Expats held in Lamma drug bust

[Load Toad]

What? You think expats are immune under the law?

No - but the police have finite resources and there are far, far more serious issues they could deal with. If they have to focus on illegal 'drugs' then meth is probably the most serious issue followed by K - particularly with regard these being drugs used by and pushed to young people.

[Gatts]

No. But weed is totally harmless.

Simply not true, check your facts. There are well documented studies of various forms of brain damage and psychotic disorders related to cannabis usage.

[PDLM]

It isn't totally harmless, but it's clearly no more harmful than alcohol or tobacco.

I'm with LT - all recreational drugs should be legal, regulated and taxed (in the same way that alcohol & tobacco are now). Prohibition (whether it be drugs or sex services) has never worked, and never will. It should never be an offence for consenting adults to do anything that doesn't harm others.

[drumbrake]

Simply not true, check your facts. There are well documented studies of various forms of brain damage and psychotic disorders related to cannabis usage.

Read what Professor David Nutt has to say about this.

What we can say is that cannabis use is associated with an increased experience of psychotic disorders. That is quite a complicated thing to disentangle because, of course, the reason people take cannabis is that it produces a change in their mental state. These changes are a bit akin to being psychotic – they include distortions of perception, especially in visual and auditory perception, as well as in the way one thinks. So it can be quite hard to know whether, when you analyse the incidence of psychotic disorders with cannabis, you are simply looking at the acute effects of cannabis, as opposed to some consequence of cannabis use.

If we look on the generous side, there is a likelihood that taking cannabis, particularly if you use a lot of it, will make you more prone to having psychotic experiences. That includes schizophrenia. But schizophrenia is a relatively rare condition, so it's very hard to be sure about its causation. The analysis we came up with was that smokers of cannabis are about 2.6 times more likely to have a psychotic-like experience than non-smokers. To put that figure in proportion, you are 20 times more likely to get lung cancer if you smoke tobacco than if you don't.

The other paradox is that schizophrenia seems to be disappearing (from the general population), even though cannabis use has increased markedly in the last 30 years. So, even though skunk has been around now for 10 years, there has been no upswing in schizophrenia. In fact, where people have looked, they haven't found any evidence linking cannabis use in a population and schizophrenia.

[Load Toad]

Simply not true, check your facts. There are well documented studies of various forms of brain damage and psychotic disorders related to cannabis usage.

Please give your source for this. Because I don't believe it.

http://www.badscience.net/2007/03/reefer-badness/
http://www.badscience.net/2007/07/bl...blah/#more-476
http://www.badscience.net/2009/06/th...ons/#more-1170
http://www.badscience.net/2008/02/tr...es-2/#more-610


I also have the view that is because the police have been successful getting weed off the streets (low profit margin, large volume to conceal etc for a dealer) that (some) dealers are more likely to supply the highly addictive, low volume, high profit filthy drugs such as ice. so - what a great own goal that's been.

[HKITperson]

No - but the police have finite resources and there are far, far more serious issues they could deal with. If they have to focus on illegal 'drugs' then meth is probably the most serious issue followed by K - particularly with regard these being drugs used by and pushed to young people.

But the law was broken and you agree that the culprits should be punished?
Imagine the outcry if the sons and daughters of rich HK tycoons were not pursued and punished and the police were told to pursue "real criminals". We can't have one law for locals and another for expats!

[Load Toad]

I'd hazard a guess that the sons & daughters of tycoons do have a privileged existence.

Yes by all means punish them then - the penalty for first time possession will really have made the undercover operation and raids really worth all the expense.

Then change the law.

[kryzlowski]

No. But weed is totally harmless. Studies have shown it to be far less harmful than alcohol. Weed should be legal....and the police should focus their attention on the real dangerous drugs......H, K, meth, and coke.

The article did state they seized coke.. not just weed.

I agree that it sounds like to total waste of tax payers money. Police priorities should be set by how much other members of the public are affected.

It has absolutely nothing to do with 'expats are above the law'. I'm sure those who think it was a waste would think the same if it was a bunch of Chinese island stoners. I certainly would.

[ohchk2001]

Simply not true, check your facts. There are well documented studies of various forms of brain damage and psychotic disorders related to cannabis usage.

Sorry but you're an idiot. Cannabis doesn't cause brain damage and compared to every other drug INCLUDING CAFFEINE, it's harmless.

Also alcohol and tobacco are far more harmful than cannabis and they are legal. So please shut the F up, it's brainwashed morons like you that created this kind of screwed up hypocritical drug policy.

[Eddy Mundo]

Weed is harmful to those who wish to lose weight. It makes me eat junk food like a motherfcuker at unholy hours of the night.