Drug Knowledge

[nickthecheese]

posted by nanobrain:
anything outside the box is bound to be percieved as a threat to the paradigm - and as such must be resisted by the educated and experienced and those otherwise alike, almost subconsciously....until the morphogenic field gets strong enough and everyone just groks, and such things will become the knowledge of the background noise, but i digress again...

SPOT ON!!!!
The hegemony has deemed that drugs aren't thinkable thought, and the ideologies of the time reflect this.

 

[satricion]

I agree with everything that's been said in this thread, and there's one other thing that I've noticed...

A lot of drug users are also not receptive to actual information about drugs, prefering to take the popular folklore that surrounds drugs as gospel truth to the extent that they get aggressive and think you're a bullshit artist if you try to dispel myths that they believe in. So many people will tell you that they're on pills with smack/coke in them, or that acid kills brain cells or that mushies cut off oxygen to your brain or whatever, and because they hear this stuff from other similarly uneducated users, they believe it's true. A lot of people just don't want to hear the truth about what they're taking.

At a rave recently I spoke to a bloke who swore that he'd had smack in pills because his mate presses his own smack pills. When I asked him if he tested his gear he said he didn't have to because his dealer had a machine that he'd stolen from a laboratory that he used to test them, and that that was better than any reagent test you can buy. I mean seriously, what an absolute crock of shit. And yet this guy was regarded as a drug guru by his mates.

So yeah, bloody-minded adherence to stupid ideas about drugs is common in drug users as well as non users.

 

[smileyfish]

Rant ahead...

satricion I agree with you. I've had many similar experiences at events talking to users. While I find some (especially younger/newer users) are happy to absorb my information and chase up things like Bluelight and Pill Reports, many more experienced users are very set in their ways and beliefs and will swear blind there is coke in their pills and they know because the pill "feels cokey" and their dealer said so. It is incredibly frustrationg, but in the end I guess it's just natural selection at work

Pleasantly surprising, several friends who had no drug experience have been quite interested in what I've had to say about drugs and some have even gone on to try things for themsleves. These, however, have been close friends, so I guess they know me well enough to be certain that I'm coming from a scientific perpective and am definately not an addict. Other friends, even ones with science degrees, still parrot off results of Ricautes' flawed studies or government propaganda, but no-one as yet has assumed I'm a druggy - I probably come across as too geeky for that

As for changing the way people think, I believe it's only a matter of time before the paradigm shifts and more realistic discussion is entered into. The American ABC Peter Jennings special (Ecctacy Rising) seems indicative that change is happening. Hopefully better science and honest information will become more commonplace. In the mean time, hard as it is, I guess we just have to accept that some people wish to remain ignorant - life's easier that way

Smiley

 

[beech]

Speaking of drug knowledge it'd be great if the TV folk got some. Watching Blue Heelers at the moment and there seems to be a bad batch of 'eccies' getting round that are cut with strycnine!!! (sp?) The local ravers are getting sick from these 'whack eccies'.
Funny shit


Beech out

 

[keystroke]

bugger missed this episode, hope someone capp'd it for release online.

 

[phase_dancer]

I do find there are those who will never have there views shifted. I've also noticed that in areas known for higher drug use, there is more prevalence of drug myths. The problem with old people (speaking from experience ) is that the longer they hold onto a belief - perhaps because they never saw it to be contradicted - the harder it is to break that shell. And shell it is.

It also becomes a position of authority for some, being the "guru" in their crowd. For many who fit this class, when their reputation is at stake, it becomes more than apparent that ego and drug knowledge are not easily parted. Tact and patience is required, and eventully it's usually quite amazing what ideas/ beliefs people will throw away. It's usually at that moment when they learn something which also explains other mysteries for which they had no previous answer for.

None of us know everything. I'm the first to admit I know little about many areas of drugs, especially medicine. I know little of many of the tryptamines, as my experience and/ or extended knowledge of them isn't that great. So I eagerly listen when in the presence of someone with such knowledge....I become a self confessed unashamed groveler Same goes for any area of interest. Ego willingly gives way to opportunity. Perhaps that's what a small amount of accurate education in this field really does for someone. It certainly makes one realise a certain vastness in what there is to learn; a humbling realisation in anyones books.

I know of a lady who had a brother fall deeply into heroin while the family watched in vain as things led to disaster. Instead of campaigning against heroin, this lady went and learned about drugs; from use -abuse, eventually attaining high level post grad qualifications. She now works in coordinating fair workplace drug policy as well as in community related drug education and awareness. She has a very well balanced approach to informed, HR based drug use, and is supportive of testing, although it seems she is a lone voice among many rowdy opponents.

Take your time when informing someone who preaches the phoney gospel. They probably genuinely believe what they spout. Wait for the opportunity, then slip in something appropriate...it's a bit like playing cards


On the other side there are older people who really want to learn. Once while attending a rave in a HR capacity, a very straight St Johns worker - an older lady - approached our tent asking if someone could talk to her about drugs. Living in the country all her life, she had many questions. Afterwards she confessed her son was deeply into speed, and she felt so out of touch she couldn't relate to him. So she decided to learn about speed, what it is, where it came from and what it does. Shortly after another lady came over with simialr questions, then an older guy.....and so it was for 2 days. I found it to be an amazing and at time quite a moving experience.

 

[beech]

Further developments on my experience as a tutor at uni (see earlier post on pg 1 for the story). I was contacted yesterday by the lecturer who asked me to take the class to tell me that he had got the class to fill out an evaluation on the subject with regard to content, teaching methods, effectiveness, guest speakers, relevance etc. The feedback that was given regarding the session i took the class for was quite interesting. Some comments were along the lines of "was good to have someone with 1st hand experience and knowledge", " "NAME" was quite good as he provided us with up to date information". These were the good sort of comments that were recieved. The more interesting comments were along lines of "Its not really appropriate to have a USER try to educate people about drugs", "I found the class"NAME" took irrelevant to what we need to know", "Hope you didn't pay that raver to tell us about his habbits".
Now how the hell is that for a wide range of responses. Some people found me relevant and effective, others wrote me off as a druggie basically. I'm actually quite suprised to have recieved any feedback because I know when I was asked to fill out evaluations at uni i basically ticked the boxes at random and didn't put a lot of thought into it. I guess to say the least I had an impact.
That however is not where it ended, after giving me this feedback on the phone the lecturer then asked me if I would be available to run the session again in Semester 2 as the subject is offered in Sem 2 as well, but this time to run it with a number of groups!! I almost fell off my chair when he asked me this. I haven't yet given an answer as to whether or not I'm up for it again. I'm going to have a think about it. I may do it again but ommit any personal experiences. Still UNDECIDED.


Beech out

 

[Timmmmmy]

I once read somewhere on this site that knowledge is never a burden...

 

[person]

Ive learnt alot on these forums and also corrected, excellent place to hang out cheers knowledge is always a virtue

 

[Baker]

Yeah thanks for all the knowledge. This is where knowledge is not a burden

 

[phase_dancer]

An old chinese man I once knew used to say;

Blessed is the ignorant man, for he content in not knowing the err of his ways

 

[Timmmmmy]

Blessed is the ignorant man, for he content in not knowing the err of his ways

Till he decides to quadruple drop pills whilst on Effexor, or drink a bottle of Beam then have some G, or snort a heap of meth then dose AMT!

Not to have a go at anyone or anything said in this thread but unless your specifically asked by a non-drug taker or unless you see a situation arising where something dangerous could be prevented, i have found its best to keep your knowledge to yourself, or at least to people who are going to derive some value from it.

Knowledge is useless unless you use it intelligently imho. But enough philosophy

 

[Winsom]

It also becomes a position of authority for some, being the "guru" in their crowd. For many who fit this class, when their reputation is at stake, it becomes more than apparent that ego and drug knowledge are not easily parted.

Huh - ain't that the truth !

There are ppl that can handle being told they are wrong, other simply cannot, it's not hard to judge who is who, but it is hard to sit back and listen to someone "teach" another person bullshut..........