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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Dispelling myths about drug use
    #8538276 - 06/18/08 07:33 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Dispelling myths about drug use
June 18, 2008 - desertdispatch.com

By John Stossel

The other day, reading the New York Post’s popular Page Six gossip page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: “ABC’S John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high. … The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs.”

I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New York State Assembly’s passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill hasn’t passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a possible remedy would merit such a celebration. Of course medical marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal. I’m amazed that the health police are so smug in their opposition.

After years of reporting on the drug war, I’m convinced that this “war” does more harm than any drug.

Independent of that harm, adults ought to own our own bodies, so it’s not intellectually honest to argue that “only marijuana” should be legal — and only for certain sick people approved by the state. Every drug should be legal.

“How could you say such a ridiculous thing?” asked my assistant. “Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect. If you do crack just once, you are automatically hooked. Legal hard drugs would create many more addicts. And that leads to more violence, homelessness, out-of-wedlock births, etc!”

Her diatribe is a good summary of the drug warriors’ arguments. Most Americans probably agree with what she said.

But what most Americans believe is wrong.

Myth No. 1: Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect.

Truth: There is no evidence of that.

In the 1980s, the press reported that “crack babies” were “permanently damaged.” Rolling Stone, citing one study of just 23 babies, claimed that crack babies “were oblivious to affection, automatons.”

It simply wasn’t true. There is no proof that crack babies do worse than anyone else in later life, according a review in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Myth No. 2: If you do crack once, you are hooked.

Truth: Look at the numbers — 15 percent of young adults have tried crack, but only 2 percent used it in the last month, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If crack is so addictive, why do most people who’ve tried it no longer use it?

People once said heroin was nearly impossible to quit, but during the Vietnam War, thousands of soldiers became addicted, and when they returned home, 85 percent quit within one year, according to the American Journal of Public Health.

People have free will. Most who use drugs eventually wise up and stop.

And most people who use drugs habitually live perfectly responsible lives, as Jacob Sullum pointed out in “Saying Yes.”

Myth No. 3: Drugs cause crime.

Truth: The drug war causes the crime.

Few drug users hurt or rob people because they are high. Most of the crime occurs because the drugs are illegal and available only through a black market. Drug sellers arm themselves and form gangs because they cannot ask the police to protect their persons and property.

In turn, some buyers steal to pay the high black-market prices. The government says heroin, cocaine and nicotine are similarly addictive, and about half the people who both smoke cigarettes and use cocaine say smoking is at least as strong an urge. But no one robs convenience stores for Marlboros.

Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the Mafia. Drug prohibition is worse. It’s corrupting whole countries and financing terrorism.

The Post wrote, “Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter doesn’t think (legalization) is a good idea.”

But that’s not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably abuse.
I’m not so sure.

Banning drugs certainly hasn’t kept young people from getting them. We can’t even keep these drugs out of prisons. How do we expect to keep them out of America?

But let’s assume my daughter is right, that legalization would lead to more experimentation and more addiction. I still say: Legal is better.

While drugs harm many, the drug war’s black market harms more.

And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right to harm themselves.

John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News’ “20/20” and the author of “Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity,” which is now out in paperback.

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Invisiblemellontatauda
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Registered: 06/05/08
Posts: 727
Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: veggie]
    #8538336 - 06/18/08 07:47 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:


And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right to harm themselves.




YES!  power to the people!


--------------------
:jah:

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Invisibleusg543
◕‿◕

Registered: 02/11/07
Posts: 5,192
Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: veggie]
    #8538535 - 06/18/08 08:49 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

great article.

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OfflineIma TrooperS
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Registered: 02/21/08
Posts: 13,557
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: usg543]
    #8538655 - 06/18/08 09:28 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Why don't more people GET this?! It's so frustrating.


--------------------
"Its moving of its own accord...and I like that in a shirt!" - Me, tripping.

deCypher said:
Schizophrenia beats dining alone, you know.

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OfflineCoaster
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Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: veggie]
    #8538672 - 06/18/08 09:33 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

veggie said:
Dispelling myths about drug use
June 18, 2008 - desertdispatch.com

By John Stossel

The other day, reading the New York Post’s popular Page Six gossip page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: “ABC’S John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high. … The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs.”

I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New York State Assembly’s passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill hasn’t passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a possible remedy would merit such a celebration. Of course medical marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal. I’m amazed that the health police are so smug in their opposition.

After years of reporting on the drug war, I’m convinced that this “war” does more harm than any drug.

Independent of that harm, adults ought to own our own bodies, so it’s not intellectually honest to argue that “only marijuana” should be legal — and only for certain sick people approved by the state. Every drug should be legal.

“How could you say such a ridiculous thing?” asked my assistant. “Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect. If you do crack just once, you are automatically hooked. Legal hard drugs would create many more addicts. And that leads to more violence, homelessness, out-of-wedlock births, etc!”

Her diatribe is a good summary of the drug warriors’ arguments. Most Americans probably agree with what she said.

But what most Americans believe is wrong.

Myth No. 1: Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect.

Truth: There is no evidence of that.

In the 1980s, the press reported that “crack babies” were “permanently damaged.” Rolling Stone, citing one study of just 23 babies, claimed that crack babies “were oblivious to affection, automatons.”

It simply wasn’t true. There is no proof that crack babies do worse than anyone else in later life, according a review in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Myth No. 2: If you do crack once, you are hooked.

Truth: Look at the numbers — 15 percent of young adults have tried crack, but only 2 percent used it in the last month, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If crack is so addictive, why do most people who’ve tried it no longer use it?

People once said heroin was nearly impossible to quit, but during the Vietnam War, thousands of soldiers became addicted, and when they returned home, 85 percent quit within one year, according to the American Journal of Public Health.

People have free will. Most who use drugs eventually wise up and stop.

And most people who use drugs habitually live perfectly responsible lives, as Jacob Sullum pointed out in “Saying Yes.”

Myth No. 3: Drugs cause crime.

Truth: The drug war causes the crime.

Few drug users hurt or rob people because they are high. Most of the crime occurs because the drugs are illegal and available only through a black market. Drug sellers arm themselves and form gangs because they cannot ask the police to protect their persons and property.

In turn, some buyers steal to pay the high black-market prices. The government says heroin, cocaine and nicotine are similarly addictive, and about half the people who both smoke cigarettes and use cocaine say smoking is at least as strong an urge. But no one robs convenience stores for Marlboros.

Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the Mafia. Drug prohibition is worse. It’s corrupting whole countries and financing terrorism.

The Post wrote, “Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter doesn’t think (legalization) is a good idea.”

But that’s not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably abuse.
I’m not so sure.

Banning drugs certainly hasn’t kept young people from getting them. We can’t even keep these drugs out of prisons. How do we expect to keep them out of America?

But let’s assume my daughter is right, that legalization would lead to more experimentation and more addiction. I still say: Legal is better.

While drugs harm many, the drug war’s black market harms more.

And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right to harm themselves.

John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News’ “20/20” and the author of “Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity,” which is now out in paperback.



QFT


--------------------

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OfflineKing Koopa
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: Ima Trooper]
    #8538684 - 06/18/08 09:37 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Nice Avy IMA

Nice Post

Why Quote that whole thread and just reply with QFT.


--------------------
Best Post on the Shroomery
Don't criticize my mess unless you'd like to become part of it.

Edited by King Koopa (06/18/08 09:38 PM)

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OfflineSkeeblix
Dave Thomas
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Registered: 01/28/07
Posts: 1,745
Loc: Wendy's
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: King Koopa]
    #8538695 - 06/18/08 09:39 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Hell yeah, best article I've seen in a long time.


--------------------
This post approved by:


Premedman1 said:
:lol: I just shat my pants.

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OfflineShash
Stranger
Registered: 06/18/08
Posts: 2
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: Skeeblix]
    #8538757 - 06/18/08 09:54 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

I like John Stossel a lot more now.

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Invisiblemellontatauda
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Registered: 06/05/08
Posts: 727
Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: Shash]
    #8539263 - 06/19/08 12:34 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

dude looks like tom sellick


--------------------
:jah:

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OfflineJustice_Fish
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Registered: 01/06/07
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: mellontatauda]
    #8539819 - 06/19/08 06:36 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Thanks, John Stossel. For not being a douche.

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Invisiblejohnm214
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: Justice_Fish]
    #8539881 - 06/19/08 07:04 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

John Stossel IS a douche.

But I'll fogive him and then soem for recognizing and publicizing the truth.


I'm so sick of the "use will increase" argument.

My girlfriend said that to me. 

I asked her:  "so would you start smoking crack if I got my way and it was legalized tomorrow?  That might interfere with our relationship"

"Oh no!  I wouldn't, but others might"

So its the other person your looking out for, great.  And what right do you have to do that?  More important what makes you think your different than these other folks?  Only you see the plain truth?

Finally, if you did smoke crack, should you go to jail?  Well, no....


So why are we putting users in jail?


Fucking insane.


Even on these boards people talk about cocaine and heroin as if they'll hook you instantly and ruin your life...

(except for the people who use those and simialr drugs medically every fucking year, somehow the body knew it was medical use and didn't self destruct)


People are incredibly ignorant, and it is very frustrating.

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OfflineVisionary Tools
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Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 7,953
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: Ima Trooper]
    #8539971 - 06/19/08 07:48 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Ima Trooper said:
Why don't more people GET this?! It's so frustrating.




It's not that people don't get this.

Have you seen american drug war? It's the prison industry, making money from tax payers to build prisons, then using their prisoners as slave labour (Oh, you get a choice. You can not work, and starve, or work for food). It's the prison industry that lobbies so hard to keep cannabis illegal, because 85% of drug arrests in the USA are for this one plant. Without cannabis, the entire drug war collapses, along with all the profits certain amoral fucks are making.

You want change? Go work in local government. Work up the ranks. They infiltrated at least 50-60 years ago with the rise of the millitary industrial complex, you can infiltrate the same systems and vote the criminals out.


--------------------

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OfflineCoaster
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Registered: 05/22/06
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: johnm214]
    #8539984 - 06/19/08 07:52 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

johnm214 said:
John Stossel IS a douche.

But I'll fogive him and then soem for recognizing and publicizing the truth.


I'm so sick of the "use will increase" argument.

My girlfriend said that to me. 

I asked her:  "so would you start smoking crack if I got my way and it was legalized tomorrow?  That might interfere with our relationship"

"Oh no!  I wouldn't, but others might"

So its the other person your looking out for, great.  And what right do you have to do that?  More important what makes you think your different than these other folks?  Only you see the plain truth?

Finally, if you did smoke crack, should you go to jail?  Well, no....


So why are we putting users in jail?


Fucking insane.


Even on these boards people talk about cocaine and heroin as if they'll hook you instantly and ruin your life...

(except for the people who use those and simialr drugs medically every fucking year, somehow the body knew it was medical use and didn't self destruct)


People are incredibly ignorant, and it is very frustrating.



its not really the other person they are looking out for its themselves
they think well if its legal that implies more users
then less competent americans equals more stupid america then a diminished value in being an american


--------------------

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OfflineSeussA
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: johnm214]
    #8539994 - 06/19/08 07:55 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

> John Stossel IS a douche.

I didn't find him so bad back in the early 80's when he was on 20/20... about the time he got beaten by the wrestler it seemed he started to change towards the loony side... (or maybe it was me starting to mature a bit...)


--------------------
Just another spore in the wind.

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Offlineteaparty
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: Seuss]
    #8540676 - 06/19/08 12:39 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

nice to see a mainstream journalist take a realistic stance on the issue.


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I'm so ahead of my time, my parents haven't met yet.

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OfflineIrieforester
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: teaparty]
    #8540733 - 06/19/08 12:57 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

John Stossel=BAMF


--------------------
I am still and forever learning

Apollyphelion said:
You can learn A LOT from shitting in the right set and setting!:thumbup:

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OfflineNobodyImportant
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: teaparty]
    #8541221 - 06/19/08 03:49 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

teaparty said:
nice to see a mainstream journalist take a realistic stance on the issue.




QFT

Im going to leave this around for my mom to stumble upon :wink:

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Invisibleroquet
Expat tippler
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Registered: 05/29/07
Posts: 1,195
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: NobodyImportant]
    #8543462 - 06/20/08 05:50 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

The Post wrote, “Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter doesn’t think (legalization) is a good idea.”

But that’s not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably abuse.
I’m not so sure.



the above doesn't make sense. What The Post says his daughter thinks is the same as what he says she really meant.

Thought I'd just point out the inconsistency. Not living in the US, I've never heard of Stossel. But he's got some good (old) points. As for whether prohibition breeds criminality, I'm not sure. Could be that criminality always represents 10% (or whatever) or society and if they can't earn a living in drugs, they'll earn it in another sector (like carjacking or racketeering).

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Offlinenumonkei
Back! From thedigestive tractof dave theiguana!


Registered: 04/12/06
Posts: 2,500
Loc: A Tree
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Re: Dispelling myths about drug use [Re: roquet]
    #8546644 - 06/21/08 07:05 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Well, this guy is starting to make sense, so he'll probably be 'disappearing' soon anyway.




~Monk

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