could you date a drug user?

[Johnny Hughes]

[ua1176]

[EscapePlan9]

[Johnny Hughes]

This is the way EscapePlan describes a cocaine DEALER.

He is a person, and a good person at that. You may disagree with his usage of drugs or his job, but I know he's a good person overall. He treats others with respect.

When he sells other people cocaine, he is not treating them with respect. He is probably ruining part of if not all of their lives. He is making a profit on the human misery of others. You are very naive if you think he tells you the truth.

I am not against marijuana because it does not lead to divorce, child abuse, AIDS, Hep C, prison, bankruptcy, bank robbery, murder, and clinical depression like the hard drugs do. Marijuana is different because it does not kill people. Nobody ever overdosed. Cocaine can kill some people right away with a heat attack. It leaves tears in the heat muscle which lead to heart attacks twenty years after they quit using. There is an epidemic in the U.S. of early heart attacks and Hep C. People who only used hard drugs awhile twenty years ago are paying for it now.

Stu Ungar had a lot of those guys like your friend hanging around to sell him the cocaine that killed him. They were just like your friend, vultures circling around roadkill.

[Allstar7]

As a middle of the raod poster in terms of age...(31), younger than I'd assume mr. Hughes here and older than the 120 pound balla contingent (Xas, Roy, Donk Shamdonk), i find the age gap fascinating. These are 2 crowds that have little hopes of agreeing on anything, let alone a topic like hard drug usage.

Society has become so permissive, that, IMO, its fvcking insane. A comment like, yes he deals coke, but he's really a good person...I mean this comment is so bizarre it borders on comedy. It sounds weird to say this, but someone who grew up when I grew up (early 80's), would not make that comment, i think.

That said, Mr Hughes has some pretty strong opinions, esp. on this matter (A drug user isnt a person etc..)

My personal take is that I wouldn't willingly get myslef associated with someone who uses drugs like this, but if, god forbid, one of my sons or good friends ever gets involved in this type of trouble, I would never turn my back on them. Aint the kind of guy I am. Sounds kind of heartless to say you'd write off your son or brother because he has a debilitating sickness/weakness/cdharacter flaw (drug addiciton).

My 2 cents

[emmasdad]

[Beavis68]

[Jarren]

[excession]

[EscapePlan9]

[Allstar7]

[Molina]

[NorthView]

I generally enjoy your writing a lot, Johnny, and find it adds a new dimension to this site. However, in this case it seems that bad personal experiences have blighted your thought processes to the point of irrrationality.

"As soon as people get into heroin, cocaine, or speed, they are through as people. You need to run away from them. There are long prison sentences, death, illness, and burglary in their future."
Well, that's me f[]cked then. I did a lot of speed when I was younger (late '70's, early '80s) and dabbled in most other things. Here I am, aged 43 with a family, a well paid (though boring) job and a house. I hope the missus doesn't learn that I'm heading straight for prison or an early death.

Never have the letters W, T and F been so apposite.

[EscapePlan9]

I wasn't arguing he was a good person because of his musical talent or voice acting ability. I've known him since high school and spent a lot of time with him before and after his drug use. I've had plenty of experiences with him in various situations where he treated people respectfully and very few experiences with him treating others poorly. That's all I'll say about him being a "good person". If you knew him for this many years, you would feel similarly.

The fact of the matter is even if I fleshed out all these experiences you would still say, "But he deals cocaine to people". Nothing I can say will change your mind. You would need to have different experiences to feel differently on the matter.

And like I said, there are obvious significant differences between poker players and drug dealers. But to deny there are any similarities is ludicrous.

[ua1176]

why should the thread get locked?

this is probably the most in-depth discussion i've seen at BTP, and it's going on with a relative minimum of personal attacks.

jon