Drug deaths in Scotland hit record high

[ICTChris]

59 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Could be things are improving with the 35-44 figure being a lot higher than the 25-34. Or maybe that spread has been similar historically.

I've seen comments about the ageing of heroin users in that the increase is due to people who've been taking drugs for 20 years or more finally dying as a result of their habits, thus explaining the increases that it's the 'Trainspotting' 1980s generation of heroin addicts whose bodies are giving up after decades of abuse.

Of course, you'd have to be at the high end of 35-44 to be part of that generation.

[ICTChris]

 

[The Moonster]

5 minutes ago, GordonS said:

They do that with alcohol and that's a much bigger killer than drugs.

It might be that the level of danger drops, but the number doing it increases, so you end up worse off than before. Nobody can know without at least piloting it, but knowing what Scottish people are like I think legalisation and regulation would probably lead to even more misery, ill-health and death.

If alcohol was illegal you'd see a far higher number of deaths, mainly because people would make their own booze which could have any percentage of alcohol in it.

Would the number of people doing smack increase if it were legal? I'm not sure. I certainly don't have any incline to head down the shop for a bag, I'm not sure why many others would too. The way I see it, the war on drugs has failed. It's time for a new approach.  At the very least it should be decriminalised IMO, but I don't think that helps regulation. Education would be key in any legal/decriminalised system too.

Edited July 4, 2018 by The Moonster

[DA Baracus]

47 minutes ago, Fifes Elite Force said:

I have noticed a general trend since they binned happy hours people are more likely to be doing drugs while out and about drinking. In Dunfermline for example we used to have bouncers on the doors at around 7pm on Friday and Saturday night in even the smaller pubs, now they don't have any (with the exception of night clubs and the larger chain pubs)which seemed to put people off before. I suppose this is only really relevant to the weekend recreational taker.

It also seems as if a larger portion of people go out later (hence the reason pubs don't need bouncers) than before and smash a load of booze in the house since we got rid of happy hours too. England seems to have much more liberal drinking laws as us (24 hour super markets and happy hours). do they have the same level of issue on both problems?

 Both are just a general observations more than anything rather than based on stats.

I can only see even more taxation to price people out of drinking and legalisation of the drugs trade in some capacity to tax and regulate it. Its either that or they go in hard onto dealers and give them very harsh punishments such as life in jail but we cant afford to do that.

Of course they can just let us to what we want as a separate option

 

 

 

Wait, what? When was happy hour? What bars did this?

[ICTChris]

If opiates were legal would it make a difference to how they are consumed?  Hundreds of the deaths had methadone in their system, that's obtained legally through prescription.  If you legalise heroin why wouldn't people do the same thing with that?

[LondonHMFC]

17 minutes ago, DanMc99 said:

i find that at my age group , there are more doing coke than not doing it , especially in males.

Definitely agree with that, I genuinely think I know more people who do cocaine and other things than those that don't. 

Also seems to be almost a sense of nonchalance about the taking of it. People talk freely about doing it. Was in the barbers the other day, and a fella beside me had his mate waiting and just openly said "I'll see you in the pub, got a packet waiting" and unless he was incredibly peckish, I don't think he meant a bag of walkers. 

Almost seems to be a social acceptance about it as a drug.  

[welshbairn]

4 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

If opiates were legal would it make a difference to how they are consumed?  Hundreds of the deaths had methadone in their system, that's obtained legally through prescription.  If you legalise heroin why wouldn't people do the same thing with that?

People would be less likely to overdose if they know the purity of the product, and it would rule out contamination from dodgy bulking material. I've heard anecdotally that you can live a pretty healthy life on heroin if it's from a reliable source and you don't pig out on it. I worked with a junkie who managed to hold down a reasonable job without anyone suspecting a thing.

Edited July 4, 2018 by welshbairn

[Sweet Pete]

16 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

If alcohol was illegal you'd see a far higher number of deaths, mainly because people would make their own booze which could have any percentage of alcohol in it.

Would the number of people doing smack increase if it were legal? I'm not sure. I certainly don't have any incline to head down the shop for a bag, I'm not sure why many others would too. The way I see it, the war on drugs has failed. It's time for a new approach.  At the very least it should be decriminalised IMO, but I don't think that helps regulation. Education would be key in any legal/decriminalised system too.

Have you ever had intravenous morphine, D?

I can assure you, that if it were legal, I'd be very tempted to get some. But I'd never willingly take heroin.

[DanMc99]

4 minutes ago, LondonHMFC said:

Definitely agree with that, I genuinely think I know more people who do cocaine and other things than those that don't. 

Also seems to be almost a sense of nonchalance about the taking of it. People talk freely about doing it. Was in the barbers the other day, and a fella beside me had his mate waiting and just openly said "I'll see you in the pub, got a packet waiting" and unless he was incredibly peckish, I don't think he meant a bag of walkers. 

Almost seems to be a social acceptance about it as a drug.  

aye it's quite frightening to be honest, last two stags i've been on people have got it on the flight and started snorting on the flight .

[DA Baracus]

Just now, DanMc99 said:

aye it's quite frightening to be honest, last two stags i've been on people have got it on the flight and started snorting on the flight .

Hmmmm...

[Sweet Pete]

Coke's definitely become a part of drinking culture.

[The Moonster]

2 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

Have you ever had intravenous morphine, D?

I can assure you, that if it were legal, I'd be very tempted to get some. But I'd never willingly take heroin.

I haven't. I'm fully aware that its fucking brilliant, pretty much the reason I wouldn't touch it (illegal or legal).

I just dont see thousands of people deciding one day "you know what, I've seen what this does to people's lives but now its legal I'm going to have a shot". Some will try it, I concede that, but I think regulating the drug should be the priority. With revenue raised it can be put back into education and health care to ensure the number of users go down.

[Richey Edwards]

Portugal decriminalised drug use/possession years ago and started treating drug use as a health concern rather than a criminal offence, and now has one of the lowest percentages of drugs deaths per year (3 per million people) in Europe. Addicts are now referred to treatment programmes rather than charged for a criminal offence. "Legal high" use is virtually non-existent in Portugal, while such substances like synthetic cannabis and "bath salts" cause great physical and psychological harm and even deaths in the UK.

No-one ever choses to become addicted to a substance. Drug use is often a symptom of something that goes a lot deeper than merely taking drugs for "a buzz" . People who suffer from mental illness or childhood abuse, domestic abuse etc sometimes end up turning to drugs as a means of escaping reality.

[Sweet Pete]

2 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I haven't. I'm fully aware that its fucking brilliant, pretty much the reason I wouldn't touch it (illegal or legal).

I just dont see thousands of people deciding one day "you know what, I've seen what this does to people's lives but now its legal I'm going to have a shot". Some will try it, I concede that, but I think regulating the drug should be the priority. With revenue raised it can be put back into education and health care to ensure the number of users go down.

Alright then, how many people do you know who do coke on the reg? It's a lot. Now, if coke was suddenly legal, you'd soon find that the folk you know who don't do it regularly or at all would soon be into it, too. I'm certain of it.

[ICTChris]

I'm going on my first stag weekend in years in a couple of months, if people start taking coke I might absent myself.  I've never taken it but having been around people doing it appears to turn people who were already fairly solid total arseholes into world-level gaping, cave like arseholes.

[DanMc99]

1 minute ago, ICTChris said:

I'm going on my first stag weekend in years in a couple of months, if people start taking coke I might absent myself.  I've never taken it but having been around people doing it appears to turn people who were already fairly solid total arseholes into world-level gaping, cave like arseholes.

you'll end up with a quarter to yourself and not leave the room.

[Sweet Pete]

ICTChris rn irl:

 

[MONKMAN]

My 2 best friends from when I was a kid are dead through drugs. From opposite ends of the social spectrum, both met the same fate. One of the boys came from a very wealthy family (one of his parents has held various high level government jobs), the other from a council estate.

Both seemed destined for a life of trouble from early teenage years.

One started taking heroin while still in my social circle in his late teens, but eventually drifted off. He’d always speak if I bumped into him up town, even in a smacked up state.

The other (wealthy) I hadn’t actually seen since our late teens. He died in his parents Edinburgh home while they were on holiday, they returned to find his body decomposing in the flat.

With Dumfries not being that large a place, I see a few junkies I was at school with that have spent the last 15 years in and out of prison.


Tragic really.

[DanMc99]

Just now, Sweet Pete said:

ICTChris rn irl:

 

that is some fuckin schneeb

[ICTChris]

Me before the stag weekend

7 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

I'm going on my first stag weekend in years in a couple of months, if people start taking coke I might absent myself.  I've never taken it but having been around people doing it appears to turn people who were already fairly solid total arseholes into world-level gaping, cave like arseholes.

Me on the stag weekend