Cocaine link to violent behaviour

[T_i_B]

Source: BBC

Evidence has emerged which points to a link between cocaine use and violent behaviour.

Figures from Greater Manchester Police suggest that 41% of people arrested for violence had taken cocaine or crack cocaine, by itself or with other drugs.

The force took samples from 1,000 people arrested for offences such as assault, wounding and affray in the seven months to March last year.

Similiar findings had been reported in the Liverpool area after a separate study, run last summer by John Moores University.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7941052.stm

[Edweird]

1. They needed a study to figure that out?

Seriously?

I'd like a grant to study whether girls on 'X' are promiscuous. Where do do I get my check?

[sofa king]

8. In a way, yes.

I literally picked this information up off the floor the other day, in an academic building about to be renovated. Sociological studies have a couple of inherent problems. One problem is that some variables can be tied to one another, and which variable is causing the other to move--or if both are affecting each other at the same time--must be determined. The largest and last problem is that, because all the variables in any human study are difficult to identify and control, rival hypotheses must be created, compared, and discounted.

So, if this study is worth its salt, it must have found a way to establish a causal link between cocaine use and violent behavior. When we see and read of cocaine users flipping out, that is not a causal link; that is an association, and David Hume cautioned us long ago that association does not equal causation.

These guys must have had to do a lot of work to establish their claim, and now other thinkers will have to pore over it and decide whether or not the experiment does what they say it does.

Edit: If the study does not attempt to establish a causal link, it's a different kind of study and everything I said above is just so much half-understood crap. But by now, I'm half convinced that everything I write is half-understood crap, so take it for what it's worth.

[Rebubula]

2. Good Work

Sheesh


This just in...exposure to sun seen as link to sunburns

[LeighAnn]

26. More Breaking News

Alcohol Linked to Violent Behavior
Gambling Linked to Financial Difficulties
Marijuana Use Linked to Munchies

[droidamus2]

3. Of course

And they probably found out that the most common other drug they were using was alcohol, but it was the cocaine that caused the violence. I always love these cause and effect drug studies. So if a person with a propensity to violence does cocaine and then commits and act of violence is it the cocaine that caused it? So is it that people who do cocaine tend to violence or a lot of violent people like to do cocaine?

[SkyDaddy7]

4. SMOKE MORE CANNABIS!!!

This just in...Smoking cannabis leads to less profits for drug companies & alcohol companies. Oh yeah, smoking cannabis leads to eating more sweets!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. Which is why I always light one up after going on a coke binge.

It helps to bring the violent emotions down. :evilgrin:

[Wizard777]

5. O' so close but no cigar. It's usually a lack of cocaine that triggers that.

[cobalt1999]

6. Cocaine Blues; Johnny Cash knew that decades ago.

Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down
I went right home and I went to bed I stuck that lovin' 44 beneath my head

Got up next mornin' and I grabbed that gun took a shot of cocaine and away I run
Made a good run but I run too slow they overtook me down in Juarez Mexico

Late in the hot joints takin' the pills in walked the sheriff from Jericho Hill
He said Willy Lee your name is not Jack Brown
You're the dirty hack that shot your woman down
Said yes oh yes my name is Willy Lee if you've got the warrant just aread it to me
Shot her down because she made me slow
I thought I was her daddy but she had five more

When I was arrested I was dressed in black
They put me on a train and they took me back
Had no friend for to go my bail they slapped my dried up carcass in that country jail

Early next mornin' bout a half past nine I spied the sheriff coming down the line
Talked and he coughed as he cleared his throat
He said come on you dirty heck into that district court
Into the courtroom my trial began where I was handled by twelve honest men
Just before the jury started out I saw the little judge commence to look about

In about five minutes in walked the man holding the verdict in his right hand
The verdict read in the first degree I hollered Lordy Lordy have a mercy on me

The judge he smiled as he picked up his pin 99 years in the Folsom pen
99 years underneath that ground I can't forget the day I shot that bad bitch down
Come on you've gotta listen unto me lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be

[zonkers]

10. Let's give some love/credit to Roy Hogshead who made the song a hit first! (audio link)

http://www.divshare.com/download/5892751-ed0




Actually, someone else recorded it before he did.

[cobalt1999]

17. I did not know that, Thanks for the link.

[AngryAmish]

7. Cocaine is a helluve drug

<>

[Lost in CT]

9. In other breaking news marijuana use increases potato chip consumption.

[WriteDown]

11. But think of all the tax money we can get if we legalize it!!!

Sorry, had to be said :rofl:

[SOS]

12. Alcohol, as always, not in the headline

"The survey was part of an article which considered whether mixing alcohol and cocaine was a recipe for disaster.

"We cannot afford to ignore the link between violence, drugs and alcohol that is apparent in city centres all over the UK every weekend," he said.

"However, because the drug is so often taken in combination with alcohol we need to be cautious about claims that cocaine alone can lead to violent offending."

Alcohol abuse leads to violence. Cocaine just keeps the violent drunk awake.

[corpseratemedia]

13. thank you

Hooliganism in Europe, or here, isn't fueled by coke.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. Which would explain george bush Jr. and Glenn Beck. nt

[MrSlayer]

16. Not buying.

I have extensive experience with cocaine and not a single person I've partied with has ever become violent. I do not believe that the one causes the other.

[Psephos]

21. An interesting comment from someone called "MrSlayer" :) n/t

[cobalt1999]

22. I have an extensive experience with alcohol

And not a single person I've partied with has ever killed someone in a DUI. I guess I shouldn't believe drunk driving studies either. :eyes:

A little hint for you: Personal anecdotal experiences will not necessarily be the same as a study of a large population.

[MrSlayer]

28. I'm not talking about 2 or 3 people.

I'm talking hundreds. Alcohol has been the culprit in every instance of violence I've witnessed.

[cobalt1999]

29. Since I was a bartender for years

I'm talking about far more than you, and even with that sample size I never knew a drunk driver who killed someone.

That doesn't mean drunk driving studies are bullshit because personal anecdotal experiences are meaningless in the big picture.

[MrSlayer]

30. I've not said anything about drunk driving.

And I'm not saying that no one ever gets violent off of coke. But I don't believe it inherently makes you violent. It won't cause a person who normally is placid to suddenly become a monster. You need to have a proclivity toward violence already. And in general most people do coke because they are drunk and want to straighten up to do more drinking. If it ends badly it's usually because of the alcohol intake.

[cobalt1999]

35. You don't believe it because of your personal anecdotal experiences

I'm just pointing out that if you are believing in your anecdotal experiences over a scientific study, you are probably going to be wrong 99% of the time.

Drunk driving was just an example of that type of thought process.

In my example, if a person has known thousands of drinkers and none of them ever killed someone in a DUI, therefore that person doesn't believe drunks inherently are dangerous drivers. You are following the SAME FLAWED THOUGHT PROCESS. You don't believe cocaine makes people inherently violent because of your own personal observations instead of believing in a larger study.

It's a common problem in all statistical analysis and scientific studies. For example, some people don't believe in global warming because for the last 10 years in their home town they've had cold winters.

[Fumesucker]

36. You ever see a drunk get belligerent and violent?

In those years that you were a bartender?

[cobalt1999]

38. Yes, and I developed my own "profiling" of the type of person who does get violent

However, if a good study came out that came to a different conclusion, I'd probably believe the study over my own theory.

On edit: I wonder how they statistically controlled for alcohol.

[ShortnFiery]

25. Take it from a former drug addiction counselor from the DOD

who served in Panama (the Central American Republic not the city in Florida), the continued use of amphetamines, at a minimum, results in "a rebound effect" of DEPRESSION. As one continues to use cocaine in high doses, the increased assault on one's brain leads to thoughts of PARANOIA.

Since I was assigned as a drug and alcohol counselor to a battalion of Infantrymen, I have "an inkling" of which mind altering substances spike the potential for violence. :wow: In addition to alcohol, the amphetamine family (Cocaine, Meth Amphetamine, etc.) also increases THE POTENTIAL for violent acts by an individual.

Take it or leave it but amphetamines are very dangerous mind altering substances that can ruin your life in short order. Alcohol abuse can ruin your life in 20 years whereas amphetamine abuse can cut that down to months or a few years.

[Psephos]

27. good post n/t

[alfredo]

32. Up in Detroit when skagg was the thing, you had junkies mugging you, but

they only wanted money for a fix. Once they got the money, you didn't matter anymore. A guy on Coke will fuck you up over the smallest thing. Detroit stopped being fun when cocaine came to town.

In the army we popped meth when we had to pull sixteen hour shifts. At the end of the shift we'd smoke some hash and drink ourselves silly, pass out, get up and start all over again. You do that until you get a day off or you punch out some lifer and get pulled off the job for a few days. We were so specialized and undermanned due to the degree specialization, they had little choice but to patch us up, medicate us and send us back to work.

[clixtox]

39. Cocaine and amphetamines have some of the same effects...

on users but they are very, very different substances. Conflating the two indicates confusion or misinformation.

I have to believe that the military has better information than that to share with the troops.

By junior high school in contemporary America, children know that these are very different drugs. Not recognizing that fact yourself, and sharing incorrect info would compromise any chance of having much credibility, with users in particular.

Alcohol can ruin your life in just minutes or seconds.

Booze is death!

Gambling is for losers!

Tobacco use is a sign of mental retardation!

That turns out to just be the way it is!

IMHO

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

18. No shit?

[Elidor]

19. From the Scarface Institute of Say Hello To My Little Fren'

Look at you now!

[TheWatcher]

20. In More Breaking News: Water Found To Be Wet

:eyes:

[sakabatou]

33. I was bout to post that

[slackmaster]

23. Well now, there's a big surprise

:argh:

[ShortnFiery]

24. Yes, thanks for stating the Bloody Obvious.

:eyes: It's an amphetamine and also leads to paranoia and depression. Mix those side effects with GUNS and you have yourself a TIME BOMB in the form of a coke addict or tweaker.

[davidinalameda]

31. duh?

I wonder how much money was wasted on this study

[truthisfreedom]

34. BREAKING BUSH NEWS... COCAINE USE LINKED TO ILLEGAL INVASIONS AND CHENEY AS BAD CHOICE FOR VP

I'm just sayin.

[Fumesucker]

37. From the link...

"However, because the drug is so often taken in combination with alcohol we need to be cautious about claims that cocaine alone can lead to violent offending." {/i]