Gateway crap

[Tom]

How cannabis led my boy to become a heroin addict

 

CANNABIS has, for decades, been seen in some quarters as nothing more than a hippy drug. Whether they call it ganja, weed, dope, grass, many people insist it's a harmless way to unwind.

 

At one stage it appeared even the Government was leaning towards that view too - in 2004, laws against cannabis were relaxed. It was declassified and made a class C drug.

Advert for SuperScotCasino

 

But in recent months alarming evidence has emerged about its side-effects, particularly the link to psychosis and mental illness - one modern derivation of cannabis, skunk, is ten times stronger than the homegrown pot smoked back in the 1960s and '70s.

 

And last month the chief constable of Merseyside police condemned the "softly, softly" approach now taken towards cannabis.

 

Perhaps most worryingly, cannabis may be a gateway drug to addiction to such substances as heroin and cocaine. Here an Edinburgh mother and son tell their stories of how one joint led to a three-year battle with heroin.

THE MOTHER

 

NEVER did Bernadette* imagine that it could happen to her family. But the 45-year-old's youngest son Paul* went from being a happy, outgoing teenager who loved football, golf and skiing to a thug who threatened them with knives, smashed the windows of their car and regularly stole from them.

 

Paul was just 11 when he tried cannabis and he quickly became hooked. Soon he was smoking the drug every day for hours on end.

 

"If someone had ever said that Paul would go from that happy boy to taking drugs, I would have said 'no way'," says the Colinton mother.

 

"I felt every emotion possible. I was shocked that my son was smoking hash - but that I could have coped with. You just don't think much of hash and it's not seen as a big deal.

 

"It started with small changes in his appearance. He didn't care how he looked anymore.

 

"Then things started going missing in the house. It was small things at first and I didn't think much of it, but then bigger things disappeared, such as jewellery, DVDs, the PlayStation, even the televisions."

 

Paul, just 15, started demanding money too, and became verbally and physically abusive if he didn't get it. He even stole from his grandmother and skipped school daily, despite Bernadette and her husband changing their work patterns so they could drive him to and from school.

 

"His moods became really bad and I just didn't understand it," says Bernadette. "We stopped giving him money because I knew something was up. I suspected he was taking drugs, but I didn't know what. My husband and I would ask him but he'd deny it."

 

What they didn't know was that Paul, at the age of just 14, had moved from smoking cannabis to taking heroin - and now had a £180 a day habit to feed.

 

"We kept on asking him if it was drugs and it got to the point where he couldn't deny it anymore. He had been a fit, healthy boy and he ended up grey, skinny and spotty, with his hoodie always up. It was horrible for us to see.

 

"It got to the stage that we couldn't let him in the house - he would just steal anything and everything. He stole my wedding ring, mobile phones, TVs, DVD players, computer games. But still he denied it. My husband and I were just gutted - we blamed ourselves. We didn't know where he was, where he was living, what he was doing. I didn't know if he'd been fed or washed. It was so hard as a mum, I can't begin to explain."

 

After Paul was banned from his home, he kept returning to steal. "I came home from work one day and noticed that the paint was flaking from the front door. It transpired that he'd put the door in to get inside while we were out, and the whole frame had come away. So he could still get access and put the door back afterwards without us knowing."

 

She continues: "I became too scared to be away from the house for any length of time. It badly affected the family. It put a strain on my marriage, but we were strong enough to get through it. Paul was just a different person.

 

"As a parent I questioned myself. Was it my fault? Where did I go wrong? Even then I didn't know he was on heroin, I assumed it would be hash," she says. "I haven't got a clue about drugs. You could put them in front of me and I wouldn't even know.

 

"Even when he finally told me, I still didn't know how bad it was and how dangerous it was. But by his appearance and his attitude I sensed it was bad. I just knew we had to do something about it."

 

Last summer Bernadette brought her son home and forced him to go "cold turkey", but he was soon back on heroin. Eventually Bernadette rang Hype, the Help for Young People in Edinburgh support service.

 

"We started going to Hype but he wouldn't keep his appointments - it was so frustrating."

 

Eventually, however, Paul was prescribed a heroin substitute and he began detoxifying just six weeks ago. "I've seen a great change in him," she says. "It'll take a long time to build up the trust, but we'll get there.

 

"I've learned so much. I've realised how easy it is to get sucked in. People need to be made aware of just how rife drug taking is. It's there even in primary schools. And I blame cannabis for Paul moving on to heroin. He became addicted to the effect of it and needed a stronger hit. You can't say hash doesn't lead on to other things."

THE SON

 

"THE worst thing I stole was a policeman's wallet," admits the 17-year-old. "And the thing I'm most ashamed about was mugging people and taking women's handbags.

 

"I did anything I could to fund my habit. I managed to get £1000 from a shop till once and I spent that within two and a half days. I just didn't care about anything."

 

Heroin was all Paul thought about for almost three years, not the two years his mum believes. And his £180 daily habit grew from a single joint which he smoked when he was 11. His older brother gave him it to try when he was in primary school and he liked the effect. "I was already smoking by then so I thought, 'why not'?"

 

He continues: "I started stealing to buy hash within a few months, and anyone who says hash isn't addictive is lying. It is. I was smoking it every day, all day. I just liked it - I liked being stoned."

 

Three years on, when his brother had long since stopped, Paul was still smoking the drug but he no longer got a hit. And so, a friend suggested he smoke heroin. "I can't explain what the feeling was like. It was kind of instantly addictive because of the hit. I started smoking it every day and within two weeks I was addicted and had withdrawals if I didn't smoke it.

 

"I didn't go to school at all. The way I saw it was that if I was there, I couldn't smoke.

 

"My parents said I'd changed, but I didn't know. Heroin takes over your mind and your body. It's the drugs that make you say and do things. You'll just say and do anything to get your next hit."

 

His weight had dropped from 11 stone to just eight. His long-term girlfriend and mother of his baby son was also a heroin user, as were all his friends.

 

"I wanted to come off the heroin but I didn't want to stay away from my girlfriend - but she was on it too. So every time I went to see her I ended up back on it."

 

It wasn't until six weeks ago that Paul finally managed to stop, having been prescribed heroine substitute subutex. He cut all ties with his social group, ended his relationship with his girlfriend and moved home.

 

"Coming off it was horrible. When you see folk coming off it in the films you think it's an exaggeration, but it's not. The pills have helped and I just got my first job last week."

 

And Paul believes that it was the cannabis which led him to the heroin. "I became addicted to the stoned effect and when I stopped getting it I moved on to heroin. Other folk did it too - but others didn't."

 

*Names have been changed

SOME HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT A 'SOFT' DRUG

 

CANNABIS has often been deemed a "soft" drug - compared to "hard" heroin and cocaine - and in 2004 it was downgraded it from a class B to a class C illegal drug. Government ministers argued its new status would give police more scope to tackle hard drugs.

 

No-one argues that cannabis does not have an effect on the body. It contains more than 400 chemicals, but the main ingredient is THC which interferes with the normal brain functions. Users often experience effects such as talkativeness, cheerfulness, relaxation and light-headedness.

 

But argument rages around whether cannabis is dangerous both in itself - because of its links to mental illness - and because it leads to the taking of other drugs, such as heroin.

 

Earlier this month, an 18-year-old was detained in a mental health unit after stabbing a grandmother to death in London while high on skunk, a high-strength form of cannabis. Less than a month before, a school cleaner who had repeatedly smoked cannabis was found guilty of murdering his two friends in a knife attack in Berkshire.

 

Experts say cannabis use in those under 18 doubles the risk of psychosis and studies show an increased instance of schizophrenia in users.

 

And the link between cannabis and class A drugs is becoming stronger. Last month, Lothian and Borders Police arrested more than 80 suspected drug dealers. Drugs recovered included heroin, cocaine and cannabis.

 

And last September and October saw £11,000 worth of drugs seized, with cannabis sitting side by side with heroin and cocaine.

 

Author: SARAH HOWDEN (showden@edinburghnews.com)

Date: Mon 9 Apr 2007

Source: Scotsman.com

Copyright: ©2007 Scotsman.com

 

It's worth going to this article and reading the hammering it cops in the comments section: http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=545052007

 

[mull]

Classic case of BS syndrome! (blame shift)

[torture]

I wish these stories would provide links to these so called reports that claim psychosis and mental illness. To date i dont think ive seen one "scientific" study that can prove any of this, its just hearsay and assumptions and we all know assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups!

 

Get a grip guys!

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

I'm sorry Tom, I haven't time to read the post, but can't avoid posting something very obvious just the same.

 

First, not so obvious perhaps, is that I somked grass from grade 8 onward, and had no interest, indeed abject fear of any other drug. Although I suppose I did try a couple thingsa s akid, they weren't me style.

 

My current addiction to opiates came from legal quarters.

Because my back problem is a delciate one, and without private insurace to bait a competant surgeon to give it a go, and no ay the public health system wanting to now about it, they just put me on opiates to deal with their lack of a system to help e. I don't really blame them, life is life, shit happens, all that...they dont owe me anything.

 

but the reality is, they started me (and I am grateful in some ways), on opiates. I've been up to my back teeth in the grass scene all my life, and stillhave no met a person that (so far as I know) has a half decent connectoion to score opiates even if we tried!

So we're's the connection?

 

In all the time I've ben absent from here (this site), I've hung on a popular opioate site, initially to fid out what dangers I was in using certan prescribed opaites.

 

The distain that exists between opiate users and grass smokers is blaatant, and something even that fool who begun this gateway theory (he yankie FBI agent who was their prohibition expert..amn what's his name) testified under oath.

 

One year he testified no connecion existed, and that in fact the users of the two drugs seperated themselves from each other, and 12 months later, when booze was legal, and he was loosing his job, tesitfied that grass led to heroin, seriousmeasures need to be undertaken. (what is that liars name?)

 

A thread was run on the opiate site i mentioned, asking how long it's been since anyone smoked grass. Many never had.

 

How this lies continues is truly a testimony to the ignorance of modern/post modern thinking.

Mindless minnions over-opinionated on matters they dont understand.

 

cheers tom

 

rob

[wildflower]

its as simple as this...

 

Punkass Child - "Mummy it was the cannabis!" *relief*

Bad Parent - "Yes It was!" *relief*

 

Punkass Child & Bad Parent - "Lets go to the media to reinforce our self denial! YES LETS!" *jumping up and down with hysterical joy*

 

*mother and son skipping of the the sunset hand in hand*

*the end*

[Jess Stone]

Best bit of fiction I've read in a while ,it should be entered into The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award comedy section.

 

No they meant to say it's Nicotine/tobacco that's the number 1 gateway drug

Nicotine as a 'gateway' drug

 

No they got confused what they really meant was Alcohol is the main gateway drug

 

No,no they really meant to say Alcohol and Nicotine together are gateway drugs

 

No,I swear to god this really is the truth ,Caffeine is the number 1 gateway drug

 

Now this time what I'm telling IS the truth - Marijuana is NOT a gateway drug

 

How many cans of Coca Cola does it take to kill you? 331.91 cans of "Coke" to be precise !

or

If Red Bull is your poison , who many will it take to commit suicide? 141.06 cans of Red Bull ! and thats no bull

 

And to keep up the tradition of COCA Cola they still add extracts from the COCA or COCAINE plant from Peru

[Cause_I_Got_HIgh]

Wat a Load of f**king bullshit

[Vicious]

I love how they've closed the commenting for the article. What? Upset that society doesn't believe their bullshit anti-pot propaganda and isn't afraid to tell them about it?

[Al Fish]

Lies can get around the World twice before Truth can get its boots on!

 

Paul probably used soft drink before he tried Marijuana, so going back to first principles and cause and effect it was soft drink that lead him to drugs. Same thing happened to me. There I was happily and ignorantly drinking soft drink and all of a sudden I’m smoking dope! Before soft drink it was vegemite and tea. Everything I ate or drank lead me to dope!

 

“Earlier this month, an 18-year-old was detained in a mental health unit after stabbing a grandmother to death in London while high on skunk…” Wow. Skunk must be performance enhancing because I couldn’t stab anyone to death when I’m high as a kite – better things to do.

 

“But argument rages around whether cannabis is dangerous both in itself - because of its links to mental illness…” Looking back I had F.I.T.H. Syndrome pretty bad, but dope fixed that. (Fucked In The Head Syndrome is more common than most care to admit. Just look around.)

 

“Experts say cannabis use in those under 18 doubles the risk of psychosis and studies show an increased instance of schizophrenia in users.” This however does not stop Doctors prescribing Ritalin to kids – some of whom have died of Cardiac arrest!