33 thoughts on “You Just See Lights Then Realise

      1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

        The Supersizers. Great show. I find Giles attractively odious. He’s a right plonker, but I like him.

        1. Janet, I ate my Avatar

          I know
          he’s bangable I’m a weird way
          a love to hate thing
          kind of a magnetic arrogance one would like to temper

        2. DeKloot

          Watched him and the lady from Masterchef rattle around Ashford Castle the other night, Very enjoyable stuff…

  1. fergalfurious

    I have a better idea. Get every civil servant to provide a hair sample every 90 days.
    Do random testing for class A drugs and targeted testing on anyone acting the flute.
    Sack and confiscate the pension of every one of them that fails.
    The cartels would be on skid row, government productivity would skyrocket and our tax money wouldn’t be funding a bunch of bone-idle skagheads and cokefiends.

    1. scottser

      civil servants aren’t drug users for the most part, they just have better things to be doing than working. if you want the drug users then look at the private sector and unemployed – there’s clearly a problem with having too many or too few deadlines to meet.

      1. fergalfurious

        “civil servants aren’t drug users for the most part”
        Debatable, but certainly lots of them are.

        1. scottser

          i would love it it leo posted here.
          in fact, he probably does for the laugh.
          i wonder who it is?

    2. Anomanomanom

      A certain pub, back in the day, that a lot of judges, lawyer types drank in was a haven for out in full view drug taking. I know doctors that when out on the lash regularly do cocaine. And years ago two off duty garda who we met at witness(music festival) openly sold and used drugs.

      1. scottser

        i don’t doubt it. both AGS and the legal profession are renowned for their intake and extra-curricular activities

  2. Listrade

    Funnily enough, I was doing a thing this morning for work on drugs legislation. Seven Acts of the Oireachtas dealing with it. 7. Sure, isn’t it the EUs fault we have overly officious, bureaucratic legislation? Seems we all do a good job of overly complex criminalisation ourselves.

    It’s clear why the Gardai are always so specific on “street value” as over €13K and mandatory 10 year sentences kick in.

    Anyway, 2015 there were 15,119 “drug” convictions. 695 people died in that year from “drugs”. That includes alcohol and prescription drugs, it also includes suicides. It includes someone reacting badly to medication. It isn’t easily broken down into “illegal drug” or “illegal use”. We don’t know how many were as a result of quality issues or contamination. But simply, for every person that died, 21 were convicted of an offence. 75% of those were for possession and use. Forget the big drugs busts that make the front page, they only account for 25%.

    As a comparison, in 2015 there were 14 convictions for breaches of workplace health and safety offences. 46 people were killed as a result of a workplace fatality. That’s 0.3 people convicted for every fatality. None went to prison.

    What are odds I’ll die or kill someone for (hypothetically) using a small amount of cannabis (medicinal of course)? First time I’m caught, it could be a €1,270 fine. Second time €2,540. Third time 12 months in prison.

    What are the odds I’ll die or kill someone for (hypothetically) speeding in my car (dealer was going on holidays). I can get caught 4 times at €80 a pop before I lose my licence (unless I wait 3 years between getting caught).

    It’s a mess. Comparisons above aren’t to state anything other than how do certain offences compare. The response of the likes of Portugal and Spain seem to be the most sensible. For all the headline news about big drug busts, we’re still punishing the minor offences.

    The current policy isn’t based on risk, David Nutt showed that. It’s based on emotion.

    1. fergalfurious

      I envy your naivete if you think that deaths caused by drugs are the problem.
      Hard drug users are a menace to those around them in all sorts of ways.
      Cannabis being illegal while alcohol isn’t is completely daft of course.

      1. Listrade

        I don’t. It’s a comparison point is all. I haven’t researched the “menace” aspect as again, alcohol plays a part, but also it can be argued that the “menace” owes as much to the illegality of the substances as the use of the substances.

        The “public health” aspect is the main reasoning for legislation and criminalisation. It is for our own good that these are illegal. Criminalisation isn’t linked to “menace” it is linked to health and mortality.

        1. fergalfurious

          A few hundred Euro worth of high-purity cocaine or heroin can turn women into prostitutes for a large part of their lives. Alcohol not so much.

          1. Listrade

            Stats to show that? Stats that show it is the substance that drove the lifestyle and not access to it being withheld once a person is addicted?

          2. fergalfurious

            “Stats that show it is the substance that drove the lifestyle and not access to it being withheld once a person is addicted?”
            Women high on cocaine will sleep with any troglodyte they come across.
            Source: life experience.
            If you’re arguing that women should be free to chemically turn themselves into faceblind nymphomaniacs I’ll have to disagree.

          3. Listrade

            Journalist to Peter Crouch, “What would you be if you weren’t a footballer?”
            Crouch, “A virgin”.

            Criminalise soccer as it turns women into “faceblind nymphomaniacs”.

            If you’re saying that the reason to ban drugs is women get horny, then we’ll have to disagree.

          4. fergalfurious

            I should have added talentblind as well. Add any attribute that a mentally normal woman would find attractive to the list.

  3. Jimmey_russell

    only crazy tinfoil hat wearing morons would say something like “if you tested every gardai coming on duty monday morning half the force would pop for coke at the very least”. We need to continue to go after the supply of drugs and major dealers only defeatists say things like “reducing supply makes the average hit more expensive, causing junkies to mug and snatch from innocent people even more than they usually do”, they are just petty crimes and in the grand scheme of things do not matter.

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