Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Trinidad]

I'm from BC. Lots of shrooms. Both local and imported. I remember
doing some Mexican shrooms one time in high school. About an hour
after eating them EVERYTING in my field of vision was a tint of green.
It was so cool. Also we were peaking! I've looked for those magic
shroomies since then to no avail. Sigh.

As for doing them before coming here. No problem. The tests don't
include looking for psilocybin, the active hallucinogen.

As for people thinking the Korean Police can find out who you are by
this board. Well, they are on drugs. This server is in CA. The Korean
police would need to contact the Korean prosecutor. The Korean
prosecutor would then contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This
ministry would then contact the US State Dept. The State Dept. would
then contact the FBI or the local police. One of these agencies would then
get a warrant and then examine the server at Dave's ESL Cafe. All
for some corn-dog who claims they may or may not have done drugs???

Anyway, welcome to Korea dude. I hope your coworkers aren't any of the
1950s, horn-rimmed glasses, cardigan wearing anti-drug mutants that
seem to haunt this board.

[seonsengnimble]

[dorian_gray]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[bish]

Some strange views on here but I also think it's a good idea if the mods remove the whole thread.

You should be fine and what you do before you come to Korea is your business provided you are clean when you get here. It's just as important that you act responsibly and stay clean once you are here.

[Trinidad]

[neilsputnik]

deleted

[bish]

[kimchi girl]

1. the people calling the OP a 'loser' should read the other thread about not being able to relate to Koreans due to 'experience' difference. Seriously? A loser for doing drugs? Maybe you don't believe in sex before marriage, either? Enjoy your incredibly lame, dull and pathetic lives.

2. Anyone who says that pot or shrooms shouldn't be compared to alcohol or tobacco is an idiot. An out and out, total, 100% idiot. below are some stats from the CDC.

[quote=]Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States (1) and is associated with multiple adverse health consequences, including liver cirrhosis, various cancers, unintentional injuries, and violence. To analyze alcohol-related health impacts, CDC estimated the number of alcohol-attributable deaths (AADs) and years of potential life lost (YPLLs) in the United States during 2001. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that approximately 75,766 AADs and 2.3 million YPLLs[/quote]

Now america has roughly 6 times the population of Korea, so when we divide these numbers by 6 here's what we get for Korea:

12,627 deaths and 383,000 years of life lost.

Similarly, tobacco deaths per annum number over 100,000 in Korea--- I saw it in a presentation/documentary on TV, so I can't cite it or recall the exact number, but I do remember it being over 100,000.

Marijuana deaths??? No real numbers available for any major country, because there are so few and the causation/causality is difficult to determine.

Mushrooms would also fall into this category.

And when you take the addiction properties of alcohol and ESPECIALLY tobacco, it makes the case that X and Y are legal and therefore OK completely asinine.

I will say this though, the person who said that alcohol/tobacco shouldn't be compared to mushrooms actually does make a valid point, it just happens to be the exact opposite of the one they were trying to make.


3. Morals and teaching children. This was raised by someone and is very important to this discussion. If a child sees an ESL teacher smoking maybe they'll think 'smoking is cool'. That has a HUGE impact. When your 8 year old hagwon attendee comes up to you and thinks/says "you smell like daddy," meaning cigarettes and soju, is that the moral leadership you're talking about??? See the stats above.

4. OP, I don't think you should do them. Whether they come up in a test or not, if your plan is to come here and work I wouldn't blow it for one night--- even if it does sound like it would be an awesome night. Just not worth it.

5. To the people who think this and/or other discussions like it should be banned because it might offend the racist and cause trouble, I have this to say:

If people said and did nothing America might still have slavery. Interracial dating would be illegal. Saying or doing nothing for fear of what the 'powers' might do has led to some of the greatest atrocities in human history.

To quote a truly great man: Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

neilsputnik, a couple of things-

1. I'm well aware of and proud of the constitutional freedom of expression we have in the US. However, even here, jobs can and will fire you because of some offhand claim you made on a website. In Korea, it's even more likely, since you would have no legal discourse to complain. From a two-second google search, I found your picture, age, and country of origin. Your potential employer could easily do the same. If I'm not mistaken, that's why people are concerned about you posting this on a public forum. It doesn't matter if you've done it or even if you will; the fact that you have friends that do it and that you're considering it might be enough to upset a principal or boss somewhere.

2. I know you don't want my opinion on the merits of shrooms, so if you really aren't interested, go ahead and skip this.

First of all, I have no moral issues with drugs. I really don't. I am decidedly liberal. However, I still think they're stupid. I think they're a waste of time and money, and that they're often a substitute for doing something legitimately fun. I feel the same way about smoking and drinking, although I still do so on occasion. The biggest difference between the two is legality. I do not set my moral code by laws; that's not the kind of person I am. However, if you're going to break a law and risk losing a lot of money, time, and prestige (not to mention wasting public resources), it had darn well better be for something important. Unless you're legitimately using them for a spiritual undertaking, I fail to see how shrooms (or any other illegal substance) could be important. If you think they should be legal, then fight to legalize them. Civil disobedience should be saved for things that matter; otherwise, you lose that leverage when a real right or liberty is taken away.

Secondly, there are certainly exceptions, but I have never met someone who uses hallucinogenics and who astounds me with their prescience and maturity. I had friends who have done them (they're not really my friends anymore, but not because of this particular issue), and the main thing I noticed was that they were really annoying for a few days because they kept bragging about how stoned they got like it was an achievement. Again, I have no moral problem with it; I just don't see how that's any more interesting than me running around saying I ate a piece of chocolate cake or had a weird dream. And at least my cake-eating doesn't have legal consequences if caught. One of my other friends has had a *really* big struggle with serious drugs for almost a decade, but he's been clean for two years now. I never realized, but he told me he had been tripping almost every day in high school. The fact that he didn't talk about it all the time and that he didn't act stupid meant that I really couldn't have cared less, except for the fact that...well, if he was able to act that sober, then he obviously had a problem. Anyway, long story short: at the very least, drugs are reckless, and at the worst, they can be severely damaging.

3. You said that you didn't expect the mean, hateful comments you got, but then you also said you're a first-time poster. Therein lies the rub. If you have spent any time on Dave's, you should know that it is a cesspool of mean, hateful comments. There are also a lot of really cool, intelligent people with a lot of information to impart. Just sift through the stuff that doesn't help you and you'll be ok.

4. I want you to know that I don't have anything against you, and whatever decision you make has no impact on me. I just felt like I should clarify some of the points other people made earlier. I also really got sick of being called stupid or conservative because I'm not fond of drugs.

kimchi girl -

I wouldn't have called the OP a loser for doing drugs because I don't know him, but I think it's dumb, yes. Just like I think having premarital sex without protection is dumb. It has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with (my perception of) maturity. As does, btw, not judging people you don't know. Like saying those of us who are anti-drug have "incredibly lame, dull and pathetic lives". Sorry, but that doesn't help your case that drug users are responsible, upstanding adults.

I agree that alcohol and cigarettes are much more dangerous than, say for example, pot. I don't know enough about shrooms to have an opinion on them. If you think they should be legal, then fight to legalize them. But from my vantage point, the illegality is a higher concern than the health risks for those drugs (as opposed to, say, H).

I agree that discussions shouldn't be moderated to avoid offending racist people, but there's a difference here. Drugs are not legal for *anybody* in Korea (or the US), unlike freedom or marriage. So it is not a civil rights issue. If we are in a country, we have a responsibility to follow their laws, unless they are unfair. Drugs being illegal might be seen as annoying and stupid, but you can't say it's unfair if nobody is allowed to do them.

[frankly speaking]

I really don't see the link between anti drugs and racism.

In most Asian countries there is zero tolerance for drugs. Some countries consider it possession if it is in your blood. So if you do drugs before coming to a country that tests you, you can end up in jail. I don't know if Korea has changed that, but in the past people were arrested for failing drug tests. I know of two cases 4 years ago. One guy just got deported the other guy fled to China instead of facing 6 months in jail.

People who defend drug users, most likely do drugs. I have never met anyone that didn't do drugs that was Pro drugs.

I don't advocate smoking or drinking either, but since they are legal in Korea and accepted by society, there is no harm or foul.

Admitting to even being a casual user of drugs doesn't do well here. Korean society as most asian societies are opposed to it. There isn't a sense of casual drugs in Asia. You are either do drugs or don't. If you do drugs, you are not considered a good person. I am not saying that is the best way, but that is how it is in Asia.

For those pro drugs, next time you are at work tell your Korean colleagues how you love smoking weed and doing shrooms. I am sure they would love to hear about your wonderful life as a casual drug user.

If you want freedom, than why not brag about your preferred drugs of choice. If drugs are so great, then why not tell everyone that you meet that you do them?

Perhaps they don't test for scylicban, or other drugs, but how does anyone know for sure. What if tomorrow they change their drug test because of this thread.

Personally, I think discussions of drugs should not be on a teachers forum. Moderators clearly aren't paying attention. At best this should be in off topic discussion.

What do you think would happen if there was a teachers forum in your own country that had people talking about casual drug use. I guarantee that within the next few months that state, or province would issue drug tests for its teachers.

[kinerry]

Define "drugs"

If you define drugs as what is illegal, then you have your own set of morality issues.

If you define drugs by harshness, alcohol is higher than marijuana and extacy as well as a plethora of others.

I'll never understand the hypocrisy of people who drink alcohol but are against a drug proven to be less harmful that asparin (extacy) and a drug that has never killed anyone (marijuana).

Grow up kiddos, the real world is not a D.A.R.E. slogan. There is no black and white, just subjective gray areas.

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

kinerry, you and a lot of other people are creating a strawman. I don't recall anyone here saying that they don't think alcohol is a drug. I define a drug as a mind-altering substance. Yes, alcohol and tobacco are drugs. However, there is still a difference between LEGAL drugs and ILLEGAL ones: their legality. I addressed that at great length in my previous post. The harshness and legality don't have anything to do with the definition, but they do have to do with whether it's a good idea or not. Doing drugs that are illegal or inherently dangerous (like H, inhalants, etc.) is reckless at best. So is doing legal/less dangerous drugs (alcohol, Robitussin) in large quantities.

Ecstasy is often less harmful than aspirin, yes, but that's not taking into consideration people who died from related causes (dehydration) rather than an overdose itself.

Having these opinions does not make us "kids", or closed-minded, or naive. You are expressing the same opinions my friends and I expressed in high school. I'm not saying you're wrong; you have every right to your opinion. I'm saying it's foolish and rude to write anti-drug people off as ignorant stereotypes when many of us have just as much (if not more) experience with the topic as current users do.

[MHS]

[gordo]