*Your Veiw on (other) drugs*

OK. This question stems from bluelight on IRC chat and because of all the attention in the media about drugs at the moment.
I was wondering what peoples opinion is of OTHER drugs. I can understand the general public not likeing XTC and speed etc etc, because they have never had it, don't know enough about it and have false information rammed in their faces.
Now, before I took XTC, I thought the same, until I took it. I commonly ask people who take pills what they think of (example) steroids. NOW, suprisingly, the response is the same as when you ask a 'normal' person about XTC (or similar) They say (about roids) that shit makes you go bald, shrinks your dick etc etc. BUT that is the same mis-conceptions people in the public make about PILLS and speed (etc) which gets us so worked up!
YES, we can all agree heroin kills and is BAD, but I never go ON about it to others who have because 1. I dont know enough about it 2. I have never tried it.
I find it strange that we expect the general non drug population to understand that it prolly not as bad as they think, yet we make the same judgement about other things we know little about.
Strange NO?
*** your opinions please ***

Human nature, yes?
Ignorance breeds fear.
Fear leads to anger.
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Empathy. Grace.

Nice one, bruv!
Personally, I find it quite repellent when I hear people on Bluelight instantly jump at someone when they post a heroin-related message, or plugging-related message (ie. "I'd never be so desperate to stick a pill up my arse!" - who gives a fuck?!). Or when I hear a pot head yap on about the evils of cocaine. Harm minimisation is good, but blatant propaganda sucks, or berating other people for taking drugs (especially when you indulge yourself) just because they may not be of your liking sucks.
I have my own reasons for choosing not to take heroin, and yeah I bitch about idiot junkies who leave their syringes about, because that is my right. However, I don't believe I have the right to bitch to a heroin user who uses... 'responsibly'. You know.
Taking drugs is entirely your own choice, and as long as you've never (to paraphrase the wonderful Bill Hicks) robbed anyone, killed anyone, lost... ummm... ONE FUCKIN' JOB... and laughed your head off the whole time - cool
Mmmm, I'm basically repeating what you said, but yeah, I agree. That stuff annoys me.

I think you'll find that a lot of supposedly open minded people (including a lot of bluelighters) will have a very similar opinion of heroin as does the media and the general population. Even worse is the way they regard the people who use it.
Personally I'd rather hear someone who is totally anti drugs go off about heroin than someone who uses the "accepted drugs" like MDMA. At least the anti drug people aren't as big hypocrites.
If you ever want to find out if someone is truly non-judgemental about drugs, tell them that you use heroin and watch their reaction over the next few seconds...

Yes drug elitism sucks... Its not the drug, its the user that maintains responsibility. Heroin doesn't ruin lives, social problems that lead to its excessive usage does.

Thoth, thats exactly what I would have said. But then that brings up another issue. People who are using drugs for a recreational purpose, and those who are using drugs for escapism. Whatever drugs they may be using. People need to relise this and to help those that are trying to escape reality you will need to find the cause of their problems as the drugs are generally not it. Drugs are just their idea of the solution. People that are abusing drugs whether its heroin, speed, X or whatever generally have much deeeper emotional scars which need to be treated first before you will be able to get them to stop treating themselves by escaping with drugs.

good thread... very good thread... i notice this all the time... among bluelighters and among other drug taking non-bl'ers... i try to be non-judgemental about drugs... personally i don't see the attraction of taking heroin because i like to appreciate my life, not dull it out... cocaine... i just believe i'm arrogant enough as it is...
i think there is also a certain perception as to the administration of a drug, there is a wide perception (due to homophobia) that plugging is 'gay'... and due to media that IVing is 'dirty'...
to paraphrase voltaire... i dont like the drugs you take, but i will defend to the death your right to take them...
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The above slave is owned by Dagny and mentored by applesbliss...

erm plazma, if you were really being non-judgmental, you wouldn't say that heroin = dullness, nor that cocain = arrogance...
I've never tried heroin, never had the opportunity, and if I had the opportunity I might, but I have tried cocain and it didn't make me arrogant, nor does it make any of the people I know who take it arrogant...
[This message has been edited by Tarsarlan (edited 18 August 2001).]

errr... tarsy... my knowledge of cocaine only comes from about a hundred reports i've had of it's effect... i feel no desire to try it... and i know people who've used heroin so while i haven't personally used it i know what it does... hence i also feel no desire to use it... i'm being judgemental about the drugs, i do not judge people for using them... i judge that i don't wish to use them because i feel no desire for the effects that they have... that's it.... i don't belive they're immoral etc whatever... so yeah... errr... that's all folks...
and tarsy... don't take me too seriously...
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The above slave is owned by Dagny and mentored by applesbliss...

no probs plazma... *lightens up a little*
Alright... Like everything in life, if you don't know what you're talking about, you're going to come across as a tool if you start spouting crap (unless you're a really good shit spinner)
So those people who preach the evils of drugs, without backing themselves up with credible evidence and qualified research, are completely in the wrong and any educated drug user could easily shoot them down.
If becomes more difficult when someone does actually use hard evidence to show that drugs can be bad. But these people will usually acknowledge that drugs can also be good, they understand its not a black and white issue, the shades of grey are limitless.
And as for those drug users who, while announcing to everyone how wonderful mdma is, yet when the subject of harder and more commonly frowned upon drugs comes up, they agree that they are evil, then they are as close-minded as the people who say that all drugs are bad...
Ok, enough of that *lightens up again*

^^^
/me gives tarsy a big fat spliff of PLUR...
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The above slave is owned by Dagny and mentored by applesbliss...

it never fails to amaze me when i come across pple who think dropping a pill is "less hardcore" than doing pure/powders.
to me, when u choose pure substances (or as pure as u can get), u at least know what u're putting into your body, what amount u're gonna administer and basically what effects will be expected.
on the other hand, u'll never be able to know what was used to press that "designer" pill which can be so easily swallowed. and although testing cuts down the margin for mistakes, u can never be totally sure unless u watched the whole process yourself.
theres a group of friends are the total opposite though. its quite weird. seems like cocaine isnt a drug. they can have a straight night out, no drugs at all... just coke. go figure.

There's a fine line between using your better judgement and being judgemental. The dance scene is very tribal and so, it seems, is the drug taking.
"My music/ drug is better than yours".
Opiates are fun. No doubt.
I just have an issue with people choosing injection as the method of delivery to administer heroin (and other things bought on the street).
It's a personal thing but unless I am injecting a controlled substance, I'm not prepared to bypass my body's natural defences for a big rush that could so easily be my last.
DD can be scum. It's a given.
And while many pharmacists are dodgy, they still deal the clean stuff.
If I see a friend hurting themself I use my judgement, no malice intended; harm reduction my primary motivation.
Education always leads to longer, healthier high and means you can bore your grandchildren shitless when you live to be a cantankerous old wrinkle.
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Empathy. Grace.

Last out i was hanging out with some friends, went out for dinner, all nice & civil.So they start talking about speed ,about snorting & smoking ,Well if I'm gonna use speed then I'm gonna shoot it but of course bringing IV to the dinner table WOULDN'T of been all nice & civil, It would of changed the entire atmosphere(towards me)these people are totally cool....Except for their elist drug attitude, I feel like a fake,like I have a dirty little secret(not that i think its dirty).
But on the other hand, my best friend is totally excepting, I told her pretty early on in on the friendship that I use Smack etc.
She's never touched a needle & dosn't have any interest.It's pretty much a non-issue but she's always there to talk, of course she not into me going to her place & just nodding for hours.
So I guess the point I'm making Is the amount of respect I have for her & people that are like her, It's SO rare to find people with such open-minded non-judgemental
attitudes,I wish there were more people like her around.

My opinion on this, is that I have respect for people who are open minded with things, yet I also respect their opinions.
For eg, I hang out with a group of about 6 girls, and we all often go pilling/coking/clubbing etc all except one of our girlfriends- she doesnt touch any drugs at all cause her mother died of a cocaine overdose. So she stays clear of touching anything. Yet I admire her tolerance to us who are on it when we go out with her to the clubs, and she is the only straight one. All her opinion is, "i have nothing against what you do, I just worry that what happened to my mum when I was 6, is what will happen to you, ..it is all your own choice to do what you do"! Then again I wish her open mindness on myself, as when it comes to heroin, I wish I was more open minded. I try to be, yet I cannot understand the justification of it, especially after watching "the basketball diaries" with Leo Decaprio in it, and I must say, if I saw any good in the taking of heroin, I WOULD be open minded, but the more & more I try, I just cant find any good in the drug.
Thats my opinion anyway...

I guess as soon as someone says the word "heroin" it draws up every little piece of either media- or society-perpetuated negativity from the sub-conscious and the closed-mindedness you might be seeing to that is more of a knee-jerk reaction than anything.
H is the drug that seems to be having the most dramamtic effects on people's lives when it turns bad, so when someone says they want to try it, perhaps what they're getting from BLers is not closed-mindedness but badly-conveyed concern. If any group shoud know, it's us - that the drug of your choice doesn't have to be physically addictive for you to be hooked on it. And since H is, starting on that cliched downward spiral might be just that little bit easier.
I agree that it's fear, but I doubt there are too many BLers that look down on another for taking any drug, whether they inject it, eat it or stick it up their bum.
But if you come here and ask ppl's opinions, you're going to get them.