GeneValgene
Diamond Member
i see...i wonder how much raw productions costs are for the most common currently illicit drugs
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The Argument for Why we should Legalize Drugs...
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i see...i wonder how much raw productions costs are for the most common currently illicit drugs
cKGunslinger
Lifer
Because drugs are EBIL! Nancy Regan told me so.
FeuerFrei
Diamond Member
Well your mom isn't breaking the law. Just because you get addicted to something doesn't mean you are allowed to break the law. If you are willing to break the law to get your drugs, then that says something about you and your lack of principles. Controlled substance are controlled for a reason ... namely people don't have self control. Doctors prescribe substances because they might benefit you, not because you might enjoy their effects. They are in a better position to judge what you need than you are.
TitanDiddly
Guest
If only it worked that way. The people who have addictive traits are the most likely to pick them up.
preslove
Lifer
You paying for their hospital bills would be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than paying for their incarceration costs. RAND corporation has pretty much proven that our current system is THE least effecient policy framework for combating addiction.
I like the doctors stuff on addiction. It's so true. I knew this girl with a bad cocaine habit who was forced by her bf to stop. What does she do? She gets a credit card habit and goes $10k in debt buying stupid crap. In the end, the credit cards were worse for her.
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
Um... and what planet are you from? 😕
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
No, you can't have one without the other. I want our crime rates to drop and I want to see more funds go toward helping those who do become addicted.
I think it is ridiculous that our society shuns these people and does not give them the adequate support or help as they do for alcoholics.
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
It wouldn't take care of most of the problems, besides why one drug over the other? They all are equally dangerous. They all have their toxic effects....
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
Trade & Protectionism
Illegal Drugs: Scourge or Globalization?s Great Equalizer?
What do a traditional Jamaican tea, a leafy cash crop that flourishes in Bolivia, another plant grown in and around the Horn of Africa, and an Indian scorpion have in common? They are all indigenous life forms that locals use to achieve varying degrees of intoxication.
Ganja, also called cannabis, hemp or marijuana, is smoked by some Jamaicans but is also used as the main ingredient in a tea popular with most islanders, even those opposed to the smoking of ganja.
Bolivian laborers, truck drivers, and others seeking to maintain alertness while working in the oxygen-poor high altitude of the country chew the revitalizing leaves of the coca plant. Africans in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya and Arabs in Yemen likewise chew khat, an indigenous plant leaf, for its qualities as a stimulant. Meanwhile, the newest recreational drug craze in Gujarat, India, 200 miles north of Mumbai on the Indian Ocean, is paying a vendor for the pleasure of receiving a sting to one's palm from a live scorpion.
These examples of the use of indigenous plants and animals as foods, stimulants, and intoxicants, spread across diverse peoples, cultures, oceans and continents, illustrate the ubiquitous use in the developing world of what critics of drug use in developed nations like the United States consider to be harmful substances whose prohibition, stigmatization and destruction is imperative.
Worldwide, though, a growing number of economists, researchers, and experts on topics as varied as the environment, human rights and development believe these naturally occurring plant and animal by-products to be vital cogs in the rapidly globalizing world economy. Just how does the issue of drug farming, production, sale, and use fit within a paradigm of globalization, the discussion of which is usually reserved for topics like genetically modified food, free trade, indigenous rights, environmental degradation, sweatshops, property rights, privatization, Western chain restaurants, and corporate greed?
Illegal drugs have always been popular, though not illegal
Consider that cannabis, mankind's second most widely used drug, trailing only alcohol, has been farmed worldwide and used as a food, intoxicant, clothing, and textile for several millennia. According to a report by the United Nations' Office of Drug Control, cannabis "was one of the first ? if not the first ? non-food industrial plants to be used by man."
The worldwide availability of cocaine, processed from the leaves of the coca plant, which is grown almost exclusively by subsistence farmers in the developing world, has increased markedly over the last thirty years, though the finished product is mainly produced for export and is rarely used in countries like Bolivia or Colombia where it is produced. Khat continues to be grown and used almost exclusively in northeast Africa and Yemen, though it is gaining in popularity in the developed world as more and more people emigrate from the region.
One day, perhaps, given time, scorpion stings will be a growth industry in the developed world, too.
Though these intoxicants are to varying degrees popular and common in their countries of origin, their growth, sale and use are by no means formally sanctioned by their respective national governments. Ganja is illegal in Jamaica, though it is tolerated due to its status as "the most important pillar" of the country's economy, according to Tim Boekhout van Solinge of CEDRO, a Dutch drug-policy research center.
Coca farming, centered chiefly in Latin America, prevails even as farms are targeted for eradication by anti-drug forces, though recent popular actions to grant rights to the owners of longstanding coca farms in Peru could have widespread impact in the region.
Few believe, though, that the United States, the kingpin of the region's eradication efforts, will allow these poor subsistence farmers the right to legally farm coca. The United States, after all, has its hand in virtually every anti-drug effort around the globe.
How did the United States, the world's leading drug consumer, become involved in enforcing the laws of other countries, in effect globalizing its prohibition of certain drugs? And what is the nature of its involvement in worldwide anti-drug efforts?
Click here to continue article...
Illegal Drugs: Scourge or Globalization?s Great Equalizer?
What do a traditional Jamaican tea, a leafy cash crop that flourishes in Bolivia, another plant grown in and around the Horn of Africa, and an Indian scorpion have in common? They are all indigenous life forms that locals use to achieve varying degrees of intoxication.
Ganja, also called cannabis, hemp or marijuana, is smoked by some Jamaicans but is also used as the main ingredient in a tea popular with most islanders, even those opposed to the smoking of ganja.
Bolivian laborers, truck drivers, and others seeking to maintain alertness while working in the oxygen-poor high altitude of the country chew the revitalizing leaves of the coca plant. Africans in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya and Arabs in Yemen likewise chew khat, an indigenous plant leaf, for its qualities as a stimulant. Meanwhile, the newest recreational drug craze in Gujarat, India, 200 miles north of Mumbai on the Indian Ocean, is paying a vendor for the pleasure of receiving a sting to one's palm from a live scorpion.
These examples of the use of indigenous plants and animals as foods, stimulants, and intoxicants, spread across diverse peoples, cultures, oceans and continents, illustrate the ubiquitous use in the developing world of what critics of drug use in developed nations like the United States consider to be harmful substances whose prohibition, stigmatization and destruction is imperative.
Worldwide, though, a growing number of economists, researchers, and experts on topics as varied as the environment, human rights and development believe these naturally occurring plant and animal by-products to be vital cogs in the rapidly globalizing world economy. Just how does the issue of drug farming, production, sale, and use fit within a paradigm of globalization, the discussion of which is usually reserved for topics like genetically modified food, free trade, indigenous rights, environmental degradation, sweatshops, property rights, privatization, Western chain restaurants, and corporate greed?
Illegal drugs have always been popular, though not illegal
Consider that cannabis, mankind's second most widely used drug, trailing only alcohol, has been farmed worldwide and used as a food, intoxicant, clothing, and textile for several millennia. According to a report by the United Nations' Office of Drug Control, cannabis "was one of the first ? if not the first ? non-food industrial plants to be used by man."
The worldwide availability of cocaine, processed from the leaves of the coca plant, which is grown almost exclusively by subsistence farmers in the developing world, has increased markedly over the last thirty years, though the finished product is mainly produced for export and is rarely used in countries like Bolivia or Colombia where it is produced. Khat continues to be grown and used almost exclusively in northeast Africa and Yemen, though it is gaining in popularity in the developed world as more and more people emigrate from the region.
One day, perhaps, given time, scorpion stings will be a growth industry in the developed world, too.
Though these intoxicants are to varying degrees popular and common in their countries of origin, their growth, sale and use are by no means formally sanctioned by their respective national governments. Ganja is illegal in Jamaica, though it is tolerated due to its status as "the most important pillar" of the country's economy, according to Tim Boekhout van Solinge of CEDRO, a Dutch drug-policy research center.
Coca farming, centered chiefly in Latin America, prevails even as farms are targeted for eradication by anti-drug forces, though recent popular actions to grant rights to the owners of longstanding coca farms in Peru could have widespread impact in the region.
Few believe, though, that the United States, the kingpin of the region's eradication efforts, will allow these poor subsistence farmers the right to legally farm coca. The United States, after all, has its hand in virtually every anti-drug effort around the globe.
How did the United States, the world's leading drug consumer, become involved in enforcing the laws of other countries, in effect globalizing its prohibition of certain drugs? And what is the nature of its involvement in worldwide anti-drug efforts?
Click here to continue article...
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
Viewpoint on the drug policies in other countries...
Drug Policies and effects
Implications of policy on drugs use statistics
Despite the legalization of soft drugs, use of cannabis in the Netherlands is not higher than most other countries in Western Europe: 9.7% of young males consume cannabis at least once a month, which rates the Netherlands 7th in the EU after Cyprus (23.3%), Spain (16.4%), United Kingdom (15.8%), France (13.2%), Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%).[1]
Some critics say that the legalization of soft drugs often leads to quicker consuming of harddrugs. Yet, the percentage of the population which ever consumed cocaine in the Netherlands is still lower than that of the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. The situation is similar for other hard drugs. [2]
The drug policy of the Netherlands is based on two principles:
1. Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal matter
2. A distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs exists
It is a pragmatic policy. Most policymakers in the Netherlands believe that if a problem has proved to be unstoppable, it is better to try controlling it instead of continuing to enforce laws that have shown to be unable to stop the problem. Most other countries take the point of view that drugs are bad and must be outlawed, whether that course of action yields any results or not. This has caused friction between the Netherlands and other countries, most notably with France and Germany. As of 2004, Belgium seems to be moving toward the Dutch model and a few local German legislators are calling for experiments based on the Dutch model. Switzerland has had long and heated parliamentary debates about whether to follow the Dutch model, but finally decided against it in 2004; currently a ballot initiative is in the works on the question.
Public health
The use of soft drugs in general is not prohibited, on the general principle of self-determination in matters of the body. Specifically, that it is not illegal to hurt yourself; however, you remain liable for the consequences of your actions. Because of this, users are not prosecuted for possession of small quantities of soft drugs ("for personal use"). Driving under the influence of drugs is nevertheless prohibited, as is being under the influence in public (of either alcohol or other drugs), mainly from a public nuisance perspective.
Drug Policies and effects
Implications of policy on drugs use statistics
Despite the legalization of soft drugs, use of cannabis in the Netherlands is not higher than most other countries in Western Europe: 9.7% of young males consume cannabis at least once a month, which rates the Netherlands 7th in the EU after Cyprus (23.3%), Spain (16.4%), United Kingdom (15.8%), France (13.2%), Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%).[1]
Some critics say that the legalization of soft drugs often leads to quicker consuming of harddrugs. Yet, the percentage of the population which ever consumed cocaine in the Netherlands is still lower than that of the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. The situation is similar for other hard drugs. [2]
The drug policy of the Netherlands is based on two principles:
1. Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal matter
2. A distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs exists
It is a pragmatic policy. Most policymakers in the Netherlands believe that if a problem has proved to be unstoppable, it is better to try controlling it instead of continuing to enforce laws that have shown to be unable to stop the problem. Most other countries take the point of view that drugs are bad and must be outlawed, whether that course of action yields any results or not. This has caused friction between the Netherlands and other countries, most notably with France and Germany. As of 2004, Belgium seems to be moving toward the Dutch model and a few local German legislators are calling for experiments based on the Dutch model. Switzerland has had long and heated parliamentary debates about whether to follow the Dutch model, but finally decided against it in 2004; currently a ballot initiative is in the works on the question.
Public health
The use of soft drugs in general is not prohibited, on the general principle of self-determination in matters of the body. Specifically, that it is not illegal to hurt yourself; however, you remain liable for the consequences of your actions. Because of this, users are not prosecuted for possession of small quantities of soft drugs ("for personal use"). Driving under the influence of drugs is nevertheless prohibited, as is being under the influence in public (of either alcohol or other drugs), mainly from a public nuisance perspective.
GuitarDaddy
Lifer
ROFL! Thats a good one🙂
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
Um, I read the article... although I understand their viewpoint, I would hope that they don't use this as an excuse to go after the poor.
The wealthy have always been able to afford the luxury of the most popular drugs, cocaine, marijuana, and in some cases meth or some type of amphetamine.
However what if you are under the poverty line. Does this mean that your not allowed to use, just because your not in a certain income bracket? That would make no sense whatsoever...
I think legalization should include making everyone equally accountable for anything they do under the influence that potentially harms someone else or their property. If a surgeon smokes pot prior to going into surgery, and it causes him the inability to concentrate on what he is doing, thus injuring or killing the person he is operating on then he is liable. That would be right up there with a doctor taking a big swig of whiskey prior to going into surgery.
No, everyone should be accountable for their actions if they take any type of drug period... Legal or not.
Hey, thanks for the link by the way.:thumbsup: :laugh:
Fingolfin269
Lifer
Meth or chocolate! You decide!
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
I'm sorry...
I had to watch my grandmother and grandfather die a very slow horrible death from lung cancer, and they were so addicted to the damned cigarettes they couldn't even stop smoking when they had the friggin oxygen tubes up their noses!
In addition I watched a close friend of mine die from Alcoholism. He had Liver failure. Even after he tried alcoholics anonymous and tried for many years to quit. His life was a living hell, and he couldn't even get health benefits because his illness was alcohol related... he drank till the day he died.
Now I have watched close personal friends on coke, meth, crack and pot. I watched the effects of all of them on my friends. I watched while some became addicted and some did not. I watched while the addiction of meth and coke, caused my friends hair to fall out, teeth to rot... and their muscle to waste away. But they are treated far worse by people and society than the alcoholics and people who smoke cigarettes. Their families desert them, and turn their backs on them... and people treat them like sh*t. How can we not expect for these people to go back to doing their drugs when they are treated so abhorently.
All these drugs have carcinoginic effects, all are equally destructive in my eyes.
GeneValgene
Diamond Member
you don't need to take that article too seriously...it's from the onion (a parody site) 🙂
ValkyrieofHouston
Golden Member
Just call me blonde baby... after typing furiously... I went back and re-read it. Waaaay over my head this morning! LOL
I have to chuckly at myself sometimes...😉
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