WAR ON DRUGS: Useless or is it working? Should drugs be legalized?

[bigshot]

drugs are not wrong, they make people feel better. There are hundreds of thousands of drugs in the world today. Hundreds and hundreds of illegal ones to the thousands and thousands of legal ones. But they do all one thing, alter the body, mind or something in your body. I find that hard drugs with a very high rate of addiction should be illegal but they shouldnt have very hard jail time but instead be sent into an addiction help of some sort. I was very pleased to hear what happened in Vancouver BC with the safe injection sites for heroin users, instead of them shootin up on the streets in risk of a dirty infected needle or overdosing, they have a site where you get clean needles and people on site when you shoot up. At least if something happens, the person can be helped instead of dying on the corner. These people need help, not to be thrown in jail or not cared about.

As for marijuana, it should be definetly be legal and it will be soon (anyways in Canada) its decrimilized now, only a matter of time before it gets taxed and ready for sale in stores and bars. For the US, i dunno when they are gonna get on their horses, they are severly lagging behind the world community on drugs...the should understand their plan is not workin and try something different.

 

[FatJackSprat]

Does anyone know if alcohol use in the US was higher or lower during prohibition? For some reason I'm thinking that I've heard somewhere it was higher, but how could they get reliable figures?

As far as current drug illegality, I would personally say that any drug that can potentially kill a user with one dose should be illegal. It is not likely that someone will die from ingesting legal alcohol from normal use. The same can be said of marijuana.

However, herion, meth, and cocaine allow for easy overdose and should be illegal. That's not the only reason, but it seem like a good delimitation.

 

[LongCoolMother]

once again, am i the ONLY one here that doesnt support drugs?

 

[HappyPuppy]

The law should provide for summary, on-the-spot, execution of all drug dealers, anyone found to be in posession of even a minute amount of an illegal drug and those who are found to be under the influence of said illegal drugs AND anyone caught driving drunk. That would put a serious dent in the illicit drug trade and, as a bonus, get repeat drunk drivers off the road.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
The law should provide for summary, on-the-spot, execution of all drug dealers, anyone found to be in posession of even a minute amount of an illegal drug and those who are found to be under the influence of said illegal drugs AND anyone caught driving drunk. That would put a serious dent in the illicit drug trade and, as a bonus, get repeat drunk drivers off the road.

Many things are illegal that should not be, and many things that are legal also should not be. Who are you to decide the consequences?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: justint

Originally posted by: Howard
To me, it doesn't make sense. Why would the government want to imprison the farmers of the most profitable cash crop in the country?

You know selling little kids for sex is really profitable. WTF is the government messing with that??

I admire the analogy. Touché!

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: justint

Originally posted by: Howard
To me, it doesn't make sense. Why would the government want to imprison the farmers of the most profitable cash crop in the country?

You know selling little kids for sex is really profitable. WTF is the government messing with that??

I admire the analogy. Touché!

i don't. choice in drug use is a choice that one can make for themselves. child sex is no consetual and is more akin to slavery. giving people the option to own guns, smoke, drink etc is all part of liberty.

considering we allow smoking and alcohol, the ban against other soft drugs like alcohol seems rather arbitrary.

not to mention the black market only deprives us of taxes, raises the price of a habit to a level that encourages crime. the irrational ban on soft drugs makes for a lucritive black market that funds terrorists and assorted evil. just imagine if all our drugs like marajana were home grown and cheap. gone would be those criminal syndicates that thrive on it.

its like how the criminialization of prostitution only drives it underground and increases the overall level of suffering. instead of having regulated sex workers, you have abused, and victimized people subject to rape/theft/murders/desease. when your attempt to be puritanical only increases the level of human suffering its time to reexamine your policies.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Legalize it all.
Release all non violent drug offenders.
Set up social programs to combat addiction and take a harm reduction approach to drug education and treatment.
fin.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
once again, am i the ONLY one here that doesnt support drugs?

Justify your position and somebody might reply....

 

[RyanM]

<cynic>

Politicians will never legalize drugs.

They are fully aware of the fact that illegal drugs lead to more crime, and the more crime, the better.

After all, if we were living in a utopia, what issues would the policians run on? Legalizing drugs won't make a utopia overnight, but it will cut off one of the biggest funding sources for criminals, and force them to resort to much riskier crimes in order to bring in the same amount of money. The police force, unburdened because their vice squad suddenly doesn't have anything to do, will make quick work of the real criminals (murderers, rapists, and the thousands of former drug-dealers who've turned to crimes like bank robbery, grand larceny, and such), causing a huge drop in the number of real criminals on the streets.

In addition, the billions of dollars in tax revenue from the legalized drug market will pay for schools, urban renewal, welfare, social security, paying down the national debt, scholarships, lowered income taxes.....

After all that goes through, what will we have to complain about, and thus, ask the politicians to fix?

</cynic>

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Oh yeah, funny story to tell you guys. Me and a friend smoked a joint yesterday and we went back to this family party thing going on and this drug cop there (family friend) laughed at us and started screwing with us for kicks.

yeah, LA rocks.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

The problem with keeping hard drugs illegal, or even decriminalizing them, is that you still are unable to regulate the purity and quality of drugs on the street. A major problem the war on drugs has created is that you never know what you are getting when you buy drugs on the street!

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: justint

Originally posted by: Howard
To me, it doesn't make sense. Why would the government want to imprison the farmers of the most profitable cash crop in the country?

You know selling little kids for sex is really profitable. WTF is the government messing with that??

I admire the analogy. Touch&eacute;!

i don't. choice in drug use is a choice that one can make for themselves. child sex is no consetual and is more akin to slavery. giving people the option to own guns, smoke, drink etc is all part of liberty.

considering we allow smoking and alcohol, the ban against other soft drugs like alcohol seems rather arbitrary.

not to mention the black market only deprives us of taxes, raises the price of a habit to a level that encourages crime. the irrational ban on soft drugs makes for a lucritive black market that funds terrorists and assorted evil. just imagine if all our drugs like marajana were home grown and cheap. gone would be those criminal syndicates that thrive on it.

its like how the criminialization of prostitution only drives it underground and increases the overall level of suffering. instead of having regulated sex workers, you have abused, and victimized people subject to rape/theft/murders/desease. when your attempt to be puritanical only increases the level of human suffering its time to reexamine your policies.

Who said anything about admiring the analogy?

 

[Whisper]

I don't know if alcohol use was higher or lower during prohibition, but laws against alcohol were the basis for the flowering of the Mafia in America. Probably would've still happened eventually, but prohibition didn't exactly make it difficult.

And yep, marijuana should be legalized...but for some odd reason, I don't see this happening for a while. Why? Like lots of people mentioned above this, it's far too profitable to government to keep the war on drugs alive.

I don't smoke it, and so I honestly don't care one way or the other. But what I do care about is the fact that our jails are overcrowded with non-violent marijuana users or sellers, which could be alleviated if it were legalized. Also, I REALLY, REALLY HATE those Truth commericals talking about how marijuana makes you shoot your friend in the head, or leave the child you're babysitting behind as you go out because you're too stoned to realize that the noise you hear is crying. Please. It's use should definitely be regulated, yes. Not while driving, not in public places (since it is sorta possible to get high off of second-hand smoke), etc., but at least legal.

 

[0roo0roo]

not to mention mandatory minimums on drug sentences that give non violent mostly otherwisely good and productive people long barbaric jail terms. theres no ability for the judge to make a reasoned decision, its jail jail jail.

 

[Bv3]

http://www.lp.org/action/files/!drugwar.pdf

 

[Jugernot]

no, drugs are illegal for a reason.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
no, drugs are illegal for a reason.

yes, money, DuPont propaganda, control, racism, and tobacco/alcohol lobbies that don't want any competition.

Great reasons! :beer:

 

[CrazyDe1]

I had this discussion with a friend after watching the movie blow. What you do is legalize drugs, tax the hell out of it, regulate it, have public companies on the stock markets offering drugs. You completely reduce taxes on all other goods so it makes people happy. If someone jacks themself up it's their fault. Imagine what kind of boost for our economy we could have if we became the leading exporter of drugs? I mean, wouldn't you rather have someone getting their drugs through a safe source in pure form than off the streets?

That and then you implement something where the government pays these people or offers a discount on the drugs for steralization. So in effect, you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone. You eliminate these people from having more retarded kids that they shouldn't be having in the first place, and you're boosting the hell out of the economy. I mean, you'd obviously have education programs and people would be more apt to learn if they saw friends OD'ing.

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
I had this discussion with a friend after watching the movie blow. What you do is legalize drugs, tax the hell out of it, regulate it, have public companies on the stock markets offering drugs. You completely reduce taxes on all other goods so it makes people happy. If someone jacks themself up it's their fault. Imagine what kind of boost for our economy we could have if we became the leading exporter of drugs? I mean, wouldn't you rather have someone getting their drugs through a safe source in pure form than off the streets?

That and then you implement something where the government pays these people or offers a discount on the drugs for steralization. So in effect, you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone. You eliminate these people from having more retarded kids that they shouldn't be having in the first place, and you're boosting the hell out of the economy. I mean, you'd obviously have education programs and people would be more apt to learn if they saw friends OD'ing.

You got the general gist, but that latter part sounds a lot like the old "Let's offer homeless people $500 if they let themselves get sterilized!"

If you wanna weed out the crotchtards from the population, do it the RIGHT way - Take inane safety labels off everything. Let them choke on pingpong balls and accidentally blow themselves up mixing cleaning products. Seriously. That'd not only clean up the gene pool, but since companies wouldn't have to worry about utterly senseless litigation because some jackhole almost kills himself with some product in a manner in which no one with an IQ higher than dirt would be stupid enough to do, prices of every product on the market would be cheaper, and our court system would declog.

Seriously, I have the solution to every problem in this nation. Nobody ever wants to hear them though.

 

[Eli]

To answer the question..

No.. it isn't working, and it will never work.

The key is education. It wouldn't matter if drugs were legalized if people were educated about them.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
no, drugs are illegal for a reason.

What would that be? And can you explain alchohol and tobacco?

 

[RyanM]

Originally posted by: dparker

Originally posted by: Jugernot
no, drugs are illegal for a reason.

What would that be? And can you explain alchohol and tobacco?

Because white people like alcohol, silly. Everyone knows that only the degenerate races smoke marijuana! Harry Anslinger said so!

 

[CrazyDe1]

Man, if drugs were legalized I'd instantly find ways to create all forms of drugs in really pure forms at really cheap prices then offer my stock on the stock market. Our market would be so boosted from all the drug companies that would pop up...

 

[RyanM]

I quote:

Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind... Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes.

- Harry J. Anslinger, in his testimony to Congress, 1937.