Drugs 'blight most parts of UK'

[rashandreflex]

so let me guess, they take 1000 random people of the streets and ask them if they ever take drugs then thats how they know the % of a place? Thats bullshit...

me and 99% of my friends take drugs but these people who do these surveys dont know that so how can they get a % without asking everyone in Ireland and Britain?

i'm sure this study was improperly done, but the point of sample statistics is to get a representative sample that can be reasonably extrapolated to the entire population so that you don't have to survey the entire population. media statistics are almost always badly done, but there are methods of selecting a random, representative sample such that sample statistics are approximately accurate to population statistics.

i love "a drugs hit"....such awkward and unspecific language

 

[Spleh]

frizzantik you're always going on about this!

hehe i know.. but it really drives me nuts.. it's really weird to me how drugs and drug can be used interchangeably. This BBC article has both "Drug user" and "drugs use" in it lol

Way to ruin it for the rest of us 8( Are there two different bluelights one about drug use and the other about drugs use?

 

[KissTheSky]

Click on 'have your say' to the right of the original article to get comments people have sent to the bbc, and select 'Readers Recommended' to see the comments other people have agreed with. They're near-unanimous in saying alcohol is the only drugs problem worth worrying about.

As an ex-doorman who worked at a range of pubs, clubs and nightspots, I'd much rather deal with 100 cannabis users than 10 drunkards!

Late night drinking is the only drug related problem that regularly causes me a problem.

It is the reason I feel always intimidated if anyone catches my eye on Chiswick High Street after 11pm.

Other drug use is occasionally apparent but doesn't seem to generate the same intimidating environment or level of random violence.

I live in Croydon and the biggest drug problem is alcohol, The streets are full of young people at the weekend drunk out of there brains fighting and urinating in the street, However I never seem to have problems with the people staying in and having a smoke (marijuana) nor have I ever had a problem with anyone trying to fight me on E's, however I have been attacked twice by drunken yobs but I guess that’s ok as the government earns a bomb from the tax on the legal drugs.

Good to see some people outside Bluelight have some common sense on this. Apart from smelling weed every now and then, I almost never see evidence of illegal drug use when I'm out and about, unless someone I know is involved of course!

 

[frizzantik]

drugs problem ... drug use

.

 

[KissTheSky]

drugs problem ... drug use

.

Lol, we only do it to annoy you mate! To be fair though, with all the irregular verbs and whatever else floating around, when was grammar ever consistent? Do you have problems with the below...
sport facilities/sports facilities
rare plant collection/rare plants collection
drink machine/drinks machine (i.e. a vending machine, if it wasn't obvious - not sure if Americans use either phrase)

I'd have to say all are acceptable, and so are "drugs problem" and "drug problem"! I tend to go by the rule that if it doesn't sound really jarring, it's acceptable grammar; if it sounds jarring to you, sorry mate but you'll have to put up with it! Of course, plenty of people have grammatical habits which irritate me, but I've tended to bite my tongue in those situations ever since learning about the crackpot origins of some of the arbitrary grammatical rules English teachers inflict on children.

 

[dr seuss]

Croydon on Saturday night at 11pm used to be The Worst Place In The Known World. i'd never seen a girl glass another girl before i started going out in Croydon...

KissTheSky, whereabouts are you based? i'm in nottingham and i smell strong, high quality skunk in public at least twice a day

 

[KissTheSky]

Hmm, must check out Nottingham some time! I'm in Edinburgh, and I don't see weed around that often - maybe in the park on a sunny day, but we have about 4 of those a year!

 

[Jabberwocky]

You are in Edinburgh?

Snap! I never knew there was ANYONE else from Edinburgh on this site.

 

[frizzantik]

sport facilities/sports facilities
rare plant collection/rare plants collection
drink machine/drinks machine (i.e. a vending machine, if it wasn't obvious - not sure if Americans use either phrase)

ah you've picked a good one with "sports" as the dictionary says both "sport" and "sports" may be used interchangably as an adjective. That being said, "sports" is the more common usage in the US. "Sports facility" would be much more likely than "sport facility", though you might hear either. Most americans would assume a "sport facility" is a facility for one sport though, and a "sports facility" being a facility for multiple sports. (which is why some facilities are named "multi-sport facilities"). Regardless of which one is used, i doubt you'd see the user switching from "sports" to "sport" as an adjective in the same sentence or paragraph.

you would almost never hear "rare plants collection" in the US.. it would either be a "rare plant collection" or a "collection of rare plants". and you might hear "soda machine" or "candy machine" but never "sodas machine or candies machine"

 

[Jabberwocky]

The world doesn't revolved around the US

 

[frizzantik]

^ you're right.. i was just explaining our usage