Monday, February 16, 2009

Roll that Spliff and burn that Dosh.

"Cannabis is a destructive drug. What can start as a few giggles and being part of the crowd can have serious and long-term health problems," she said. "Young people need to know cannabis isn't a soft drug."



Interesting to see out neighbours are spending 2.2 million on a new advertising campaign warning teenager on the 'dangers' of smoking cannabis. And by interesting I mean completely not interesting at all. They might as well collect that money and burn it for all the good it's going to do.
Since I am a non smoker I'm probably not overly qualified to make pronouncements on weed puffers, but my experience of folk who smoke- and that is legion- suggests to me that your average smoker is no nuttier, more violent, less functional, more insular or indeed any different than me and thee. Most smokers I know, roll the odd joint and relax, much like I'd pour a glass of Bordeaux.
Furthermore, I doubt adverts make any difference. Certainly ads like Diageo's 'drink sensibly' don't make the slightest bit of difference to me. I'll drink how I like thanks, sensibly sometimes, rather stupidly on other occasions. I can't imagine smokers are going to feel any differently.
I wonder how much money is spent on the 'war on drugs'. I wonder how better used that money could be? It's all seems rather pointless to me. But then it's Monday and I am a grump and frankly a bit down in the dumps.

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34 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So, what's your point exactly?

11:12 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

My point monkey, is that it all seems a bit pointless.

11:24 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, another drug campaign that ignores the main issues. Yes, cannabis has long-term side-effects but only if you are using it on close to daily basis for a long while. There are some fundamental flaws with that campaign. It doesn't acknowledge that some people will only try cannabis once or twice and others will smoke some once a week, and instead seems to use the 'stepping stone' perspective on drug use- the 'oh my god, you've smoked cannabis therefore you are a drug addict for life' approach.

What about focusing on people who snort cocaine instead? The last campaign in Ireland against cocaine use was over 3 years ago and it is far more damaging and addictive than cannabis.

Overall those sort of ads do not tend to work, much like the drive safer ads, safe sex ads or drink sensibly ads because ultimately they are patronising and treat people as if they are idiots.

Also, one of the truly successful anti-drugs campaign has been the Montana Meth Project: http://www.montanameth.org/index.php

11:35 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Dawn, have you ever seen that website which shows/photographs the change in people using meth over a short period? It's absolutely shocking how fast folk can go down hill. I'll see if I can locate it.

11:41 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

http://www.drugfree.org/Portal/DrugIssue/MethResources/faces/index.html

11:46 a.m.  
Blogger Cycles Goff said...

Photo 8 stole my hair. Is there no depths to which these drug fiends will not stoop?

12:13 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

She's got your mad stare down pat too. Hmmmm, I'm getting a new image of your Dundrumconundrum.

12:14 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For a handful of quid I could do more to put more people off heavy dope use than the govt's £2.2m. Have a couple of friends whose heavy smoking over the years has given them serious mental health probs. Neither can work and are on benefits, one of them until pension age, 25 years or so. The other, ironically, was a mental health nurse. No non-smokers I know have anything like the same mental health issues these two have. For me there's no doubt about the correlation but what to do to stop people smoking in the first place, I don't know.

12:18 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ooops, Google ate my first comment. Left a bit out. I meant for a few quid I'd video my mates as they are now.

12:20 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You'd think that if the same solution to the same argument kept coming up time and again (legalise & tax cannabis), that someone in power would actually take notice...

12:20 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ninetynine word: Correlation is not causation.

12:23 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

By the same token I know plenty of smokers who hold down jobs and carry on as normal. It's not an either or situation. Some people can drink and not become alcoholics, some people can eat and not become obese, some people can smoke and have no mental health issues or roll up the the gates of heroin.

12:29 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I never said it was an either/or situation. I smoked for 20 yrs myself but I see a correlation that is also now borne out in research of the wider community in the incidences of increased levels of psychosis and other mental illnesses.

12:41 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Aye, I see what you're saying, but taking into account the sheer number of people who smoke/have smoked without problems, might it be more likely that there are other contributing factors to psychological breaks?

1:16 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

no, I hadn't seen those photos- scary stuff!

In terms of the link between cannabis and mental health disorders, nothing concrete about causation has ever been proved at all. The main question about this association lies in the exact nature of the association, so therefore is it cannabis use causes mental health disorders in all users regardless of the state of their mental health before starting consumption, is it cannabis use triggers mental health disorders in those prone to them and who may develop them even without using cannabis, or could it be that people with mental health disorders tend to use drugs? The association may go in many ways.

Also very interesting literature review on the subject here: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RN/2006-07/07rn21.htm

1:25 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are other factors. That's why the research has discovered higher incidences rather then 1.1 correlation.
As for my friends, I've known them for 20/30 years before they started smoking so I know their history and path along with numerous others who are variously affected in some small way or not.
The biggest smoker I know can't function without dope and would smoke enough each day to wipe out the clientèle of an Amsterdam coffee shop but she shows no effects from smoking at any time.

1:30 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On the Meth heads. Number 9 looks better in the after pic.

1:31 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Missus, e'en tho tis Monday get out of them grumpy dumps.

3:08 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

I just finishing up here, I'm hoping a hard work out at the gym in a while will drag my whiny arse out of the doldrums.

3:40 p.m.  
Blogger Megan McGurk said...

Have you seen Mischa Barton lately? She looks really cracked out and shrunken.

3:45 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

She looks like she's in the grip of a serious eating disorder.

3:47 p.m.  
Blogger Megan McGurk said...

When I saw this picture my first thought was she's having a problem with meth.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/04Q417p0tq96I/340x.jpg

5:38 p.m.  
Blogger laughykate said...

Crikey, I'd rather come across a bunch of stoned yoof rather than drunk yoof.

9:16 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

She looks like death warmed up Medbh.

Lk- me too.

8:19 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, isn't it funny when people who nothing about the lives or experiences of the people they're trying to talk to - try to tell us how to live our lives. In the end they just make themselves look stupid (perhaps they really are!) (Please, nobody mention Pablo the drugs mule dog – or the annoying little kid in the staggeringly patronising “talk to Frank” ads!)

Not a smoker myself and I've always found it hard to get the point of cannabis et al. Stoner's puzzle me - I prefer conversation - but each to their own. I realise some people get enjoyment out of it, it's just not for me, is all. I have however enthusiastically enjoyed lots of otherly, Pharmaceutically enhanced weekends in the past so I'd be a hypocrite if I slagged off stoners.

Those Meths pics are pretty fucked up!! But on the plus side, do faces 9 and 11 demonstrate that we might have accidently discovered a cure for Male Pattern Baldness!!! - Get me some!

1:34 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

"But on the plus side, do faces 9 and 11 demonstrate that we might have accidently discovered a cure for Male Pattern Baldness!!!"

Heh, you're right! I never even noticed.

2:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pearls before monkeys, methinks.

8:22 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wrong fuckin' post. Again

8:24 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

No worries Darling. The sentiment, zat iz wot counts when it comes to monkeys.

8:45 p.m.  
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