So how long has it been since the magical mushrooms have been banned? I think it’s about three years, but I’m not sure. The whole debacle surrounding them still irritates me to this day. Only one drug is allowed total freedom to be consumed in this country, and that is good oul’ alcohol. I laughed to myself when it wasn’t touched in the budget. Of course not, but they will raise the price of cigarettes. Their reasoning is that they want to prevent people going over the border to purchase their tipple. It all comes down to money.
I hate when I see topical programmes discussing alcohol and drugs, alcohol is a drug! They usually have some nattering batty going on and on about the evils of drugs but she doesn’t mind a bit of whisky herself-you can’t debate with people like that. Alcohol is just a drug that’s been normalised in society to such an extent that you will find people who drink excessively but then spit on those that decide to dabble in anything that can’t be drunk in pints and vomited up.
The government amended the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2008 where off licences now close earlier- yeah that really is going to make a difference. Put a small plaster on a gaping wound. They just don’t seem to fucking realise it’s the attitude to drink that needs to change. Are we not mature enough that nightclubs cannot stay open until the early hours as in Berlin and London? Its pathetic. There is no clubbing scene in Ireland, half three in the morning and it’s time to buy your greasy chips and go home. You then have a few hundred still very drunk punters hanging around the late night pubs and clubs, wide awake and hearts pumping. And then they wonder why all the violence erupts.
Alcohol is a notorious lubricant for all sorts of conflict. Of course, no one bats an eyelid when someone is severely injured or even dies as a result of alcohol. We are used to that. Going out in Germany is such a different experience – so many choices of venues, you don’t have to start getting ready until midnight if you want, knowing that you will be up for a good many hours anyway, and you can get the bus home at dawn with the sun peeping through the buildings. Yes, of course people still get pissed off their face, but it just feels more relaxed, no rushing at the end of the night to find a taxi and no long queues outside the nearest greasy spoon.
Mushrooms were banned to sate the uproar that followed the death of one man after consuming them. What reporters fail to elaborate is the manner in which they were consumed, what other things were also ingested, and in what setting. Mushrooms are not something to be taken lightly, knowledge of their effects and dosage is very important. Generally, anyone with a history of mental illness should probably not take them. Like everything else, including alcohol, people will over do things and act irresponsibly, that is life unfortunately.
It is generally acceptable to be someone who is a pisshead at weekends but if you admit to taking and enjoying mushrooms you will get more varied, eyebrow raised opinions. What is wrong with someone staying at home and eating a few fungi that grew out of the earth, mindful and understanding of what will happen? What if you don’t want to drink a few cans and then go out for the night on the tear, stumbling home and waking up with a pounding headache? Of course there is nothing really wrong with drinking if done sensibly and you don’t end up comatose, but it’s just the double standard that irritates me.
People in government will not listen to common sense; they only pander to the Daily Mail-type opinions of certain members of the population. A paper was published in the highly respected medical journal The Lancet back in 2007 on the classification of drugs. Here’s a bit from a news item on this:
“Alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems. Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug’s potential for addiction and the impact on society of drug use.
The researchers asked two groups of experts – psychiatrists specializing in addiction and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise – to assign scores to 20 different drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, amphetamines and LSD. Nutt and his colleagues then calculated the drugs’ overall rankings. In the end, the experts agreed with each other – but not with the existing British classification of dangerous substances. Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was Ecstasy.
According to existing British and U.S. drug policy, alcohol and tobacco are legal, while cannabis and Ecstasy are both illegal. Previous reports, including a study from a parliamentary committee last year, have questioned the scientific rationale for Britain’s drug classification system.
“The current drug system is ill thought-out and arbitrary,” said Nutt, referring to the United Kingdom’s practice of assigning drugs to three distinct divisions, ostensibly based on the drugs’ potential for harm. “The exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary,” write Nutt and his colleagues in The Lancet.” MSNBC
What to do? Ban them all or legalise all? The war on drugs will never be won because there is profit for criminals in supplying what people want and cannot buy legitimately. There is no denying that certain drugs such as heroin and cocaine are damaging and addictive. But so can alcohol, nicotine, food and even unprotected sex . Humans are gluttons and we love to overdo things, banning something is not going to stop people wanting it.
What the solution is I don’t know, but I certainly think that you cannot selectively allow certain drugs and then not allow others. We are always going to have addicts and irresponsible idiots.
I miss those little mushrooms and it’s a pity they were banned.
But fuck ‘em, there’s always a way.
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