Stupid news articles

[jalanjalan]

re. the case - Singapore Law Watch, Judgements section

And, I've met potheads. I grew up in Canada. Once I was at a school friend's house while her brother was getting high with his friends. She was scared and I felt really sorry for her. We couldn't have been more than 12 at the time. Singapore's tough drug laws have my full support.

[tiktok]

Thanks, found the appeal judgement but not the main case.

Being with high or drunk people when you're not can be scary. Especially if you're preconditioned to think drugs or alcohol are evil.

FWIW I smoked loads of pot it my youth and did a number of other drugs. Was never addicted, never in trouble with the law, got good grades, got a decent career, and had no negative health effects (certainly nothing as bad as a hangover).

[jalanjalan]

Thanks, found the appeal judgement but not the main case. Search by name.

Being with high or drunk people when you're not can be scary. Especially if you're preconditioned to think drugs or alcohol are evil.

FWIW I smoked loads of pot it my youth and did a number of other drugs. Was never addicted, never in trouble with the law, got good grades, got a decent career, and had no negative health effects (certainly nothing as bad as a hangover).

Both the original and the appeal are there.

I used to ride my bike at high speed without a helmet, and I never fell off and cracked my head. I freely confess I was an idiot to do so and damn lucky. Just a random thought

[sundaymorningstaple]

I think I did see an article about that, but then I discovered the earth was flat and got all worried about the oceans.

Maybe you should open your mind a bit. Go to Thailand and try some.

Jaysus, and take a chance on turning out like you? Heaven forbid. That would be a fate worse than death itself.

I love Singapore's draconian laws. It's clear and if you play you'll pay. If it means your life so be it. you knew the law before you did the crime. I only have feels for the parents but in most cases I think one will find that there wasn't a strong family support growing up either. Anybody who does illegal drugs or helps distribute illegal drugs deserves the gallows. I've often said if the US would enact a federal law (not state) regarding hanging for all drug crimes like Sg does, we would hang probably 150k the first year but you would see the pipeline dry up and we'd be much better for it. The whiners and crybabies who keep harping it should be legal ought to be hanged along with the dealers and users for aiding & abetting.

As far as the good it does? That is still an unproven option over the long term and the number of people that it harms far outweighs the number that it helps medically (without adverse side effects). No I've never tried it nor have I even been tempted to. I made enough mistakes taking my first taste of alcohol at 27 and lighting my first smoke of tobacco @ 21. Haven't had a smoke since December 2004 and rarely drink. Drugs aren't even on my radar screen. Am I a dinosaur of another age? Yep and damn proud of it.

[tiktok]

Well luckily most countries disagree, and the numbers are growing. Soon the drug-phobes will have nowhere to go.

One problem of your mass extinction strategy is wrongful convictions. They are frequent in the US and can take years to be discovered. Oh whoops, we made a mistake but now he's dead, never mind.

The most ignorant thing is treating all drugs the same. I've known heroin addicts and would never touch the stuff. But cannabis is a completely different thing and has a lot of benefits. There isn't much serious research done into those benefits because nobody will fund it, thanks to dinosaur attitudes. Catch 22.

[tiktok]

I used to ride my bike at high speed without a helmet, and I never fell off and cracked my head. I freely confess I was an idiot to do so and damn lucky. Just a random thought

Are you comparing the health risks of doing that to smoking pot? Can you point me to some stores of people dying or getting seriously injured from cannabis? Why are so many countries legalising it?

[sundaymorningstaple]

The most ignorant thing is treating all drugs the same. I've known heroin addicts and would never touch the stuff. But cannabis is a completely different thing and has a lot of benefits. There isn't much serious research done into those benefits because nobody will fund it, thanks to dinosaur attitudes. Catch 22.

No offense, but you really sound like a meme and drank too much of the koolaid. Hopefully, seeing how much you hate this place, you will save yourself and leave Singapore before you become a statistic if you are still using.

[tiktok]

Glad you like it here, cos it sounds like you have nowhere else to go I can't wait to get out of this autocratic dump.

No I haven't touched drugs or tobacco for years, but at least I know what I'm talking about.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Your talking doesn't sound like it to me and there is nothing stopping you from leaving. Your only valid excuse in the past three years is over. Me, yeah, I've started my own dynasty here. Both my kids (born here with dual citizenship) opted out for Sg and married Singaporean spouses. the two of them have given me 3.5 grandkids (will be four in mid July) Why would I want to leave, I only have one blood relative and her daughter on either side of my family left in the US and she will will probably not last another two years as she's been diagnosed with Stage IV Cirrhosis of the liver back in January. I'm quite okay here, active in a fair number of government programs as well. So from where I sit all I can say is don't let the door hit you in the arse on your way out. We obviously don't need your type here.

[tiktok]

Thanks for yet more of your life story (yawn).

[jalanjalan]

I used to ride my bike at high speed without a helmet, and I never fell off and cracked my head. I freely confess I was an idiot to do so and damn lucky. Just a random thought

Are you comparing the health risks of doing that to smoking pot? Can you point me to some stores of people dying or getting seriously injured from cannabis? Why are so many countries legalising it?

sure:

Pediatric hospitalizations caused by cannabis poisoning doubled in provinces that legalized edibles: study
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/pediatric ... -1.6229526

It's not just about adults willingly taking the risk, is it? It's the effect it has on everyone in society. Families, healthcare workers, people who have to wait in ERs because the addicts who overdid it and accidental poisonings are taking up beds... need I go on?

Why do countries legalise it? Why do you think... $$$

[tiktok]

That's a case of irresponsible parents not watching their kids - sad but not surprising. Many more kids end up in the hospital from drinking alcohol at home.

Again, cannabis is NOT ADDICTIVE. It does not cause antisocial behaviour. It does not break up families. It does not incur a burden on the healthcare system. You cannot overdose on it.

It's not just my experience. I know several successful people who habitually smoke pot. One is a lawyer, another a business owner.

I am not encouraging anyone to go out and try it. Just don't be misinformed.

[malcontent]

I grew up in hickville, USA and I couldn’t walk around town without stumbling across some potheads… including plenty of my friends, classmates and even family members.

They taught us all about drugs in high school. Uppers, downers, addiction levels and health consequences. Mary Jane is a downer and is mildly addictive, but has around double the number of carcinogens as cigs… yeah, real healthy!

The comparison to alcohol is somewhat valid, because I’ve also known many people who only smoked pot on occasion (like a casual drinker) but that does not mean you can’t become a pothead (like an alcoholic). Potheads lose all ambition in life and just want to exist in a perpetually stoned state and do as little as possible to sustain that. I’ve seen it so many times, in real life.

The biggest problem I see with legalization is the second hand smoke in public is annoying. We experienced it plenty of times in our recent travels to the US. Daddy, what is that skunk smell? Well kiddo, someone is smoking pot nearby… ain’t that grand?

And to say it’s not a gateway drug really hits home for me because I have a family member who is now dead, and it all started with pot. But that is a heartbreaking story for another time.

[Lisafuller]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... n-near-nuh

Wow, this must be the only country where not only do they report random graffiti in the news, but they close off the area where it happened.

Meanwhile a potentially innocent man lost his life in Singapore today. No need to report on that, ST.

maybe because vandalism is a crime?

and what's your evidence for the second point? Did you read the case? it's online for anyone to see.

I believe the point being made is that the focus is on the wrong issue in SG.

[Lisafuller]

I'm not saying that drugs of any kind should be legal in Singapore, but if you feel that effort should be focused on raising a happy, healthy population, I'd say that what they've been doing thus far hasn't exactly been working.

Happiness is a tricky thing to measure. That means it's also hard to address if someone is unhappy, as you have to unpack this on the individual level. I see in my work that a very large part of individual unhappiness is in how people think and respond, and the immediate environment they find themselves in (eg family, workplace). It isn't primarily systemic nor unique to Singapore. We share a lot of the same societal pressures as most developed countries. And I don't think any sane person would want to throw even the slim chance of drug addiction into the mix if we don't have to.
As to whether efforts are working for encouraging a happy, healthy population... I'd say we've made enormous progress in the last 25 yrs, and I know personally how much effort goes into this and how hard people work to make it happen.

I'm an unashamed optimist.

I appreciate your optimism, and I'd like to indulge in it too, but unfortunately, I'm a bit of a realist in this situation. Living in singapore, there's a sense of rigidity that pervades society, everybody's uptight and stressed all the time, we are constantly in competition with each other, and working ourselves to the bone, for god knows what reason. I definitely agree that we're happier than some other countries in the region that are riddled with crime and other systemic issues, but I think it's a stretch to say that people are happy.