RE: Yes but not to excess Fair enough, but I would assume that alcohol addiction costs the NHS a fair amount more than this. The point I'm trying to make is that I don't believe that anyone who uses alcohol has got the right to get on the moral high ground about people who use recreational drugs. I agree with you that they must have been on a ridiculous bender to have got in the state that they did, but everyone seems to be assuming that it was just the coke that caused it, as opposed to the combination of coke, booze and prescription drugs which is far more likely to have got them in the state they were in. I'm not condoning coke use, far from it, I think it's socially a very destructive substance, but I would also hazard a guess that if alcohol were discovered today it would be straight on to the class A list. At the end of the day, we're all only human and we all have to cut loose once in a while, in whatever way that may be. Unfortunately, this time the consequences were too horrible to bear contemplating.
In case you didn't see it in the other thread. <table class="fact" border="0"><caption>Numbers of deaths where selected substances were mentioned on the death certificate in England and Wales, 2005 </caption><tbody><tr><th>Drug</th><th>Deaths</th></tr><tr><td>Heroin and morphine </td><td align="right">842</td></tr><tr><td>Methadone </td><td align="right">220</td></tr><tr><td>Cocaine (including crack) </td><td align="right">176</td></tr><tr><td>All amphetamines </td><td align="right">103</td></tr><tr><td>(of which MDMA/ecstasy)</td><td align="right">58</td></tr><tr><td>Cannabis </td><td align="right">19</td></tr><tr><td>Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) </td><td align="right">4</td></tr><tr><td>All benzodiazepines </td><td align="right">190</td></tr><tr><td>Zopiclone/Zolpidem</td><td align="right">48</td></tr><tr><td>Barbiturates </td><td align="right">14</td></tr><tr><td>All antidepressants</td><td align="right">401</td></tr><tr><td>Paracetamol (including compound formulations)</td><td align="right">466</td></tr><tr><td>Codeine (non-compound formulation) </td><td align="right">44</td></tr><tr><td>Dihydrocodeine (non-compound formulation)</td><td align="right">106</td></tr><tr><td>Aspirin </td><td align="right">19</td></tr><tr><td>Tramadol</td><td align="right">53</td></tr><tr><td>Alcohol </td><td align="right">6,627</td></tr><tr><td>Tobacco</td><td align="right">86,500</td></tr></tbody></table>
RE: In case you didn't see it in the other thread. It would be interesting to see which of those were in isolation and which were in combination with each other. I would have thought the vast majority excluding tobacco and long-term alcohol abuse would be two or more substances combined.
my mate works for the FCO in Quito..... ...and has been working through the night sorting things out. Obviously, he's found the whole thing incredibly traumatic.
RE: No sympathy for him or his girlfriend, a pair of talentless...... good point. They're all acting like they knew the man !
RE: No sympathy for him or his girlfriend, a pair of talentless...... </p> Whereas you know the Colombian cocaine workers intimately.</p>
RE: Thank you kanekat but, but its alright to compare someone who consciously took class A drugs for a brief hedonistic high to a person dying from cancer. You're in no position to moralise Kanecat.