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Paul Birch, the co-founder of Bebo.

The co-founder of Bebo wants to decriminalise drugs in Ireland

Help Not Harm wants Ireland to treat the issue of drugs as a health issue.

THE CO-FOUNDER of former social networking site Bebo has launched a campaign to decriminalise the personal use and possession of drugs in the country.

Help Not Harm was launched by the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Ireland (SSDP) alongside Bebo cofounder Paul Birch.

His involvement comes after he set up CISTA, a pro-drug reform party in the UK, earlier this year and after  and after SSDP got in touch, they decided that there was “space for a new organisation with a new focus in Ireland.”

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Birch said that one of the biggest obstacles facing this campaign is politicians themselves who are more willing to “sweep it under the carpet and pretend it isn’t an issue for people”, when criminalisation isn’t working.

There’s no reason not to do this. There’s no information that says there’s a risk around doing this, there’s only one outcome as you can look very conclusively at the evidence from places like Portugal and see it’s a one-way street.

Ireland has the third-worst rate of drug-related deaths in Europe and four times the EU average. In 2012, there were 633 drug-related deaths, and almost 10,000 people are accessing methadone treatment.

The campaign’s focus for now is on parties to properly outline their policies regarding drug-related issues for the next general election, and is proposing the following changes:

  • Moving the issue of drug policy from criminal justice to public health.
  • Introducing programmes for heroin-substitute therapy.
  • Better education about drugs in schools.
  • Making drug testing facilities available in areas where drugs are likely to be used
  • Providing supervised injection facilities and on-site health monitoring for those who inject drugs.

It’s looking to get “like-minded individuals and organisations” together and forming a coalition to help with this. Birch mentions the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) and homeless charities as groups they plan to talk to.

Screen Shot 2015-08-14 at 18.20.24 Paul Birch (centre) launching Help Not Harm with Mark Cullen (left) and Graham de Barra (right) of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

While it’s early days, its launch was similar to the many startups and companies Birch founded before and after his time with Bebo.

Despite the idea being a few weeks old, they felt it was better to get the campaign up and running as soon as possible and learn from action instead of trying to perfect it before launch.

“We’re looking to do the same thing within this campaign, getting out fast, as quick as we can and building on that”, said Birch.

We only had the idea for this [campaign] a few weeks ago. It’s very recent but we put it out quick as we started to learn fast and operate in the real world and not on a piece of paper.

Birch and his brother Michael set up Bebo back in 2005 and later sold it to AOL for $850 million in 2008. The service was relaunched last year as a messaging app for iOS and Android, but its former incarnation is still remembered fondly by many.

For Birch, timing played a major role in its popularity since it was the first social network for many.

“For lots of people, it was their first experience of a social network. and people are often fond of their first experiences” explained Birch. “They’re obviously not on Bebo any longer, they’ve got Facebook and Twitter, but yeah, I think people look back fondly on their first experiences of what the internet can do in terms of connecting with their friends socially.”

All the social networks around now, they all started around the same time because it’s much easier to get someone to join something they’re not a member of… [if you were to launch] a social network like Bebo or Facebook [now], it just isn’t going to fly because people are happy enough with what they got.

Read: Forget the drugs, listening to music during surgery can reduce your pain >

Read: This is what €225,000 worth of ecstasy tablets looks like >

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73 Comments
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    Mute Marc Power
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:14 PM

    just legalise and tax them. …people do drugs And just by making them legal doesn’t make taking them compulsory

    137
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    Mute Lindsay Price
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:01 PM

    People kill, should we legalize and tax murder?

    19
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    Mute John Lennox
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:18 PM

    You can’t legalize, look how successful drink prohibition was in America, apart from being a period when America had its worst alcohol problem and most deaths per capita from booze, when organized crime went from local groupings to having the ear and sway over the most powerful in society it worked great.

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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:25 PM

    Lindsay,
    When you kill another person you are inflicting harm upon them, when you assault them, steal from them or otherwise set out to attack them then you are ultimately harming other people.

    If someone does a bong or takes a pill – what harm are they doing to anyone else? In fact, making the drug illegal is what causes the harm – because it forces drug users to come into contact with criminals that they may not otherwise have anything to do with. The other illegal activities of these criminals cause the largest amount of harm and would be entirely eradicated from the picture if the drugs were available from a reputable legal source.

    86
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    Mute Bob Beaman
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:40 PM

    Nice try Lindsey, better luck next time.

    39
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    Mute Marc Power
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:56 PM

    what’s murder got to do with drugs except when illegal drug dealers kill people?

    29
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    Mute Simon Fergus
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    Aug 16th 2015, 9:26 PM

    drug use is not comparable to murder! Do you compare murder to drug use solely because they are both illegal? alcohol is drug use, is drinking alcohol comparable to murder? That is an incredibly silly comparison to make

    24
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    Mute Michael Dinneen
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:16 PM

    It’s become accepted here in the US by most people that the so-called War on Drugs is an abysmal failure. There has to be a better approach. Maybe this is one. I for one could never appreciate people’s interest in them but to each it’s own.

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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:10 PM

    I applaud what they are doing but imo they should drop the “students” from their name.

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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:46 PM

    They are all students. although many have graduated already :)

    49
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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:23 PM

    I hear you and agree wholeheartedly with their ideals.Its just that some will probably roll their eyes and think ” bleeding students are at it again , with their bleeding long hair and their rock music ” It just might increase their support from the off.Anyways , just my opinion :)

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:04 PM

    Maybe it does them no harm – the people who recognise that criminalisation isn’t working do so because they are willing to look beyond the presumptions many might some around the fact that they are students.

    The big concern that I have is that where there have been significant successes that can be pointed at – it’s taken more than just decriminalisation. It’s taken policy – and it’s really hard to see this government apply such a policy – we really have had a ton of truly inept application of policy in successive governments.

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    Mute John Michael
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    Aug 16th 2015, 9:31 PM

    Nobody gets locked up for possession or personal use anymore and haven’t done for years. There are already substitute programmes in place and centres where you can get clean needles. If they think what they are proposing is something radical then they are really out of touch. If they are so willing to help then maybe they could host some things in there houses, instead of in working class areas where the people are sick to death of being robbed by these junkies and then have to listen to some university student lecturing them on how to solve all the problems.

    12
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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Aug 16th 2015, 10:06 PM

    bull – and it’s irrelevant to take the position of “the law isn’t applied so there’s no point in decriminalisation”

    We had our government ignore the will of the people in adding the removal of the blasphemy law by referendum – and when Charlie Hebdo started working again, we had a muslim lawyer threaten the use of our own “no harm done” law to take action against any news outlet to republish their first cover back (or pretty much anything inside).

    Yet when Denis O’Brien threatens all around him everyone goes nuts.

    We should be going nuts in both situations and we should be going nuts at laws which , if you are to be believed are not applied, or are being applied with prejudice.

    32
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    Mute John Michael
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    Aug 16th 2015, 10:29 PM

    What the fcuk are you going on about? More BS. Just like all that ‘new focus’ shite and a ‘way forward’ crap. I’ve a new way. Stop treating those junkies like they are the victims in all this and concentrate more on the communities they destroy and the people they rob and assault. Decriminalising won’t change squat. The drugs will still be on the streets, the dealers will still be making money and the circumstances that push people into drug abuse will still be the same. However, ‘helping’ will look good on some students CV when they want to go out in the real world.

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    Mute john doe
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    Aug 16th 2015, 10:57 PM

    That’s harsh John. Those people you are talking about are at rock bottom. No one would trade places with them. It’s a terrible way to be.

    putting laws in place that will dedicate funding previously spent on drug policing/legal costs to treatment for these troubled people would be a positive step that would improve some of their and others lives.

    Of course, it’s ridiculous to have laws controlling what adults can consume in their own bodies, another strong reason for decriminalisation/ legalisation.

    26
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    Mute Bobby Phelan
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    Aug 16th 2015, 11:41 PM

    Just legalize them make it safer

    21
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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:04 PM

    Can’t find a better way to deal with problem drug use than this

    115
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    Mute Brendan McGill
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:07 PM

    I believe they’ve got the right idea, this seems to be working in Portugal.

    117
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    Mute Katie Byrne
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:08 PM

    You mean Portugal which received a bailout from the eu a few years ago?

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    Mute Darragh DB O'Neill
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:09 PM

    No wifi in the caravan??

    112
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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:14 PM

    @Katie Byrne How is that relevant to Portugals drug policy ?

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    Mute Dr Grinspoon
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:16 PM

    What has that got to do with drug use katie??

    102
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    Mute Katie Byrne
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:16 PM

    It clearly wasn’t good for their economy.

    6
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    Mute Charles Rex
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:17 PM

    ah diarmuid, don’t feed it….

    104
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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:19 PM

    Based on the reply you could be right

    60
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    Mute Tomas Om
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:27 PM

    That has nothing to do with the economy.

    56
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    Mute Katie Byrne
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:33 PM

    Thomas you don’t think legalising drugs will have any effect on the economy?

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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:18 PM

    oh good grief

    55
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:18 PM

    Well Katie.. Lets think about that shall we?

    At present we hear of massive garda operations busting supply – yet drugs are still readily available for those that seek them. This seems a massive waste of garda resources, that and having Gardai stop and search.. Surely those resources would be more valuable in policing crimes that lead to the harm of others? Like violence and theft? Or for goodness sake policing the roads better.

    Then there’s the actual economic benefit. Imagine the tax revenue on all those drugs that they do manage to seize. All that money at present is funding criminals, when it could be funding our public services.

    Imagine how much we could cut the court backlogs if we weren’t wasting time on prosecuting people for choosing a method of unwinding that *isn’t* alcohol.

    What negative effect on the economy do you reckon it would have to decriminalise Katie?

    63
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    Mute Katie Byrne
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:19 PM

    I’m not reading all that, can you summarise?

    6
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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:24 PM

    I can summarise , troll the fu¢k off Katie

    128
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    Mute Supernova
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:33 PM

    You’re also a troll..

    44
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:35 PM

    Ah, if you’re too lazy to actually bother thinking then there’s no point in trying to engage with you as an adult.
    Have a nice life kid. Just wait til you get to experience life.

    63
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    Mute Shane Kinsella
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:00 AM

    Katie you’re a awfull eejet.

    6
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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:54 PM

    If you don’t know after forty years and billions spent that you can’t legislate for supply and demand and matters of human choice you’re either stupid, fully indoctrinated, afraid of change or a beneficiary of the current system.

    102
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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:29 PM

    Well said !

    38
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    Mute Niall
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:10 PM

    Waiting for the weekly alcohol consumers to come on and look down on drug users. Cannabis should be made legal anyway. Cannabis saves lives, alcohol kills.

    96
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    Mute Katie Byrne
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:11 PM

    Over 50,000 people die every year in Ireland from alcohol related illnesses. It’s a serious public health issue.

    34
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    Mute Dr Grinspoon
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:20 PM

    I think its rediculous in a modern time like this to have marijuanna illeagal. Theres some really great documentaries about how it came to be made illegal way back when. Its a travisty, and yet alcohol is legal… but i like this idea of accross the board decriminilisation. It is working in Portugal

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    Mute Malachi
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:12 PM

    Alcohol is bad? Yes. In large quantities, nobody will deny that alcohol ruins lives and causes great damage to human health.

    But cannabis ‘saves lives’? That’s dishonesty. What evidence do you have to support that brazen claim?

    16
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:21 PM

    Anything in excess is going to be bad for you. Even water.
    It’s all about dosage. While there is a fatal dosage of alcohol which can be easily attained, the fatal dosage of cannabis is impossible to ingest in one sitting.

    In this context, cannabis being illegal while alcohol and indeed tobacco are legal seems utterly ridiculous.

    42
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    Mute John Lennox
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:22 PM

    Alcohol abuse and its problems is a much more pressing, costly and destructive problem than all illegal drugs combined.

    There really is no comparison.

    27
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    Mute Malachi
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:34 PM

    @Shanti

    Yeah, alcohol causes infinitely more deaths due to a *direct* overdose, but just because cannabis doesn’t kill people due to the dosage does not make it safe.

    That’s a pretty common misconception. Smoking tobacco doesn’t kill anyone due to a direct overdose either, would you say that it is ‘safe’? No.

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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:38 PM

    Cannabis itself is actually quite safe, it’s the means of ingestion that usually isn’t. Most people here combine it with tobacco and the act of smoking it is not good for the lungs.

    But you can eat it. Baked into confectionery, or added into stew, in fact there’s all sorts of ways to ingest and it’s actually quite nutritious, the plant itself is remarkably safe.

    35
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    Mute Suzie Sunsine
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    Aug 16th 2015, 10:01 PM

    Katie , you’re slipping there because you said those exact same words before under one of your other troll accounts !

    12
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    Mute sinlacasa
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:17 PM

    Law or no law I smoke what I want.

    83
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    Mute Kevin Higgins
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:47 PM

    It’s called protesting an unjust law. like when everyone defeated water charges in the 90s

    53
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    Mute Dr Grinspoon
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:03 PM

    I dont like being forced to pay drug dealers for a basic comomdity

    48
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    Mute Lindsay Price
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:08 PM

    If you don’t want to pay drug dealers, then don’t take drugs. It’s not rocket science.

    4
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:29 PM

    Lindsay.
    Alcohol, a drug that must be fermented in order to have the effect it is used for – is perfectly legal. Yet a plant that all you need do is dry out is not.
    The plant itself is far less toxic and quite a lot less damaging to human health (in some cases it is quite beneficial) yet it remains illegal and we get people busted for growing PLANTS.
    No chemical processing, no nothing, just a perfectly harmless plant that our bodies have specific receptors for one of its main active compounds. And it’s ILLEGAL.

    Reckon you could explain why this is the case? When there are far more toxic things on sale legally?

    50
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:45 PM

    Perhaps because by going around naked you are inflicting your nudity upon others.

    And no, maybe naturism doesn’t get you high. But look around you, every town in this country has a pub, even if they don’t have anything else. Humans like getting high, we aren’t alone in that, dolphins do it, cats do it, deer do it, any animal that has found a way to get itself high does so. It’s a primal instinct if you will, to alter your state of perception.

    Some argue it may broaden the mind somewhat.
    Still, you tend to be doing it in the company of others doing the same thing, or in your own home – where you’re not inflicting yourself upon others. This is why we have charges for being drunk and disorderly – as in, it’s fine to get rat arsed, just don’t inflict yourself on others.

    Care to throw out another irrelevant and pointless argument rather than engaging with the subject at hand?

    38
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    Mute Lindsay Price
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:50 PM

    And junkies blow smoke in my face. That inflicts it on me. You’re the one doing pointless arguments bringing up pubs and alcohol.

    2
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:54 PM

    When and where? Because you’re unlikely to be fraternising with them, so if they’re engaging in an illegal activity then they won’t be so blasé about it unless they’re morons.

    As for the relevance of pubs, please – explain what the difference between a drug and another drug is excluding their legal status. They’re both consumed for the same reasons, they’re both classed as drugs. What’s the difference besides their legal status? Why is one OK and not the other?

    33
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    Mute Juniper
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:26 PM

    You clearly can’t think either Lindsay. Troll elsewhere

    42
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:27 PM

    I have a feeling that person merely threw whatever came to hand given your own description of the scenario..

    And as for cocaine, it’s not a drug I appreciate but I don’t see why it should be illegal. It’s not a whole lot different to adderal and that’s a legal drug.
    Murder though, that involves doing something to an entirely separate person. It’s not ingesting something that could possibly directly harm you, it’s deliberately and directly causing harm to another person. Also, laughably ironic for you to try and equate the two straight after complaining about the comparison of legal drugs to illegal drugs..

    But at least you kept to the utterly irrelevant nonsense. Keep up the good work, you do parrot that worn out anti drug propaganda well.

    28
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:33 PM

    And PS, I doubt there were any “junkies” in your drama class. Because “junkies” use “junk” which is heroin, and if they were doing heroin they wouldn’t be participating in any classes. They’d be passed out.

    Now, if you’re calling cannabis smokers “junkies” then you’re suffering from a grammatical mistake – as the term for them is “tokers” or “stoners”, and they shouldn’t be blowing smoke in your face unless you’re in the smoking area, and even then it’s largely only tobacco smoke you are having blown at you.

    Maybe don’t frequent the smoking area if you’re not fond of second hand smoke. I can assure you there’s no such thing as a second hand brownie, even if they threw it at you. Unless you caught it with your mouth and swallowed.

    32
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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 7:44 PM

    Oh, I’m sorry for diminishing your pain, truly I am, it’s that it’s so damn hilariously unbelievable..

    Between you claiming that you shouldn’t invoke a hostile response for saying nasty things to people, junkies in drama class, bad coughs from limited exposure to second hand smoke, and my personal favourite thus far – a bruise from a soft baked projectile – it all seems a tad, nonsensical..

    But perfect for an amateur drama merchant..

    28
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    Mute Shane Kinsella
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:03 AM

    Lindsay like swallowing (cookies)

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    Mute Joe Traynor
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:15 PM

    It’s incredible that the Garda waste time with this when criminals still roam the streets who have bribed politicians and robbed the state of millions by corrupt practices.

    48
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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:19 PM

    The Guards aren’t wasting time, they are earning a wage, allowances & overtime.

    25
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    Mute Integra-Ted
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:24 PM

    An adult approach to dealing with the problem of drug abuse? Would Ireland accept such a grown up strategy?

    Fact’s are, the war of drugs in Ireland has been lost decades ago, Gardai and state resources amounting to 7 billion Euro has been spent try to deal with the issue in recent history…..Despite the fact that drugs are more easily available now than ever in any Irish town.

    We need to take the power out of the hands of ruthless drug dealers! Time to test it, regulate it, tax it, and take it out of the overloaded criminal justice system and into the public health system..!

    35
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    Mute sinlacasa
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:26 PM

    Besides Ireland is a backwards nation it will never happen, I never thought SSM would be legalised but keeping SSM illegal didn’t make money whereas keeping cannabis illegal keeps 99% of gardai and prison officers in their jobs.

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    Mute The Geog. Soc.
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    Aug 18th 2015, 11:38 AM

    Didn’t people say that about gay marriage?

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    Mute Cleaver Beast
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:16 PM

    4-Aco-DMT

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Aug 16th 2015, 5:36 PM

    Oh right legalise drugs and our problems are over, methadone is clearly not working either and drug mules have the bleeding hearts to speak up for them when they get caught. There is no war on drugs here or anywhere else, there are efforts to make life harder for drug gangs and plenty of corrupt legal eagles to fight their corner for a handsome fee. Does anyone thing that real life Nidges will look for severance pay and find something honest to do?

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    Mute John Lennox
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:14 PM

    No but it cuts the cost and the use of drugs in society, free up Garda time and would help reduce petty street crime.

    The current approach couldn’t be much worse.

    The likes of Nidge wouldn’t have a million a week in to their coffers without drugs.

    The very most gang land killings are over the control of the illegal drug trade.

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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:33 PM

    Exactly. Deprive those gangs of their revenue stream and make that money work for the state.
    Give the Gardai more time to focus on crimes that cause harm to others. The courts more time to deal with punishing those offenders, and hopefully more revenue to give to the education and health sectors to prevent misuse of drugs (that is, any drug, including alcohol).

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    Mute Integra-Ted
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    Aug 16th 2015, 6:37 PM

    Care to make a coherent point JHO?

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Aug 16th 2015, 9:11 PM

    what a load of self perpetuating nonsense. Leave d students on der drugs – As usual they are liven in cuckoo land.

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    Mute Diarmuid Doran
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    Aug 16th 2015, 9:22 PM

    Great arguments there James , you swung my vote :)

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    Mute john doe
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    Aug 16th 2015, 11:24 PM

    Don’t like students much there James? With their fancy pancy piece of paper degrees and so called knowledge from books. “No one never learned nothing from a book”.

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    Mute Shanti
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    Aug 17th 2015, 4:31 PM

    Hey, cuckoo land is better than living inside a Nokia 3310.. There’s really no need for txtspk – there’s a fairly ample character limit here on the journal, those few extra letters really wouldn’t have made much of a dent in it.

    By the way, “liven” doesn’t mean what you seem to have used it for..

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