Have you ever used Cocaine?

[guitarsniper]

Only "hard" drug I've ever done is Nitrous, which was pretty awesome, but is like a Cheese Steak. Amazing, but best used infrequently.

 

[Mint Rubber]

To OP: no, cocaine should not be made legal. Drugs in general should only be used when presciped by a doctor for a serious medical problem.

It's not my intention to preach. You're free to do whatever you want.

Keeping or making things illegal is a far cry from "you're free to do whatever you want."

You can always buy cocaine and risk going to jail, there's nothing stopping you beyond your own sense of reason. If the threat of going to jail stops some kids from doing cocaine, I say the system is working as it should be.

Now to the point of this thread: I don't understand why some people are saying that legalizing drugs like cocaine would stop the problem in itself. Cocaine is still bad and people would still become addicted or would OD from it, unless it's magic cocaine that makes you smarter and sexier with no downsides.
I think there are 2 levels of arguments presented here:

1)There's nothing inherently wrong with drugs like cocaine. What's wrong is the whole drug trafficking business that kills people and destroys lives. The state should just bug off and let the people choose for themselves.

2)Use of hard drugs like cocaine by healthy people is wrong in itself. Hard drugs can lead to dangerous addictions and unforeseen consequences like overdoses. The state's duty is to protect its citizens. In this case the people should be protected from their own self-destructive tendencies.

The main point of contention is, in my opinion, not the legalization of cocaine but whether use of cocaine is bad in itself.

This is what's troubling me about this thread: I believe that use of cocaine by healthy people is bad in itself. And I seem to be in the minority here.
Perhaps I'm not keeping up with the times, but in my mind the cons far outweigh the pros.

Like I said, risking the cons of cocaine just because it "feels good" for a certain amount of time or because it "helps me get laid" (like someone said) is not a reasonable thing for me to do.

I'm not gonna talk about legalizing cocaine because it's obviously not going to happen unless you live in the movie Equilibrium.
A case can be made for marijuana, but I'd put it in the same category as tobacco. People should be able to smoke the stuff in the privacy of their own apartment, but not in the street or in a restaurant where they make can make others accessories to their lung cancer.

 

[PlatinumRenegade]

Absolutely NOT! This is a drug that is exceptionally bad for you and had many bad side effects. I do know a lot of people who enjoy weed, but that's a plant, not a chemically made drug. I have never done drugs and don;t plan on ever doing them.

 

[Shpongled]

Although, after a little research on how dangerous cocaine really is, I have decided it's more dangerous than I first thought, but I also maintain that it isn't as dangerous as heroin or crystal meth (according to David Nutt in the Lancet). Cocaine is the 4th most harmful drug to people (which is weighted by number of people using it) so since cocaine is more used than meth and heroin, I still think its not as bad as those two.

I know the study you're speaking of and that measures "overall" damage (both for society and the individual, right?). Heroin is a much worse drug to get into because of the obscene dependence potential, downers are VERY susceptible to becoming habitual, and heroin is the king of downers. Cocaine dependence doesn't happen as much because its a party drug. Short term speaking though, an average dose of cocaine would be much more likely to kill a newbie than an average dose of heroin. With heroin, if you know the purity and your body weight/tolerance you can dose perfectly safely, with cocaine there is no safe dose.

It's long term damage vs short term damage. Cocaine won't hook you in as much, but it can kill you with any dose. Heroin (and meth) will seriously hook you in and destroy your body if misused, but used responsibly it's unlikely to bite you in the ass on a dose by dose basis.

Also;

Absolutely NOT! This is a drug that is exceptionally bad for you and had many bad side effects. I do know a lot of people who enjoy weed, but that's a plant, not a chemically made drug. I have never done drugs and don;t plan on ever doing them.

Guess where cocaine comes from? All that white powder is is essentially refined plant matter, and it's only a short leap from an innocent looking poppy field to china white ready to mainlined. Let's not base our judgements of drugs on utterly arbitrary things like whether it's home-grown or "chemically made"(?).

 

[rayen020]

of the drugs i have tried, cocaine isn't one of them. And it won't be. Reason one is because i saw saw requiem for a dream and that shit scares the hell out of me. Reason two is i've had a few friends go down that road. it didn't end well for a few of them. Reason three is i'd like to prove all those D.A.R.E. officers wrong by doing all the "gateway" drugs without actually moving to anything "harder".

captcha; mouth watering

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

Short term speaking though, an average dose of cocaine would be much more likely to kill a newbie than an average dose of heroin. With heroin, if you know the purity and your body weight/tolerance you can dose perfectly safely, with cocaine there is no safe dose.

I'd have to say I think that's wrong. If you know the purity of coke and your body weight/tolerance you can do exactly the same thing. Opiates have just been used more extensively in medicine and continue to be used so there is more written on the matter.
I also have to ask quite what you think an "average" dose is.
It may well be that the average amount used illicitly by people who have no idea of the purity and their tolerance may be closer to the amount needed to OD than the average amount used by opiate naive individuals is to the amount they need to OD, but that doesn't mean that there is no safe dose of one while there is of the other.

captcha: jump the gun.. hope that doesn't turn out to be prophetic.

 

[flarty]

To OP: no, cocaine should not be made legal. Drugs in general should only be used when presciped by a doctor for a serious medical problem.

It's not my intention to preach. You're free to do whatever you want.

Keeping or making things illegal is a far cry from "you're free to do whatever you want."

You can always buy cocaine and risk going to jail, there's nothing stopping you beyond your own sense of reason. If the threat of going to jail stops some kids from doing cocaine, I say the system is working as it should be.

Now to the point of this thread: I don't understand why some people are saying that legalizing drugs like cocaine would stop the problem in itself. Cocaine is still bad and people would still become addicted or would OD from it, unless it's magic cocaine that makes you smarter and sexier with no downsides.
I think there are 2 levels of arguments presented here:

1)There's nothing inherently wrong with drugs like cocaine. What's wrong is the whole drug trafficking business that kills people and destroys lives. The state should just bug off and let the people choose for themselves.

2)Use of hard drugs like cocaine by healthy people is wrong in itself. Hard drugs can lead to dangerous addictions and unforeseen consequences like overdoses. The state's duty is to protect its citizens. In this case the people should be protected from their own self-destructive tendencies.

The main point of contention is, in my opinion, not the legalization of cocaine but whether use of cocaine is bad in itself.

This is what's troubling me about this thread: I believe that use of cocaine by healthy people is bad in itself. And I seem to be in the minority here.
Perhaps I'm not keeping up with the times, but in my mind the cons far outweigh the pros.

Like I said, risking the cons of cocaine just because it "feels good" for a certain amount of time or because it "helps me get laid" (like someone said) is not a reasonable thing for me to do.

I'm not gonna talk about legalizing cocaine because it's obviously not going to happen unless you live in the movie Equilibrium.
A case can be made for marijuana, but I'd put it in the same category as tobacco. People should be able to smoke the stuff in the privacy of their own apartment, but not in the street or in a restaurant where they make can make others accessories to their lung cancer.

I dont think anyone here is questioning for a minute how potentially harmful any drug can be. The point of the matter is if people want to do drugs they will regardless of legality. Making them illegal only serves as a means to empower criminals with a way to make money, increases how harmful the drug is and which in turn presents the government with an oppurtunity to waste billions on fighting a losing war on drugs. It also attaches a stigma to drugs so when someone develops an addiction they will feel less inclined to seek help out of shame or any other unnecessary negativty as a result.

The solution is'nt prohibition, its education and regulation.

 

[flarty]

of the drugs i have tried, cocaine isn't one of them. And it won't be. Reason one is because i saw saw requiem for a dream and that shit scares the hell out of me. Reason two is i've had a few friends go down that road. it didn't end well for a few of them. Reason three is i'd like to prove all those D.A.R.E. officers wrong by doing all the "gateway" drugs without actually moving to anything "harder".

captcha; mouth watering

Its heroin in that film, not cocaine.

Best of luck with that. If you're down to 3 a day, then giving up should be a doddle. I was smoking between 6-10 a day, and managed to cut down to 2, usually in the evening. Once you get down to 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, you're doing it more out of habit than out of any chemical need. Going from that to none was pretty easy for me.

Thanks, but unfortunately it's not that easy for me. It won't stop me from quitting, it just makes the whole thing a ***** to do. I wake up with cravings in the morning and go to bed with cravings in the evening. >.>

lollipops matey thats what i used to kick the habit. I felt hardly a craving after 2 weeks and still going strong after 2 months. Also started drinking less as a result.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

To OP: no, cocaine should not be made legal. Drugs in general should only be used when presciped by a doctor for a serious medical problem.

It's not my intention to preach. You're free to do whatever you want.

Keeping or making things illegal is a far cry from "you're free to do whatever you want."

You can always buy cocaine and risk going to jail, there's nothing stopping you beyond your own sense of reason. If the threat of going to jail stops some kids from doing cocaine, I say the system is working as it should be.

My understanding of "free to do whatever you want" is actions that don't have that threat looming overhead. And believing that the system works fine the way it is is probably even worse than trying to make the system more repressive. At least the latter implies that those behind it care about the matter. Thinking things are fine the way they are is the height of apathy and disinterest - I would certainly hope people with such a mindset are having nothing to do with any policy concerning the greater issue of drugs.

Now to the point of this thread: I don't understand why some people are saying that legalizing drugs like cocaine would stop the problem in itself. Cocaine is still bad and people would still become addicted or would OD from it, unless it's magic cocaine that makes you smarter and sexier with no downsides.

Bad for you? Of course it is. My argument is not against that, it's against this "it's for your own good" mentality adopted by governments. It's a mentality that hasn't worked for one.

Another thing people don't seem to understand is that the problem can't be stopped, not without an immensely intrusive, repressive, all-powerful, totalitarian system. It's irritating to hear people speak in such absolutes. The world is made up of billions of people and not everyone is going to do exactly what you want them to, and yet they still talk of "stopping" the drug problem, a problem that those trying to stop it have managed to fuel instead. The problem however can be minimised, and I believe legalisation would go further towards this than this frankly stupid "war on drugs".

 

[Wayne Bridges]

haha funny...Im just on caffien withdrawal now

the "requiem for a dream" song is playing in my head....

EPIC! I love requiem for a dream! But no, i haven't ever sued any drugs like this.

 

[loc978]

Cocaine, just as a substance... is pretty bad stuff. Never done it myself, but I've known plenty of people who have really messed themselves up on it. Also known a few people who have used it occasionally and socially who are just fine.

Just one thing about it that makes it indefensible for legalization in my eyes, though: the Colombian blood that was shed to get it here. Very few drugs would actually wind up getting more people killed if they were legalized and easier to acquire... cocaine, however, is one of those drugs.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Taking cocaine is as stupid as snorting pine needles.

It's fucking pointless, and will damage your septum.

 

[Padwolf]

I am against the harder drugs, after many family members using them for most of their lives, and seeing the affects of that, how unhealthy drugs have made them, and how much bad it has done to all of their lives, I have never really seen the good in them. Smoking and doing hard drugs are what killed my grandfather in the end. My dad used to do drugs, he has done most of the hard drugs, it did nothing for him, didn't make him a better person, didn't make his life any better. If anyone else wants to take them, that's their responsibility, and I will happily leave them to it and never look back, I don't want to be around people who do drugs. I have never done drugs, never saw the appeal and I never will.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

Winners Don't Do Drugs.

...For Serious.

 

[Guffe]

Never used any illegal drugs.
Never will, I know there's the never say never thing but yeah, still, never!

 

[loc978]

Winners Don't Do Drugs.

...For Serious.

That's a really funny statement in a thread about rich-kids' nose-candy. Most folks who like to separate "winners" from "losers" use financial success as a metric.

y'know who did a bit of cocaine? The 43rd president of the United States. Who smoked a bit of weed? The 42nd president. Both very successful men... "winners", one might say.