<p>1of42: “I know this both because the information is widely available on the internet and because I have some acquaintances (not particularly good ones) who use those substances occasionally and whom I asked to corroborate my intuitions about their prices. Since you seem to consistently trust your own anecdotal experience and gut feeling over statistical evidence, the following will probably be lost on you, but I will provide it nonetheless”</p>
<p>1of42, I trust professionals – people with doctorates in medicine, YEARS of practical experience, and a specialty in the field of addiction. People who are at the front lines of attempting to save people from destruction. I certainly would not take my information from a kid down the hall in my dorm, who might have gotten some drugs a few times on the streets of Trenton.</p>
<p>I have previously suggested that you go to some of the fine treatment centers near Princeton and find out the truth (rather than surfing the net to tease out “studies” which corroborate your prejudice). You seem to have quite an interest in this subject, so I am surprised that you have not yet done so.</p>
<p>1of42: “Explain to me how it is economical or practical for a dealer to take marijuana, a green plant composed of flower buds that are contiguous and whole and easy to visually examine for tampering (cutting and recombining, for example), which generally costs from $15-$30 per gram from a dealer on the street, and cut that substance with cocaine, crack or heroin (black tar, or south asian, your choice), each of which costs about $50-$60 per gram (though crack costs less per dose [“rock”], those doses are much less pure)… Please, stop making flippant denials and referencing your nebulous knowledge of the drug treatment industry; simply tell me how it could possibly, in any universe, be economical or practical for a drug dealer to try to adulterate a substance which is easy to see has been adulterated (at least with the substances you described), and costs less than the adulterants? Your position makes NO SENSE… And before you pull out the “to make marijuana addictive for return customers”, understand that even if a customer gets totally addicted to marijuana the dealer would still lose money if cutting with the substances you described.”</p>
<p>1of42, the prices you cite are not necessarily valid. It’s a big planet, and the drug market is huge. Prices vary in different places depending on all sorts of things. Pot can be more expensive, easily, that heroin or cocaine. For example, when cheap imported weed has to compete with high quality U.S. product, it can be economical for growers from certain nations to doctor it with substances that you think are more expensive (because you heard about some street price in Newark or something for cocaine or heroin of a particular quality). </p>
<p>Also, in your very own universe 1of42, pot can be adulterated without it being seen. And by the way, 1of42, you have made the assumption that buyers CARE that the product has been adulterated. Many do not. Most adolescents who suffer from the disease of addiction are poly-addicts. That means they will take anything to get high. Some kids have done things like drink mouthwash, vanilla, snort gas fumes, or even Drano! You think that they would care if their pot was mixed with something? You see 1of42, it really is a big world out here.</p>
<p>And by the way, just in case readers might think none of my warnings should be relevant to them because they do not have the disease of addiction, let me add that many drugs can change your brain permanently, even with just one use. Meth is a great example of that - it is the worst! Whatever it is, unless you have grown it yourself, or studied it chemically in a lab, you do not know for sure what you are taking. Why take that risk?</p>
<p>1of42: "I suspect many of you will wonder “why does 1of42 know so much about drugs, and why is he so insistent on arguing about them?” The answer is that I find the high level of misinformation and ignorance in the general population fascinating and so have striven to form a complete picture for myself of the dangers and facts of drug use and the drug trade, drawing from a bunch of different sources, including the medical literature, government sources, and non-traditional information sources like Erowid. And I argue about it because it annoys me when people are wrong and are brazen about it and won’t admit it. ”</p>
<p>Actually, 1of42, the reason why I spend the time responding to your posts on drugs is that they are FILLED with misinformation and erroneous assumptions – dangerous ones. I find nothing about the world of illicit drugs to be “fascinating”, knowing as I do…
…what it looks like when kids’ lives are destroyed
…what track marks look like on young, perfect skin
…what it sounds like to hear a father, a man who might be a surgeon or a CEO and capable of making so much happen in the world, sob over the dealth of his child
…the excruciating sound that a woman’s voice can make when she wails over the declining health of the child that once grew within her, knowing that she is helpless to make things better
…what it looks like to see lonely brothers or sisters, wondering why drugs have been chosen rather than a relationship with them
…how depressed and frustrated kids in recovery can be when their minds no longer work as well, damaged by years of using
…what it feels like to hug people who cannot stop, despite many attempts and relapses, no matter how they try, wishing that they had never “picked up” in the first place (people who THOUGHT that they were just partying, and that they were SO SMART and knew oh so much.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine why anyone would find entertainment in this subject, knowing the whole story.</p>
<p>I feel an obligation to post the truth, not because (like you) I am “annoyed” over misinformation, but because I care about people and hope to help rather than harm them. Yourself included.</p>