what's wrong with moderate drug use?

[P_Shep]

I know a very fit, healthy, upstanding 60+ year old business owner, who's regularly smoked dope for most of his life.
Doesn't seem to have done him much harm.

[J603]

I know a very fit, healthy, upstanding 60+ year old business owner, who's regularly smoke dope for most of his life.
Doesn't seem to have done him much harm.

Dope? Or weed? Dope is not weed; dope is heroin. If you smoke black tar for most of your life you'll be dead.

[Viceroy]

Weed IS dope, you are wrong.  It's a slang term used all over the US by white people (like me) to refer specifically to marijuana.

There is nothing wrong with moderate alcohol or marijuana use.

[J603]

Weed IS dope, you are wrong.  It's a slang term used all over the US by white people (like me) to refer specifically to marijuana.

There is nothing wrong with moderate alcohol or marijuana use.

Marijuana is only called dope by people who don't know what they're talking about. It doesn't matter if you're white, black, or purple.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dope

http://www.internetslang.com/DOPE-meaning-definition.asp

Think about it. If someone's "doped up" (like before an operation) are they given marijuana or an opiate/painkiller?

If you ask someone for dope, you are asking for heroin.

[Viceroy]

lol, whatever dude.  Dope = Weed in about 90% of the continental USA.  Unless you are under 20.

Search google images for the words

smoke dope


and see what you find.  90% of the images are weed smokers.


http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/smoke-dope


And just so we are clear, here is an ad from a marijuana dispensary:




Is that heroin they are selling?   

[P_Shep]

Jeez, we must be talking to a connoisseur here. :/

[Viceroy]

* Viceroy takes a drag off the volcano

[J603]

lol, whatever dude.  Dope = Weed in about 90% of the continental USA.  Unless you are under 20.

What does being under 20 have to do with it? Last time I checked there's no minimum age to do either drug. I have never heard anyone who actually smokes weed call it dope unless it was in jest. Quite simply, because if you ask for "dope" you are asking for heroin.

See terminology: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/heroin/heroin_basics.shtml

To be fair, the marijuana page does list "dope" as a terminology.

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_basics.shtml

However, since one drug is potentially lethal and the other is harmless, it makes 0 sense to call weed "dope".

[J603]

No wonder your ignore button is bright yellow.

[Viceroy]

People who ignore me can't handle the truth.  It would not surprise me if you chose to ignore me because you are clearly full of yourself thinking that a few links on the internet will reveal some great truth.  You are young and naive.




Edit:

Go watch reefer madness for the original popular use.

Reefer Madness (Tell Your Children) (Doped Youth) (1936)

The problem with modern culture is that kids think the internet holds the only answer.  Even when you saw that dope = weed you still want to fight because you have a preconceived notion.  Admit your error and move forward like a man.  Or ignore me like a cowardly child.

[J603]

People who ignore me can't handle the truth.  It would not surprise me if you chose to ignore me because you are clearly full of yourself thinking that a few links on the internet will reveal some great truth.  You are young and naive.

First off I didn't ignore you. I just said that I could see why you get ignored so often.

Second, I posted a link that calls weed "dope", so I can handle the truth. I guess I'll admit that the truth is that both are called dope. But one is deadly. One isn't. It does not make sense to refer to both as dope. Should we call weed smack? Should we call it ice?

Thirdly, what does being young have to do with anything? How many times have you done heroin?

Edit:

"Go watch Reefer Madness"

You just lost all credibility, sorry. I'm not pressing ignore but I am going to ignore you in this thread.

[smscotten]

Nothing is wrong with moderate usage. That's why it's called "moderate."

That said, it's a slippery slope. More or less depending on your substance and your own temperament, of course. As you say, you can make rational decisions about limiting dosages and intervals. But mind- and mood-altering drugs affect and alter the instrument with which you make those rational decisions, often causing people to err on the side of excess. Those errors may be small but over time can accumulate until your own best judgment is telling you something totally different from your original plan.

It's not necessarily about self-control but about the reorientation of goals attached to your nervous system's risk/reward systems. If the feeling of well-being previously associated with accomplishments can be short-circuited so that you get it by ingesting a substance, why go to the effort of accomplishing anything? Because you have such a high sense of self? If your self learns that it feels more successful by ingesting substances than by the messy process of actually trying to get something worthwhile done.

Slippery slope is really an apt metaphor. It's certainly possible to control one's use of nearly any drug, but it's very easy to underestimate the difficulty and precision it takes to have that control. And it may require such a high level of discipline to enjoy safely that it is no longer enjoyable. And for some people, if it isn't dangerous, it just isn't any fun anyhow.

If you think you can handle it, remember that that is what everyone that learned that they can't handle it thought too. I don't mean that to frighten you, but in my experience part of having self-discipline includes giving myself a safe margin of error. I'm not always right about everything so if there are too many variables I like to give myself room to make mistakes and still survive. Anyone who can walk a balance beam six inches off the ground probably has the skill to walk a tightrope 500 feet off the ground but the decision to walk the tightrope shouldn't be made as lightly as the decision to walk the balance beam.

[xkeyscore89]

Nothing is wrong with moderate drug use. I'm particularly fond of opiates and opioids. I respect their power and am careful to use only in moderation, I think it improves my mood. 

Nothing to excess, everything in moderation.

[threeip]

Moderation is not that hard, unless you have personal issues. What's wrong with this?

The problem is people think there is a difference between weed->heroin and coffee->corn_sugar

[xkeyscore89]

Moderation is not that hard, unless you have personal issues. What's wrong with this?

The problem is people think there is a difference between weed->heroin and coffee->corn_sugar

There's a difference between heroin and high fructose corn sizzurp? zomg!  

[The 4ner]

Yeah I grew up recognizing the word "dope" to mean marijuana but later found out that its original meaning was heroin.
The term has multiple uses nowadays depending on the context it's being used it can mean weed, heroin or cool.

[QuestionAuthority]

I think it's fine to shoot up as long as it's no more than once or twice a week. I only do 8 balls on the weekend though. Here I am before I learned moderation.

[Viceroy]

The problem is people think there is a difference between weed->heroin and coffee->corn_sugar

I do not understand this statement.  Are you implying weed use leads to heroin use?  (This has been proven to be false, marijuana is NOT a gateway drug).  Or are you somehow suggesting weed and heroin are the same?


Of the 4 chemicals you've mentioned only one is safe to use.


Caffeine:
The median lethal dose (LD50) given orally, is 192 milligrams per kilogram in rats.

Heroin:
Even for a non-user, the LD50 can be placed above 350 mg though some sources give a figure of between 75 and 375 mg for a 75 kg person.

Sugar:
Table sugar is sucrose, whose LD50 is 29,700 mg/kg

Weed:
NONE.  There is no known dose of marijuana that will kill a mammal.  Marijuana is not poisonous.

[FirstAscent]

Weed:
NONE.  There is no known dose of marijuana that will kill a mammal.  Marijuana is not poisonous.

Pretty much anything will kill in large quantities. Marijuana sure does stink though. It's an unpleasant acrid odor that is just, well stinky and unpleasant. Much happiness to you for wanting to stink up your environment with your stinky habit.

[QuestionAuthority]

Weed:
NONE.  There is no known dose of marijuana that will kill a mammal.  Marijuana is not poisonous.

Pretty much anything will kill in large quantities. Marijuana sure does stink though. It's an unpleasant acrid odor that is just, well stinky and unpleasant. Much happiness to you for wanting to stink up your environment with your stinky habit.

Pussy stinks too but I can live with it.