Stepping Stones To Nothing

This woman is the reason I shouldn't read the Daily Mail, even if it is the only newspaper left in the dining room.

Cut down to its basic message, the article is telling us that the girls became prostitutes because of heroin, they got hooked on heroin because of cannabis and therefore cannabis is what killed them.

Let us ignore the fact that this woman is using a terrible tragedy to push some kind of personal anti-drug message, with only a very loose connection to the original story. Let us ignore the rudeness and ignorance in that, just for a moment.

Instead, let's have a look at her argument against cannabis. First important phrase I come to is that cannabis is a "stepping stone to heroin". Thousands of people smoke cannabis every day and I would really like to know how many of them move on to stronger stuff, drugs like heroin. I'm not privy to the statistics, but I'm willing to bet that the number is very low.

I believe that even if cannabis didn't exist, people would still get hooked on heroin. In fact, I'd go so far as saying that MORE people would, because there would be nothing lower to try instead.

Cannabis is illegal anyway, so the idea of making it more illegal, or handing out greater punishments for getting caught with it, seems pointless. People will still smoke it, regardless of the class.

And yes, medical research may have proved that it doubles the risk of mental health. But medical research has spoken often about the risk of cigarettes and alcohol. So either we ban both of these or the medical argument goes out the window, because both of these substances cause more than enough problems for people who abuse them.

And I think that is where the argument ultimately falls down. It fails to differentiate between people who use and people who abuse. Because it seems when drugs are debated, these two people become one.

People get hooked on drugs. They become addicted and they do bad things to get more drugs. But the important thing to understand is that this isn't every one's story. Taking drugs does not lead to becoming addicted to drugs, in the same way that drinking alcohol does not lead to becoming addicted to alcohol.

The truth is that cannabis is not as addictive as cigarettes, and that is a medical fact.

I think our problem is not the drugs themselves, but the knowledge that young people have about them. At schools, drugs are demonised. They are bad, they will kill you and that is the only way to look at them.

What this limited world view achieves is a very dangerous ignorance about drug use. The kids grow up and they see people take drugs. They see them having a good time and they see that drugs aren't killing them like they have been taught.

So what they have been taught is a lie, right? They decide to take drugs and because they have a good time as well, and because they don't die, they take more. They ignore the dangers because if adults lied about drugs being bad, then they can't have been that knowledgeable about them in the first place.

What is needed is a straight, truthful drug education. Drugs make you feel good. They really do. But, like alcohol, they have to be taken carefully. Take alcohol or drugs every day and you're going to screw yourself up.

And yes, now I'm completely off topic. I took a little detour and ended up following that bloody road for miles and now I'm away from Daily Mail woman and how much she has annoyed me.

And she has, with her narrow-minded view about people who take drugs. I would laugh at her, if I knew that people wouldn't read what she wrote and believe it. But sadly, a world of free speech means that people will read and will believe.

So hopefully someone, anyone, will read this and be swayed my way just a little bit.

:)

PS: This may come across as pro-drugs. It isn't. I'm just pro-choice.

http://zikex.deviantart.com/art/Drugs-59873795