General Chat

I haven't a clue David she was 15/16 then and is in her 30s now. I don't know if the connection has ever been proved but I have through the years seen several cases the same as hers. She lives independently but is 'looked after' by one of her daughters. If she stops taking her medication she is inevitably sectioned until stabilised again.

I also don't know if she ever took any other drugs, or if she takes any now.

I used to live very near to an address where they often had loud all night parties.
Think they were called "raves" and those present were on Ecstacy.

Down the street from my house was a school where drug dealers gave drugs to children until they became addicted. Then they started selling it to them !!

A Policeman told me that. :-0 :-|

Ann, are the Doctors sure your niece's illness was caused by smoking spliffs, skunk ?
or was she taking something else ? (apologies for asking)

I started smoking aged 12 !! The nearest I got to spliffs was roll ups of Old Holborn.
Bad habit smoking, but the harm's done before the penny drops.

I wouldn't smoke tobacco or marijuana if I was paid. :-P

I smoked from school days too and only gave up while I was pregnant as it made me feel incredibly sick and also of course a risk to the babies. I smoked 50 a day until Jan. 2000 and went cold turkey and have not touched one since. :-D

similarly...Smoked from leaving school,until age of 39, decided it was costing too much, and was getting breathless..went cold turkey...I said I would never buy any more....and I haven't...

..I never was an athlete although while younger was quite fit...but the damage methinks was done!!

Answer to David. Street drugs do not just affect the user but all their family, friends and community. Use of drugs leads to violence thieving, deceit and downright anti social behaviour. I am very anti drugs as I have personally seen what they can do. Even the so called soft drugs are a menace.

I think that drugs such as cannabis can be mind altering with some people. When my niece was 15 she ran away from home and ended up in London just after her 16th birthday. (for a month we had no idea what had happened to her, it was a very worrying time and we were pleased when she got in touch with her mum, my sister, a single mum at that time. She had been living in a squat and 'smoking', she stayed in London, met a lad, married him and had two children and they divorced. I don't know how long she was smoking pot/cannibis or whatever else but she developed Schitzophrenia and is on medication for it to this day, estranged by her chouce from most of her family and totally 'off the wall' if she neglects to take her medication. It is thought it was the drugs that caused it.

As somebody said it is a choice people make, People are noy usually forced into taking it. Although maybe that is not true when drug sellers target young children who then become hooked.

Bob, I used to smoke cigarettes (quit 1996) but I wasted a fortune on them over many years. They deprived me of my leg's ability to run and other things. IF every
cigarette tasted like the first one, I wouldn't have finished the packet.
When I was young I used to drink, sometimes to excess. After 15 years I quit in 1978.

So, what harm are the variety of street drugs doing ?

'No generation has found life tolerable without some physical or mental stimulant'.

(Something I read a while back.)

Like taking up normal smoking, it is a personal choice,
unless blackmailed into it,..........no one forces you to take street drugs.

Many believe that cannabis derivatives relieve certain illnesses, and pain,

I personally don't know if that is true...
but for example,on the other hand...
all the hype about Omega 3 being essential for better heart health, now seems to be as good as snake oil...

Even SIr Arthur Conan Doyle creator of Sherlock Holmes knew it was a bad habit.

Wonder Sherlock was so brilliant between fixes ;-)

I'd like to start a thread on something I know nothing about, DRUGS.

Drugs as opposed to prescribed medication. Medicines prescribed are to alleviate

symptoms, often successfully. The Doctor knows by diagnosis the nature of the

problem and which medication will or should cure it.

But DRUGS, I don't understand that. They are unprescribed and can be harmful.

They have to be bought and crime is greatly increased to giver the "user" the money

to buy them. Unlike nicotine or alcohol DRUGS whatever name they go under are

harmful in unknown ways. Their sale and their effects take up huge amounts of

Police time. They presumably alter states of mind ? Even prescribed drugs like

Prozac and Valium are addictive. Has anyone opinion on the street drugs ?