addiction

A Temple Goddess, you are right in that crime does correspond to drug and alcohol abuse. Partly because of higher incidence of violence, theft, and DUI, and partly because of "lesser" crimes like possession of substance and random acts of stupidity. There however seems to be a trend in law enforcement to shift away from the small time possession arrests where no one is getting hurt to the DUI arrests in which a carload of teenagers get killed rather frequently. DUI is a problem much greater than simple drug possession here.

The debate over this issue is being fought in courtrooms and city council chambers across America. The police are still making the arrests when crime is involved, but not as regularly for simple possession. In America, the Feds are the FBI, the DEA and other 3 letter agencies. They are the ones that don't care about us...unless you like to sell or traffic drugs.

In my Apprenticeship training we were talking about freedom and guidance. The idea that, freedom is what we do within the framework of the social system in which we choose to live dictates. If we want to be free from violence caused by drug and gang activities, we must choose between our personal desires vs the good of the community. Although I loose some freedom, I choose a safe community. If I am not breaking the laws, the police have no interest in me.

Oh, by the way...Big Brother IS watching! Just stay out of camera view.

Whenever something is illegal, it fuels other illegal activities. drugs are expensive, have no quality control. Help finance human trafficking, illegal arms running. Now try and mix bath salts (it will happen soon) to your coke and buy whores, cheap migrant workers and smuggle weapons with the fruit of your labour when there is a huge tax trail on your activities... You can't. Well you can try, and then get arrested. And since your junk doesnt get ceased by the police and there's more competition (which you can't run out of town the 'regular' way), prices go down and so does crime.

I keep saying legalize drugs, like I say legalize "conceal and carry"...

Darwin's Law will sort things out...

Now, bath salts....

I keep saying legalize drugs, like I say legalize "conceal and carry"...

Me too. Which means dont legalize everything, and certainly dont allow every whacko in town to arm himself. self-harm for entertainment is one thing, ripping a guy's face off is another.

I'm pretty sure bath salts are the same thing as mephedrone which is actually quite a messed up drug, of the various drugs I have tried this is the only one that I actually think should be illegal. However, scaremongering news reports like that are pretty stupid, I can assure you that you don't gain superhuman strength...

Only mushrooms give you superpowers. Last time I took some, I ended up the first man on mars and it only took me five minutes to get there. :whistle:

Don't miss http://www.orange-papers.org/ Analysis of Alcoholics Anonymous and Substance Misuse Recovery Programs, and Real Recovery.

Alcohol acts on the serotonin receptors in your brain and chronic alcohol abuse can suppress your body's natural serotonin production. A medical professional told me that once you reach this state rapid withdrawl can easily kill you. We didn't go into much further detail than that since I'm not a drinker but it showed me that there are more than just mental factors in addiction.
Sadly enough most people I know are addicted to sugar. Not even just simple sugars, if they do not have regular carbohydrates of some sort they can not function. I'd say that definitely qualifies as an addiction, though it also shows a lack of willpower and discipline.