DRUGS

[Grefter]

Your brain and body start to develop a strong physical addiction opiates and like Cloud said, you tend to be put onto an opiate blocker to handle it.

This is like taking something that prevents you from absorbing alcohol in your body.  Which has similar addictive properties.  Hard stuff really is very very hard to do cold turkey on like you can with alcohol.

Edit - Not knocking or anything, just saying it is a whole different ball game.

[cloudstrifesheart]

Its a totally different ball game for sure. I used to be a severe alcoholic and I was able to stop like that. I stopped cocaine just like that as well. Opiates.....nope. It is totally different. Opiates kills all your endorphins which deals with pain. So when you stop taking it...your body has none at the moment so you feel severe pain. It takes awhile for your body to produve them back

[Mad Fnorder]

No doubt this will probably be the hardest task you ever take on in your life- but it probably will be the one with the biggest payoff. The detox is the best choice you can make, in terms of getting help, so you're on the right track. Good luck.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Yeah bit late but...

Advil: Semi regularly, back and neck issues are fun.

Any form of smoking: never.

Drinking: In college I varied quite a bit.  Freshman year I'd go months drinking 4-5 times a week.  Longer college went on less I drank.  Now... I drink maybe once every other month.

Anything strong: Nope.

Caffeine:  Yeah...  I keep it at 200mg a day plus or minus like 30 mg.  (About 3 12 oz. Mountain Dews)  I used to be worse, and I know caffeine is bad for you, but hey we all have our vices.  If Caffeine is as bad as I go I'm okay with that.

[SageAcrin]

This is like taking something that prevents you from absorbing alcohol in your body.  Which has similar addictive properties.  Hard stuff really is very very hard to do cold turkey on like you can with alcohol.

Actually, that happens with heavy enough drinking, too, though yeah, the point is still sound, it's never even remotely as extreme. Also I think it takes years upon years of drinking to build up the good tolerance load.

Getting hooked on heroin does have the side effect that it's one of the less harmful "hard" drugs short-term; If it doesn't kill you by either overdose(Which is far too easy) or by having something laced in it, it's long-term effects are pretty minor compared to, say, methadrine or cocaine. (I...seem to recall finding that it wasn't worse than alcohol when I skimmed the info on it, in fact.

I have this strange fascination with drugs, the same one I do with pesticides. Weird chemicals are kinda cool, even if I don't want to eat them. But I digress.)

Still, man, try hard to get off that. Yeah, short term, it's not going to ruin your life(Directly. The money it *costs* is quite another matter.), but it's pretty much an inevitable cutting short of your life; It's too damned psychologically easy to have a bad day and want to take more. Then have a few more bad days and suddenly you're hooked on a higher level. Then this happens a few more times and you die. It's dangerous as hell, and I hope the best for you managing to shake the bastard, though god knows it's hard as hell.

(Such a weird drug.)

Anyways, as for myself...

Over the counter:

Used to be hooked on antihistamines. Stopped when I realized they were having mixed results. Probably never taking them again after learning they substantially disimprove infections in the sinuses. SO AWESOME.

Otherwise, I've taken pain pills back when I had a toothache, but I don't really run towards popping an Advil or anything for pain, just not worth the bother. (Possibly because of that toothache. Meeeeeh muscle aches tends to be the reaction now. That was one hell of a toothache.)

Recreational:

Yeah, caffiene, I tend to take in about 40-60% of a pot of coffee a day. I have a god-awful slow metabolism, so this tends to have the effect I've seen on normal people of about two cups. ^_^

Otherwise, that's about it for moi.

[Dunefar]

Drugs?

I drink a fair bit of soda and get caffeine that way. I take advil once in awhile for work related aches and pains. That's pretty much it. I have no patience for smoking, drinking or anything harder. Getting hooked on any drug or using, casually or not, is something to be avoided.

[Lance]

Does anyone know where I can find information on drug laws for each state?  I just found a bag of marijuana in my roommate's room the other day, and I want to know if this is something I should be worried about or not.  I know that in some states you can get in trouble for just living in the same place as a drug user, but I'm not sure what Florida's particular laws are.  I tried looking but Google has failed me.

[Cotigo]

In all honesty, I wouldn't be worried unless your roommate is a blithering retard.  Just possessing a bag of marijuana won't get you raided by the DEA.  If he's smoking in the house and not trying to keep it discrete, then worry, because that's really the only way they'd find it in your place--even then, smelling Marijuana smoke doesn't give the police probable cause, just reasonable suspicion, and they can't do a search without permission. 

Regardless, it's good knowledge to have.  If you consult a nearby university's law school I'm sure you can ask about the state's laws there; surely somebody would have to know what penalties there are (if any) for living with somebody who gets caught for possession.

[Scar]

I don't let anyone smoke in my house. They are always watching and listening!