In today’s examiner there is and op-ed piece by Barry on the dangers of E. Along with a picture of a skeleton carresing someone’s face. What the FUCK. E isn’t that dangerous. Also, while searching for the piece online so I could quote from it, I discovered most of it was transcribed from a speech by Barry. As I couldn’t actually find the piece, and the speech is pretty close, I’ll just use that.
As opposed to every other drug out there? As opposed to tobacco or coffee or lava lamps? WTF
No one calls it Adam or Stacy or Clarity or any of that other bullshit now. This is like mentioning that E is sometimes called 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Just stupid.
Notice he doesn’t mention how many. That’s because 1.) The majority of fatalities are not caused by MDMA, but by other drugs.
2.) MDMA is the safest drug out there next to pot. More people die from alcohol, from nicotine, hell probably from peanut allergies that die from ODing on E.
So is zinc. The studies on people were entirely inconclusive. They contained a small sample size and did not limit themselves to people who exclusively used MDMA. Most of the participants were heavy users of other drugs. In the animals they used doses far in excess of what anyone would ever take.
God save us from this evil threat.
There are so many outrights lies, dodges, and examples of misinformation in his article I just can’t justify spending the time refuting each one. This guy is so full of shit I can smell him here in San Francisco. When the fuck will he learn that no one will take the government seriously if it perpetuates lies and misinformation about drugs. He could very easily build up a credible case against E using known facts. But he doesn’t. God does he piss me off.
I couldn’t agree more Oldscratch, the guy is scum. This isn’t his first example of outright bullshit concerning E. He did a study in Florida in which amongst those counted as fatalities, included persons the ME had listed other causes for. Then there’s that paying for anti-drug measures in Prime time, boy, I’m glad I don’t watch that crap, wll mostly anyway.
I’ve always wondered why he’s called “The Drug Czar”. Shouldn’t he be the **anti-**drug czar? And remember- the mules work for the lords, not the czar.
It’s got to be hard to keep a straight face when saying “don’t use this drug- it induces feelings of euphoria!”
Heh. 99% of the so-called “street names” listed for drugs in drugwar propaganda rags are ludicrous. “Loco weed,” for pot, for example. Granted, some of these terms may be used somewhere, but the whole concept of street names is intended to conjure an image of some dude on the corner saying, “Hey, want to try some Happy Magic Fun Stuff.” “Sure, sounds great.” Most slang names just aren’t used, among my social circle, at least. Just the standards: acid for LSD, pot for cannabis, ecstacy for MDMA, etc. Drug users use pretty much the same terminology as everyone else, since most have at least some idea what exactly it is they are taking, beyond some vague “street name.”
Emmet Murray went to school with me. In June 1997, he died as a result of a failure of his liver and kidneys due to complications from taking Exstacy.
I hope you never have to attend the funeral of one of your friends who died because of drugs.
I have and it was not pleasent. However, fewer people die from E than from most other drugs.
And as for the problems with liver failure.
So there have only been a few reports, from a drug that is very widely used, and even then it isn’t clear if the MDMA itself caused it. Merely another argument for legalizing and regulating the drug.
Twist: I get your basic argument all the time. “Sure, decriminalization sounds so logical, but what about [insert name] who [overdosed, had a bad reaction] and died? How do you deal with that tragedy? Would somebody please think of the children?!!”
I could mention that this is rhetorical, anecdotal nonsense that only hinders debate, but I won’t. Instead: What is commonly referred to as “overdose” is seldom anything of the sort. It should more accurately be called “poisoning.” Several studies have shown that black market heroin is, on average, about 5% heroin. The rest is a mix of amphetamines and lidocaine, as well as some other various adulterants. Cocaine is usually about 40-45% pure. The adulterants kill far more easily than the drugs themselves. I’m sure that E has comparable rates of impurities. As for specific people having bad reactions to E: people can have fatal allergic reactions to penicillin (sp?). Get over it.
FUCK YOU. the last thing to tell someone who had a friend die from drugs is to “get over it”. The fact that people die from penicilan does not make you able to “get over” the fact that you lost a friend. Telling people to get over it in no way helps the debate.
Twistoffate, I want to apologize for this ass. He in no way represents the way I, or most, pro-decriminalizers feel. I understand that you’ve lost friends, I have too. Nothing in life is “harmless”, yet I feel more harm is bein done through the misinformation campaign of people like Barry McCaffrey, tahn would be done through honest open facts and dialouge.
CRIPES! I wasn’t saying “get over it” about Twist’s friend dying, just the argument that drugs, licit or illicit, can have unexpected results on certain people. Calm the hell down, scratch (and re-read my first post). Look, it’s the Pit, so I get to be a little rude, but what I said was true and it wasn’t that out of line. It’s not like I was saying, “So your friend died, boo-fucking-hoo,” even if that’s what you thought I meant.
OK, having just re-read my first post in this thread, myself, I can see how the wording could be interpreted the way oldscratch saw it. It was unintentionally vague, and I’m sorry, but that’s not what I meant.