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See, weirdly, part of the solution here is to not get all up in people’s business over drugs - if it were less risky to use more traditional drugs, people would

See, weirdly, part of the solution here is to not get all up in people’s business over drugs - if it were less risky to use more traditional drugs, people would do that instead. They use spice because it’s (supposedly) hard to get done for it - working around the system that seeks to prevent them from using their drug of choice. The other part of the solution is to provide actual help to people, not contingent on things like “priority need” (aka you can’t generally access housing help as a man without children), and before people wind up being forced to disclose a criminal record to any potential employer.

DanBC 8y ago
> They use spice because it’s (supposedly) hard to get done for it - working around the system that seeks to prevent them from using their drug of choice. That's not why people in England use spice. They use spice because they wish to get heavily intoxicated, and spice does that cheaply and easily.
- GordonS 8y ago
  If cannabis was legal, I'm pretty sure the majority would use it instead of spice. Hell, if cannabis had been legal before spice became a thing, I'm sure spice never would have become a thing - indeed, a whole host of synthetic analogues for a variety of drugs would probably never have come into existence.
  - DanBC 8y ago
    The article is not talking about the majority, but about the several thousand or so people who are homeless and about 10,000 or so more people who are prisoners. People who want to use cannabis will use cannabis. It's trivially easy to get hold of, and it's mostly dealt with by warnings or cautions. Approximately no-one is using spice because cannabis is illegal. Alcohol is legal, but that doesn't stop a few people from drinking litres and litres of shitty white cider or industrial vodka. Go and talk to street homeless people sometime.
    - GordonS 8y ago
      You said "That's not why people in England use spice", so I assumed you were generalsing to the whole of England, and not just prisoners and people who are homeless in England. Sorry if I misunderstood. I agree that for a subset of prisoners and people who are homeless, they are looking for the cheapest possible drug, regardless of negative side effects. > Approximately no-one is using spice because cannabis is illegal Not sure if you're still only talking about people who are homeless here? Regardless, spice only even exists because cannabis is illegal.
gaspoweredcat 8y ago
"(aka you can’t generally access housing help as a man without children)" how painfully true this is, if youre a single middle aged man with no children there is very little help available. but sadly its the "war on drugs" that has created this situation, had they just taken the sensible option and decriminalized cannabis i doubt we would have anywhere near the epidemic that currently plagues us and if they really are planning on going through with this crazy brexit idea it would at least create an opportunity to create new businesses, jobs and increase tourism. but since when have the government listened to sense? just look at what happened to david nutt

DanBC 8y ago

> They use spice because it’s (supposedly) hard to get done for it - working around the system that seeks to prevent them from using their drug of choice. That's not why people in England use spice. They use spice because they wish to get heavily intoxicated, and spice does that cheaply and easily.

GordonS 8y ago
If cannabis was legal, I'm pretty sure the majority would use it instead of spice. Hell, if cannabis had been legal before spice became a thing, I'm sure spice never would have become a thing - indeed, a whole host of synthetic analogues for a variety of drugs would probably never have come into existence.
- DanBC 8y ago
  The article is not talking about the majority, but about the several thousand or so people who are homeless and about 10,000 or so more people who are prisoners. People who want to use cannabis will use cannabis. It's trivially easy to get hold of, and it's mostly dealt with by warnings or cautions. Approximately no-one is using spice because cannabis is illegal. Alcohol is legal, but that doesn't stop a few people from drinking litres and litres of shitty white cider or industrial vodka. Go and talk to street homeless people sometime.
  - GordonS 8y ago
    You said "That's not why people in England use spice", so I assumed you were generalsing to the whole of England, and not just prisoners and people who are homeless in England. Sorry if I misunderstood. I agree that for a subset of prisoners and people who are homeless, they are looking for the cheapest possible drug, regardless of negative side effects. > Approximately no-one is using spice because cannabis is illegal Not sure if you're still only talking about people who are homeless here? Regardless, spice only even exists because cannabis is illegal.

gaspoweredcat 8y ago

"(aka you can’t generally access housing help as a man without children)" how painfully true this is, if youre a single middle aged man with no children there is very little help available. but sadly its the "war on drugs" that has created this situation, had they just taken the sensible option and decriminalized cannabis i doubt we would have anywhere near the epidemic that currently plagues us and if they really are planning on going through with this crazy brexit idea it would at least create an opportunity to create new businesses, jobs and increase tourism. but since when have the government listened to sense? just look at what happened to david nutt