Did you enjoy some chemical treats & smoking in 60s & 70s?

[StarSong]

Oh yeah, "little old lady from Pasadena". "Go, granny, go granny, go granny go."

Several years ago I drove past what was my home in the Valley and I about went into shock! Ticky tacky housing being million-dollar housing! I also drove through Hollywood and did not stop. I have no desire to return to the old stomping grounds.

I am sure people who live in large cities and far from nature go crazy.

It took me 10 years to adjust to Oregon and there is no chance of me ever going back to Southern California to live. I didn't even go to my high school 50th reunion. I much rather walk along the river path enjoying nature. But when my X first brought us to Newport, Oregon I thought we returned to prehistoric times and that I would die of boredom! That was not at all good for our marriage. When the hippie scene came to town I grabbed onto it. My conservative X did not. But I loved the colorful creativity and Mother Earth.

Oh yeah, I know the Hollywood sign. It was painful to learn it fell into disrepair.

Hollywood was also a sweet spot for single moms and their children. The childcare was on the school grounds and the cost was on a sliding scale. By age 8 I could go to the Girls' Club that was within walking distance and my mother no longer had to pay for my child care. Imagine that! An 8-year girl walking the streets of Hollywood alone, and families not locking their doors.

If you can watch "Blast From the Past." It is an excellent representation of value changes. It is also a feel-good movie.

The Hollywood sign was restored many years ago and has been kept up ever since.

You and I had opposite life experiences: I grew up in small towns with plenty of nature, zero anonymity because everyone knew your business, it took 5 towns to cobble together a small high school, and I was bored to tears by the whole scene. Absolutely couldn't wait to escape.

I'm like Ava Gabor in Green Acres. If I didn't live in LA, I'd be in another big city's first ring of suburbs: probably Toronto, San Diego, or NYC.

Oregon is lovely - my younger sister (who mostly grew up in Hollywood) lives in a small town there, as does one of my closest friends. Glad you found a place that makes you happy.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[old medic]

I grew up in small towns with plenty of nature, zero anonymity because everyone knew your business, it took 5 towns to cobble together a small high school, and I was bored to tears by the whole scene. Absolutely couldn't wait to escape.

Came from the same place, and found about the close you can get. I would move back to my hometown nowhereville in a heart beat if I could afford to. Post office only had 116 boxes.... covered 2 towns... and not all were used.

 

[Nathan]

Yes, I experimented with alcohol with I was 15, marijuana when I was 16, LSD, mushrooms, opium, and mescaline when I was 17. I enjoyed it for the most part. There were some bad experiences also. Like getting busted for dangerous drug possession. My Dad bailed me out of that fiasco. Then I gave my life to Jesus. Quit everything.

Got drunk( ) first time at age 14, tried everything(except Meth) between then and age 21, when I realized that I'd never do well in college getting high.
We were all so lax, the "War on Drugs" had not yet kicked in, so few people were getting busted.

 

[squatting dog]

Name it and I've tried it. Southern Comfort at 14 and still loving this juice. Home grown pot grown on the manure pile. (that stuff would give you the giggles). LSD sugar cubes in the fridge. (as my buddy always said... "know your chemist"). Liquid speed in Nam. Opium laced hash and opium laced pot in Nam. (only during stand down time... never when going on patrol). Skin popped heroin after Nam. Morphine when I got burnt. Cocaine in the 80's.
I've paid the price for my wayward youth.

 

[DaveA]

i think the slippery slope started with alcohol. Booze and boozers have been mowing people down for years. I know, I know - - -everyone only drinks in moderation. There's never anyone operating a vehicle under the influence until - - they pile into some innocent folks, and then their friends feign shock and dismay and try to blame it on "evil drugs", never the alcohol that they consume regularly.

How many households were destroyed by husband/wife drunks long before pot and such came on the scene?

It's all bad, but the hypocrisy surrounding folks who consume alcohol is astounding, IMHO.

 

[Nathan]

Name it and I've tried it. Southern Comfort at 14 and still loving this juice. Home grown pot grown on the manure pile. (that stuff would give you the giggles). LSD sugar cubes in the fridge. (as my buddy always said... "know your chemist"). Liquid speed in Nam. Opium laced hash and opium laced pot in Nam. (only during stand down time... never when going on patrol). Skin popped heroin after Nam. Morphine when I got burnt. Cocaine in the 80's.
I've paid the price for my wayward youth.

I remember the liquid speed, a guy in our unit who was a 'speed freak' from San Francisco slammed some of that, I thought his head was going to explode.
Used the cheap and plentiful Skag, would sprinkle in a cigarette, used some Opium if the Smack wasn't available. The Heroin was 90% + pure, so feeling the body sensations of addiction only took 3 or 4 days. Valuable lesson, I steered clear of that $h!t after going DEROS.

 

[squatting dog]

I remember the liquid speed, a guy in our unit who was a 'speed freak' from San Francisco slammed some of that, I thought his head was going to explode.
Used the cheap and plentiful Skag, would sprinkle in a cigarette, used some Opium if the Smack wasn't available. The Heroin was 90% + pure, so feeling the body sensations of addiction only took 3 or 4 days. Valuable lesson, I steered clear of that $h!t after going DEROS.

Yep... everytime we had some down time in some fire base, so butter bar 2nd louie would want us to pull perimeter guard. Then they'd try and catch us asleep on duty. (REMF's). Pop the speed out of those hand blown glass vials and chug it down with a warm beer, and zoom... you were awake all that night and usually the next night too. Problem was that stuff had a residual effect for many months later. Little things, like all your fingers having mouths and all talking at once.
My phobia and fear of needles kept me from shooting heroin directly into a vein, but even skin popping it gave you such a euphoria that I could easily see how it could become addictive.

 

[VaughanJB]

You think fentanyl, crack and meth should be legal? What about prescription drugs like oxy and morphine? Amphetamines? Weight loss meds? Antibiotics? Don't you think legalization would be a dangerous, slippery slope?

I don't condone drug use. But let's be clear, people are already abusing Oxy, Morphine, Amphetamines, etc. It's happening, right now. At what point do you say, the current way of tackling it has failed, and is not effective? That the criminalization is serving only to criminalize, but socially is having no effect whatsoever. Has anyone, ever, said "I'm quitting heroin because it's illegal?" Or, could we turn it on its head, and spend resources on making sure there is treatment available for addiction, and the consequences (health) of addiction?

I'd like all illegal drugs to be banned totally. The trouble is, we've been trying that for decades, and have spent almost a trillion dollars on stopping it over that time. Yet they're available everywhere. What I'd like or want, has nothing to do with the reality. Having supported the current program, at some point I have to accept I was wrong.

 

[StarSong]

That the criminalization is serving only to criminalize, but socially is having no effect whatsoever.

It's impossible to prove a negative, so we can't know that.

But let's be clear, people are already abusing Oxy, Morphine, Amphetamines, etc. I

SOME people are. But the vast majority are not.

Yes, I dabbled in drugs during my wanton youth, but the threat of being caught hung over me like the sword of Damocles, and it absolutely kept me from delving any deeper.

Given the era when most on this thread grew up, an astonishing number report never having touched illegal drugs, though most did at least try the legal drug: alcohol. Coincidence? Probably not.

Has anyone, ever, said "I'm quitting heroin because it's illegal?"

The idea is to prevent people from using heroin in the first place. It seems to be fairly successful, because a relatively small percentage of the population are heroin addicts.

Or, could we turn it on its head, and spend resources on making sure there is treatment available for addiction, and the consequences (health) of addiction?

So instead of trying to prevent the spill, the solution is endless supplies of mops and buckets handy to clean up?

Treatment for addicts is almost never a one and done. A trillion dollars would be a drop in the bucket if a generation of teens and young adults could buy Oxy, morphine, uppers, downers, crack, fentanyl, etc., in the corner drug store.

 

[VaughanJB]

It's impossible to prove a negative, so we can't know that.

It's a simple reference to those that have used illegal drugs, and those that have not. What claim is there that using illegal drugs is a positive to society?

SOME people are. But the vast majority are not.

True. But is the number that do, sizable, or negligible? For example, "During the past 12 months, 48.2 million Americans over the age of 18 consumed cannabis at least once". Is that number legit, or not?

Given the era when most on this thread grew up, an astonishing number report never having touched illegal drugs, though most did at least try the legal drug: alcohol. Coincidence? Probably not.

Alcohol, for this generation, is not an illegal drug. You might as well compare to those that took aspirin.

The idea is to prevent people from using heroin in the first place. It seems to be fairly successful, because a relatively small percentage of the population are heroin addicts.

Let me ask you this: Do you not use heroin because you were taught it's bad, or for some other reason? Besides, this is about addicts, not non-addicts.

So instead of trying to prevent the spill, the solution is endless supplies of mops and buckets handy to clean up?

Nope, I don't equate real help with "mops and buckets".

Treatment for addicts is almost never a one and done. A trillion dollars would be a drop in the bucket if a generation of teens and young adults could buy Oxy, morphine, uppers, downers, crack, fentanyl, etc., in the corner drug store.

A trillion is never a "drop in the bucket". People can already buy all the drugs they want to.

 

[StarSong]

You missed my points, @VaughanJB. The negative that can't be proven: One cannot say whether making drugs illegal has had no effect on hard drug use or addiction rates. There has been no control group.

Alcohol being like aspirin was exactly what I meant. If hard drugs were suddenly as available and legal as aspirin, addiction rates would soar. Education programs like "Just say no to drugs" and DARE have been proven abysmal failures.

"Mops and buckets" was a metaphor for cleaning up the extensive damage wreaked by legalizing all drugs rather than heading at least some of it off by legally forbidding them.

Addicts are created from non-addicts. I can't say whether I would have tried heroin in the early 70s if it had been legal because I'm no longer a 19 year old in the early 70s.

It's folly to make suppositions based on turning back time, changing the rules, and thinking we can presume the outcome.

You state you've never taken a drug beyond alcohol (a drug, for sure), but think they should be fully legal. IMHO, these questions are better answered by addicts than by those who dabbled (like me) or eschewed drugs almost completely.

 

[DaiwaGuy]

From the law-enforcement perspective, I'm glad that cannabis has been legalized for adults in Canada. It's been left to each Canadian province to manage the regulation of it. In BC, it's legal for an adult to grow four plants at a time. But, I'd have to say that five years of legality has not been enough time to work out all kinks & issues involved with cannabis.

In California, you can grow six for personal use. I only grew four, last year but I'm going full six this year. Landrace Afghani. One of the pure indica strains. Couch-lock, baby!!!

View attachment 325602

Robert Planet?

 

[DaiwaGuy]

My phobia and fear of needles kept me from shooting heroin directly into a vein, but even skin popping it gave you such a euphoria that I could easily see how it could become addictive.

I only did heroin once, and snorted it. I agree, that one use was enough to tell me stay away from that shti. Never did meth. I'm nervous enough without trying that.

 

[VaughanJB]

If hard drugs were suddenly as available and legal as aspirin, addiction rates would soar. Education programs like "Just say no to drugs" and DARE have been proven abysmal failures.

In countries where drugs have been legalized, the number of users has not increased. That's hard data.