It was a joke.

It's cool, you were probably too busy eating a haggis and fried-mars bar sandwich. Or perhaps applying a wee bit of sun tan lotion because, you know, gingers with freckles burn so easily. But don't worry, all your Scottish pals on here are probably in too shit a mood to comment or alternatively, could be dancing round a sheep wearing a kilt shooting brown.

Oh yeah, I forgot your summer consists of this:

The irony of it all is that I would love to be out there in that picture, and in Scotland.

Seriously Genocide do you just not read anything I write on these forums?!

If someone posted on this forum saying they drink like you do with drugs I'd be saying the exact same thing. I'm far from anti-drugs, I'm cool with people doing what they want and I don't think it's some evil thing that no one should touch, but at the end of the day your a really sweet girl Raph, and you have some really awesome views on things and I think your such a genuine, solid person, it seems a shame for you to talk the way you do on here nowadays. I'd write this in a PM, but the stuff you put on here anyway kind of makes it un-private anyways. No, I agree, I don't know what it's like to live in a country like yours, but I know people who have awful lives due to problems that they can't permenantly cure, mental/physical and stuff in between. You take acid to cure your problems (I call them that not patronisingly, but only because I don't know the specific name.) then that's your choice, but in my opinion I think your a really nice girl and I don't ever see that nice side of you on here anymore, ever post seems to be about your most recent trip. If you took drugs solely to sort out issues, then you wouldn't be posting about it on here all the time.

I wasn't expecting my comment to be taken like it was with you or GK, but seeing as it has I may as well reply.

As far as I remember the only time I talked about that was on a conversation with Ryland and David. I didn't think it was necessary to talk with them by PM but as I see people got "offended" by that I won't do it again.

No it doesn't. It's far too small a sample size to take anything meaningful from. And like it or not but Scotland's heroin culture is hardly a work of fiction created by Irvine Welsh & then adapted to the big screen by Danny Boyle to slander/libel (delete as appropriate, can never remember which is written word & which is spoken word) this country. It's very real. Take for example this article from the Herald in 2010: http://www.heraldscotlan...for-drug-abuse-1.1045274 Scotland has a serious heroin problem, AJ is right, even if he put it in a realllllllllly silly way.

Dundee, Edinburgh & Glasgow have all had serious problems with the drug in particular over the last 20-30 years. Lets not downplay the huge impact smack has on Scottish society. Stimulants like crystal meth or crack cocaine have never caught on up here in a big way, it's about opiates & has been for decades. Even read an article where one individual talked about how injecting it was far more popular up here than down south of the border because "you get more bang for your buck" because when you cook the smack some of it evaporates into the atmosphere, the old stereotype of the tight Jock come true in a tragic way.

Edited by user 27 September 2012 08:11:54(UTC)  | Reason: Because I a an imbecile who posted the wrong message & then had to fix it

Honestly Raph, I think it's more that you don't really post on here as much as you used to, & the few times that you have recently have often mentioned drugs in some form or another. And it's nothing about offence. I don't think anybody takes offence at what you do to your own body, or even you mentioning it on here. Now I'm not going to say I know what every other fucker here is thinking because I lack the ability to read minds (fortunately. I've never really rated mind-reading as a particularly positive trait to have. Unless you had amazing filters on it you'd quickly go fucking insane from hearing everybodies worst thoughts, & who wants that shit?) but I'm going to guess that Gildy's (why do I call him Gildy? It's a fucking awful thing to say. I won't do that again) initial comment which started all this was at least slightly tinged with humour, perhaps with a serious suggestion mixed up in it. And y'know, you just said you were worried you were hooked on something so I don't think the suggestion of "rely on drugs less" is necessarily a bad one. He even said "less" rather than anything more absolute like "BECOME TEETOTAL (or straight edge as the goofy kids like to call it these days)!" Ultimately it's a conclusion people come to based on a tiny sample size of what you post on here. I mean if you read my posts you'd come to the conclusion I can be a bit of an asshole at times would be...bad example, that's actually true. But you hopefully see what I'm saying

I'm not going to tell you what to do because you're half way across the world. I (& others) may make suggestions at times out of basic human decency & concern because hey, misuse of drugs, legal or illegal, can fuck you up. It's a fact. Alcohol, tobacco, smack, weed, cocadamol from the pharmacy MDMA, whatever, it can do you damage. I can't remember how old you are but I think you are either still under 20 or maybe 20ish. You first got into weed in the the this current iteration of the board has been up, right? About 3 years? Well I'd be a little worried for you in that case because most recent studies suggest taking drugs when you're a teen, when your brain is it's most plastic, doing its most development is the worst time to do drugs. But whatever, it's your brain, your body, ultimately your choice. It's not unknown for me to self-medicate with alcohol, be it when dealing with social anxiety, or depression, or even just fucking plain boredom. But I dunno, I've never really felt the need to mention it here because I'm not proud of needing some sort of narcotic crutch to deal with every day situations. I think it's pitiful to be honest. And I'm not judging you when I say this, I am merely passing judgement on myself.

I'm pretty fucking liberal when it comes to drugs. Alcohol is my vice of choice (mainly out of convenience really, I don't have any drug dealer hook-ups, while alcohol is easy to find & purchase), you can do whatever the fuck you want. If you make a rational decision to shoot up enough smack to kill an elephant, that's your business. I can agree with your point about the disproportionate reactions to alcohol & drugs from some quarters but I'm not sure that's so relevant here. I mean the Paul that I know would just as freely make a comment about someone using alcohol too often as he would someone using whatever the fuck else. Ditto me, I remember previously raising (mild) concerns about Lewis's mad party/drink/drug/fucking binges (remember Lewis?) to him. And as a counter-point, people of a certain generation can be just as...what's the right term? keen on cheering the use of cannabis. "Yo does anyone else love to get high & sit outside with your laptop playing games?" being a recent example of a thread starter here by a total newcomer. Stoners seem to have a tendency often to point out how they like to game high, & walk high & listen to music high & masturbate high until you wonder if there's anything they can do sober anymore & that's also really silly. Not to mention kind of dull.

I've gone on so long that I've lost the point. Drugs. Do them, don't do them, your business. But if you do post about it in a public forum, & it's not the 4:20.com message board, someone may well show concern if you seem to be using regular.

Edited by user 27 September 2012 08:31:03(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

So this totally turned into a weird intervention.

To clarify, my position is this: do drugs if you like. That's fine. But if you say something to the effect of "I think I might be addicted to a drug" when it seems like most of the stuff you say on this thread has something to do with drug experimentation, I say yeah maybe you take too many drugs. It's not my place to tell you what to do, but I think the answer is relatively simple on one level, and that is cut back to a manageable level.

I work for a guy who is a total pothead. At work he smokes as many as four or five joints in the six hours I am there. He has a medical license because he apparently has arthritis. Yes I understand the medical benefits, but this guy just fucking loves to smoke pot and always has and now he just has a legal excuse to do it in public. He kind of needs to get his shit together a bit. On some level I feel like me being there doing the work he would otherwise would be, I'm basically just enabling him. I know this because he turned round one day and said he needed stable, reliable people like me in his life. And if I'm the one who seems to have his shit together, then there is something seriously fucking wrong.


Anyway, tldr, people are worried so they try to help, instead of sitting back and saying "that's fine" and hoping something bad doesn't happen.

Yeah, and fair enough, it's his money to spend how he wants, but if he smoked just one or two a day he might not be scrambling to pay outstanding Google Ads and Yelp bills. Maybe if he smoked just one a day, he'd be able to afford another chair for the office. Maybe he'd be able to able to get shit done without having to drive to his dealer every day saying "I'll be 30 minutes", then showing up an hour and a half later.

It's a viable business for sure, but when pot is a priority over advertising bills and rent, something's kind of askew.