become unemployable. So many parents abandon or treat their children badly.
Even in the last couple of weeks I have learned that some parents introduce their children a very young age to drugs. It seems horrifying to me! So many lives ruined. All for nothing.
I read some of this article about drug addiction. I can accept that when a person is an addict, it is classified as a disease, but it is a disease that has come on because the person made a decision at some time to try drugs. He or she, took that first step, either as a decision of their own or enticed by other people or promises of a better life, when the facts are well known that it is a slippery path.
The statistics are not encouraging and I wonder why so many people think it is ok to use in this way. I do think that medical cannabis used correctly has its place, but I wonder if that encourages others to use it too - those that one day are going to end up as one of our horrible statistics.
"According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, there were 455,000 emergency room visits associated with cannabis use in 2011. These statistics include visits in which the patient was treated for a condition induced by or related to recent cannabis use. The drug use must be "implicated" in the emergency department visit, but does not need to be the direct cause of the visit. Most of the illicit drug emergency room visits involved multiple drugs.[51] In 129,000 cases, cannabis was the only implicated drug.[52][53]"
From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
 |
| A joint. A roll your own cigarette of cannabis |
I was married in the late 1960's, and my social life for the next few years was more about young children than the party/dance scene, and somehow I missed it all, for which I am glad. I did however smoke cigarettes for a few years, but gave that up some 40+ years ago.
My sister, somewhere in the 80's I think was rather gobsmacked that I had never tried it. She lived in Adelaide and I lived in Brisbane, so completely different social sets were we involved in. I think to this day, she is still amazed that I hadn't tried it. Oddly, no one ever offered it to me, and I never saw any of my friends smoking pot, or indeed doing anything with drugs. If they did, it was not near me.
I am not necessarily a "goody-two-shoes" - but it was something I never had any wish to find out about, and no one I knew did it.
As a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, I was aware that many of the patients "did drugs" and we had some rather hilarious and scary events where patients were high on something. I recall one guy standing on his bed screaming that sharks were swimming around his bed trying to get to him!!
Once a few years later, I found a small packet of weed on the ground near my car, looking as if it had fallen out of my car. It didn't, for usually I was the only one who was in the car. I picked up the little packet, saw it was some grass/weed and quickly put it in the rubbish bin, with my heart pounding. If the police had arrived, and there was no reason to think they might, it would have been presumed that I had the drugs for my own use. Maybe.
Now I do drink wine, though I don't do it to get a "high". I don't set out to get drunk and these days barely have more than two glasses of wine at a time, unless I am at a major event. I can't recall the last time that happened. It doesn't much. As I live alone, I don't drink when I have to drive home!!! I have no designated driver. It is only me.
The history of marijuana is interesting. I am aware of course that drug taking has been a part of modern civilisation. I accept that some people need to have the "high" that drugs give. However, I am extremely aware of the lows that scome with it. So many folk become addicted to it, and spiral into a chasm that is so deep they can't get out of it. Their lives are ruined. They become dysfunctional. They start to resort to crime to pay for their ever increasing living costs and drug payments, and they become unemployable. So many parents abandon or treat their children badly.
Even in the last couple of weeks I have learned that some parents introduce their children a very young age to drugs. It seems horrifying to me! So many lives ruined. All for nothing.
I read some of this article about drug addiction. I can accept that when a person is an addict, it is classified as a disease, but it is a disease that has come on because the person made a decision at some time to try drugs. He or she, took that first step, either as a decision of their own or enticed by other people or promises of a better life, when the facts are well known that it is a slippery path.
The statistics are not encouraging and I wonder why so many people think it is ok to use in this way. I do think that medical cannabis used correctly has its place, but I wonder if that encourages others to use it too - those that one day are going to end up as one of our horrible statistics.
"According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, there were 455,000 emergency room visits associated with cannabis use in 2011. These statistics include visits in which the patient was treated for a condition induced by or related to recent cannabis use. The drug use must be "implicated" in the emergency department visit, but does not need to be the direct cause of the visit. Most of the illicit drug emergency room visits involved multiple drugs.[51] In 129,000 cases, cannabis was the only implicated drug.[52][53]"
From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
Comments