5 Myths About Illegal Drugs You Probably Believe

[Archae]

BS we all KNOW to be true, but actually isn't.

#5. LSD Makes You Insane

#4. Natural Drugs Aren't as Bad for You

#3. PCP Turns Normal People Violent ... and Grants Superhuman Strength!

#2. "Crack Babies" Exist

#1. The War on Drugs Lowered Drug Use Rates

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_20561_5-myths-about-illegal-drugs-you-probably-believe.html#ixzz2bRjIUqzD

[Gravitycollapse]

1. I am nearly certain that infants can be born with cocaine dependency. Ergo crack babies exist.

[Warpy]

4. Once they withdraw from the drug

They develop normally, with deficits that can be attributed to poverty, not drugs.

The form of cocaine an infant has in its blood stream can't be identified as either crack or lines of powder. The name "crack baby" was only to whip up public hysteria about another thing hung around the necks of the poor that really didn't belong there in order to demonize them.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. I get the class thing. Rich people use cocaine and it is okay. Poor people use crack and it is not

okay, but whether the drug running through the baby is crack or cocaine it is not good for any baby to have in their blood.

[Warpy]

7. fortunately, it leaves quickly

and then the kid develops normally.

That's really the bottom line.

[demwing]

31. In this conversation, isn't the bottom line

whether crack babies are a myth or a reality?

[Warren Stupidity]

18. The term was used to justify huge sentencing disparities.

The claim was that "crack babies" were all permanently damaged and consequently, for the children, we had to lock up the entire black male population.

[Archae]

20. One of the "spinoffs" of this "crack baby" story was the "Super Criminal."

"Crack babies" who grew up with no conscience whatsoever, brutal and vicious.

Lot of scare stories circulated during the 1980's.

[PowerToThePeople]

28. If a pregnant mother is doing drugs/alcohol

The baby will likely be messed up for life. I know adults who struggle constantly, and lose a lot of the times, with mental issues as a result of in-utero poisoning from illicit drugs.

[Warpy]

2. #1 is especially pernicious

I read in a medical journal (forgot which one, this was in the 90s) that the per capita number of opiate addicts had not changed from the days opiates were over the counter. Some people have funky brain chemistry and it seems they will always find the appropriate drug for self medication.

A longitudinal study of people who had taken LSD also concluded at about that same time. They found few differences between former trippers and their sober counterparts except that former trippers tended to gravitate to the more altruistic professions. I certainly did.

Personally, I don't find that a big down side to that drug but the plutocracy undoubtedly disagrees.

I'd rather deal with crazies high on PCP than drunks.

In any case, the drug war was misguided when it started and is now a proven failure. The pipeline is wide open to adults and children, alike and the street drugs are unsafe, cut with trash and of questionable potency. Violent gangs are flourishing, financed by black market prices on the stuff.

It's time try something else.

[hobbit709]

19. It certainly hasn't kept drugs off the streets and some are cheaper than ever.

Cocaine went from $100 a gram in the 70's and early 80's to as little as $30 today in some areas. That's actual cocaine-not the whatever it is sold as crack.

[RebelOne]

27. Are you kidding? I paid $150 for 3 grams in the middle '80s.

I knew a few dealers in Miami and they would give me a good price. But those days are over. I would not even take cocaine now if you paid me. I have high blood pressure and would be terrified it would give me a stroke or heart attack.

[hobbit709]

30. You could get it cheaper then but it was usually stomped on pretty heavy.

The prices were for guaranteed tested 90+%
I didn't buy commercial grade pot either.

[liberal_at_heart]

3. Other countries deal with drugs as a national health issue, not a criminal issue.

There are health problems that come along with taking certain drugs. My husband became physically dependent on opiate based pain killers while fighting his eye diseases. With the help of doctors he was able to get off of them. We should deal with drugs differently but I would not say they are consequence free.

[Warpy]

5. The dirty secret is that opiates are kinder to body systems

than non opiate analgesics are.

They're enormously kinder to body systems than either alcohol or tobacco.

[liberal_at_heart]

8. The only drug I am comfortable endorsing is marijuana. I've seen too many people get hurt

by other forms of drugs including opiates, meth, and alcohol.

[Warpy]

9. I've seen a few people react badly to grass

All of them have to be evaluated as to risk versus benefit.

Most people want clear heads most of the time. After the third day postop after heart or abdominal vascular surgery, patients would try to cope without pain medication because they wanted their brains to work right, even the ones who'd gone "whee!" the first day and scared us to death. There is no reason to believe such people, the overwhelming majority of the population, would run to pharmacies for drugs unless they were in pain and needed them.

The drug war has been a dismal failure, but no more obviously than in the number of people who live their lives in untreated pain.

[Flatulo]

11. When my mom was 87, she fell and her back went into spasm. Her goddam doctor would not

give her anything stronger than Advil, yet she was clearly in agony.

I blame the DEA in large part for the medical profession's reticence to prescribe opiates when they're clearly called for. Doctors are terrified of running afoul of the myriad regulations.

I swear, sometime it seems that this gov't won't be happy until every last one of us is fucking incarcerated.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. Psst, most of us already are. The ultimate prison is the one which holds you

without making you aware that you are imprisoned. The old term was the gilded cage.

"if you wish to enslave a free man, give him a mortgage."

[Flatulo]

49. When a government has so many laws that everyone is a criminal, you know it's time for a reboot.

[Egalitarian Thug]

50. I can certainly agree with that. n/t

[Warpy]

21. Pretty much

One rheumatologist in town was infamous for never prescribing pain medication. I got one of his patients one night, an elderly "failure to thrive" man with a minor cardiac problem. I saw a skinny old man writhing in bed, holding his knees.

I knew the rheumy was a shithead, so I called the cardiologist about it and got him some Percocet. An hour later I went into the room and he'd changed into his own PJs, was sitting up in bed doing a crossword puzzle, and asked me if there was anything to eat. He downed two boxed lunches. Failure to thrive, my ass. It was failure to get his pain treated. While he was in the hospital, he was kept comfortable on three pills a day (not a huge dose) and put on weight. Unfortunately, he was stuck with Dr. Shithead when he got home.

[Bunnahabhain]

32. Chronic pain

has to be about the most depressing thing to the human spirit. The various motivations that stop it from being treated properly in the US is one of the most broken aspects of the healthcare system. Many years ago in grad school I did a retrospective analysis, using interviews and chart review, of ortho patients (hip ORIF was the most common dx) in SNFs doing rehab that were able to return to home. The n I was able to achieve was not huge, 62, but the difference in progress pace, probable return to baseline, and qualitative report on being positive about the experience was almost 1:1 related to the patient's report of adequate pain control.

[Flatulo]

48. My Primary Care physician had me taking 16 Advil per day until my stomach started bleeding, then he

said "Well, that's it - nothing more we can do."

Fortunately there was a Pain Management Center in our nearby big city, and I got in there. Long story short, they got me on a regimen of light opiates that, while not completely eliminating my back pain, knock it down to a 2 or a 3. Before that, I'd been in tears from unbearable back pain. I had actually started thinking about blowing my brains out.

The newest form of harassment? Arresting drivers, no matter how small the dosage, for DUI while on opiates. I never carry any with me for fear of getting pinched. I keep a few at my common destinations, like a few friends I visit.

What a fucking racket.

[thecrow]

41. I once pointed out to my Dr.

that if I took my painkillers as prescribed, I would basically overdose on Tylenol every day.

I asked him for a pill that was stonger on the codeine side and then took half, which still had Tylenol, but it was a MUCH smaller dose of it.
He said he was not aware of the amount of Tylenol in the pills! He actually thought I was "drug-seeking", when all I wanted was for him to recognize the dangers of taking too much Tylenol.

I have a lot of chronic pain, (knee, shoulder, spine) and he told me he wouldn't give me any more painkillers. That was sweet of him
Some doctors just don't know how to deal with chronic pain!
I have a new doctor now who discusses my medications with me.

[hunter]

45. Ain't that the truth.

Acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen, other NSAIDs and alcohol can be wicked.

Ibuprofen works well for me until my stomach starts to hurt... I'm scared of it now. Then I was prescribed Celebrex. Turned out their advertising campaign was a lie. That one eventually went after my stomach too, and it was expensive.

I don't like opiates because they make me feel gross and don't play well with my other meds. Usually I don't hurt enough to be dysfunctional. But there is no excuse for the inadequate or inappropriate treatment of chronic pain patients in the U.S.A..

And that's just one horrible consequence of the "war on drugs."

Addiction is a public health problem and ought to be treated as such. And chronic pain patients should be able to take the best medicines with the fewest damaging side effects. In many cases that would be opiates.

[adirondacker]

10. I'm sorry, I grew up watching Dragnet. "The story is true, the names have been changed to

protect the innocent".

[markiv]

25. you're pretty high and far out

what kind of kick are you on, son?

[thatgemguy]

51. Here's the updated version

[azurnoir]

12. well I didn't believe them

#5. LSD Makes You Insane-nope it doesn't at all

#4. Natural Drugs Aren't as Bad for You-'shrooms can cause heart palpitations and wormwood can cause migraine headaches

#3. PCP Turns Normal People Violent ... and Grants Superhuman Strength!-nope what it induces is more like a state of drug induced autism where in you can hear words clearly but can't understand them

#2. "Crack Babies" Exist-yes but as you pointed out they can and do get better

#1. The War on Drugs Lowered Drug Use Rates-ah ya right

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. LSD is great if you want to get naked and get in a pile.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. If that's all you got from LSD, you probably didn't get LSD.

Another benefit of the WOD, you have no idea if what you bought was what it was sold as.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Uh huh,...try watching "Misery" with tracers.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. Exactly my point. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. I meant the movie.

[RebelOne]

23. I took LSD once and it was the only time.

I did not like it. Good thing, because I never wanted to do it again. It was only out of curiosity and I got it for free.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. There's a REASON it didn't gain widespread popularity....

Some people can't handle it.

Alcohol causes some people to lose their inhibitions and let themselves go. This can either be fun or cause crying jags.

A common effect from acid is to make your skin crawl and the visuals to get weird with what's called "tracers" which cause some people great distress. The effects last for hours as well. I used to get the good stuff in the 70s from a bunch of real connoisseur bikers. Green microdot, Lavender Lucy, and of course Orange Sunshine (which was the most common).

[mucifer]

14. I know 2 people who became schizophrenic after trying LSD.

It makes sense if you think about it. Some people chemically just can't come back.

[hobbit709]

17. I'd say they were before. The other question is was it REAL LSD?

[nomorenomore08]

33. +100

My best friend from college is a classic case of people predisposed to mental illness, going crazy "because of" hallucinogens. I put the quotes because it wasn't due to the drugs at all - at worst they may have sped up the process, though I can't even be sure of that because schizo-affective disorder (his final diagnosis) is something that typically manifests in early adulthood, as it did for him (age 21/22).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Timothy Leary would say "no".

[hobbit709]

44. Unless it was this

?ts=93246

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. He famously said the government had a responsibility to produce a safe hallucinogenic.

[EOTE]

22. I tend to disagree with number 4, I don't think that's a myth at all.

Now, of course you could compare a natural drug like opium and compare it to something like Advil and say that the opium has far more potential for abuse and you'd be, without a doubt, correct. However, let's compare opium to processed opiates like heroin or opioids like Oxycodone. Because opium contains a wide variety of opiate alkaloids, you tend not to get a very large dose of any one of them, hence the withdrawals due to opium can pale in comparison to heroin or synthetic opioids. Also, compare the various tryptamines and phenethylamines available on the research chemical market and compare them to their natural counterparts such as mushrooms, cacti and myriad DMT containing plants. People die from RC overdoses all the time, when was the last time you heard of someone ODing on shrooms or cactus?

Another thing they don't differentiate in that article is the difference between natural drugs, synthetics and semi-synthetics. LSD and MDMA are both semi-synthetics. Also, that ridiculous chart they cite shows cannabis as having an overall more harmful effect on people than benzodiazepenes (which, like alcohol can cause death via withdrawal), methadone, ketamine and anabolic steroids.

I've used quite a few drugs, natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic. In my opinion, overall, the more natural the substance is, the less harmful it is.

[nomorenomore08]

35. Obviously it depends on *which* natural substance.

At the extreme, think of something like datura which is a pure poison.

[EOTE]

43. So by what metric are they saying that it's a myth?

Obviously arsenic is less safe than Advil. Obviously weed is a hell of a lot safer than methamphetamine. If they're going to make a blanket statement (or attempt to disprove a blanket statement), they should have a good amount of objective data on hand. The bulk of data that they use to disprove this so-called myth is utter rubbish. And having partaken in datura before, I'd disagree it's pure poison.

[nomorenomore08]

53. Just that "natural" doesn't automatically mean "less bad for you." Which you and I both know already

obviously. Though I agree that that argument is the weakest of the five - the other four are largely common sense.

[EOTE]

57. The myth is that natural is less bad for you than synthetic.

And while that's certainly not the case every time, I definitely believe it's the case overall.

[markiv]

26. 'Myth' titled articles contain a subtle presupposition

that 'what you've heard before isnt true, and now i'm telling you what's true'

how does the author know what i have or havent heard?

it's a tactic I've never cared for

[Shrike47]

34. I've known people who dropped acid and never really came back.

Of course, they might have ended up like that anyway.

[Link Speed]

36. I did acid every day of '68

Every single day. I was dating Bear Owsley's niece and having one heck of a time.

Sometimes, I wish I could dial it back and do it again.

[KatyMan]

40. wow! That must've been something!

I was born in the 60s so my experience with the "dreaded lysergic" was in the mid to late 80s, but it was pretty awesome then, I can't imagine what Owsley stuff must have been like.

[Link Speed]

47. It was beautiful

None of the strychnine or speed of the stuff that came out in the 70s. I also met some pretty interesting folks thru Bear (who was, himself, a truly fascinating fellow).

Some looooong motorcycle trips, as well. There is nothing like flying thru Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, et al, on a '47 Harley with a beautiful woman on behind.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

42. Explains your user id.

[Logical]

52. I thought taking it daily caused tolerance? n-t

[Blue_In_AK]

54. When I was taking a lot of LSD

back in the day, I used to wait two or three days between trips for that very reason. A waste of a good drug to take it every day and not get the full effect.

[Logical]

55. I would love to try it once. n-t

[Blue_In_AK]

56. If untainted and taken in pleasant surroundings, it's a very enlightening and fun experience.

If those conditions aren't right, though, it can be hair-raising. I took quite a bit over a six- or seven-year period in my younger days -- I could tell you some stories.