Rumour ben cousins been missing for 1 month...

[KetamineKerr]

Three reasons why scientific advice on drugs is ignored

David Nutt, along with many other leading scientists, published a study a few years ago that showed how the overall harms associated with some legal drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, dramatically exceed the harms of some illegal drugs, such as cannabis, ecstasy and LSD – and even the harms of heroin and cocaine. Of course, these top scientists were right, but politicians continue to ignore scientific advice, and society continues to be largely in favour of current drug laws.

Here are three factors that might explain this paradox:

1. Capitalism and class
Noam Chomsky, an American social critic and political activist, offered some interesting arguments to explain how capitalism and class shape the legal status of drugs.

Cannabis, for instance, is a plant that can be easily grown in someone’s backyard, so it is not as easy to commercialise for profit. Tobacco, on the other hand, needs industrial technologies and hence is a suitable product for commercialisation. Similarly, making high quality alcoholic drinks – a fine wine or a decent bottle of whisky – is not nearly as easy as growing cannabis or magic mushrooms in your garden.

It can be argued, however, that the recent US experience with cannabis legalisation has shown that it can be successfully commercialised, but let’s not forget that commercialisation of the plant was one of the major arguments used for legalising cannabis in many US states.

Drug policies can also be used as a tool for “social cleansing”. Governments will ban drugs that are associated with poorer people, such as cannabis. This will fulfil a common goal by the elites of selectively isolating lower classes. For example, governments can sometimes find homeless people to be a nuisance, and banning drugs such as cannabis would provide a legal excuse to get rid of them.

During alcohol prohibition in the US in the 1920s, the government made an exception for whisky, a more expensive alcoholic drink, which you could buy with a doctor’s prescription. This ensured that those who were poor could be locked up for drinking alcohol, while the elites could legally obtain the drug if they wanted to.

2. Poor understanding of risk
We overreact to immediate threats and under react to long-term dangers. This is a well-known phenomenon that was described by psychologist Daniel Gilbertof Harvard University.

A person will generally perceive a 14% risk of developing lung cancer from tobacco to be lower than the 0.01% chance of immediate death following the overdose of a party drug, such as ecstasy. In statistical terms, though, you are more than a thousand times more likely to die from using tobacco than you are from taking ecstasy.

This human ineptness in perceiving long-term risks is revealed in our attitudes to the impending doom of climate change. Because the most serious consequences of global warming are still decades away, many people are apathetic towards its threat of wiping out the human race. The same people might nevertheless overreact to the danger of a terrorist attack that could result in very few fatalities in comparison.

3. Confusion between effect and toxicity
We can easily think that the more obvious the psychological effect of a drug, the greater health risk it poses. We have evolved over millions of years to associate sudden and unusual psychological changes with fear. Unusual mental states serve an evolutionary function: they warn us that something is not quite right.

The effects of alcohol and tobacco are very subtle and gradual in comparison to, say, LSD. LSD is one of the safest psychoactive compounds, yet the effects are profound and intense.

It is, however, difficult to realise that the extreme mental transformation caused by LSD is independent of its effect on your health. That is because the change it creates is a direct result of a safe modification in neurotransmitter levels in the brain, not an indirect change that is meant to alarm us from a physiological malfunction.

Of course, social attitudes to things like drugs are extremely complex and can never be reduced to a finite number of reasons. The above is speculation, but being aware of some of the reasons that affect our social attitudes to psychoactive drugs will hopefully help us fight for more rational and less harmful drug policies and laws.

 

[dave123]

Yup.

Same as obesity

People change when it starts to affect them in a really negative way. Harms outweighing positives of the use...

However its often too late then

 

[norway blue]

I wish Ben and family the best in the future. My point is why are there drugs in jail ? Easy time . ?????That’s concerning considering they were sent to jail for drugs .


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Aussie in exile]

Hard as it might seem but Cousins is beyond help. If he dies through drug abuse that's his choice.
Many people have tried to help him, but he has rejected help.

 

[dave123]

I wish Ben and family the best in the future. My point is why are there drugs in jail ? Easy time . ?????That’s concerning considering they were sent to jail for drugs .


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

..smuggled in....officers on the take....

Corruption is rife in the police force too ....

 

[sprockets]

The stealing feeds the addiction

Its trauma that causes addiction ..

What do you mean by the bolded bit?

 

[Gigantic]

Doesnt decriminalisation lead to more addiction?

All decriminalisation does is shift the product

Portugal has not seen an increase in drug use since decriminalisation. The number of heroin addicts has almost halved. And there's an increase in admissions into treatment centres and opiod substitution programs.

And besides, it's not like the current criminal legal sanctions are doing much to deter drug use.

 

[Malifice]

Doesnt decriminalisation lead to more addiction?

All decriminalisation does is shift the product

The argument for decriminalization is it puts supply in the hands of the State (and private business) that can then be regulated.

No more need for an illicit drug market, crack houses, gang wars and drug traffickers. Plus all the money spent policing that stuff can be diverted elsewhere.

If you think about the US during prohibition, all it did was increase crime (the Mob were behind the illegal booze trade).

 

[dave123]

What do you mean by the bolded bit?

Childhood traumas cause the brain not wire like it should. What happens is those kids turn to teens with brains that dont think like they should.

And they struggle in school...struggle with friendships...relationships...

Then it leads from there...they dont like feeling isolated..they can gravitate towards drugs because instantly you feel euphoric and good......that become addictive. People feel good for 3 hours are prepared to feel crappy for a whole day.

Google childhood trauma....it might not be abuse either.

 

[dave123]

The argument for decriminalization is it puts supply in the hands of the State (and private business) that can then be regulated.

No more need for an illicit drug market, crack houses, gang wars and drug traffickers. Plus all the money spent policing that stuff can be diverted elsewhere.

If you think about the US during prohibition, all it did was increase crime (the Mob were behind the illegal booze trade).

Yes yes yes...

People know drugs arent a great way to self medicate their issues.

Billions has been poured into policing and law enforcement....errrr its failed.

Safe injection rooms way to go too...harm reduction works.....its not popular because people don't understand it

 

[dave123]

Portugal has not seen an increase in drug use since decriminalisation. The number of heroin addicts has almost halved. And there's an increase in admissions into treatment centres and opiod substitution programs.

And besides, it's not like the current criminal legal sanctions are doing much to deter drug use.

Agree

Been a drug counselor and educator for 6 years..probably 300-400 clients in total....probably 4000 sessions of counseling and ive never heard a client say "i wont stop using drugs because its illegal"....not one.

Do teens not have sex before 15 because it's illegal....do people not speed or talk on thier phones while driving...no....

The thought of user getting caught never crosses thier mind ..EVER

If anything younger users get a thrill out of breaking the law

 

[SaltPeter]

I wish Ben and family the best in the future. My point is why are there drugs in jail ? Easy time . ?????That’s concerning considering they were sent to jail for drugs .


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

The old Fremantle (now closed) prison had exercise yards reasonably close to a main road. People used to drive past and throw tennis balls full of contraband over the wall

 

[dave123]

I’ve known people to swap shoes under a desk with drugs in the soles ...As In they swap shoes ...no cameras under desks ....guards not looking that low

Visitor swaps prisin grade black shoes with visitors prison grade black shoes

Drugs are readily available in prison .....why do so many get hep c .....

Also people come out of prisons on medical grounds .....drugs get inserted or swallowed ...

I’ve worked with plenty of people who’ve been in prison ....they had it easy getting drugs in prison

 

[sprockets]

Childhood traumas cause the brain not wire like it should. What happens is those kids turn to teens with brains that dont think like they should.

And they struggle in school...struggle with friendships...relationships...

Then it leads from there...they dont like feeling isolated..they can gravitate towards drugs because instantly you feel euphoric and good......that become addictive. People feel good for 3 hours are prepared to feel crappy for a whole day.

Google childhood trauma....it might not be abuse either.

While childhood trauma may sometimes lead to some people becoming addicted, people who've suffered no childhood trauma can also become addicted. I wouldn't expect a drug counselor to make the sweeping statement "It's trauma that causes addiction" because in many cases, IMO most, it's simply not true.

 

[dave123]

While childhood trauma may sometimes lead to some people becoming addicted, people who've suffered no childhood trauma can also become addicted. I wouldn't expect a drug counselor to make the sweeping statement "It's trauma that causes addiction" because in many cases, IMO most, it's simply not true.

..trauma leads to about 70%

We now know that...

Trauma isnt always abuse or neglect either. But its prevalence is high.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

The argument for decriminalization is it puts supply in the hands of the State (and private business) that can then be regulated.

No more need for an illicit drug market, crack houses, gang wars and drug traffickers. Plus all the money spent policing that stuff can be diverted elsewhere.

If you think about the US during prohibition, all it did was increase crime (the Mob were behind the illegal booze trade).

It essentially jump started organized crime

 

[dave123]

It essentially jump started organized crime

It did

Still does...probation does not work on anything.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

It did

Still does...probation does not work on anything.

Nope. It's fundamentally misguided and incapable of working. A political not practical approach

 

[Slartibartfast]

In WA you have a shonky service company like SERCO who are put in charge of prisons making it a cash cow for them and they have no interest in seeing prison numbers drop.
Will become like America where the justification for prison is the money a company can make.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Escorts discusses her time with Ben in the brothel, “ he was not in the land of living”

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/e...t/news-story/03ebc2bf6392ddf6813b3a99a2613c46

 

[Munich]

Wonder if he stayed off the drugs while in prison ?

Is this a serious question?

 

[2006_Eagles]

What do you mean by the bolded bit?

I think he means for people who have gone through some awful times in their life, like returning vets for example, they turn to drugs to escape the pain

Cousins is just a privelged addict tho

 

[2006_Eagles]

Portugal has not seen an increase in drug use since decriminalisation. The number of heroin addicts has almost halved. And there's an increase in admissions into treatment centres and opiod substitution programs.

And besides, it's not like the current criminal legal sanctions are doing much to deter drug use.

Smart countries have realised you don't treat addiction as a crime

Then again, different drugs affect the brain differently. Meth has some of the most devastating side effects of any drugs (anger, rage, dissaosciation). The comedown rage from meth is real

 

[sprockets]

Smart countries have realised you don't treat addiction as a crime

Then again, different drugs affect the brain differently. Meth has some of the most devastating side effects of any drugs (anger, rage, dissaosciation). The comedown rage from meth is real

What's a 'smart country'? Addiction is actually a crime, if it's illicit drugs. I'd suggest you don't 'self treat' your problems, most people aren't up to it. But, of course, most addicts, think they know better...

 

[Slartibartfast]

What's a 'smart country'? Addiction is actually a crime, if it's illicit drugs. I'd suggest you don't 'self treat' your problems, most people aren't up to it. But, of course, most addicts, think they know better...

Addiction is an illness that is being treated as a crime.