Cutting Out The ‘Dodgy Guy On A Corner’

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Economist Dan O’Brien

This morning.

On RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Sean O’Rourke.

Economist Dan O’Brien spoke about the benefits of legalising cannabis.

He said:

“People are getting sick because they take drugs, just as people are getting sick because they drink too much or abuse alcohol.

“We tax alcohol, a lot of money is raised from alcohol. We’re not currently taxing drugs. We tax the drugs so we can pay, we’ve more resources to pay for the health outcomes…

“...I would say tax it heavily. Don’t tax it to the point where the gap between the price in a shop and the price from a dealer is such that people do go to the dealer. That needs to be considered, just as it does need to be considered with smoking and alcohol.

“But a lot of money could be raised on this.

“I think, overall, people would prefer to buy something from a pharmacy that they know is a reliable product than to buy it from some dodgy guy on a corner in a bag that they don’t even know what they’re getting.”

Listen back in full here

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20 thoughts on “Cutting Out The ‘Dodgy Guy On A Corner’

  1. postmanpat

    the guy “on the corner”, (ohhh watch out for the boogey man!!) is only dodgy because the drug he is selling is illegal. As for, “don’t know what ..” your getting? does it look , smell, taste and have the same effects as cannabis? well guess what? its cannabis. Oh no! the dodgy guy on the corner gave me a fair deal!! someone call the cops!!

    1. Rob_G

      You sound like a fellow who has never bought a 10-spot of soap bar, all filled with bits of plastic and what have you.

      1. millie st murderlark

        Ah that’s crap Rob. Sounds like you were caught out.

        Only buy the bud and then you’re set.

          1. postmanpat

            Relax. We are living in the golden age of local grow house buds. Those dark days of crappy hash with the weird plastic marbling going through it are well past us. God bless the illegal farmers.

          2. Clampers Outside!

            Ah yes, “brick form” wrapped in tinfoil, a rectangular box :)

            I went to make a purchase in the Harbour Bar, owned by Delores Keane at the time, in Galway back in my college days in the early 90s.

            It was a notoriously rough pub / early house… known for the doob.

            I’d gone in, early afternoon, stepping over a bar stool, broken glass and a spotted trail of blood leading away from the pool table just to the right of the door. 

            An earlier fracas, I thought, but the place seemed quiet now, maybe five or six people and the barmaid in it. A barmaid, as was the term back then, whom I worked with in Tig Neachtains a year or so later. I digress…

            I’d never bought off anyone in a pub, not like this one, before. But I thought I’d give it a go. I was feeling brazen.

            I sat at the bar, ordered a pint and waited, looking about nonchalantly, as I felt I could best pretend to, to be at home there. 

            I was supping away, when a guy, much older and beefier than my sprightly 20 years sat beside me. We chatted for a bit, or I did, randomly, for about five mins, he peering over his paper now and then. I decided to go for it, and asked if he knew where I’d get a ten spot (maybe 20, can’t recall exactly).

            He replied, “I’ll sort that for you, I’ll pop out the back”. 

            He did that, heading out to the loo, and reappearing a few mins later.

            He sat back in his stool, picked up his paper, and while pinching it with two fingers opened the other three to drop a tinfoil covered rectangle box into my hand. All the time, eyeing me to keep it hush hush.

            “Put the money on the bar by the paper” he said. “Finish your pint and leave”.

            I did as instructed, delighted with myself, leaving the end of the pint, I didn’t want anyway. I had what I wanted now.

            Heart racing, I left the pub and walked up around the corner to inspect my purchase.

            A piece of wood. I was livid! The guys in the flat are expecting a doob! I said f*** it, and headed back in to the bar.

            Himself was still there, and the last of my pint too. I sat back in my seat, picked up the pint and finished it. And before I could check myself, and what the hell I was thinking, I threw the bit of wood down by the paper and said, quietly enough, “what the hell do ya call that”.

            Before I knew it, the guy was turning in his stool and his arm swung wide with a closed fist that connected with my head, crunching my glasses into my face, sending me flyin’ off the stool to the floor… my glasses too. 

            I looked up from the floor, pool table ahead of me I could see my glasses a few feet away, and as quick as I could, taking a boot or two to my sides, and her man yelling something at me, I scrambled on all fours picking up my glasses and like some hound going from ground to a jump I cleared over the pool table not daring to look back, and out the door, my mangled glasses in my hand…. My heart pounded like crazy, and in a weird way, I felt impressed with how I cleared over the pool table, for had I not I think I may have taken a few more hits…

            I got back to the flat, no doob, and down much needed few bob. “Ya feckin’ eejit, ya couldn’t been kilt!”, they all agreed.

            I was to live with the nickname “myname wood” for the rest of that summer…. ahhh the stupidity of yoof, ya can’t beat it :) 

        1. Clampers Outside!

          Aye, one cute hoor on Camden St sold me a bit…. in a phone box.

          He’d a bit of the real thing on him. He says, come over here, I’ll show ya.
          He opened the door of the phone box, and we both cramped in.

          “See” says he, “smell it, good stuff man” as he burnt a bit with a lighter.
          And like some magician, something else was handed to me, as I handed over me cash….

          *shakes fist* damn you! gullible self of yester years!
          I say “magician” …i’d had a few on me, and it was late night,after club :)

    2. Pip

      The drugs business is remarkably efficient, reliable and generates loyal customers, as well as one-off sales.
      Quality control would appear to be generally excellent. In my rather ‘hazy’ recollections the only person who tried to rip me off was a sort of friend of a friend.

  2. McSemtex

    Does the donkey know we can grow it? Fupp ’em all, too little too late, they legalise the bud, I’m switching to gear.

  3. Iwerzon

    We can brew or distill drink ourselves but we generally don’t.Growing weed properly is difficult.

    1. scottser

      it really isn’t.
      allegedly, according to someone i overheard once casually mention it in passing..

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