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drink_me
One swell chap
Registered: 02/23/04
Posts: 8
Loc: UK
Last seen: 17 years, 6 months
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Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously.
#4062320 - 04/16/05 12:08 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Why do governments make certain drugs illegal? What actual reasons have governments given for making psilocybic mushrooms and the majority of the hallucinogenic drugs illegal? I know prohibition of these drugs must seem crazy to most of the people who visit a board like this, I just thought that you people would be the ones who might know. Where can a person find out their governments reasons for prohibiting drugs like this? There must be a perfectly legit way. I'm outraged at the UK government for (very nearly, if not absolutely yet) prohibiting mushrooms and I want to know their reasons. Anything remotely related to this subject would be very much appreciated of course.
-------------------- "'You're like that Mynah' said Dr Robert at last, 'Trained to repeat words you don't understand or know the reason for...You've been told that we're just a set of self-indulgent dope-takers, wallowing in illusions and false samadhis. Listen, Murugan - forget all the bad language that's been pumped into you." - Aldous Huxley, Island
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: drink_me]
#4062467 - 04/16/05 01:19 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Because if you eat mushrooms you'll think you can fly and jump out of a 12th story window. It's for your own good, you know.
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infidelGOD
illusion
Registered: 04/18/02
Posts: 3,040
Loc: there
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: drink_me]
#4062483 - 04/16/05 01:25 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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psychedelic drugs undermine government authority. of course, if the government was really smart, they would just infiltrate the highest intellectual circles of the psychedelic movement to co-opt and manipulate the movement for their own ends.
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Drink_Punk_Soda
Now with ExtraVaganza!?
Registered: 06/14/02
Posts: 1,677
Loc: Nowhere fast
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: drink_me]
#4062513 - 04/16/05 01:39 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Come on now, don't make me play devil's advocate.
Reasons drugs are/need to be illegal, according to various governments:
1)Drugs alter your state of being. Which means maybe, just maybe, you'll become and individual instead of part of the "greater" collective. 2)Drugs, for the most part, offer some sort of intoxication. See: Alcohol prohibition. 3)There is a HUGE market for drugs, which the government can't tap into without either swallowing a metric ton of pride, or considerably changing their image. Plus, the war on drugs generates a hefty amount of money, which would have to be moved into controlling and selling drugs, should the ideals switch.
I'm sure there's more to it, but those are the basics IMO.
-------------------- Kumbayah my lord, Kumbayah...
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible
Registered: 01/29/03
Posts: 8,670
Loc: Canoodia
Last seen: 14 years, 3 months
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: drink_me]
#4062574 - 04/16/05 02:02 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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power and control
guess I should add money too
-------------------- "What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
Edited by bellylard (04/16/05 03:38 PM)
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DieCommie
Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: barfightlard]
#4062596 - 04/16/05 02:12 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I think drugs are illegal because the general population is seriously worried about the health and well being of their children. Of course this is ridiculous with "drugs" like shrooms and marijuana (especially considering alcohol is legal), but many other drugs like crack and meth have grave consequences on the youth and population in general.
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: DieCommie]
#4062608 - 04/16/05 02:18 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Nailed it.
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea
Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: DieCommie]
#4062694 - 04/16/05 02:48 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I disagree.
The youth meet the drugs through users and dealers that make their available drug seem cool. The dealers are only there because the drugs are illegal. If they were prescription like other drugs then there wouldn't be any dealers to get the youth interested!
Belly lard is correct it is about power and control. They control society to be of the view that drugs are bad then keep power by votes because they will fight the war on drugs. Its the same story as with all the terrorism bullshit. The only terror that exists is a result of wars America started.
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Drink_Punk_Soda
Now with ExtraVaganza!?
Registered: 06/14/02
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: Ego Death]
#4062751 - 04/16/05 03:12 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'm sorry, while I agree with most of that post, the practical uses of perscribed meth and crack evade me...
-------------------- Kumbayah my lord, Kumbayah...
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible
Registered: 01/29/03
Posts: 8,670
Loc: Canoodia
Last seen: 14 years, 3 months
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: Drink_Punk_Soda]
#4062765 - 04/16/05 03:18 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I don't think dano ment prescription like that......I think he ment regulated??
-------------------- "What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
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downforpot
Stranger
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 5,715
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: barfightlard]
#4062809 - 04/16/05 03:31 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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The war on drugs employs a lot of people. If it suddenly ended the unemployment rate would be higher.
Plus there's the pharmaceutical factor. For example: AID drug companies are allied with the US government in order to stop other companies from selling generic versions of their drugs. This is also true for weed. No company wants the people to have access to a cheap medicine that can be grown at home.
You also have the shit with the Mexicans when they started to bring weed into the US. Laws were put into place in order to curb the flow of mexicans but now those laws are focusing on other factors too.
The health factor is also a problem due to the fact that there are tons of JESUS LOVING fucks who think intoxication is a sin. Hopefully all of these people will die out in a few decades.
-------------------- http://www.myspace.com/4th25 "And I don't care if he was handcuffed Then shot in his head All I know is dead bodies Can't fuck with me again"
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scribble
Stranger
Registered: 04/05/05
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: downforpot]
#4062865 - 04/16/05 03:46 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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a lot of drugs are illegal because of racism. If you look back to where the dislike of each drug comes from almost all are racism. opium = Chinese coke = blacks weed = Mexicans ummm I forget the others. Also all drug were legal till Nixon and he outlawed them because the soldiers in NAM were using them.
-------------------- Mahayana Buddhist tradition tells how Buddha lived on one hemp seed a day. This was enough to sustain him during the six steps of asceticism leading to his Enlightenment. In recent centuries, higher doses have been favoured.
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea
Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: barfightlard]
#4062867 - 04/16/05 03:47 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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ya
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible
Registered: 01/29/03
Posts: 8,670
Loc: Canoodia
Last seen: 14 years, 3 months
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: scribble]
#4062879 - 04/16/05 03:53 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I think it's alot deeper than that scribble. Maybe racism was a factor in some cases though. Look at salvia, as soon as the US government found out about it's popularity they began to push it into prohibition, and it wasn't being used more by a certain race or anything.
-------------------- "What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
Edited by bellylard (04/16/05 03:56 PM)
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: scribble]
#4063270 - 04/16/05 06:53 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
scribble said: Also all drug were legal till Nixon and he outlawed them because the soldiers in NAM were using them.
All drugs were not legal until Nixon. Do your homework.
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zahudulallah
Sexual Heretic
Registered: 10/20/04
Posts: 10,579
Loc: Tokyo, Japan
Last seen: 18 years, 10 months
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: Drink_Punk_Soda]
#4063534 - 04/16/05 09:00 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Drink_Punk_Soda said: I'm sorry, while I agree with most of that post, the practical uses of perscribed meth and crack evade me...
If someone wants to possess meth and crack it should be their right
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Gijith
Daisy Chain Eater
Registered: 12/04/03
Posts: 2,400
Loc: New York
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: zahudulallah]
#4063555 - 04/16/05 09:04 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I have to agree. It always strikes me as odd that certain people will promote economic darwinism, while arguing that meth should be illegal.
-------------------- what's with neocons and the word 'ilk'?
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DieCommie
Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: Gijith]
#4063640 - 04/16/05 09:32 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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So you promote economic darwinism?
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goldtop57
Stranger
Registered: 04/10/05
Posts: 86
Loc: England
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: Gijith]
#4063680 - 04/16/05 09:41 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'll give the historic answer. I read an interesting article that points to our puritan and racist heritage as a country as the means for certain substances being illegal. Laws were originated were used to "control" minorities (blacks and asians). I think most here will agree that some drugs are no less dangerous than alcohol. But Jesus drank that, and tobacco makes too much money so those can't be illegal.
Weed and Opiates weren't really available to primarily English founders of the United States.
Weed are originally surpressed in the South were it was primarily a "black man's" drug.
Opiates were primarily used by Asians on the West coast.
Surpression was part control, part preservation. These things were different from what our ancestors were used to, and different was bad.
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Why are certain drugs illegal? Seriously. [Re: drink_me]
#4063822 - 04/16/05 10:22 PM (18 years, 11 months ago) |
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Seems to be inertia.
It all started because of people who were against immigration and the temperance movement, which were often related. The temperance movement believed prostitution, drugs, alcohol and I believe gambling caused moral decay, and lobbied to have them criminalized. Obviously they succeeded extremely well with prostitution and drugs, not so well with gambling, and failed with alcohol.
Then the people who were against immigration associated certain groups of immigrants with the drugs they used, such as the Asians with opium and the Mexicans with marijuana. They thought they could help keep the immigrants down and maybe even dissuade them from coming to the U.S. by criminalizing these drugs, and so also had them criminalized.
Henry Anslinger fit into both categories.
And as anybody whose viewed human stupidity realizes, after it gets going, it requires a huge wall to stop it. Most people don't know the reasons the War on Drugs started by now, they realize marijuana is less harmful than legal alcohol, but they've lived with it all their lives and aren't going to change it. And since most new drugs that come along are psychoactive and easily labelled as "narcotics" by people who want to criminalize them, the people support criminalizing all new drugs discovered too for the most part... as long as tobacco and alcohol aren't touched.
For the government, it's obvious also. It gives them power over the people who use drugs, so anyone who's vehemently against the government, a figurehead for a movement, like Timothy Leary was, and a user of illegal drugs, could be "brought to justice". Like Leary was a few times. It also generates new jobs for the government, gives law enforcement a lot more work to do and therefore more staff and funding, and helps the government have a bigger piece of pie in terms of the economy by having whole sectors taking money to stop drugs.
And like the inertia for criminalizing the more obscure drugs originally associated with immigrants, the inertia for keeping alcohol and tobacco legal has stayed. Both have quite a history of use with people, and since the people as a whole used both in the times when drugs were being criminalized, Prohibition was relatively short. It continues to this day, where people have had alcohol legal their whole lives, have seen use of it, and see no reason to change it. People as a whole are sheep and don't change things that they don't see a flaws in unless those things immediately and directly hit them.
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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