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> Calling cocaine a ‘hard drug’ is just programming from 50+ years of the War on Drugs. And whilst it’s not the safest drug ever, the vast majority of people wh

> Calling cocaine a ‘hard drug’ is just programming from 50+ years of the War on Drugs. And whilst it’s not the safest drug ever, the vast majority of people who do it are not dying, or have any real long term negative effects. Of course there will always be people who do too much, or become addicted, but that’s the same as alcohol, cigarettes, food, etc. It should then be a public health issue, not a crime issue. I would like to see the statistics on how easily people overdose on alcohol vs cocaine + the magnitude of damage each of them causes on an increasing scale. You can't overdose on cigarettes or food, so I always thought that anything you can overdose on can be classified as hard drug, but don't quote me on that. Talking about the known dangers is easy, but what about the unknown unknowns? Also, how would it impact society if cocaine became too popular among youth? ( because it is glamorised in movies & music ) Being skeptical and asking questions on drugs and their potential negative consequences gets one downvoted nowadays... smh

pmoriarty 6y ago
"I always thought that anything you can overdose on can be classified as hard drug" You can overdose and die from drinking too much water, or consuming too much table salt. You can overdose from many perfectly legal, over-the-counter drugs, like over-the-counter pain killers, and many, many prescription drugs. By your definition they'd all be "hard drugs".
- jedimind 6y ago
  you left out an essential part of the quote: => don't quote me on that. Sorry but you are either taking the piss or you are just not interested in a reasonable dialogue. Of course you can overdose from anything if you intend to overdose, but what I meant was how easy is it to overdose accidentally, which should be obvious...Now I'll quote you: "Oh COME ON!"
  - pmoriarty 6y ago
    Ok, so now your criteria is that a hard drug is one you can overdose accidentally on? Well, accidental overdoses do happen on legal prescription medications, also on alcohol. Would you consider those "hard drugs"? And, back to water... accidental overdoses have occurred from drinking too much water. Paradoxically, it tends to happen when people have heard that they should "drink lots of water" when they're exerting themselves and getting hot, but they don't realize that it's important to get electrolytes with your water, or drinking too much water will disturb the electrolyte balance in your blood and you could die. So even by your "accidental overdose" criteria, water would be a "hard drug". Also, if I can infer that you consider accidental overdoses to be undesirable, then you should be all for making drugs legal, as it's their illegal status that leads to more accidental overdoses, because (as I said in another comment in this thread), when drugs are illegal their users don't know the purity or dose they're getting, while when drugs are legal their known dosage and purity leads to fewer accidental overdoses.
    - jedimind 6y ago
      > So even by your "accidental overdose" criteria, water would be a "hard drug". smh...what a load of nonsense. you really put so much effort into misunderstanding what I said. I specifically said "how easy is it too overdose accidentally" meaning depending on the DEGREE it could be labeled a hard drug or not. point is that from the very beginning I basically said that "I always thought: X, but don't quote me on that - i.e. enlighten me about what's the correct classification". It's as if you are just trying to actively misunderstand me so you can have someone to argue with...

pmoriarty 6y ago

"I always thought that anything you can overdose on can be classified as hard drug" You can overdose and die from drinking too much water, or consuming too much table salt. You can overdose from many perfectly legal, over-the-counter drugs, like over-the-counter pain killers, and many, many prescription drugs. By your definition they'd all be "hard drugs".

jedimind 6y ago
you left out an essential part of the quote: => don't quote me on that. Sorry but you are either taking the piss or you are just not interested in a reasonable dialogue. Of course you can overdose from anything if you intend to overdose, but what I meant was how easy is it to overdose accidentally, which should be obvious...Now I'll quote you: "Oh COME ON!"
- pmoriarty 6y ago
  Ok, so now your criteria is that a hard drug is one you can overdose accidentally on? Well, accidental overdoses do happen on legal prescription medications, also on alcohol. Would you consider those "hard drugs"? And, back to water... accidental overdoses have occurred from drinking too much water. Paradoxically, it tends to happen when people have heard that they should "drink lots of water" when they're exerting themselves and getting hot, but they don't realize that it's important to get electrolytes with your water, or drinking too much water will disturb the electrolyte balance in your blood and you could die. So even by your "accidental overdose" criteria, water would be a "hard drug". Also, if I can infer that you consider accidental overdoses to be undesirable, then you should be all for making drugs legal, as it's their illegal status that leads to more accidental overdoses, because (as I said in another comment in this thread), when drugs are illegal their users don't know the purity or dose they're getting, while when drugs are legal their known dosage and purity leads to fewer accidental overdoses.
  - jedimind 6y ago
    > So even by your "accidental overdose" criteria, water would be a "hard drug". smh...what a load of nonsense. you really put so much effort into misunderstanding what I said. I specifically said "how easy is it too overdose accidentally" meaning depending on the DEGREE it could be labeled a hard drug or not. point is that from the very beginning I basically said that "I always thought: X, but don't quote me on that - i.e. enlighten me about what's the correct classification". It's as if you are just trying to actively misunderstand me so you can have someone to argue with...