16 year old in drug related death

I always consider coke to be the least harmful out of them all. :spangled:

you may want to reconsider then... coke's pretty addictive, very moreish - so you take it then want more soon after, so it encourages you to take more than you should in one session, it increases heart rate, blood pressure and if you take too much can lead to tachycadia (irregular heart beats) and potentially heart failure / strokes.

and your nose can fall out... (though you'd need to snort a fair amount for that to happen)

for some reason though the figures for coke rarely differentiate between standard coke and crack so it's a bit difficult to really sus out what's being referred to as crack's obviously different to standard coke.

That seems to be what most people think

haha the green is just as bad as anything else, i've had a flatmate go schitzo on the stuff and seen other people go bananas too... its fun in moderation but some people are just never meant to take certain drugs as they just dont mix well with them.

some people can be fine, even socially improved, on certain drugs... including weed and alcohol... others just go nutty, act like dicks etc

I cant give an answer really, im never gonna jump on the legalise bandwagon unless i see some good convincing arguments (which seem to be few and far between) but im a hypocrite if i slag peoples intake off... i suppose everything in moderation is my advice and make sure you understand the risks.

/jerry springer final thought mode

yeah but consider the number of user/days for alcohol/smokers and the incidence rate would probs be similar of not more for ecstacy/other illegal drugs.

plus alcohol and tobacco deaths come from accumulation illnesses. and some of the figures will be out for them as non smokers/non drinkers can get things like lung cancer/cirriosis (sp!) respectively perhaps confounding the results...? just thought it was worth mentioning as you picked all the flaws in the illegals results but left alcohol and tobacco...

i'm not saying they are fine and other drugs are evil - just that your arguement is flawed

the leah betts thing is bullshit too... at the end of the day she died from her drug use... it may not have directly been the drugs that killed her - but would she have drank that much water if she hadn't of taken them? simple answer is no!

anyone who tries t say legalising a drug that makes your body unable to accurately tell whats going on with it is just a fuckup imo.

if a chemical used in food causes 2/3 deaths a year its banned, simple as - why should it be any different for other chemicals just because you like to use them?

an one of the main reasons coke is so bad for you is cos it doesn't react well to alcohol... the toxicity goes thru the roof when you have both... as most people tend to...

the government is essentially there to protect its citizens... could it honestly say it was doing that if it legalised a drug which could kill you after only taking it once? i personally do not think so...?

Thats in excess mate. i no the affects if smoked to much. i smoke it like one in a blue moon tbh. even less since iv moved away.
To my knowledge theres been no direct deaths from taking cannabis.

Gav - i was just stating that making ecstacy available over the counter would be ridiculous. the amount other problems it would cause ontop of that.
Im fully aware more people die from tobacco and alcohol, even tho you said the percentage is higher for alcohol, i would put it down to tis availability. If the like of ecstacy heroin and coke were available in shops, you would see that percentage sky rocket!

all that shit aside i love me drugs meself like

Yes more people die from alcohol, but that obviously doesn't mean that taking an e is safer than having a pint. It isn't. Anyone who knows the risks can make their mind up and thats fine, I just think its a bit rub if someone properly hurt themselves thinking they couldn't.

i've never heard of a direct death from cannabis, but death is in the very extreme, im sure you'll agree there are still a lot of negative impacts about taking weed that can still affect lives... on the flip side some people find weed calms them, balances their personality or soothes pains, so its not all bad.

but, aye, im the same... i like a bit every now and then, i think you have to have some vices or the world becomes a very boring place

it all depends on what drug you're talking about an the situation... caffine is a banned drug in some areas ffs.

but i still stand by my point that the government could not make legal any drug that has the possibility to kill you on one occasion of use.

altho saying that peanuts and bee's should be illegal

i'm not saying its right but if they directly alowed an activity that has been proven to be able to kill then they could not have a defence against improper behaviour. then we'd be no better off than the americans and their "right to bare arms" bullshit.

My point was you might use it in moderation, but the fact is your still going to be doing damage. Fair enough its healthy to have a couple of pints a week, as it holds certain things your body needs. Pretty much everything else tho is going to damage you some way!
Which drugs have no long term side affects?
Im pretty sure all of them do.

see below

No. MDMA is not what killed her....water poisoning did. That's not drugs.... This is a well documented fact. The media sensationalized the whole thing, saying it was due to ecstasy. I'm sure we have all seen the anti drug video showing the reconstruction when we were at school....

Fact is, direct deaths from MDMA are pretty damn rare.

You could die anyway from drinking that much water in that time....try reading up on [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia"]Hyponatremia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Na-TableImage.png" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Na-TableImage.png/230px-Na-TableImage.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/0/05/Na-TableImage.png/230px-Na-TableImage.png[/ame]

Edit: Better education for ecstacy use is what's required. Having anti-e campaigns can be dangerous also. Why? Because people are going to do it anyway. Knowing how to take care of yourself while using ecstasy could have prevented so many of the deaths over the years. Time after time it's been down to water poisoning. Too much water mixed with an anti-diuretic = bad news.

It's good now that there are services like FRANK, but I still think that there needs to be more advice on what to do if you do take pills. Kids are notorious for doing exactly the opposite of what they are asked, so why not try a new approach to drug education? It's clear that hammering in the "say no" mentality doesn't work across the board.

every society in the world throughout all of recorded history has used some sort of drug. We need to get out of our heads sometimes in order to stay sane. There's lots of talk about the mental health risks associated with drugs but never being able to let go has it's own risks.
our society tolerates alcohol because it was introduced before the state had a role in such personal decisions.
if it were introduced now there is no way it would be legal and people would be saying that the open sale of such a dangerous drug was madness.
However, the fact that it is so dangerous, is on open sale and society copes ok is proof that the same thing could happen with less dangerous drugs such as xtc or green.
Ok there would be some casualties but life is a terminal disease. nobody gets out of here alive and we need some fun before we go.