Drugs are bad?

[woot!]

Originally Posted by Hooby

1) Do you think drugs should be legal or illegal, and why?

It depends on what kind. Destructive/poisonous drugs like crack or heroin should stay illegal. But products like marijuana, that do not harm you physicaly should not be completely illegal.
Well it is two different topics. Ganja should just not be illegal because it is less harmfull for your health than tobacco or alcohol, and you can end up in a far much worse state by drinking a lot of strong alcohols than weed most of the time (considering it is rare to find some realy good/strong potent weed, well depending on where you live).
If it was to be made legal, it should be at home only (maybe adults only too ?). Now way in hell should you let someone drive after smoking MJ.
Hallucinogens beeing made legal is just a complete utopia, and is not realistic, considering how it can alter your state of mind/perception by a whole lot. The good thing about making something legal, is that you have a better guarantee at having a product of quality, and know what to expect.

Originally Posted by Hooby

2) For those of you who don't do any illegal substances, would you try them if they were legal?

I would try hallucinogens, starting with LSD. The only reason I do not do it now, is because I do not have a "reliable" source to provide me with a product of quality, and considering LSD is a chemical, I have to get it from someone I know and trust to use it.

Originally Posted by Hooby

3) If you knew and respected a person, unaware that they used drugs a fair amount, would learning that they consumed drugs change your opinion of them as a person?

For "hard" drugs (heroin/crack), if they are dependent, it would disapoint me yes. If it was in the past and that they gave up on ut, it is no problem.
Any other drug, no problem.

Originally Posted by Hooby

4) What event/medium influenced your opinion on drug use the most? The law, media, friends/family etc...

Hard to tell, my parents probably. They allways told me that abusing of anything, be it chocolate, alcohol or ice cream was a bad thing. Then they are quite open minded, and never forbid anything to me. My father allways encouraged me to try out things so that I could make my own opinion.
The result beeing : I rarely ever drink any alcohol, I do not smoke tobacco (never did, just tried out a cigarette once in high school but didn't like), and I was about 19 the first time I smoked weed (I consider that beeing quite old to try out weed). Nowdays, I smoke marijuana about once a month (or less) and that's it. When I do it, it is to be completely stoned though, not just to be like "hey I'm cool, I smoke weed". I do not use any tobacco, I smoke it pure using a bong.

Originally Posted by Hooby

5) Lastly, have you ever willfully tried any drugs? If so, which kinds and how often.

Only marijuana, see previous answer.
I have been wanting to try hallucinogens for a few years, mainly ayahuasca, but I doubt I'll ever get a chance to get any in my life, or LSD, but then I am allways afraid of the quality not beeing very good. I am very curious about knowing more about a completely altered perception, to know what I would see, or feel.

*** edit :
About Marijuana. I started reading the thread, and I see people saying that it "didn't do anything to them". The problem is that it can realy vary a lot from one kind of marijuana to the other. Even the effect will change depending on the sort of weed you smoke, and how it has been grown, which will influence it's potency in thc.
The possibilities of effects are quite wide, going from pretty much nothing at all, to a delirious trip with uncontrolables laughs, having a very difficult time concentrating on anything (like starting a sentence, and beeing unable to finish it, because once arrived towards the end of it, you have forgotten what you were talking about) ; and even having an altered perception of time like feeling that pieces of time are missing by intervals, and "feeling" them physically pulsing through your body. You can also only "percieve" things a few seconds after the action is performed (a feeling that you could very well compare to in game lag to give you an idea), making it very difficult to accomplish anything in those conditions.

[The Dauntless One]

Originally Posted by Metranon

also there is a big difference between canadian (read: BC) bud grown for export to ontario and the USA and BC bud grown here and sold directly to the discriminating marijuana consumer

if a lot of dutch bud is better than canadian bud, that has a lot to do with the fact the dutch marijuana economy doesn't support $3+ billion a year in exports. that however is not a fair test of the real quality that BC growers are capable of producing in small, well maintained indoor grow ops.

yeah i have to agree...back in high school i bought stuff from a friend's friend and i got some decent stuff...got high and it tasted alright...then i started getting high with another friend who's a friend of some gurl who gets him amazing shit for DIRT CHEAP (for like 1/5 the price).... i never looked back