On 23 nov, 12:06, Cla...@aol.com (Claude) wrote:
> In article ,
> drj...@NOSPAM.hotpotmail.com (Dr John Watson) wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > *From:* Dr John Watson 
> > *Date:* Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:39:17 +0000
>
> > Noticed at Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:06:21 -0800: sobriquet informed us:
>
> > > On 22 nov, 17:00, Dr John Watson 
> > > wrote:
> > >>http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/html.cfm/index419EN.html
>
> > >> ANNUAL REPORT 2007: HIGHLIGHTS
>
> > >>http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/?nnodeid=875
>
> > >> --
> > >> Dr John Watson
> > >> Baker Street
>
> > >http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7107358.stm
>
> > > Cocaine use in Europe is up. Perhaps meth will replace coke like
> > > in
> > > the US.
>
> > I wonder if the rise in cocaine use is related to the fall in
> > cannabis use?
>
> > --
> > Dr John Watson
> > Baker Street
>
> Well I will treat you as if this is a serious question.
> You will probably want to ignore what I say! I have though been studying
> these matters in the UK longer than just about anyone else. Perhaps I
> understand it rather better than you think or acknowledge!

Perhaps you are talking from you ass, because for a self-acknowledged
'drug expert' your knowledge seems to be pretty shabby, as I remember
a while back people had to inform you that the withdrawal effects of a
drug like alcohol can be lethal.

>
> My reading of this is that the progress of drug use has changed. Cannabis
> is usually the first illegal drug that gets experimented with,

Tobacco, alcohol and coffee are way more popular than cannabis.
Oh wait, those drugs are legal. So they are perfectly acceptable and
we have to blame it on cannabis because it's illegal.
What does the legality or illegality of drugs have to do with the way
people progress from one drug to another (besides the fact that
dealers tend to offer various illegal alternative drugs)?

> progression to other drugs may (or may not-agreed) then occur.

Primarily thanks to the wonderful prohibition you tend to advocate.

Cannabis
> "age of first use" & age of "regular use" has been getting earlier,
> obviously it follows that cocaine "age of first use" & "age of regular
> use are also going down.
>
> Drug using careers are starting younger. That includes the legal drugs.
> (Actually it is also true of sexual activity).
>
> The Home Office makes great play of marginal drops in cannabis use 16 to
> 21. What it does not say is that cocaine use in that age group is well up.
> This is disingenuous and pure spin. It ignores the fact of much increased
> cannabis use under 16 and pre-teen. Total illegal drug use is still much
> higher than it was a decade ago. Increasing wealth and lower prices have
> played a part.

Drug use is up, ok, is that despite of prohibition or thanks to
prohibition? Either way, prohibition is obviously not working.

> There is also what I call the "tipping point" effect.
>
> All drugs are consumer products just like (say) DVD players. When first
> available they tend to be expensive and exclusive-hard to get sometimes.
> When the adequacy of supply reaches a certain point (more manufacturers
> in the market for DVDs)-more importers, traffickers, dealers and supply
> for drugs, prices get forced down to more accessible points and general
> availability increases. Hence, if the prevailing culture fosters it, more
> experimentation and more use.

If kids find out their parents and teachers at school are lying to
them and are not trying to inform them about drugs but are using
propaganda to scare them away from some drugs that are arbitrarily
labelled to be illegal, kids will find out the truth for themselves
online and ignore any further advice given about drugs, because they
have alternative venues to obtain the facts (like the internet).
So drug education is a cruel joke and doesn't prevent people from
abusing legal or illegal drugs. It can only be effective if
legislation is based on science rather than lies and drug education
informs people about the facts rather than trying to scare them away
from illegal drugs by demonizing drugs like cannabis while
hypocritically condoning alcohol use.

You Claude, are one of the biggest hypocrites here who claims that any
use of cannabis amounts to abuse (even if it concerns moderate
cannabis use by well-informed adults who behave perfectly responsibly
under the influence of cannabis) while maintaining that moderate
alcohol use is perfectly acceptable and even healthy.

> ***************************************************************
> UK "MORE 4" TV NEWS 2nd November 2006 2000 hours local.
> Professor Peter Jones of Cambridge University (referred to as a "Health
> Professional").
>
> " Our service is for 1st episode psychotic disorders in young adults but
> it may as well be a unit for cannabis dependents because we find, and a
> lot of other similar services find, that heavy cannabis use is very
> prevalent and we find it in at least three quarters of the young adults
> that we see".

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:43:20 -0800 (PST), sobriquet
 wrote:

>> Well I will treat you as if this is a serious question.
>> You will probably want to ignore what I say! I have though been studying
>> these matters in the UK longer than just about anyone else. Perhaps I
>> understand it rather better than you think or acknowledge!

>Perhaps you are talking from you ass, because for a self-acknowledged
>'drug expert' your knowledge seems to be pretty shabby, as I remember
>a while back people had to inform you that the withdrawal effects of a
>drug like alcohol can be lethal.

Claude is working closely with the Swedish Hassela Educational
Foundation, which speaks volumes about his credibility.

A "drug expert" working closely with Hassela is rather like a
scientist working closely with the Flat Earth Society.

But really, prohibitionists are a bit like flat earthers anyway, so we
shouldn't be surprised.

Svenne

Noticed at Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:43:20 -0800: sobriquet informed us:

>> You will probably want to ignore what I say!

Claude, I don't ignore what you say, because I don't actually see it!
Perhaps I should go back to using Google Groups, my newsreader doesn't
seem to show your posts, I've only seen this in a reply from Sobriquet.

-- 
Dr John Watson
Baker Street

Noticed at Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:43:20 -0800: sobriquet informed us:

> Perhaps you are talking from you ass, because for a self-acknowledged
> 'drug expert' your knowledge seems to be pretty shabby, as I remember
> a while back people had to inform you that the withdrawal effects of a
> drug like alcohol can be lethal.

"Experts" on a mission are frequently ignorant of facts that are
inconvenient to their own moralising position. 

Especially when the expert is a Thetan.

-- 
Dr John Watson
Baker Street

Noticed at Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:43:20 -0800: sobriquet informed us:

>> My reading of this is that the progress of drug use has changed. Cannabis
>> is usually the first illegal drug that gets experimented with,

I think you will find that the first illegal drug is either alcohol or
tobacco in the early teens. In the 1960s I didn't have any trouble buying
beer in off licences aged 14. Then I progressed to tobacco and prohibited
drugs.

-- 
Dr John Watson
Baker Street

Noticed at Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:43:20 -0800: sobriquet informed us:

>> UK "MORE 4" TV NEWS 2nd November 2006 2000 hours local.

I've got Freeview but I've never seen More 4 news.

-- 
Dr John Watson
Baker Street

Noticed at Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:24:26 -0800: sobriquet informed us:

> On 24 nov, 11:31, Dr John Watson  wrote:
>> Noticed at Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:43:20 -0800: sobriquet informed us:
>>
>> >> My reading of this is that the progress of drug use has changed. Cannabis
>> >> is usually the first illegal drug that gets experimented with,
>>
>> I think you will find that the first illegal drug is either alcohol or
>> tobacco in the early teens. In the 1960s I didn't have any trouble buying
>> beer in off licences aged 14. Then I progressed to tobacco and prohibited
>> drugs.
>>
>> --
>> Dr John Watson
>> Baker Street
> 
> You're quoting Claude here, those are not my words.

Sorry, my attributions messed up.

-- 
Dr John Watson
Baker Street