Peter, I can see both sides of the coin on this issue. Nobody wants to lose their child to drugs so I can understand her being upset about her son's drug (bath salts) use. On the other hand I see your point of view because it's one I share.
In my 49 years of life, I've seen this same thing happen with PAM cooking spray, huffing spray paint, sniffing gasoline, sniffing modeling glue fumes, eating morning glory seeds, inhaling nitrous oxide from whipped cream canisters, licking toads, eating shrooms..etc...the list is long. Ecstasy, crack and marijuana were going to ruin the world.
Bath salts will come and they will go, to be replaced by the next mind altering substance. I just can't bring myself to worry too much about what someone else does to their self.
I voted NO because I believe the actual usage of this product in the general population is very low. However, the results it causes to the body, is the thing of sensational news articles. Most people are too smart to be playing around with this stuff. Those who do deserve the Darwin Award.
Regardless of ones views on the legalities of their use or possession, you can't deny the physical effects on the user which in turn create a public safety issue. If suddenly the chemical compounds were legal it wouldn't mean law enforcement and EMS personnel would no longer have to respond to incidents that arise from actions by users. If folks were acquiring bath salts, using them at home and we never heard about it again via medical emergencies and law enforcement interventions, then we have a debatable legal issue. When folks use the substance and exhibit radical and sometimes harmful behavior to themselves and others, it is a public safety issue and therefore a problem.
Quote: If suddenly the chemical compounds were legal it wouldn't mean law enforcement and EMS personnel would no longer have to respond to incidents that arise from actions by users.
So, since alcohol is legal, the police and EMS don't have to respond to incidents that arise from actions by its users? Sheesh..they've been wasting their time all these years! :-) C'mon, really?
Edit: Hmmm....maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of what you said. That's been known to happen!
Doug, I'm hoping that you misunderstood my point. What i was getting at is that legalizing a substance is not a panacea. This particular substance seems to be at the outset something very different from alcohol or marijuana. Given the effects attributed to it with it's relative narrow group of users, it's seems to be very dangerous. I'm not a kneejerk reaction, let's make a new law guy. We need to take real look at this stuff, it's affects, and decide if this is an impending public safety issue and address it accordingly.
Yep, I misunderstood. My stance has always been that making drugs illegal just exacerbates the problems. Alcohol is legal and yes, we have lots of drunk driving arrests. On the flip, when alcohol was illegal, we still had drunk drivers but people died simply for the fact that it became the drug of choice for "drug dealers" to traffic. There were fewer vehicles and drivers and the population was much smaller, but the fact remains, prohibition caused more problems than it solved. Behaviors cannot be regulated.
Creating laws against bath salts or any other designer drug accomplishes what? It certainly doesn't make the substances any more difficult to obtain. All it accomplishes is giving people an arrest record along with the other problems that come along with the drugs impact on the user and society.
Someone said it earlier today that the bath salts problem is just the latest thing to grab the attention in the news. I'm pretty sure I read about more DWI arrests and alcohol related accidents than I do about incidents from bath salts....just sayin'...
I don't consider it a problem
I don't consider it a problem when stupid people do stupid things. I consider it nature and hopefully nature weeds out its stupid.
Peter, I can see both sides
Peter, I can see both sides of the coin on this issue. Nobody wants to lose their child to drugs so I can understand her being upset about her son's drug (bath salts) use. On the other hand I see your point of view because it's one I share.
In my 49 years of life, I've seen this same thing happen with PAM cooking spray, huffing spray paint, sniffing gasoline, sniffing modeling glue fumes, eating morning glory seeds, inhaling nitrous oxide from whipped cream canisters, licking toads, eating shrooms..etc...the list is long. Ecstasy, crack and marijuana were going to ruin the world.
Bath salts will come and they will go, to be replaced by the next mind altering substance. I just can't bring myself to worry too much about what someone else does to their self.
I voted NO because I believe
I voted NO because I believe the actual usage of this product in the general population is very low. However, the results it causes to the body, is the thing of sensational news articles. Most people are too smart to be playing around with this stuff. Those who do deserve the Darwin Award.
Regardless of ones views on
Regardless of ones views on the legalities of their use or possession, you can't deny the physical effects on the user which in turn create a public safety issue. If suddenly the chemical compounds were legal it wouldn't mean law enforcement and EMS personnel would no longer have to respond to incidents that arise from actions by users. If folks were acquiring bath salts, using them at home and we never heard about it again via medical emergencies and law enforcement interventions, then we have a debatable legal issue. When folks use the substance and exhibit radical and sometimes harmful behavior to themselves and others, it is a public safety issue and therefore a problem.
Quote: If suddenly the
Quote: If suddenly the chemical compounds were legal it wouldn't mean law enforcement and EMS personnel would no longer have to respond to incidents that arise from actions by users.
So, since alcohol is legal, the police and EMS don't have to respond to incidents that arise from actions by its users? Sheesh..they've been wasting their time all these years! :-) C'mon, really?
Edit: Hmmm....maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of what you said. That's been known to happen!
I think if you read it again
I think if you read it again you will see that he is saying that even if it were legal law enforcement and EMS would still have to respond.
I think any substance that
I think any substance that has side effects that bath salts have is a problem in any region. People eating others face soff, erraic behavior, etc.
"People eating others face
"People eating others face soff, erraic behavior, etc."
Just for the record, bath salts were not an issue in that case, according to coroner 's report.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/27/155867335/no-bath-salts-…
A person commented on that
A person commented on that article and left this link: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/30/156048262/synthetic-bath-salts-an-evolvin…
Seems that the tests ran may in fact be inconclusive
That article is about drug
That article is about drug screening, not the comprehensive kind of toxicology work up a medical examiner would do.
Doug, I'm hoping that you
Doug, I'm hoping that you misunderstood my point. What i was getting at is that legalizing a substance is not a panacea. This particular substance seems to be at the outset something very different from alcohol or marijuana. Given the effects attributed to it with it's relative narrow group of users, it's seems to be very dangerous. I'm not a kneejerk reaction, let's make a new law guy. We need to take real look at this stuff, it's affects, and decide if this is an impending public safety issue and address it accordingly.
Yep, I misunderstood. My
Yep, I misunderstood. My stance has always been that making drugs illegal just exacerbates the problems. Alcohol is legal and yes, we have lots of drunk driving arrests. On the flip, when alcohol was illegal, we still had drunk drivers but people died simply for the fact that it became the drug of choice for "drug dealers" to traffic. There were fewer vehicles and drivers and the population was much smaller, but the fact remains, prohibition caused more problems than it solved. Behaviors cannot be regulated.
Creating laws against bath salts or any other designer drug accomplishes what? It certainly doesn't make the substances any more difficult to obtain. All it accomplishes is giving people an arrest record along with the other problems that come along with the drugs impact on the user and society.
Someone said it earlier today that the bath salts problem is just the latest thing to grab the attention in the news. I'm pretty sure I read about more DWI arrests and alcohol related accidents than I do about incidents from bath salts....just sayin'...