Drug use at airsoft sites

[ShootingBlanks]

I’m not sure if I’m wrong, if I am then please set me straight, but is drug use at airsoft venues accepted by the community?

 

I ask because I have been to a few sites recently where people are openly smoking cannabis near the safe zone and in the car park.

 

I just want to get a feel for how the wider community feel about it.

[Jacob Wright]

I know a few sites I’ve been to in the past have commented on it during the safety brief with a zero tolerance policy. 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Same as Jacob.  It is sometimes mentioned.  

 

TBH, I think that your question needs a little more qualification.  Plenty of older airsofters have to use opioids to play with enjoyment.  The odd illicit hipflask does the rounds (or did pre-covid) at milsims, at least the winter games.   No one bats an eyelid.  

 

I wont get too excited over someone smoking a joint at lunchtime any more than someone having a bottle of beer, but an insurance company would.  

 

I suppose that I am 17th century enough to believe in the sanctity of self regarding actions.  Excessive toking has the potential to be non-self regarding for certain, but then so does excessive pain killer and cough medicine use.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crome]

4 minutes ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Same as Jacob.  It is sometimes mentioned.  

 

TBH, I think that your question needs a little more qualification.  Plenty of older airsofters have to use opioids to play with enjoyment.  The odd illicit hipflask does the rounds (or did pre-covid) at milsims, at least the winter games.   No one bats an eyelid.  

 

I wont get too excited over someone smoking a joint at lunchtime any more than someone having a bottle of beer, but an insurance company would.  

 

I suppose that I am 17th century enough to believe in the sanctity of self regarding actions.  Excessive toking has the potential to be non-self regarding for certain, but then so does excessive pain killer and cough medicine use.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd tend to agree, the options in top post are written as such to make one answer callous and the other correct a assume because of OPs personal biases toward the subject.

 

Really as long as you can maintain safety, show respect for others and continue to follow the rules I'm honestly happy for you to do most anything that doesn't harm others ("I don't like the smell" doesn't count as harm imo) and respects site rules in order to have fun on your days/afternoons off then go bananas.

 

Frankly speaking when it comes to the recreational user I know more than a few "mates" who could use a half a joint to calm them down a bit to bring less aggression/unhappiness from their weeks to almost everything in their hobby life, airsoft included. Sites sell those bastards beers throughout the days which absolutely has the potential to make things far worse than weed ever could.

 

My prescription is only for Insomnia so I'd not really need to smoke up at a site ever but this countries draconian dogma toward something that is proven to be helping a huge gamut of conditions is a little nauseating/offensive😑.

[MrWilson]

Our insurance states that anyone under theinfluence of drugs or alcohol must be removed for safety...

 

[Crome]

1 minute ago, MrWilson said:

Our insurance states that anyone under theinfluence of drugs or alcohol must be removed for safety...

 

Having said all I just said I'd imagine if I owned/operated a site this'd be my across the board policy too just because of liability, all I said before was mearly from a personal perspective. From a business perspective especially while it remains legal a firm no to everything including drink would be my answer on site.

[Rogerborg]

4 hours ago, ShootingBlanks said:

I ask because I have been to a few sites recently where people are openly smoking cannabis near the safe zone and in the car park.

 

 

Given your intro to this forum, I think you're just fishing for attention.

 

Congratulations, you win a prize.

 

 

 

[Cr0-Magnon]

8 hours ago, Crome said:

Sites sell those bastards beers throughout the days

 

proven to be helping a huge gamut of conditions is a little nauseating/offensive😑

 

I've never been to an Airsoft site which sells alcohol. Please would you name a few examples? (seeing as you used plurality to imply it's the norm)

 

In regards to smoking weed prior to/while playing, let's just say a large portion of players don't need any help being slower or dopier.

[Cannonfodder]

12 hours ago, ShootingBlanks said:

I ask because I have been to a few sites recently where people are openly smoking cannabis near the safe zone and in the car park.

That's not the case for the majority of sites I've played at

 

[SBoardley]

[Jaylordofwaargh]

The handful of sites i have been to mention it explictly in safety brief normally on the casual - dont do drugs/drink if you want to keep playing.  i have also seen this enforced. If any of you read your wavers you will often find it mentioned in there as well. 

[Groot]

 

[Albiscuit]

Plenty of sites I have been to have mentioned its not ok and people will be removed. 

 

A few years back a whole team were kicked out of Battle lakes when Zed were running it because of of their guys had a joint in the carpark between games. In fairness it was mentioned in the brief so tough shit really.

 

Most people are idiots anyway, drink and drugs heighten that so I would prefer it not on site.

[Asomodai]

5 minutes ago, Albiscuit said:

Most people are idiots anyway, drink and drugs heighten that so I would prefer it not on site.

 

I agree with you on this. 

 

I have written much on the site but there were more then one group of people skinning up at lunchtime in the Carpark at Tactical Warfare in Croydon. The smell reached the safe zone yet they weren't remove from the game day. 

[BigStew]

Every site I have been to it has always been stated in brief zero tolerance to drugs and alcohol on site.

[Druid799]

Any substance(both drugs or alcohol) that can alter your mental state should be banned from any activity that involves physical contact between people . 

As to OP’s opening premise and comments ?🤔

[Tommikka]

A very similar topic was brought up about a month ago about “smoking drugs on paintball sites with children around”

 

Its illegal (though there was a poster who kept coming back about it being possible to have it on prescription, and that they had prescription weed as opposed to THC,CBD)

 

So let’s say that abuse of substances is illegal, and that whether legal or not that mind altering substances do not have a place in playing these types of games

[Cannonfodder]

Meh. Cannabis is nothing, it's CAKE you should be worried about. Others to be aware of are clarky caps and spunky backpack

[Tommikka]

22 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

Meh. Cannabis is nothing, it's CAKE you should be worried about. Others to be aware of are clarky caps and spunky backpack

Nasty stuff cake.  They tempt you in with the sugary goodness, then you’re face to face with a Prague Tran

 

 

 

Decisions decisions. 
 

Do I fix the Prague tram/Tran?

 

Or are the prospects of ending up with a Prague Tran going to be better in discouraging the youth of today of experimenting with cake?

[Chev Chelios]

I wonder if insurance policy's elaborate in the wording exactly what "drugs" they mean. Someone playing that smokes, had a coffee or even a Mars Bar technically is "under the influence". Driving while under the influence law does state  "illegal drugs" or "It’s illegal to drive with legal drugs in your body if it impairs your driving". Probably just got the tin foil hat on, but having dealt with companies in the past they will do everything to the point of lying to not have to pay up. 

[EvilMonkee]

2 hours ago, Cannonfodder said:

Meh. Cannabis is nothing, it's CAKE you should be worried about. Others to be aware of are clarky caps and spunky backpack

[Godly]

Smoking and drinking might be cool but ain't cool doing it on site .

[Rogerborg]

6 hours ago, BigStew said:

Every site I have been to it has always been stated in brief zero tolerance to drugs and alcohol on site.

 

Eh. Sites, like politicians, tend to talk a great game.

 

If they actually acted on it then the tiny minority of throbbers who ruin it for everyone wouldn't last long in the hobby.

 

 

4 hours ago, Chev Chelios said:

Someone playing that smokes, had a coffee or even a Mars Bar technically is "under the influence". 

 

This is actually a fair point.  Nicotine and caffeine are awful drugs, they'd be banned now if so many influential people weren't already hooked.  This isn't a joke (although addicts will laugh it off), they're both debilitating, mood altering, and highly physiologically addictive.  They're treated differently to cake in part because we can take them in small, controlled doses, without stigma or (generally) without bingeing too much.  If Woka-Cola started putting small amounts of cocaine back into their bottled diabetes, it would be no worse than caffeine, and less harmful than the sugar.

 

OK, I'll bite on the original bait. I wouldn't actually have much of an issue in principle with someone airsofting on a bit of recreational THC. I'd actually prefer it to a speedyboi rushing around off his tits on sugar, taurine and caffeine and seeing things like he's in the Matrix.

 

However, in practice, you don't know what they're smoking, its strength, how much they're binging, whether they think the squirrels are spying on them, or if they've got the full blown... 

 

 

I've mentioned before that there seems to be a lot of people who turn up to airsoft sites for reasons other than actually playing airsoft. 

 

Me, I'm there to sling balls, and if I had one airsoft wish, it would be for all sites to be run by people who will actively facilitate that, and nip everything else in the bud, pun intended. 

[DaktariT]

NAE is good example of alcohol being for sale during active sessions of Airsoft, though by the time you've found someone to shoot at you've walked the alcohol off.

[Tommikka]

56 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

 

 

 

However, in practice, you don't know what they're smoking, its strength, how much they're binging, whether they think the squirrels are spying on them, or if they've got the full blown... 

 

Back in the day, what the ‘average person’ thought was the smell of cannabis was actually musk or naga incense.  The perfumes of ‘hippy girls’ and the incense they burned to cover up the smell.

Then when stopped by the village Bobbie the guys would have their stash in the girls bags, and if pulled out with papers etc when searched would say it’s rolling tobacco.  Except for when they were elsewhere and encountered Thames Valley

They also sold oxo cubes to ‘weekend Hippy’s’, which would give off a beefy scent, but by the time someone attempted to smoke it the ‘dealer’ was long gone

 

 

 

 

These tales come from the original hippy, who was a cross between hells angel and hippy until the hippy generation came into being and he ‘found’ his identity

 

For many years he would claim that the old saying “if you remember the 60s then you weren’t there” was wrong, as he could remember the 60s.  However following a number of documentaries and anniversary retrospectives the events he remembered of the 60s turned out to be the 70s

14 minutes ago, DaktariT said:

NAE is good example of alcohol being for sale during active sessions of Airsoft, though by the time you've found someone to shoot at you've walked the alcohol off.

That would be different as an event rather than a typical game & site

 

When do they serve alcohol?  I’ve not been to NAE, but have been to many Paintfest’s (the last few had airfest at the same time) and I’ve been to a few of the Warped big games (before they began duplicate airsoft events as well)

Typically the bar would open in the evening and not affect game play other than night/evening sessions and the after effects the next morning

At some of the latter years I self banned myself from either playing for a few hours or on the last year I declared myself unsafe to even walk on field.

Though I’d be up and kicking our guys out of their tents first thing so they get their game play in

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Tommikka