On 3/10/2016 10:46 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Quite possibly.  There's a stigma for pot users that somehow people who
> drink alcohol or smoke tobacco don't have (though in the US at least,
> tobacco users do have more stigma now than, say, 30 years ago).

That view seems to have gone here. It is so common place. It might be 
just the people I meet. There is a lot more tolerance than there was 
when I was the age to smoke it.
Or maybe it's because I live in London - Sin City.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 3/11/2016 12:17 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> That was precisely my thought (the latter, not the former;)  )

True and you must be rich or have good medical insurance. It seems to me 
that the Pharmas charge as much as the market will bear.
There is a lot of grumbling on this side of the pond at the moment. With 
drug treatments being not cost effective. So patients die and companies 
prosper.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Am 2016-03-10 19:42, also sprach Stephen:
>There is a lot more tolerance than there was
> when I was the age to smoke it.
> Or maybe it's because I live in London - Sin City.
>

London was pretty tolerant in 05-06 when I lived there...

Weird though, was Zurich in 99 when I had to walk past Needle Park to 
get from my flat to the Hauptbahnhof.

-- 
dik

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On 11-3-2016 1:47, Stephen wrote:
> On 3/11/2016 12:17 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> That was precisely my thought (the latter, not the former;)  )
>
> True and you must be rich or have good medical insurance. It seems to me
> that the Pharmas charge as much as the market will bear.
> There is a lot of grumbling on this side of the pond at the moment. With
> drug treatments being not cost effective. So patients die and companies
> prosper.
>

Same here. Treatments (drugs) refused by insurance companies because 
they are too expensive.

-- 
Thomas

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On 11-3-2016 6:31, dick balaska wrote:
> Am 2016-03-10 19:42, also sprach Stephen:
>> There is a lot more tolerance than there was
>> when I was the age to smoke it.
>> Or maybe it's because I live in London - Sin City.
>>

Tolerance is high here. I live in the countryside and a fair amount of 
youth, and an uncertain number of adults, use weed openly. However, 
there also is a darker side around with other drugs, and a well-defined, 
drugs-related, criminal nucleus.

>
> London was pretty tolerant in 05-06 when I lived there...
>
> Weird though, was Zurich in 99 when I had to walk past Needle Park to
> get from my flat to the Hauptbahnhof.
>

All Needle Parks in the world are pretty dismal. There are a few 
individuals that I cross now and then when going to the supermarket. Not 
difficult to spot unfortunately.

-- 
Thomas

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On 3/11/2016 8:01 AM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
> On 11-3-2016 6:31, dick balaska wrote:
>> Am 2016-03-10 19:42, also sprach Stephen:
>>> There is a lot more tolerance than there was
>>> when I was the age to smoke it.
>>> Or maybe it's because I live in London - Sin City.
>>>
>
> Tolerance is high here. I live in the countryside and a fair amount of
> youth, and an uncertain number of adults, use weed openly.

As it is here, now.

> However, there also is a darker side around with other drugs, and a well-defined,
> drugs-related, criminal nucleus.
>

Yes, and when they are forced to meet in the logistics chain. We get 
what you would expect. Youngsters  and vulnerable people getting caught 
up in something they can't handle.

>>
>> London was pretty tolerant in 05-06 when I lived there...
>>
>> Weird though, was Zurich in 99 when I had to walk past Needle Park to
>> get from my flat to the Hauptbahnhof.
>>
>
> All Needle Parks in the world are pretty dismal.

True, when I lived in Sydney and walked the wrong way down Victoria St. 
at the Cross, all you could hear was the crunching of needles. :(

> There are a few individuals that I cross now and then when going to the supermarket.
Not
> difficult to spot unfortunately.
>

Sadly true.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 2/12/2016 4:44 PM, clipka wrote:
> Should I be ashamed for noticing that "Mormons" are just one letter away
> from "morons"?
>

I think people are people, and people do what people do.


Mike

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On 3/10/2016 12:26 PM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
> On 10-3-2016 11:59, Stephen wrote:
>> On 3/10/2016 8:14 AM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
>>>
>>> The difficulty seems to be the impossibility to really pull weed out of
>>> the criminal circuit. That is where most of the efforts fail in the end.
>>
>> Maybe impossible is not the right word. Legalising the herb would
>> automatically do that. Okay that is a simplification and a lot of
>> criminals would still be involved at the start as they have the networks.
>
> Indeed. Legalising would have to be total /and/ everywhere, otherwise
> legal stuff will be hijacked towards non-legalised regions.
>

I don't know. Let the prohibitionists look after them selves.


>
> I suppose international treaties are a major stumbling block, and then
> we are only talking about weed: the whole business of xtc and party
> drugs is yet another kettle of fish. All quite established in the main
> stream society today, yet hardly controlled or illegal-proof.
>

Yes we might have gone too far making the drugs we had in the past 
illegal. The door to legal highs has been opened.


>>
>>
>>> - the strength and resilience of the 'under'-world is a fair
>>> match to the 'upper'-world.
>>
>> Indeed it is.
>>
>
> Unfortunately, and far from the awareness of the average citizen.
>

I wouldn't know. Being squeaky clean, myself. :-)


-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 12-3-2016 10:36, Stephen wrote:
> On 3/10/2016 12:26 PM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
>> On 10-3-2016 11:59, Stephen wrote:
>>> On 3/10/2016 8:14 AM, Thomas de Groot wrote:

>>>> - the strength and resilience of the 'under'-world is a fair
>>>> match to the 'upper'-world.
>>>
>>> Indeed it is.
>>>
>>
>> Unfortunately, and far from the awareness of the average citizen.
>>
>
> I wouldn't know. Being squeaky clean, myself. :-)
>
>

It makes me uneasy. People talk about the maffia thinking it is far from 
their bed, from another country. It isn't.

-- 
Thomas

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On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 00:47:14 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> On 3/11/2016 12:17 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> That was precisely my thought (the latter, not the former;)  )
> 
> True and you must be rich or have good medical insurance. It seems to me
> that the Pharmas charge as much as the market will bear.

And even with good medical insurance, good care is sometimes hard to find 
or comes at a premium.  For example, even though we've got a good dental 
plan, a crown cost us about $600 a few weeks back - because our dentist 
charges more than the standard rates (but they're good and worth it - 
I've always had a phobia of needles in general, and the work I've had 
done, when it's involved needles, hasn't been a problem at all.  In my 
mind, that's worth the extra cost).

> There is a lot of grumbling on this side of the pond at the moment. With
> drug treatments being not cost effective. So patients die and companies
> prosper.

Yeah, on this side as well.  And then we have opportunists like Martin 
Shrikeli who take drugs that are affordable and jack the prices up, and 
then justify it by saying the insurance companies cover it *anyways*.

Because insurance company money is free to the consumer, apparently.

Jim



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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