On 2008-05-09, Baldoni <baldoniXX@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> A hit of crack would work out cheaper. Heroin would be cheaper and
> wouldn't string them out so much. The thing is it has been available
> to the middle class for years. As the price drops then it becomes more
> popular all over the place. I expect groups of kids are all chipping
> in to buy half a gramme. One line each if they are lucky.
A while ago, some Italian researchers decided to work out how much
cocaine is _actually_ being taken, by a rather devious route. They
worked out what happens to cocaine in a person's body, which is it
gets turned into something else and excreted in urine.
The metabolite only comes from cocaine, and the only natural source of
it is cocaine taken by people. So, work out how much metabolite is in
the sewage and you know how much cocaine is being taken per day by
people.
Turns out the figure is about ten times higher than any previous
research (all based on asking people and guesstimating an answer) had
said. Ordinarily, I'd be highly suspicious of such an outlying figure,
but here, what with this being the only quantitative study made and
all the rest being subject to huge re****ting bias, I'm inclined to
believe it.
This result (and the "Me Too!" one done in London, with similar
results) tells us a few things:
Firstly, the level and amount of cocaine use is much, much higher than
the Government thought.
Secondly, well over 95% of cocaine users are undetected by law
enforcement, medical science or anything.
Thirdly, the overwhelming majority of people who use cocaine suffer no
detectable ill effects from it (otherwise we'd know about it).
Finally, data from the police shows that the street price of cocaine
is going down. The number of users isn't likely to be decreasing, so
what is happening is that the amount of cocaine smuggled in is
increasing.
We're losing this war on drugs.
Let's try something different, please. Fighting a losing war that we
know we cannot win is incredibly stupid.
--
Dan Holdsworth PhD dan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, By the beans of Java
do thoughts acquire speed, hands acquire shaking, the shaking
becomes a warning, By caffeine alone do I set my mind in motion
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