Seems like your experience has left with a twisted distortion if you think "some drugs are good and some drugs are bad." You and I are just never going to see eye-to-eye if you maintain that dogma.

You came in here swinging, calling me all sorts of inappropriate stuff, then act like a little wussy when you trigger my anger and I respond in kind.

I've been responding for weeks now to a variety of people who have pointed out holes in my argument. We've had a much more productive discussion than you and I are having, because there are others ITT capable of disagreeing while also being open-minded and not going to name calling as a first resort.

Feel free to watch the rest of us have the conversation while you hold onto your prejudices and your judgements. I think I am clear on where you stand on the issue, so thanks for expressing yourself!

if you think there's no practical difference between marijuana and crack cocaine, then you're absolutely right that we're never going to see eye to eye. because you're a ****ing moran.

at least now you've made it super clear that you're a lunatic who has smoked away far too many brain cells (yes, crack destroys them, marijuana doesn't) to be involved in anything resembling a reasonable discussion. no sense in anybody wasting any more time here now.

lol i missed this part. you take offense to me characterizing you as a dumbass and your thread as aids (that was it), and instead of actually taking the moral high ground that you pretend to be so in tune with and saying "hey, that hurt my feelings and was unnecessary, i don't think that's very cool of you, and btw this is why i disagree with your position...", you just ignore the actual content of my post and respond with butthurt poo flinging of the highest order...but i'm the thin skinned wuss, no doubt!

DAT ANGER

And you've made it clear you don't know how the "edit post" function works. See? A lot of clarity coming through in this thread.

Funny you think that marijuana doesn't kill brain cells and funny for that to be any part of your argument anyway. I happen to think people should be allowed to do whatever they want to their own brain cells, though I feel sorry for you for what you've chosen to do with yours!

Be well dude. Wake and bake, drink coffee, jerk off, and keep doing all the other normal, harmless, non-brain-cell-damaging activities that allow you to maintain the moral high ground. I think we can agree there is no point in continuing to engage.

look dude, dealing with you is basically an insufferable activity, but i'm not letting you end this discussion with such a gross piece of misinformation. you're completely, entirely, 100% wrong here, and you are just making yourself look even stupider now.

gg tks for playing

Stop undermining the marijuana legalization movement in Colorado by pushing your black market weed on 2+2.

f u, it's not black market weed when you're giving it away. nor is it illegal.

lol @ you trying to disparage me for performing a public service.

+rep_lol wins. It sounds like shaniac has that narcissistic personality disorder. He's clearly wrong.

he's clearly wrong how/why?

I disagree completely. Shane and others have presented perfectly sound logic and scientific citations to support their plea for a rational/honest drug discussion. Those arguing against it have simply resorted to "crack is wack!" and "it destroys lives!" offering no further explanation or evidence.

It has been cited in this thread that only 20% of people that try crack become addicted to it/possibly have their lives destroyed. I and many other very smart people firmly believe those people's lives would have been destroyed with or without being introduced to crack and that they would have found something to become addicted to.

Ill take Shanes free onion... PM me for details thanks.

Also, I wasnt being hysterical Shane. Your walking a thin line with a subject viewed as taboo as crack imo. I also wonder if you thought at all about how your openness regarding your use effects the already tarnished rep poker has.

What sort of reasoning is this?

Reasoning based on science, logic and anecdotal evidence as well as an open-minded approach to thinking about things?

I don't get all the ridiculous hostility in this thread.

Shouting "crack is bad" and "shaniac is delusional" or "shane is destroying his life" simply aren't interesting observations. Sure, crack causes pain. It also causes intense pleasure. How to balance the two is up to Shane; that's undeniably true as a matter of fact, regardless whether the stuff is illegal or not.

Much of the commentary here reminds me of the DARE lectures I was subjected to in junior high school telling me that pot is a gateway drug that necessarily leads to the destruction of your life. That was obvious garbage. So too is the suggestion that crack is always bad or necessarily negative. Crack is empirically more dangerous, but why should it theoretically be treated any differently? Shane is entirely capable of making decisions about his life, whether it be in regard to pot, cigarettes, alcohol, crack, riding without a helmet, condomless anal sex in West Africa, or any one of thousands of other risky activities.

Kudos, Shane, for a forthcoming piece about a social taboo that's worth discussing.

Exactly.

crack just sounds bad. should have just said that you smoke coke. people would say, at least he isnt smoking crack! lol

Well where do you think we developed our current language from? We learned it by watching you dad!

TY Mr. Treesong for some the perspective, some of the rhetoric tossed about in this thread is word-for-word taken from obfuscatory anti-drug marketing campaigns like...

"No one says I want to be a junkie when I grow up!"

Well I grew up, and I'm a "junkie." Now what?

Thanks again, Howard.

Have you not seen him post about "freebasing cocaine" regarding his crack use over and over?

The main reason Shane wrote the article is to the address the stigma associated with hard drugs. He choose to speak openly about a taboo subject because of the level of misinformation out there. Quite similar to the amount of misinformation that is associated with poker. Not all hard drugs users become addicts. In fact few actually develop addiction. You do notice the addicts much more. They are impossible to miss.

Few poker players are scammer degens with who will cheat or rob anyone around them. You know of a few of these guys, but realize a majority of players are honest and legit. However many people in America focus on the negative aspect only. Poker is bad. People lose all their money and steal from their families. Eventually poker players(gamblers in general) lose everything important to them.

The problem is misinformation based on worst case scenarios.

Dr. Carl Hart's 2 hours on the Joe Rogan podcast is a must listen if you are open minded enough to realize that most drug opinions are false and based on poor information or fear.

Shane - since entering this thread have you changed your opinion on your drug use at all?

I don't think you'll like my vague answer: this thread has cemented my conviction that rational dialogue is the only way to garner truth from the outmoded way of thinking that defines our attitude about drugs and, by extension, life. I just see behavior and drug use as an interesting canvas on which to draw an understanding of life.

My "opinions" and "feelings" on drugs do not matter at all, especially when faced with the reality that my own thinking is not necessarily critical or objective enough when it comes to assessing behavior in relation to substance abuse. For instance, I blamed alcohol on problems I had in relationships before, when now it seems obvious to me that alcohol abuse was just part of the symptom of underlying chaos or dysfunction.

My opinions/feelings on drugs constantly change and evolve. I have been interested in the subject since the first time I got stoned and arguably before that, when I wondered why those kids on W 96th were smoking a joint. Why would they do that? My clarinet teacher was an orchestral musician who used his lungs to make sounds from an instrument and he was also the hardest, heaviest smoker I have ever seen. He told me "cigarettes are the best drug, they bring you up when you're down and pick you up when you're down."

Natural Mind by Andrew Weill, and a large sample of observation and experimentation, confirmed my hunch that using drugs is normal human behavior documented in every human civilization that ever existed, but it's taken 20 years of exploration since then to advance untangling the mystery. Thankfully we have the internet now, so we can efficiently deepen intellectual understanding across many platforms and methodologies.

But if you look back to the conclusion of the piece I wrote for NYPress after the psychotic breakdown, my message is fairly consistent to how I feel today: there's a power to the human mind that is greater than any substance or hospital, and it's worth tapping into that to find clarity rather than merely "surrendering" to whatever system someone is trying to funnel you into.

I started smoking crack that first time in 1999 when I was still an outpatient at St. Lukes on the UWS after the breakdown, and a week after I stopped smoking it, I told my social worker, who was dumbfounded. I still remember the look on her face as she said, "I feel like I don't know how to do my job."

No offense lady, but you probably don't.

My only addition to this thread is that the podcast is really good. I am pretty much a DARE graduate non-drug user and it's captivating. If you have to listen to just one, episode 8 with the Columbia tenured professor (neuro-scientist) is my favorite.

Ugh wish I hadn't agreed with rep now, wtf

This is definitely what should be the main tone of this thread. I can't agree more that all the power over everything, over any substance, over any stereotype and anything else that is a limitation is in the mind.

Every adult for the most part knows what's healthy and unhealthy; the pros and cons of your diet...and therefore the pros and cons of indulging in drugs. It's up to the individual to decide in their own mind how to take things from there and lead the life that they want.