What makes use of alcohol or even perscription drugs different from using "hard drugs"?

[BigToque]

What makes consumption of asprin or alcohol any different from cocaine from an ideological point of view?

 

[SpunkyJones]

After a couple of beers people don't jump off of the roof thinking they are superman.

 

[AgentJean]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones
After a couple of beers people don't jump off of the roof thinking they are superman.

No, they just like to pick fights thinking they are Rocky, Jet Li, or some other "tough" guy and then get their @$$ kicked.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones
After a couple of beers people don't jump off of the roof thinking they are superman.

Not all hard drugs make people think they can fly. Abuse of any drug can have negative outcomes.

 

[I Saw OJ]

Not so much with prescription drugs, but with alcohol you can have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner without the intention of getting drunk. With drugs, their sole intention is getting you high.

 

[leftyman]

Nothing actually, just societies laws. The abuse of any drug will have negative results eventually.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: I Saw OJ
Not so much with prescription drugs, but with alcohol you can have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner without the intention of getting drunk. With drugs, their sole intention is getting you high.

"Getting high" is pretty subjective. Consumption of a single beer or glass of wine may get the user "high enough". If you say they are not drinking for the high, but rather only the taste, how is that any different from someone saying they use cocaine because they like the feeling?

 

[BigToque]

I just want to point out that I'm not trying to troll here. I'm trying to form a more solid viewpoint on drug use in all forms and I want to know others opinions.

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: BigToque
What makes consumption of asprin or alcohol any different from cocaine from an ideological point of view?

Aspirin isn't going to make you sell everything in your house to get more of it. If you don't have aspirin, you might have that headache for a bit longer, you don't get addicted to it.

Alcohol is comparable to hard drugs in some ways as it has the potential to ruin people's lives. I have seen it first hand as my dad is an alcoholic. To me alcohol abuse / addiction is worse than addiction to some illegal drugs, because pot smokers for instance don't go driving and kill a family of four because they can't focus on the lines in the road.

 

[SpecialEd]

some drugs are more easily abused that others.

The vast majority of people who drink alcohol do not abuse alcohol (ie a glass of wine with dinner or a beer while watching the game).

Of people who regularly use cocaine, the percentage of people who abuse it is much higher.

 

[vi edit]

Controlled quality and definied amounts of active ingredients.

 

[ahurtt]

Ideologically, the difference between using alcohol, or smoking pot, or snorting coke is no different. It's done for amusement. Aspirin is different because you typically take it to relieve a specific pain and no more than what is necessary to do so.

And on a side-note can anybody else believe they are considering banning trans-fats (for everyone) but yet cigarrettes are still freely available to anyone over the age of 18? What a fvcked up dichotomy. Just another of many in America.

 

[LeiZaK]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Controlled quality and definied amounts of active ingredients.

I will agree with this.

 

[meltdown75]

Well with over-the-counter drugs like aspirin, you are taking it because you have a headache or some other ailment. You are also not funding illegal drug operations when you purchase it. You know what you are getting and you usually know what the end result will be. With illicit substances you never know what you are going to get. Your purpose is to catch a buzz or detach yourself from reality or alter your state of mind.

 

[jfall]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
Well with over-the-counter drugs like aspirin, you are taking it because you have a headache or some other ailment. You are also not funding illegal drug operations when you purchase it. You know what you are getting and you usually know what the end result will be. With illicit substances you never know what you are going to get. Your purpose is to catch a buzz or detach yourself from reality or alter your state of mind.

I think i'd rather fund illegal drug operations than pharmaceutical companies

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: ahurtt
Ideologically, the difference between using alcohol, or smoking pot, or snorting coke is no different. It's done for amusement. Aspirin is different because you typically take it to relieve a specific pain and no more than what is necessary to do so.

And on a side-note can anybody else believe they are considering banning trans-fats (for everyone) but yet cigarrettes are still freely available to anyone over the age of 18? What a fvcked up dichotomy. Just another of many in America.

They've been trying to ban cigarettes altogether for years, they're just having an extremely tough time at it, so instead bans are going inch by inch of where you can / cannot smoke. At the current rate I would say smoking cigarettes would be banned in most of the US by 15 years from now.

 

[killface]

There is no fundamental difference.
Of everything I've been addicted to (Heroin, GHB, Lortabs, Xanax, etc.) alcohol caused me the most negative consequences from use and withdrawal. It caused lots of physical damage and produced the only "high" that caused me to lose control of myself completely and cause blackouts.

 

[animalia]

Originally posted by: BigToque
What makes consumption of asprin or alcohol any different from cocaine from an ideological point of view?

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maybe the different chemicals affecting different htings in the brain and body. Lets see. Cocaine is a stimulant. Alcohol is a CNS depressant. Aspirin is a pain reliever. Oh and Oxy Contins are a lot harder than weed or cocaine FYI. And aspirin isn't a prescription drug. WTF is this ideological BS? they are different drugs. Prozac makes you happy, so does ecstasy. They both affect the serotonin receptors in yuor brain but they contain completely different chemicals. One yielding positive results. The other not so positive. I really don't understand the question.

 

[brandonb]

The difference is this:

Heroin, and the harder drugs have more psychological and physical withdrawl symptoms which can cause your body to go into shock if you just give them up. Because of that, your body and mind go into a survival mode where its no different than thinking you are starving. You will do anything necessary to prevent yourself from "starving" to death, including crimes, and certain abuses to yourself and others.

Other drugs don't have the same effects and if they are addictive, they aren't in the same nature which cause your body to get into that particular survival mode. There are prescription drugs that are, but when well supervised by a doctor, the doses can be adjusted at regular times to prevent bad things from happening.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: brandonb
The difference is this:

Heroin, and the harder drugs have more psychological and physical withdrawl symptoms which can cause your body to go into shock if you just give them up. Because of that, your body and mind go into a survival mode where its no different than thinking you are starving. You will do anything necessary to prevent yourself from "starving" to death, including crimes, and certain abuses to yourself and others.

Other drugs don't have the same effects and if they are addictive, they aren't in the same nature which cause your body to get into that particular survival mode. There are prescription drugs that are, but when well supervised by a doctor, the doses can be adjusted at regular times to prevent bad things from happening.

FYI - DT's from alcohol withdrawal are some of the most physically dangerous symptoms your body can go through. It's one of, if not the only, drug you can actually die from withrawal.

 

[tweakmm]

Purity and legality.

Comparing asprin to coke is pretty big, but people who demonize meth for it's effects on the brain and then give their kids adderall are hypocrites beyond belief. Same thing with people who take pain pills recreationally, but would never touch H because "that stuff is bad for you." It all has virtually the same effect in the brain, it just happens to be that one form in is a precisely dosed, pharmaceutically pure pill and the other is in an indeterminately dosed, exact contents unknown powder form.

Also, as someone who knows, alcohol is definitely in the top 5(3?) hard drugs period, and I know a lot of people with a lot of experience who will back me up on this.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones
After a couple of beers people don't jump off of the roof thinking they are superman.

Please, please point me to one story of someone who jumped off a roof(windows and balconies are acceptable in my book too) thinking they were superman who was high on drugs, I assume you are parroting the amazingly stupid LSD myth that's right up there with those hippies who stared at the sun so long they went blind.

Alcohol doesn't count because I'll be proving myself wrong in the next statement.


Interesting point though, there was someone who fell off a balcony last year at one of the local university apartments because they were so hammered. I sure as hell bet they didn't think they were superman though.

 

[TheGizmo]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: brandonb
The difference is this:

Heroin, and the harder drugs have more psychological and physical withdrawl symptoms which can cause your body to go into shock if you just give them up. Because of that, your body and mind go into a survival mode where its no different than thinking you are starving. You will do anything necessary to prevent yourself from "starving" to death, including crimes, and certain abuses to yourself and others.

Other drugs don't have the same effects and if they are addictive, they aren't in the same nature which cause your body to get into that particular survival mode. There are prescription drugs that are, but when well supervised by a doctor, the doses can be adjusted at regular times to prevent bad things from happening.

FYI - DT's from alcohol withdrawal are some of the most physically dangerous symptoms your body can go through. It's one of, if not the only, drug you can actually die from withrawal.

You can die from withdrawal from benzodiazepines as well (xanax(alprazolam), valium(diazepam), klonopin(clonazepam), Ativan(lorazepam), etc.

 

[Chryso]

No real difference.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: TheGizmo

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: brandonb
The difference is this:

Heroin, and the harder drugs have more psychological and physical withdrawl symptoms which can cause your body to go into shock if you just give them up. Because of that, your body and mind go into a survival mode where its no different than thinking you are starving. You will do anything necessary to prevent yourself from "starving" to death, including crimes, and certain abuses to yourself and others.

Other drugs don't have the same effects and if they are addictive, they aren't in the same nature which cause your body to get into that particular survival mode. There are prescription drugs that are, but when well supervised by a doctor, the doses can be adjusted at regular times to prevent bad things from happening.

FYI - DT's from alcohol withdrawal are some of the most physically dangerous symptoms your body can go through. It's one of, if not the only, drug you can actually die from withrawal.

You can die from withdrawal from benzodiazepines as well (xanax(alprazolam), valium(diazepam), klonopin(clonazepam), Ativan(lorazepam), etc.

Actually, benzo withdrawls are the pretty much the only one's people die from, and the only people who really die are those who are heavily addicted to both alcohol and benzos.
And really the only people who die are those who are heavily addicted to both, are in poor health and don't really want to live.