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psychonaut52
Stranger
Registered: 02/20/09
Posts: 120
Loc: The Amazon Jungle
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
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So why NOT legalize all drugs?
#10036663 - 03/25/09 12:35 AM (15 years, 8 days ago) |
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Hell, what if we just let heroin addicts use as much heroin as they wanted until they decided that they wanted to quit, just kept on doing what they did, or died? Countries that have decriminalized the use of all drugs like heroin, such as Portugal, don't exhibit increases in drug usage rates, so it makes sense that even while making all drugs legal, more people wouldn't actually use them. So why not make them free for the addicts and end the war on drugs? Just spend the money that would've been used on the War on Drugs to pay for the drugs for the addicts who aren't going to quit quite yet and treatment for the addicts who want to stop. It would be so much more effective, wouldn't it? One cannot simply force heroin users to stop using heroin unless they themselves understand what a problem it has become for them on a deep and personal level. If current usage rates of heroin stay relatively the same regardless of whether or not it is legal, decriminalized, or illegal, and assuming that legalized drug trade would provide much cheaper drugs, it is clearly much easier and much better, in the long run, for the government to do this—to provide drug addicts with the option to continue taking their drugs for free when they can no longer afford it with their own money (in order to prevent them from stealing and committing crime, which does hurt other people, unlike drug use by itself, which generally only harms the individual and perhaps society inasmuch as the individual's social relations and responsibilities might be impacted), to tax the users who can still reasonably afford their drug of choice, and to pay for treatment of those who wish quit using their drug. Indeed, they would do all this without having to worry about unnecessary criminal and legal ramifications they might incur, so if they do indeed recover, they can return to society as functional human beings once again and so contribute to our overall economic wellbeing and improve our society! It would be cheaper, it would save more lives, and ultimately it would benefit our nation's economic and social capital. So why NOT legalize all drugs?
Sorry, I'm high as fuck, just me ranting, and I thought you were the only people who might be able to appreciate it somehow, haha.
-------------------- "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." -Buddha COGNITIVE LIBERTY NOW!
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,358
Last seen: 7 days, 19 hours
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Re: So why NOT legalize all drugs? [Re: psychonaut52]
#10042595 - 03/25/09 10:53 PM (15 years, 7 days ago) |
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Quote:
So why NOT legalize all drugs?
What about the children? Don't we need to protect them by putting them in jail?
What about people getting high at work? Do you realize what that would do to 'merican productivity?
What about the crack dealers and meth heads, don't they deserve some jail time for their sins?
Sorry thats the best I could come up with.
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Poid
Shroomery's #1 Spellir
Registered: 02/04/08
Posts: 40,372
Loc: SF Bay Area
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Re: So why NOT legalize all drugs? [Re: psychonaut52]
#10042841 - 03/25/09 11:30 PM (15 years, 7 days ago) |
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I think a more interesting question would be, "Why are certain drugs illegal?'.
-------------------- Well I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them. -- Bob Dylanfireworks_god said:It's one thing to simply enjoy a style of life that one enjoys, but it's another thing altogether to refer to another person's choice as "wrong" or to rationalize their behavior as being pathological or resulting from some sort of inadequacy or failing so as to create a sense of superiority or separation as yet another projection of a personal fear or control issue.
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1upshroom
Plant Collector
Registered: 01/12/09
Posts: 204
Loc: On the eastern edge
Last seen: 10 years, 11 months
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Quote:
What about the children? Don't we need to protect them by putting them in jail?
That has to be my most hated quote of all time. If it were regulated then the children wouldn't get it.
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badchad
Mad Scientist
Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,377
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Re: So why NOT legalize all drugs? [Re: 1upshroom]
#10073397 - 03/30/09 11:41 AM (15 years, 2 days ago) |
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If drugs were legal more people would use them.
The increase in drug use may lead to adverse consequences.
Since there are also positive aspects to drug legalization, the question is whether there is a favorable risk-benefit ratio to full legalization.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Re: So why NOT legalize all drugs? [Re: badchad]
#10073869 - 03/30/09 01:17 PM (15 years, 2 days ago) |
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It is unlikely that more people would use drugs if they were legal. The law isn't what stops most people from doing drugs in the first place.
A) We already have alcohol and tobacco, and we all know about the problems they cause. Do we really need another vice? B) So what is it that makes vices, legal or illegal, problematic? A) They make society less productive, cause people to be addicted, etc. B) So with prohibition, not only do we have the harm of the substance, but we add the harm of the legal system (Jail time, loss of jobs, etc). Therefore doesn't prohibition only make the problems of the vice worse? A) Yes, but by having drugs illegal, less people do them in the first place. B) So if drugs were legal, you would do them? A) No, but others might. B) So what is it that makes you think you would but others wouldn't? A) Well I'm educated and know better, and im an adult. B) So you admit that it is being educated and knowing better, rather than the law that influences whether or not you and thus most people would do drugs? And therefore, shouldn't resources be focused on honest education and market regulation to curb drug abuse? A) So if drugs were legal and professionals were taking them, would you want your doctor or your kid's kindergarten teacher doing drugs? B) For all I know, they are doing drugs already, and hiding their use. What difference does it make if my surgeon is an alcoholic or a pothead? A) Their performance may be affected B) So shouldn't we hire/fire people based on performance, and not what they do in the privacy of their own home?
I could go on all day...
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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badchad
Mad Scientist
Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,377
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Re: So why NOT legalize all drugs? [Re: Green_T]
#10074068 - 03/30/09 01:53 PM (15 years, 2 days ago) |
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So then, What do you think the most widely used drugs in the U.S. are? (that wasn't a rhetorical question either).
I would take a wild guess that alcohol and cigarettes are the most widely used substances in the U.S. Because they are legal, and widely available.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Re: So why NOT legalize all drugs? [Re: badchad]
#10074187 - 03/30/09 02:19 PM (15 years, 2 days ago) |
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Good point. However, you still have to ask even among the illegal drugs, why are there more marijuana users than heroin users?
Legality is only a small part of the question when pondering why drug statistics are so. Alcohol and tobacco are probably the most used (aside from caffeine), but that is also due to cultural and economic significance.
I see drug use as a pyramid, with fewer people in this order: Caffeine > Alcohol > Tobacco > Marijuana > Ecstasy > Heroin
If all these drugs were legal, would any of the positions in the pyramid change order?
EDIT: Also check out the "legalize meth" link in my sig. The author puts some good arguments as to why meth (and to some degree why all drugs by extension) should be legal.
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Edited by green_titan (03/30/09 02:34 PM)
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