Marijuana is its own special category, but club drugs (which for some reason include date rape drugs), inhalants and steroids are all in a “miscellaneous” category together?

Also, note all the ridiculous drug propaganda lies.

  • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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    The people who blabber incessantly about weed being a gateway drug are the exact REASON that I agree with them, but we VERY much disagree on the specifics.

    Think of it this way:

    Every adult in your life has told you that weed is JUST AS BAD as heroin and cocain and meth. You hear it repeated ad nauseum, ESPECIALLY if you were in DARE.

    Now one day someone you have known for a long time offers you some because “it’s not that bad, trust me you’ll be fine” and they go ahead and take a puff or twelve. Turns out it’s not that bad. They were fine after some initial uncoordinated attempts at doing something.

    So if weed is this interesting, maybe heroin isn’t that bad either?

    Yeah turns out heroin IS that bad, and lumping it in with weed is like tossing the kindergarten bully into a maxsec prison.

    So yeah, it’s only a “gAtEwAy dRuG” because you fucks lied for decades and made false equivalence of things and taught kids they can’t trust you.

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    What specifically stands out to you as a ridiculous bit of probaganda?

    It’s certainly not the most accurate or clinical, and some of the categories are a bit “eh”, but nothing popped out to me that I would describe so strongly.

    If nothing else, it’s a lot more objective and grounded in reality than what they gave me in that dumb dare program. Might be why my reaction is just “close enough”.

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      Yeah I was thinking the same thing. It’s close enough for the target audience. Doesn’t go the any extreme.

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      The information in the hallucinogenic section about acid flashbacks is incorrect. This was a false rumour spread in the 70s to demonize the political opponents of Nixon.

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        5 months ago

        Hrm, I always thought it was just a mis-name for PTSD after an excessive dose.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder

        It looks like there’s at least a degree of clinical validation to it being a combo of PTSD and “sometimes colors stay funny for a while”.

        Are you sure you’re not thinking of “the entire war on drugs, but particularly pot and heroin”?
        That’s what I thought was an invention by the Nixon administration.

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          Oh, HPPD is definitely a thing, but extraordinarily rare.

          I may have misspoke about the brown acid - this was a legit warning resulting from “home-brew chemists” attempting to make their own LSD and failing to create it properly. Most of the supplies back then were direct from Sandoz (Novartis) and basically were being given away to the scientific community for novel testing. Fun stuff.

          I’m talking about the hyperbole of “acid flashbacks” which was a narrative introduced to discourage and demonize LSD usage by the political and intellectual opponents of the Nixon administration. “Rots your brain permanently” and all that other garbage.

          Turns out regular LSD usage by the “hippie” community and by many people involved in high-level education (particularly college and university professors) was making people feel more connected and empathetic towards one another, and that just didn’t do for the Republicans who needed everyone to fear “the other”.

          What they also did with marijuana and heroin, and subsequently with crack cocaine, was truly abhorrent.

    • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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      I agree, but I don’t think D.A.R.E. was dumb. It was just difficult to hear the personal opinions that officers had of people who had been on particular drugs that are so often used in a hospital setting. Between the time I was an infant to the time I was ten, I had already been hospitalized for various illnesses and injuries that sometimes required hospital grade medications. Try telling a third grade kid that she is a bad person because the hospital put her on intravenous pain medication after having both her radius and ulna completely broken in a fall from the school’s playground equipment.

      On a side note, after so many hospitalizations in my life, I absolutely hate people who use drugs for fun.

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            Nah it was everyone’s business before that. People “drink responsibly”. They can and do imbibe other drugs responsibly.

          • Dasus@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            And it’s everyone’s business that people like you make drug reform impossible, because all the science agrees that the only way to solve “the drug problem” is to legalise and regulate everything.

            You’re suffering from the same bias that transphobes who say “I can always spot trans people” do; you’re simply unaware of how blindingly ignorant you are of the reality of the situation.

            • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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              No, as someone who has had many of the medical drugs they discuss in D.A.R.E., I wouldn’t compare myself to some cis gendered person who happens to be transphobic. That would be comparing opposites. I’m a person who has been given morphine several times in surgery, and after hemorrhaging in labor. I don’t think the government should legalize recreational use of morphine and regulate it. That seems dumb to me. D.A.R.E. doesn’t seem dumb. Sorry if you feel differently, but I don’t think we should legalize all drugs. You might argue for different drugs being legalized. I don’t want people that hate me to be allowed to carry drugs that they might put into my food order at a restaurant, either. You can’t assume that people who want to legally carry, or keep, drugs want to do so for personal use. It isn’t safe to have people carrying drugs on them that can be used to poison others. Not everyone who is into drugs is looking to party with you. Some are looking to get rid of people.

              • Dasus@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                “They’ve given me opiates in a medical setting so that’s why I know recreational drugs are bad for society”

                So, to reiterate, exactly your type of intelligently stupid willfull ignorance is one of the main reasons that we have so many drug problems. If people like you weren’t brainwashed so easily, if you actually spent even a tiny bit of time looking into this subject, you’d realise you’re wrong. But you won’t. You won’t.

                I’ve argued about this longer than most of Lemmy users have been alive. I know all the science. I bet you know none of it.

                Drug prohibition does not work and anyone who supports it is either ignorant or directly benefitting from the illegal drug trade. That’s it. There’s no other alternatives. There is not a single logical reason to keep the prohibition according to science. Everything improves with proper legal frameworks in which to sell the drugs that clearly can not be effectively banned.

                This isn’t about “feelings”. It’s about cold facts. And the fact is that by your rhetoric, by your behaviour, you’re indirectly enabling drug abuse and all the heinous shit that cartels get up to. That is unless you’re willing to admit you’re wrong and start supporting a complete reformation of this inane law. That’s the only moral position.

                It isn’t safe to have people carrying drugs on them that can be used to poison others.

                These are the types of weird fantasy scenarios you have to make up and it still doesn’t even work, in the slightest. There are a dozen more dangerous chemicals in everyone’s cleaning cupboard than anything you’d find sold as a recreational substance. Why aren’t they banned? Why are people allowed to handle gasoline by themselves? You know you could torch people with gasoline, right? And we allow people to drive around in metal hunks filled with gas, as incredibly velocities? You know you can die just from falling down, right? You walk on the street, every day. Anyone could push you and with bad luck, kill you.

                People like you honestly never stop to think about the things you say. They make absolutely no sense. And it doesn’t matter to you that you can’t make a single thing make sense when you’re trying to defend the drug prohibition. No… it’s just been stamped to your brain that “DRUGS = WRONG” and you don’t have the cognitive capability to question that.

                Here, have a listen to what a former police officer who used to infiltrate drug gangs has to say about the war on drugs: https://youtu.be/y_TV4GuXFoA?si=SXdIKIP1ON43N594&t=716 (Hint: his memoir is called “Good Cop, Bad War”)

                There is literally no other option than to have a properly managed and regulated legal trade of these recreational substances. To keep the situation were currently in, willfully, is to willfully endanger lives, perpetuate drug ABUSE (not use, which is different) and to support criminal gangs which don’t give a fuck about anyone.

                Oh right, that copper is just one guy. Hmm how about https://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/world-leaders-call-for-legalisation-of-drugs

                And I could literally paste studies and data here for several comments to max char limit and it still wouldn’t even make you question that maybe you should question your feelings on the matter in accordance with reality. I know it won’t, because I’ve had this exact same argument a million times, and it’s always the same. If you really wanted there to be less problems caused by drugs, you’d be in favour of legalising them, as backwards as it must sound to you. Because legalising is the only way to take the market out of the hands of the criminals, as the market will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER die.

                • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  You think that would end the illegal drug trade? People can legally own guns. They are legal to own and we have regulations for owning them. Guess what is still traded on the black market, and moved by gangs for cash? Guns are. Legalizing drugs will not solve the problem. Instead, you will have food service workers carrying drugs like opium on them, without legal repercussions. You want a blueberry smoothie your ex is making for you on your next lunch break? I guess it depends on who that is making it, and how much they hate you. I would hope they chose a lifestyle that didn’t involve drugs. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a drive-thru order for you. Wouldn’t want someone to get drugs in their food and then drive away while consuming it.

                  I don’t have to agree with you. I just see too many problems arising from legalizing all drugs, as you suggested.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Wait, so you think dare wasn’t dumb, but you have specific negative memories associated with it mischarecterizing drug users due to your legitimate usage?
        I would call a program that makes children feel bad for going to the doctor “dumb”.

        Your dislike of people who use drugs because you went to the hospital a lot is quite strange. I’m not sure why those would be related.
        Did they put you in the hospital, or make a police officer come to your school and tell you you were a bad person?

        • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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          D.A.R.E. never hurt me. Sorry it seems like the program did something abusive to you personally. You could always file a police report about it, if it was that bad. It’s not like the officers who led it were abusive drug users in our lives, sent to the classroom to beat us with belts, or closed fists. If your biggest gripe from childhood is a bunch of drug abuse resistance education officers, lecturing you for less than one hour, then you had a pretty privileged childhood.

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            You’re making a lot of leaps there from me calling it “dumb”.

            You’ll have to forgive me for thinking it made you uncomfortable, considering that’s what you said.

            And none of that even touches where you get the connection between “I was in the hospital” and “I hate drug users”.

            • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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              D.A.R.E. pretty much defined all of the drugs and their side effects, so children could be educated about drugs. Nothing they said about types of drugs, their uses, or their side effects was medically incorrect. I don’t know why you’re calling it dumb.

              I’m sorry, did you say YOU make me uncomfortable? Because putting words in my mouth does that. I didn’t say anything about being uncomfortable before that.

              Hey look, if you want to say D.A.R.E. was dumb, and you would rather have a lifestyle that includes recreational drug use, who am I to stop you? I just think you would feel differently if you were in the hospital, for some surgery, or emergency, and had to have some of those drugs given to you intravenously. I doubt you’d go looking for more of them after an experience like that. You’d be looking for a garbage can to puke the next morning, and crying about having a splitting headache from hell. You’d be crying because you want to eat food, but can’t trust your stomach to handle it. Go have your “fun”, and denounce programs like D.A.R.E. Maybe you’ll feel differently if you find yourself in a hospital recovery room one day.

              • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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                5 months ago

                It was just difficult to hear the personal opinions that officers had of people who had been on particular drugs that are so often used in a hospital setting.

                Try telling a third grade kid that she is a bad person because the hospital put her on intravenous pain medication

                Forgive me for thinking these phrases imply discomfort. I can only go by my life experiences, which led me to think that calling experiences “difficult”, or being called a “bad person” by an authority figure would be aptly described as at least “uncomfortable”.

                Dare was dumb because it was an abject failure. Presenting information in the most alarmist possible context while being dry to the point that kids tune out any significant information is a terrible way to treat health education.

                You have some very confusing issues tying your hospital experience to a personal judgement of people who use drugs.
                Do you think that other people haven’t been to the hospital? Do you think that I haven’t been to the hospital? It’s not that uncommon. Hell, you mentioned breaking your arm falling off some playground equipment. I had the same injury as a child, except I also had a greenstick fracture in my humorous that I had to be put under to have corrected. I was so ill coming out of anesthesia that I remember it less fondly than the actual injury.

                Jumping from a bad experience with intravenous pain killers to “I hate people” is weird. Those people didn’t have anything to do with it. Why do you hate them? Not understand? Sure, that would make sense. Find foolish? Totally get it. But hate? Why hate?
                And why all drug users? What does a pothead have to do with it at all?

      • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        Given your experience and the way they made you feel from the practitioners’ sheer ignorant and biased approach I would have thought you’d definitely be the first to call the program “dumb” as the very least of the criticisms to be levelled at it.

        • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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          I don’t think it was dumb to educate children about the dangers of drug abuse. What I think is dumb, is the new program they have created to replace D.A.R.E. That program has representatives that stand outside of stores, pestering shoppers for donations, and when the shoppers decline, the representatives say things like, “guess you choose drugs!” while fake coughing to mask their remarks. That’s immature and unprofessional. D.A.R.E. was more professional.

          • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
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            I think my surprise here is that given the program’s reputation, and your experience with it, it seems there was quite some gulf between theoretical intent and practice. Educating children about drugs, probably seems relatively uncontroversial to most, I think you could get a lot of people with otherwise pretty different views on drugs to get behind the idea. The way the D.A.R.E. program went about it and the content of the program and the accuracy of the education they attempted to deliver seem from a distance to have been very questionable. This is why it’s so perplexing to me why you hold such a surprising level of respect for D.A.R.E., I mean sure the intent could have been education, but it doesn’t sound very much like the intent and the reality had a lot of overlap. I’m careful with my wording here because where I grew up we didn’t have ‘D.A.R.E.’ specifically so I can only form judgment based on what one hears and reads about the program.

            • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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              Well, I had D.A.R.E., and unless someone put something in my food, or stuck me with something, I haven’t used illegal recreational drugs. I say illegal recreational drugs, because I can’t be held responsible for what the hospitals have given me in surgeries, and during labor/delivery. I don’t blame D.A.R.E. for the things that have happened to me in my life.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      I agree too. Just the classifications alone seem close enough, and GHB is absolutely a ‘club’ drug that also happens to be a date rape drug. Back in my heyday, I knew several people that would use it recreationally when we’d go out to an EDM show (or in the hours after we got back to the crash pad to keep the party going).

      I didn’t read the whole thing, so I can comment on specific content like ‘weed being a gateway’ drug, but that’s been disproven time and time again and this type of propaganda is common from schools and the government as they’re bound by archaic laws to portray drugs in such a way.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          I honestly never tried it simply because the connotations with it being the “date rape” drug (and also because I was already enjoying myself with other stuff).

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            Fair! It’s kinda like being a little drunk, but also REALLY horny for food (it makes food better than even weed does), and also reeeeally enhances sexual stuff. My partner and I would take it and get weeeeird.

            If you’re active, you can stay active forever. GHBike Rides are fantastic.

            If you’re laying around, you WILL fall asleep. Your brain will crave sleep more than a junkie craves heroin (fent now, I guess.)

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    5 months ago

    Marijuana is not a gateway drug.

    Having to deal with a drug dealer that wants to also sell you actually addictive drugs is the gateway.

    Legalize pot, sell it at the grocery store, and you will watch the number of addicts in general fall precipitously. I guarantee it.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        That’s because from a health perspective, alcohol in particular is an “end state drug”. It’s what you die with. It ruins you. Not as fast as heroine, but just as thoroughly.

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        5 months ago

        Don’t forget shampoo!

        My D.A.R.E. officer made sure we all knew that shampoo is a drug because it’s a chemical compound that physically affects our bodies. I definitely had fewer issues with drugs after learning that I was already a ‘drug user’.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          I had fewer issues with drugs after doing drugs, having a great time, feeling better the next morning than if I’d had 4 pints of beer.

        • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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          That’s actually a pretty good way to think about it though. Drugs are just chemical compounds and different compounds have different effects on the body.

          Are you sure that D.A.R.E officer was not secretly cool?

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            D.A.R.E. has been proven to increase drug use, so I don’t think it was just him. The entire ‘scare tactic’ just doesn’t work.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        Yeah, I really wonder who writes these, and what their outlook on their job is. They have to know that the content has some pretty strong omissions or false inclusions there for political reasons.

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      I buy THC drinks online from 3Chi. I haven’t had an urge to try anything harder (in fact, I’m a bit scared of anything that might affect my heart (aside from booze becaus3 we all do at least one very stupid thing), and the only thing I do want to try but only with a good support group around is shrooms).

    • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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      Having to deal with a drug dealer that wants to also sell you actually addictive drugs is the gateway.

      Marijuana is addictive though. Maybe not as addictive as some other things, but pretending it’s completely non addictive is disingenuous and misleading. It’s more addictive than say LSD or psilocybin for example.

      That isn’t to say it should remain illegal though. Legalisation has positive benefits even for harder, more addictive substances than marijuana. See the history of alcohol prohibition for example, or the disaster that is the war on drugs.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      I’m glad I can be around to tell her what is and is not bullshit or propaganda. Even when it’s about alcohol and cigarettes. They don’t even discuss medication options for alcohol and nicotine addictions despite those being real options that work well for some people.

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    Yep that certainly is exactly the bullshit I was taught in the Midwest.

    I wish schools were able to use the categories of “do your research” “probably a bad idea” and “definitely a bad idea”. There are drugs kids need to be warned about and by being honest about marijuana and lsd you build credibility when you tell them to never try opiates and that poppers may not ruin your life, but like there’s never a situation where they’re a good idea.

    We also need to be honest about how we got into our opioid epidemic and how most heroin addicts got hooked after getting prescribed.

    Kids are stupid but they aren’t stupid how us adults think they are. When we lie to them they remember to discount everything we say, even to not smoke cigarettes.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      Well said. I made sure I told her all about the opioid epidemic and she already understands how shitty our healthcare system is.

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        I’d argue that if there is any gateway effect, it’s solely related to the propaganda taught to the public that falls apart once you’ve actually tried some of them.

        I don’t think there’s anything inherent about the drugs themselves that would drive you to try anything stronger. It’s more that the misinformation makes people think “if they lied to me about this, what else were they lying about?” after trying something like weed and realizing it doesn’t turn you into a psychopath or make you want to jump out of a window.

  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    GHB and rufies are used recreationally, not just for date rape.

    The purpose of drug education programs in schools is to scare kids, not to genuinely educate kids so they can make informed decisions in their own lives. They also can’t cover everything because the education system is fucked and drugs would require a semester to teach to an appropriate degree and serve harm reduction. They also need to not tell kids enough because it could backfire and make drugs seem interesting to try. Try making DMT not sound awesome.

    • LanternEverywhere@kbin.social
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      The whole topic of drugs could easily be covered in 30 minutes. The only thing people under 18 need to know is this:

      1. There are a large variety of different recreational drugs, each of which make you feel a different way, and which come with their own set of different risks and benefits

      2. At some point when you’re older it may be reasonable for you to try some particular drugs, but there are some drugs which are never safe for anyone at any age

      3. No drugs are safe for you to do yet. Your brain is still in a developing phase, and drugs that might be safe for you to do later will be very harmful to you at this age. Even though taking a drug might make you feel good in the very short term moment, it very likely could make your growing brain become depressed as soon as you come down from the drug, and this can become intense sadness that you feel for the rest of your life.

      So for now just know that drugs is a complex topic that you can learn more about later when you’re older, but for now the details don’t matter because all drugs will be harmful to you right now while your brain is still growing

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        2.1 before you do try something, find out how to test for contaminants/counterfeits. You don’t want to do battery acid

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        Used corn oil, tortillas, and a hint of a taste like new car air conditioning smells with an aftertaste of a little bit of brake fluid. Yeah, I can kind of see how that would be off-putting but you won’t mind it and you can just swallow it with a liter of black current juice and spend some quality time with machine elves instead of vaping it.

        The taste aspect of DMT is like a partner who is 10/10 that will blow your mind in every way but who has farts that smell like a rotting dumpster of seafood and offal on fire outside of a wastewater treatment facility. You can’t just write them off because of one manageable issue.

  • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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    And they’re making a fucking mess of the pharmacological and social definitions of “drug”. It’s the propaganda version of that “ackshyually tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable” brain-rotting idiocy.

    Depressant, stimulant, those refer to the pharmacological activity; it’ll include even things not socially considered as drugs, such as caffeine (stimulant) and alcohol (depressant). In this sense marijuana is not its own class, it’s THC is a depressant.

    That “club drugs” category is a fucking mess in both definitions. Ketamine is an anaesthetic, thus likely a depressant; ecstasy is mostly a stimulant with weak hallucinogen properties, pharmacologically they’re nothing alike. And socially they’re closer to caffeine (as things that you ingest willingly) than to date rape drugs (things that people give you against your consent).

    And even the division in social drugs depends on usage. Marijuana for example can be used for clinical or recreative reasons; abuse is of course bad, but frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if most marijuana smokers had better lungs than I do (I don’t smoke weed but I smoke tobacco - nicotine is a depressant stimulant BTW). Same deal with the date rape drugs, alcohol could be used as one.

    Aaaaah, sorry for the rant. What I want to convey is that yeah, I get why this infuriates you. It infuriated me too.

    • Bizarroland@kbin.social
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      I could have sworn nicotine was technically a stimulant because it has vasoconstrictive properties.

      And I don’t know anyone who has ever put off going to sleep in order to take more depressants.

      • woodytrombone@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Nicotine is absolutely classified as a stimulant.

        This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a user misclassify it—I imagine it has something to do with smoking or dipping mitigating withdrawal (thus relaxing) more than the drug’s actual effects.

      • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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        5 months ago

        I fucked it up - thanks for pointing it out, fixed it. (I switched them because smoking a cig relaxes me quite a bit.)

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Not only can alcohol be used as a date rape drug, it’s the most common one. It’s safer for the assailant to give you a stronger drink than you think you’re getting than to give you something like roofies. Additionally bartenders will gladly do it as it’s not uncommon for someone to want a double.

  • Ballistic_86@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The “gateway” drug thing was taught to me through DARE in the 90s. But has been confirmed propoganda for decades. Calling Cannabis (marijuana is not the proper name) a “gateway” drug is like saying water or air are “gateway” drugs. Sure, a crack head has probably smoked weed, but that isn’t what got them into crack.

    I would guess that these materials are, either, very old or they categorize cannabis differently because it is so common. It doesn’t help that it is illegal in half the country and legal in the other half. So any state with cannabis not, at least, decriminalized will still have the talking points for the 1930s.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      Thankfully, she knows from her father, who uses cannabis medicinally, that it is not a “gateway drug.” Especially since the pain I am using it to treat now was one which a doctor originally tried and failed to treat by throwing multiple opioids at it and I’m not doing fentanyl today despite that. Two days of withdrawal was a bitch though.

      • Ballistic_86@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I’m glad to hear you are off the opioid train. Have lost family members to it and my father is currently been on them for years. I tried to get him on the THC train, he even has a medical card, but he claims to not like the effects. I live in a recently legal state so I’m waiting until I can show him a store with a wide variety to try. I know there is some strain that will help with his pain and suffering without the effects he didn’t like.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          5 months ago

          I’m luckier than others in that I hate the effects of opioids, so unless it is actually doing some pain killing (fentanyl did wonders when I was in the ER with kidney stones), I just wouldn’t want it in my system.

          But I also know that there are plenty of people it does work for who use it because they are legitimately in pain and either were hooked on them by a doctor and can’t get off or just can’t afford an alternative other than to score something illegally to solve their pain issues due to our capitalist healthcare system.

          I realize you have to simplify things for kids sometimes, but this is not the way to do it.

    • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I’m begging everyone to watch the intro script of Reefer Madness, its honestly comedy gold how horribly its aged

    • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Seriously. How undereducated is the general population to still be willfully ignorant that “marijuana” is literally BS Spanish “Mary Jane” and not what anyone prior to the utter failure that still is the “War on Drugs” has ever called any part of the plant? FFS. 🤷🏼‍♂️

  • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    brb, going to the club with my friends so we can do steroids, hopefully I can find some psychotic marijuanas too