Are you addicted to horses?!?

Well what a load of ..............

I wonder how much this idiot was paid to come up with this load of claptrap.

So now when we are supposed to be encouraging kids to take up outdoor sports and activities some so-called expert pops out of the woodwork and basically tells them they might as well stay at home with the playstation and pop some dope ???!!!

THis guy should be shot.

I am seriously sick to death of hearing about things we think of as normal suddenly being branded as addiction or mental illness - it's a huge scam and money making exercise.

I'm speechless with the stupidity of it.

Oh boy- you've got to love statistics!! I took that class in college and found out that you can manipulate the numbers to look like anything! For instance, in the first article the prof says:

"The professor said equasy - short for equine addiction syndrome - caused more than 100 deaths a year."

From falling off the horse? Was the rider wearing appropriate safety gear? Was the person killed an avid rider or beginner?

Personally, I've never used Ex, so can't compare adequately. But I do know that I have to have a regular 'fix' of horses, otherwise I get quite moody!!

So yes, if you consider a life long love of horses an addiction, I'm by all means an addict. I'm also addicted to Coca-Cola, Irish Breakfast Tea, wearing clothes, eating meat & veggies, and drinking water.

Well I must have equasy I see my horse at least twice every day, and had a lovely ride in the snow today which I think seals my fate, it must be hereditary as my daughter has it to the same degree.

And my husband suffers from caninacy, he walks and works the dogs every day.

If he wanted to really show how safe ecstacy was he should have compared it to automobilacy!

Is it any wonder the country is in the state it is with people like this 'advising' the government!

Ok listen, I've been riding horses for the past six years and riding my own horse for three. I've fallen off many times and the worst I've gotten out of it was a broken thumb. I know that much worse has happened to many people, but still...ecstasy? Really?

I think EVERYONE pretty much knows to stay away from that one.

Bloody hell. This man is obviously a spineless waste of space ...

I quote "'This attitude raises the critical question of why society tolerates - indeed encourages - certain forms of potentially harmful behaviour." - so called 'equasy'.

Horse-riding 'harmful behaviour'..sounds like he's talking about ASBO holders. Ah and drugs AREN'T harmful? Good one. What an insult to peoples' intelligence. What would the relatives of people who died from E say about his belief that it's less dangerous than riding?! He's a quack. Bit worrying that he's supposed to be a respected scientist.

I agree with Debi and cookiemama. Horse riding is dangerous. Well, so is walking down a flight of stairs. Or driving a car. Let's see how long it takes for Health and Safety to try and label that as 'harmful behaviour' as well.

The guy is nuts!

As for myself , horses are my life's blood. My life revolves around the barn. I have never been without them. They are the most rewarding part of my life. One of the 20 horses I now own has been with me now for 23 years , he will be 26 in March.

The first horse I ever had as a little girl lived to be 31.

Thats the stupidest thing i have ever heard! ecstacy is a dangerous drug that you do NOT benefit from in any way. Any horses are a great HOBBY. They can help handicapped people! Sure it is dangerous, but so is eating a lollipop, you can choke. You can hurt yourself with almost anything. Besides horses are not MEANT to hurt you. Drugs are.

omg this guy needs a life. Nowadays it seems like everything is sooo dangerous you have to walk around in a bubble.

EVERYTHING can be fatal. I mean, someone could be killed by a dishwasher for petes sake! Life has risks but without risks you have no life.

Horses are my life. I need them. They give me an outlet and a way to relax. They are beautiful and wonderful creatures. That guy should know better before he goes spouting off crap like that.

see arr harr:

I am curious as to what research you've read about MDMA to believe he's an idiot.

I found this with a quick search.

This is from a study in British Columbia Canada and it's an analysis of admission data from the Ministry of Health for the years 1991–96:

The injury rate was 0.49/1000 hours of riding. There were three deaths per year, 1/10 000 riders; 60% were caused by head injury and females predominated.

On a related note:

ECSTASY and Cheerleading:

A Basic Risk Comparison

I focused on Emergency Room (ER) visit data, the most common indicator of cost to public health. For example, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), in 1994–nine years after MDMA was criminalized, but the first for which data is available from SAMHSA– there were 253 ER visits as a result of Ecstasy use in the US. Meanwhile, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC), in 1994 there were 15,792 ER visits as a result of participation in organized cheerleading. By that measure, in 1994 cheerleading was 62 times more of a threat to our nation’s public health than Ecstasy use. Keep in mind that most users don’t know whether their Ecstasy is pure MDMA, so these statistics reflect the risks of using unregulated black-market Ecstasy, which often contains other substances and sometimes does not even contain MDMA.

Debi:

You miss the point.

Where is he saying to take Ecstasy?

I imagine the issue is that you are not aware of the inane fear mongering that causes more harm than good.

The illegal status of MDMA allows for extensive harm increase, as "Ecstasy" does not mean necessarily refer to MDMA. If you view PillReports, you'll see quite a bit of adulterants which are specifically caused by underground production and those who are unscrupulous. All as a result of the blatant lies and half-truths that have lead to MDMA being illegal.

When the media espouses ECSTASY DEATH, the death rarely comes from MDMA or at least solely.

I recommend you take a look at the deaths per year from alcohol and tobacco.

BareBack Beauty:

The thing is, he is not saying anything bad about horse riding or those who enjoy trotting around.

There is a general perception that because any deaths/harm from a choice is reflective to restriction of access. That is the reasoning behind the illegal status.

So, to apply the same rule to anything we do, the deaths

associated to Ecstasy become meager number wise.

hrsefldhcky<3:

I also must ask you to cite your sources. The psychotherapeutic and recreational benefits are very impressive.

The therapeutic use with a professional is many fold in many cases to that of normal methods. In fact, they make way where conventional methods could not succeed.

Recreational use can also heal. While I do not support children/teens using Ecstasy, with the pre/post supplement application to reduce/counter free radicals among other real dangers: It becomes fairly safe.

I only say this to very limited to moderate use (leaning towards very limited).

The people who abuse Ecstasy would be chugging down alcohol if X was unavailable.

Alcohol is the most prolific of all date rape drugs.

Even GHB/GBL would fair better if it was tightly controlled as a replacement of booze.

Your number is up!:

It is rare that someone has an acute reaction to MDMA. Additionally, there are basic and easy tests to verify for some reactions.

These are not readily available due to the illegal status. The people who may have actually taking additional safety precautions are encouraged to simply take the pill.

The relatives of the people who die from Ecstasy (which may not have been MDMA) normally seek to blame the drug and not the real culprits.

There was an organization who provided free pill testing at clubs. This was made illegal.

They yielded stats that showed some people were not taking

the Ecstasy purchased when they found out it had adulterants (meth for example).

Ignorance also plays a role in this. There are thresholds of taking any drug and when it's illegal, it becomes more and more difficult to take a specific potency based on what is being sold.

100-120mg of MDMA is not going to kill anyone, unless they have a rare sensitivity to it. This is not factoring in ignorance or carelessness of mixing other drugs specifically, such as alcohol (which can easily turn it deadly or highly damaging).

Please note that recreational doses tend to exceed 120mg. However, if someone is not abusing MDMA (excessive use, as in too frequently and/or massive doses) 120mg could be quite fine.

Brett's Law is a perfect example of ignoble parents seeking to vilify something to divert the blame from the child's choice and/or other sources they used. In Brett's case, he was on medications which have the listed side effect of causing suicidal thoughts.

Leah Betts is another example of misinformation. You will typically see it stated that she died from Ecstasy. The truth being that she died from water intoxication.

i.e. She died from drinking too much water.

My horse is more like heroin to me....an addiction that is unshakable.

My motto: My hands are too busy holding reins to be using drugs.

I love my horse.