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Don't Talk to Frank, Frank Talks Crap

Government website talktofrank.com is riddled with inaccuracies, inconsistancies and contradictions the void can exclusively reveal today.

The site, set up in a blaze of publicity, aims to be a user friendly guide to drugs aimed at young people. However with some parts of the website pure comedy, and others at times dangerously inaccurate it seems young people may not be getting the 'harm minimisation' advice they need.

The site contains an a-z of commonly used drugs as well as a limited amount of reports and a freephone/e-mail service whereby users can ask questions in confidence.

Starting with cannabis, Frank does do the decent thing and warns users off soapbar saying

"The most unpure Cannabis is called 'soap bar'. It's contaminated with all sorts of things. This makes it cheaper but it's a false economy really as it is often harder to get stoned. Some users hate it so much they object to smoking it."

A full ten points so far, however Frank then goes on to say "There is a minimal risk of physical dependence."

err - says who? well says Frank I guess. Neatly sidestepping the issue of skunk in the A - Z guide, on another page outlining the unproven dangers to mental health caused by cannabis use Frank says "the strongest type of cannabis (is) called sinsemilla (or 'skunk')"

Wrong again Frank, and frankly you should know better 'cos on the a-z you say that sensemilla is "bud grown in the absence of male plants and has no seeds" which is actually correct whereas skunk is generally a hybrid of different strains of Cannabis (Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa ).

On to mushies where Frank once again makes a hash of things .. more
(bit long for a message board :smile:

Reply 1

wendizzle22

I'm not denying these government sites don't get it wrong, but Fly Agarics do not actually contain psilocin or psilocybin and therefore are as yet uncontrolled. (The main active ingredients are muscimol and ibotenic acid.) Yes I do think this is crazy seeing as it's clearly more dangerous than psilocin and psilocybin containing mushrooms. I think it could make you feel cold as muscarine errs more to the parasympathetic nervous system so heart rate and blood flow are reduced. And yes in large doses they are poisonous unlike psilocybes.
In my opinion it was a bad idea to make psilocybes illegal as more people may take the risk of amanitas (including fly agaric.)

I think the Frank site's just trying to give out some basics in a simple form - if it went into full pharmacology and physiology of drug actions and mechanisms of overdose then unknowledgeable people would be even more likely to switch off.
However i do believe they need to get some facts right about other things.

Reply 2

Segat1

you signed up for that?

Reply 3

dan1982

"There is a minimal risk of physical dependence."

Thats been a fact since the dawn of time. Physical dependance such as heroin or nicotine arent the same as physcological dependancy, which is just you thinking you need it. I offen had that feeling when i was out, but when i had some it didnt bother me if i didnt smoke it, because

"There is a minimal risk of physical dependence."

i cant be assed to look at the rest of the site because i read through it once and thought it was fairly good.