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Swiss youths smoke most dope in Europe national |
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news report
 Monday November 22, 2004 14:46 by Paul Kinsella - CPSU An Post Branch Committee paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 085-1478100
 Now we have it confirmed from the horse's mouth! Swiss teenagers smoke more cannabis than their peers in every other European country, a survey has said, casting a pall over the country's prim and wholesome image. One in three Swiss 15-year-olds has lit up a joint within the past year, while the number of teenagers regularly smoking or getting drunk rose 10 percent between 1998 and 2002, the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse said in their survey. "For a large number of young people, falling back on alcohol, cigarettes or cannabis is part of a response to growing social pressures and a failure to engage with the future," survey leader Holger Schmid said in a statement on Thursday. Britain and Spain trailed Switzerland as the top cannabis consumers, while British and Scandinavian teenagers stood out for "drinking in order to get drunk", the survey of children aged 11-15 in more than 30 European countries showed. Dispelling the image of the Netherlands as a haven of hash-lovers, young people in this country showed only an average level of cannabis use. Do you notice something? Yes! Ireland is missing! Thus dispelling the myth that Irish teenagers are a bunch of drunk, stoned wasters that you in the media have pedelling for the last few years. I demand that you issue an unreserved apology to the teenagers of Ireland. What about all of the teenagers who care about and who want a better world and better still those involved in social causes and activism such as the environmental and green movements and the Anti war movements to name but a few? Oh I forgot! That's why so many of your right wing conservative journalists regularly castigate young people. Just because you see young people as a threat to your cosy right wing consensus, and do you know something? You are right! But no matter how much you castigate teenagers and young people you will not shut or terrify or threaten or cower or intimidate us into silence. "A new world is possible!" |
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Comments (12 of 12)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Paul, you should at least credit the person who wrote that. And you should point out that you are writing in a private capacity, and not as a representative of the CPSU.
thanks for that
Excellent news, Paul. You are quite correct for once in pointing out that Irish young people are far from the worst in Europe in relation to these problems, and that accusations about their behaviour often made in the media are largely false. But, you are quite wrong in suggesting that such accusations come exclusively from right-wing sources. Sometimes they do as most journalists, both right-wing and left-wing, are always attempting to sensationalise things. But, lots of times the accusations come from left-wing journalists, e.g. Fintan O'Toole in the Irish Times, when attempting to show that young people in Ireland are disillusioned with capitalism. Great exaggeration of course! In fact, there was a report out just a couple of days ago from a left-wing anti-capitalist anti-globalisation outfit called Feasta which made very similar accusations about the behaviour of Irish young people in an attempt to show that the Celtic Tiger had harmed people's health in Ireland. Total gibberish of course! They should certainly apologise now. Perhaps you could email them, Paul, and request an apology. This news you bring that Irish young people are relatively well-behaved doesn't surprise me at all. Ireland is now a very prosperous country, its young people have a better chance of employment than virtually anywhere else in Europe and it still retains traditional family values to a much greater extent than in most other European countries. A combination of a very low unemployment rate and a very low divorce rate would certainly be the ideal combination, as far as far as keeping young people on the straight and narrow is concerned. I think this news that Paul brings is one more piece of evidence that the EIU Report on quality of life last week was indeed accurate.
Switzerland decriminalised Cannabis in recent years so this data seems to contradict whats being said about the average level of use in the Netherlands. Maybe it just takes people a while to get comfortable with the availabilty of Cannabis.
At it Again Paul
You call the 'Economist' report on Ireland being the best place to live a 'Load of Crap' but take this report as the gospel truth because it suits you. You are a silly man.
Why is it whenever there's a discussion on cannabis it's the teenagers this, and the teenagers that? Adults' don't smoke cannabis is that right? Wake up and smell the thc7 girls!
Cannabis has been on sale here in D* for at least 30 years as far as I'm aware. I have first hand knowledge of this fact. A large percentage of the adults here I know smoke dope regularly.
It's just another sad old newsline thats not worth the paper it's written on. You will (as I have) seen the same report year in year out in various guises in the media.
When held up against stories like - "The toilets in the German Parliament the Bundestag were tested for signs of drug use among MP's and 90% of the cublicles revealed traces of cocaine" - it pales into insignificance.
Or take that scabby fiver out of your pocket and take it to have analysed you will find that 9 out of 10 will show traces of cocaine or "gear".
Here's another unrelated:
Whenever there is a discussion on fireworks its' always "pet owners" who are disturbed by the nuisance. People who don't own animals are not affected it seems.
This survey was a European wide survey interviewing real people unlike your Economist one Oisin you silly little fool.
My Economist one? I didn't write it, anyway i thought it was a Pile of crap aswell just like this survey. At least i'm consistent not a flip-flop like you. You think that what people say to an interviewer in the street can be relied upon more than statistics that's a bit naive.
Where did you get this idea of coke being snorted with fivers?? Any self respecting coke fiend would have to use a fifty anyway. A definite trend, which also indicates that we are the best country is that the use of coke is going through the roof, its a far cooler drug to be hooked on than gear. Yes, we are a successful nation alright, and a shower of obnoxious tossers to boot.
Smokin dope rules.
Nothin like a nice relaxin spliff to unwind after a hard day supportin capitalism......
the swiss look forward to their official apology to the Russians which was offered six months ago, (a few days after Bertie cosied up to the Kremlin on behalf of the EU).
The swiss had pissed off the Russians by not handling an airline crash with proper care and attention.
“Switzerland still has a bit of a problem in Russia because of Überlingen. Many Russians were disappointed with the way Switzerland handled this and felt that the communication [in the months afterwards] was not as it should have been,” said Beatrice Lombard, who runs the swiss russian council.
The swiss hope that they will be getting a look in on the new Euro-Russian institute which Mr Balkans-end got the offer of from Mr Ras-Putin yesterday during the easy bit of their conversation.
According to Lombard, the challenge for anyone seeking to breathe new life into Swiss relations with Russia is to find a way of overcoming the “image problem”.
“In Switzerland, Russia still has a very bad image. People continue to think of the country in terms of the Iron Curtain, mafia and rampant corruption.”
Karl Eckstein, a Swiss academic based in Moscow and a founding member of the Switzerland-Russia Cooperation Council, blames the media for its coverage of events in Russia.
“You have the impression when you read the Swiss papers that all there is in Russia is corruption, theft, murder and terrorism. Of course, all this exists, but the media doesn’t really give an accurate impression of what the country is really like,” he said.
Eckstein added that the council intended to “correct” this perception by pushing for improved relations in the fields of politics, the economy, science and culture.
The Russians are very good at science, having developed a bit of a cult of science and materialism with a lot of help from the type of Irish newspaper sellers who don't smoke dope and take a while to get their opinions out.
Miss Lombard, who in her own country is referred to as "Senorina Lombard Fraulein Lombard and Madamoiselle Lombard" is not yet married and continued to add-
“[Getting a visa] is terribly bureaucratic, so this is a dossier we really want to push. This presents us with something of a challenge, because in Switzerland if you want to change visa conditions, each canton has a say in the matter,” said Lombard.
Lombard added that the easing of visa restrictions would also encourage more Swiss tourists to visit Russia and give them the opportunity to reassess their preconceptions about the country.
“We need to bring both countries a bit closer… if you look at tourism, who do you know in Switzerland who has been to Russia? Very few people even think about going there.”
If you'd like to goto Russia or iany of the other states "out East" where a high number of Russians may be found, consult your local travel agent, there used to be an aeroflot office on Dawson street, but you can get a bus from Amsterdam Centraal station which only takes 86 hours to arrive in Kalingrad. If you go by plane you can stock up on duty free at Aer Rianta's first futy free shop ever, which really shows how well we get on with the Russians, who amongst other things invented space travel, the religious icon and won the war, all of them except the unwinnable one (afghanistan). To win the wars they defeated in order-
CarlGustav
Napoleon
Hitler.
Russians dont smoke much dope, probably because they haven't established a supply route, you might like to ask your local FAS office for a grant, and bring them some. Once in russia watch out for the extremist nationalist types, who are very easy to spot looking like Ulster orange types, with short hair. They have forgotten all about Carl Gustav, Napoleon and Hitler, and joined the Jehovah witnesses instead.
The $ is now worth 1.32 recovering just about a euro cent since it's rub it in your face morning at Wall Street, many yankee and dixie speculators will have till monday to appraise their loses accrued in their recent meddling in the affairs of a sovreign nation.
The pope is anti-communist but likes Lech Walensa. He's very old, and very simple. He doesn't vote, and really isn't that reliable on voting matters.
Mr Philippe Kropf compiled this article for Swiss Info
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=108&sid=5376553
it's been updated Mr Kinsella so you can C/P more.
"14 is too young to be smoking dope".
if you're interested in collating Euro-news on the "really young drug-users" issue here's another from the EU state that leads drug consumption Spain -
http://www.lavanguardia.es/web/20041203/51170882201.html
Spain, Netherlands (both EU) and Switzerland have taken a liberal approach to these issues, which means their prisons aren't as jampacked with kids for buying taking selling drugs. Ireland on the other hand ihas a hard line on this sort of thing, and lost a generation of poor people to smack and hypocrisy instead.