Club Characters + Drugs & Alcohol

[DLimit]

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/monitoring-future/monitoring-future-study-trends-in-prevalence-various-drugs

Here is a government source proclaiming that addiction rates are either increasing or remaining stagnant in the U.S amongst MELLENIALS and younger demographics, especially around marijuana and opiate-usage... not a random 3-paragraphed news article.

Edited January 11, 2021 by DLimit

[Entity]

7 minutes ago, DLimit said:

Los Santos is an over-exaggerated representation of Los Angeles. Thus, this means that drug addiction should be even worst.

That's true, but it isn't and that's an IC issue (or trait of Los Santos, compared to San Andreas). Los Santos also has fewer fast foods than Los Angeles does, but that doesn't mean we now have to OOCly open fast foods to compensate. GTA World is not real life and Los Santos is not Los Angeles. There's definitely some resemblance because it's based on real life, but it's not. It's an entirely different place with different laws, demographics and issues. As @Greyfeather said, the worst thing we can do is OOCly force people to do drugs and get blackout drunk just because some report states that that's how it works in real life. Having your character do something it wouldn't just because someone said so on the forums is way more unrealistic than everything else suggested here.

8 minutes ago, DLimit said:

Issue is, how are the statistics biased when they're compiled based on the reported cases within these centers? These are only reported cases within these centers, indicating that it would be much higher as there are countless unreported cases outside of these centers.

I'm not saying there's no spike in reported cases but what I am saying that, compared to general population, that number might be nothing. It depends on a ton of different factors.

 

A clear example is an official report by the University of Pennsylvania from ~2000 that stated that 326,000 children were at risk of sexual exploitation. That's a high number. The issue is that you have to report this number to the total amount of children in the country to see the actual impact and the report itself might be biased. In this case, out of those 326,000 children, only 1,000 actually had that happen to them. That number is still too big, but it's way far off. That was an official study from a prestigious university. What I'm saying is that your data might be not only biased, but totally wrong.

 

Can you link that report though, please? (the one from the rehabilitation center you were mentioning)

Edited January 11, 2021 by Entity

[Entity]

6 minutes ago, Garras Up said:

Eh, gotta disagree with that bro... We're mimicking Los Angeles. Hence why MS-13 is MS-13 and not Marabunta Grande, 18th Street are 18th Street and not Aztecas, Surenos are Surenos and not Vagos etc etc. Thus due to the fact that many of the factions mimick LA, it wouldn't be far out there to assume that Los Santos has similar demographics to the city we're mimicking. It's technically the same thing.

We are portraying Los Angeles, but we're not playing in Los Angeles. That's the big difference. The demographics are similar, but they are not the same. At the end of the day, we can't have them be the same. We can't have a perfect copy of Los Angeles. It's just impossible. Some things might be similar, some might be totally different. The club scene is one of these.

 

What would be the solution, anyway?

[Engelbert]

2 minutes ago, Garras Up said:

Eh, gotta disagree with that bro... We're mimicking Los Angeles. Hence why MS-13 is MS-13 and not Marabunta Grande, 18th Street are 18th Street and not Aztecas, Surenos are Surenos and not Vagos etc etc. Thus due to the fact that many of the factions mimick LA, it wouldn't be far out there to assume that Los Santos has similar demographics to the city we're mimicking. It's technically the same thing.

Yes there are people who are mimicking Los Angeles and there are those who do not. I assume these two groups don't see eye to eye. But that's part of community. Also we had Aztecas gangs for example and stuff, but that aside. People wonder why this or that isn't happening anymore, well it's 21st century any thing people were doing before, somehow ceased to exist. On topic, yes some people tend to go nuts with drunken or high state. Especially if they have guns, often it's their excuse to cause random disturbances or outright attacking someone. My characters however are casual users, be it cocaine or weed. So I often bring "my own dosage" into a club. People often forget to re-up their drinks ending with a single glass of whiskey for the night. Which is why it may seem like they don't drink. They do.

[DLimit]

3 minutes ago, Entity said:

That's true, but it isn't and that's an IC issue (or trait of Los Santos, compared to San Andreas). Los Santos also has fewer fast foods than Los Angeles does, but that doesn't mean we now have to OOCly open fast foods to compensate. GTA World is not real life and Los Santos is not Los Angeles. There's definitely some resemblance because it's based on real life, but it's not. It's an entirely different place with different laws, demographics and issues. As @Greyfeather said, the worst thing we can do is OOCly force people to do drugs and get blackout drunk just because some report states that that's how it works in real life. Having your character do something it wouldn't just because someone said so on the forums is way more unrealistic than everything else suggested here.

I'm not saying there's no spike in reported cases but what I am saying that, compared to general population, that number might be nothing. It depends on a ton of different factors.

 

A clear example is an official report by the University of Pennsylvania from ~2000 that stated that 326,000 children were at risk of sexual exploitation. That's a high number. The issue is that you have to report this number to the total amount of children in the country to see the actual impact and the report itself might be biased. In this case, out of those 326,000 children, only 1,000 actually had that happen to them. That number is still too big, but it's way far off. That was an official study from a prestigious university. What I'm saying is that your data might be not only biased, but totally wrong.

 

Can you link that report though, please? (the one from the rehabilitation center you were mentioning)

https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/addiction-statistics/ 

 

[Greyfeather]

1 minute ago, DLimit said:

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/monitoring-future/monitoring-future-study-trends-in-prevalence-various-drugs

Here is a government source proclaiming that addiction rates are increasing in the U.S amongst MELLENIALS and younger demographics... not a random 3-paragraphed newsarticle.

Are you deliberately not paying attention to what I'm saying? You're talking about addiction rates, I'm talking about the numbers of my generation who are turning their backs on the practises of their parents.

 

These are different things!

 

Let me ask you this, does your study say why there is an increase in addiction rates? Could it be tougher economic conditions? Could it be political and social instability? Could it be a hollowing of the middle class in the Rust Belt States? What's the hardest hit demographic?

 

*Sigh* that I have to do this, but there you go:

 

When Marijuana Is Used before Cigarettes or Alcohol: Demographic Predictors and Associations with Heavy Use, Cannabis Use Disorder, and Other Drug-related Outcomes | SpringerLink

 

(Sorry, I think you'll have to have sort out your log-in to access it)

 

This is from the "3 paragraphed news-article". Do I really need to reference the source material from all the other articles?

 

[DLimit]

All in all, people should

6 minutes ago, Greyfeather said:

Are you deliberately not paying attention to what I'm saying? You're talking about addiction rates, I'm talking about the numbers of my generation who are turning their backs on the practises of their parents.

 

These are different things!

 

Let me ask you this, does your study say why there is an increase in addiction rates? Could it be tougher economic conditions? Could it be political and social instability? Could it be a hollowing of the middle class in the Rust Belt States? What's the hardest hit demographic?

 

*Sigh* that I have to do this, but there you go:

 

When Marijuana Is Used before Cigarettes or Alcohol: Demographic Predictors and Associations with Heavy Use, Cannabis Use Disorder, and Other Drug-related Outcomes | SpringerLink

 

(Sorry, I think you'll have to have sort out your log-in to access it)

 

This is from the "3 paragraphed news-article". Do I really need to reference the source material from all the other articles?

 

Then, you have reports proclaiming that addiction rates are increasing amongst high-schoolers and young-adults, such as the government source mentioned above this article.

Your article actually argues that the youth are consuming marijuana more frequently than alcohol, which is what I've been stating since the beginning:

"Then, we examined whether using marijuana first predicted heavy marijuana use, cannabis use disorder (CUD), alcohol use disorder (AUD), nicotine dependence (ND), or lifetime use of other illegal drugs. Among all survey youth (substance users and non-users), the proportion using marijuana first increased from 4.8 to 8.8% from 2004 to 2014."

The younger generation's consuming more marijuana and less alcohol than their former generations, alongside with opiates, which is what I have been stating since the beginning of this thread.

Edited January 11, 2021 by DLimit

[Entity]

2 minutes ago, DLimit said:

https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/addiction-statistics/ 

 

Was asking about the specific study from the drug rehabilitation center you said you went to, not national/global statistics.

 

11 minutes ago, DLimit said:

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/monitoring-future/monitoring-future-study-trends-in-prevalence-various-drugs

Here is a government source proclaiming that addiction rates are either increasing or remaining stagnant in the U.S amongst MELLENIALS and younger demographics, especially around marijuana and opiate-usage... not a random 3-paragraphed news article.

 

That source only analyzed high schoolers - the vast majority of people who spend time in clubs on GTAW are at least over 21. That source analyzed the last three years in which yes, alcohol usage may have spiked, but that's not what you initially claimed, that it spiked since the 90s. I'll link another source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/208459/us-annual-prevalence-drug-use-grades-8-10-12-since-1991

 

Same group of people, just alcohol usage, larger time span -> exactly opposite results. It drastically decreased.

 

What that study also fails to analyze is the types of people who were surveyed. Some rich kid is more likely to drink than someone from an immigrant family who just tries to get by. A gangbanger is more likely to do drugs than a law abiding citizen. Someone from one part of the country might be responsible for 90% of the LSD usage, for example - but according to such statistics, the same percentage will apply to people who don't. 

[DLimit]

10 minutes ago, Entity said:

Was asking about the specific study from the drug rehabilitation center you said you went to, not national/global statistics.

 

 

That source only analyzed high schoolers - the vast majority of people who spend time in clubs on GTAW are at least over 21. That source analyzed the last three years in which yes, alcohol usage may have spiked, but that's not what you initially claimed, that it spiked since the 90s. I'll link another source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/208459/us-annual-prevalence-drug-use-grades-8-10-12-since-1991

 

Same group of people, just alcohol usage, larger time span -> exactly opposite results. It drastically decreased.

 

What that study also fails to analyze is the types of people who were surveyed. Some rich kid is more likely to drink than someone from an immigrant family who just tries to get by. A gangbanger is more likely to do drugs than a law abiding citizen. Someone from one part of the country might be responsible for 90% of the LSD usage, for example - but according to such statistics, the same percentage will apply to people who don't. 

This was to counter against the claim that "Millenials are turning away from drugs" when it's increasing amongst high-schoolers, even. 

Another source, suggesting that the whole "The younger generation aren't using narcotics like their parents" isn't as accurate as one can imagine. It's increasing amongst high-school students, which is what Greyfeather was proclaiming wasn't the case: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/what-scope-marijuana-use-in-united-states

This source suggests that the largest demographic of marijuana consumers are in-between the ages of 18-29, within the U.S... that's the millennial generation: https://www.statista.com/statistics/737849/share-americans-age-group-smokes-marijuana/ 

The study, cited by Greyfeather, even claimed that marijuana usage was on an increase amongst the youth. Those news articles skewed the source and more than likely cited one or two sentences for their three-paragraphed article, completely ignoring that marijuana usage has increased. Nothing about addiction, but mentions an increase in consumption.

California actually possesses the largest sales in both legal and illegal marijuana in the U.S... primary demographic? 18-29. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by DLimit

[Guest]

9 hours ago, RufioCas said:

ts literally why drug rp is dead on this server, people who go to clubs simply don't rp drugs and everyone's characters have this "drugs bad" mentality

And if anyone makes a suggestion about certain items to have certain scripted results that FORCE people to actually roleplay certain things then everybody is like "MUH RPG WELP".