David, David, David

[Dale]

This is seriously just a shame. This addiction stuff just plagues the human race

NEW YORK (AP) -- Musician David Crosby was arrested on marijuana and gun possession charges early Saturday at a Times Square hotel, police said.

Crosby, 62, a two-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had checked out of the hotel but left a piece of luggage behind, police said.

A hotel worker found the bag and went through it looking for identification, and called police after finding marijuana, a .45-caliber handgun and two knives, authorities said.

Crosby was met by police when he returned to pick up the bag, investigators said.

Crosby, a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, had been performing at the B.B. King Blues Club off Times Square and at Shea Auditorium in Wayne, New Jersey.

In 1985 he was convicted of drug possession in Dallas and spent a year in prison before his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Calls seeking comment from Crosby's management company were not immediately returned Saturday.

[Nanohedron]

I'm sure the ganja was just for seasoning his sandwiches.

[Blackbeer]

What plagues the human race Dale are sensless laws.

Tom

[Roh]

What plagues the human race Dale are sensless laws.

Tom

Agree

[mcfeeley]

[quote="DaleWisely"]This is seriously just a shame. This addiction stuff just plagues the human race

I think Dale is coming from/reacting from a perspective that is a bit more serious than a 62 year old rocker getting caught with a little weed in his suitcase. Dale is a clinical psychologist, and I'm assuming he is in constant contact with more severe cases of addiction, more so than an aged rocker toking a few now and then.

I feel much the same -- I do emergency room psychiatric intake where the serious side of addiction is an almost daily experience. I've told more than one person "If you don't quit, you're going to die," only to read their obituary some time down the road. I've told this to alcoholics, who have replied to me, "I *have* to do it, I have kids," showing me pictures of their kids. They're dead now. Wouldn't surprise me if Dale has done the same with his clients.

Yikes, this is getting too serious for me. Time to practice a few tunes.

[Walden]

What plagues the human race Dale are sensless laws.

Tom

Agree

Recreational use of marihuana as an intoxicant is a serious problem, and legalizing it will not help matters.

[chas]

I've told this to alcoholics, who have replied to me, "I *have* to do it, I have kids," showing me pictures of their kids.

They have kids so they have to drink? I find this absolutely bizarre, but it's not uncommon in the US. There's a large fraction of the adult populace who are workaholics in an effort to get away from home. If your family life is so awful that you have to drink or go to work to get away from it, something has to change. I look forward to going to work most days, but I look forward to getting home every day.

[Roh]

Recreational use of marihuana as an intoxicant is a serious problem, and legalizing it will not help matters.

/agree here

I was posting more generalized then on topic in /agreeing with sensless laws, sorry for lack of clarification

Getting a ticket for having the ball hitch on my truck slightly blocking the liscence plate doesnt make me feel all warm and fuzzy, especially when its in the manufacturer designed space.

[Tony]

Recreational use of marihuana as an intoxicant is a serious problem....

What are your views for use in business then?

[Bretton]

Recreational use of marihuana as an intoxicant is a serious problem, and legalizing it will not help matters.

No more so (and I think less so) than recreational use of alcohol as an intoxicant.

The specific intoxicant involved is not really what's important. There are plenty of people who use intoxicating substances recreationally and responsibly (legal or not). Unfortunately, there are others who have physical and/or mental problems that make using intoxicating substances a bad choice.

I also think in many cases the term "recreational use" is incorrect, and the person is really self medicating for a psychiatric problem that could also be treated with other safer and possibly more effective medications.

-Brett

[Dale]

I did mean to refer to addiction in general, not marijuana in particular. Although I disapprove of marijuana, I find myself in the awkward position of agreeing with those who say it is less problematic a drug than is alcohol.

One of the greatest collective delusions on the planet is the separation of alcohol use and abuse from drug use and abuse. It is a fascinating exercise in denial.

Depending upon frame of reference, alcohol, it can be argued, is the worst drug on the planet.

If the question is this--if I were to go out today and do some drug of abuse (including alcohol among the drugs of abuse), alcohol would probably not be the worse. Crack cocaine, PCP, heroin, there's lots of candidates for worst drugs from that perspective.

But if the question is posed from a global point of reference---Which substance on the planet (not counting money) has done the most damage on a global scale, it is alcohol. There can be no serious argument about this.

But, furthermore, even from the individual point of reference of what addiction can do for person, alcohol addiction is about as bad as it gets. It damages the body in ways that even nasty things like Oxycotin and morphine just won't do.

The man who taught me about substance abuse, a recovering alcoholic psychologist, made this shocking claim--and then convinced me he was right about it. He said that given a gun-to-the-head choice between being actively addicted to alcohol or actively addicted to heroin, he would choose heroin. The devil, of course, is in the details. If the choice was between alcohol and heroin the way heroin has to be used by addicts, he says he'd take the bullet. Heroin, under those circumstances, is dirty, unpredictable, and illegal. And that's where most of the problems, including the fatalities, come in.

If the choice was between freely provided, clean, pharmaceutical grade heroin, or alcohol, he'd pick heroin in a minute. Heroin, used that way, would be a crappy thing, but it simply wouldn't have the impact on the body that chronic alcoholism has.

[lixnaw]

i've heard marijuana works as a pain killer for cancer patients.
but i also believe that the spirit of that plant is stronger than most human spirits...

there's also a big difference in using certain drugs or alcohol for fun and socializing
but this usually leads to people using it on their own, to forget...wich only makes things worse

i never liked drugs, but i used to like a few pints in company.
i'm stoned enough without drugs and i blame these f****** burke composites!!

[Wombat]

Probably most of us have some degree of dependence on something. Perhaps alcohol or marijuana. Perhaps caffeine or nicotine. Perhaps a prescription drug. I suppose it would be good for the body to have no level of dependence at all but I seriously wonder how many people manage this. I can go most of the day without caffeine. I can work until well into the afternoon without so much as a single cup of tea. I allow myself one cup of coffee a day and once discovered that I'd bought decaf by mistake and had been drinking it for a month without having noticed. I think this is unusual. But I would miss caffeine if I didn't eventually have a cup of tea.

I have no idea how much you have to consume to be addicted to something or how much of a struggle it has to be to do without. I see nothing in the report which started this thread to suggest that Crosby was addicted to marijuana and I can't see why it was used to launch a discussion of addiction, however sensible. Mightn't Crosby have a take it or leave it attitude to the drug? Isn't that possible? I don't see why not.

Talking to (and reading) medical professionals I get the impression that if you have, say, three standard drinks every day or perhaps a six pack or a bottle of wine on the weekend you are an alcoholic, even if you can happily do without at other times and even do without completely without distress if forced to miss a day or week or a few months. This is nothing like alcoholism as I thought I once understood it and as I think the general public still understands it. Is this just propaganda, or are there good reasons to be this rigorous in defining alcoholism? I'm curious to know; I was a once a week drinker who would drink more than the limit for driving but wouldn't get drunk, but haven't drunk alcohol at all for quite a while now.

[fancypiper]

I use mj for pain relief from mild attacks of my Crohn's disease and it works much better than any prescribed narcotics my doctor has prescribed. In fact, my physician mentioned it as a possibility but said he couldn't supply or prescribe it.

The narcotics, including oxy-contin, wern't as effective in pain relief and the side effects (upchucking, "drunk" feeling, clumsy, etc) made it impossible for me to withstand. How can someone get hooked on that?? It certainly wasn't enjoyable, it was absolutely miserable. I hate getting the dry heaves that just won't quit.

If I use mj, I have very little side effects if it is an effective pain variety, otherwise I get the mj "buzz" which I can tolerate and actually seems to make me enjoy music more or my ears can catch something unnoticed before. I do lose track of time when I have side effects.

When I don't need it, it stays in the freezer and I don't actually crave or want it. I will use it socially if a recreational user friend drops by, though.

I just wish it wasn't illegal.

I would say it is much less addictive than tobacco. I started using tobacco at age 6, started quitting at age 16 in 1956, used my last tobacco Januarary 8, 1991. I finally could quit quitting tobacco!

[mcfeeley]

I've told this to alcoholics, who have replied to me, "I *have* to do it, I have kids," showing me pictures of their kids.

They have kids so they have to drink? I find this absolutely bizarre, but it's not uncommon in the US.

Sorry I wasn't clear here -- they were saying "I have to do it," i.e., have to give up the alcohol, for the sake of their children.

Follow through is so important -- it didn't happen, in spite of their very sincere vows. Like I said, they're dead now.