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All drugs are accessible, the only thing to gain from legalizing is over time the price goes down and likely more people would OD. I fully endorse this population control idea.
Most of the world lets people drink first, then drive. The logic being that they'll learn their limits and then start the long, arduous driving process. (It's long and arduous elsewhere.)
And I don't know about the rest, but I was drinking prior to reaching my 21st birthday. I'd go with 16 for beer and wine, 18 for spirits, and institute the sort of driving model they follow in Germany. (People don't drive drunk/buzzed/anything in Germany -- it's simply not worth the risk.)
Make marijuana and psychedelics available at 18 as well as alcohol. If you make alcohol legal earlier, you have more people becoming used to it. If you make several legal at the same time, people won't get started on the inferior drug because it's available earlier.
Does anyone disagree with me though that if we are going to start legalizing things, crack, hard stimulants, and hard opiods should be the last ones on the list to be legalized?
I bet the Producers of shows like Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty are chomping at the bit for legalization of drugs. Get people stoned enough and they might actually be able to sit there and watch a whole hour of this stuff ! They are already trying to shove programs like this down the throats of intelligent, sober people, just think how much easier it would be to market these reality shows to pot heads and crack heads !
All the munchie manufacturers would be lining up to run commercials during those shows too.
How do you know that? Im actually very interested in it personally and waiting for legalization patiently.
If heroin was legal, you'd have some current pain killer users switch to heroin. But those who currently do not take pain killers would neither take heroin were it legal.
People who are addicted to this stuff probably couldn't buy it even if it were legal. Booze is legal and turns people into the same homeless street people that drugs do.
Is there a legitimate market for over the counter crystal meth?
What does the target demographic for cocaine look like?
Does anyone disagree with me though that if we are going to start legalizing things, crack, hard stimulants, and hard opiods should be the last ones on the list to be legalized?
What we need is serious discussions on this issue at a high level. how to do it, at what sort of pace. It will be a major headache, with problems along the way. It will be difficult to deal with, reversing the mentality of official banning, to acceptance.
When you think back, this was quite a minor problem 50 years ago, compared to now. It has grown with the years, and so has attempts to win the drug war. We now have different national, and international drug agencies. Many with fancy boats and planes, and massive budgets. We have fought the growth in drug use valiantly...... and lost the war. We have arrested and jailed many people. Long sentences for some as a warning to others. Criminalized many, damaging their future lives. We have watched the tv documentaries, and read the newspaper articles showing the effects of addiction to hard drugs. We have seen the campaigns aimed at the young like 'Just Say No.' Nothing has worked.
Our choices are carrying on in the same old way, wasting billions of taxpayers money, crack down even harder....... but short of dragging drug dealers out in the street, and shooting them, I don't know what else we can do. Or decriminalize drugs, and try to control this problem in a different way. Governments no doubt find the idea distasteful. Being involved in manufacture and distribution of hard drugs. Softer drugs like weed should never have been banned in the first place.
We may see some increase in hard drug use..... it's hard to know for sure. But at least drugs like heroin won't be cut with sometimes dangerous substances like now. Most people aren't stupid, and like now, will avoid addictive drugs I believe. It would be cheaper to give heroin addicts the drug for free, than what we have now with the crimes committed to get the money to pay for the drug. Plus the massive cost of jailing such people. Many would probably OD from good quality heroin. I wouldn't mourn their deaths.
Legalizing may be done slowly, as we are seeing now in some US states with weed. May be down the line with other drugs. Many in various Governments will fight this tooth and nail. Big drug agencies have even bigger budgets, with many staff earning top dollar. They won't like losing their high paying jobs. It should never have come to this.
It seems that most of the "let's legalize" crowd here are occasional pot smokers or have never used or been around other drug users.
Wrong. I'm a regular pot smoker, and technically "in recovery" (clean for about 20 years) from meth & other hard drugs. Not only that, but I have watched more than one friend go down the heroin path.
Even knowing what I do about heavy drug addiction, I still don't think it should be illegal... after all, the laws didn't stop me from trying it! And maybe if it had been legal at the time, I'd never have been that tempted. Alcohol has been legal my whole life, yet even in college I wasn't much into drinking, and rarely partake more than a few times annually. Take away the "forbidden fruit" aspect of drugs, and I predict the overall use will eventually drop - might surge at the very beginning, but then you'll see it fall below current numbers. Just look at European teenagers' attitudes towards alcohol (where age restrictions are lax), and the fact that the US has a WAY bigger problem with underage drinking.
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I'm just a middle class grandma, but we have had two family members go through a period of drug addiction. One was very severe, filled with violence, stealing, destruction of property, total personality change - a terrifying long ordeal that thank the Lord, turned itself around and she is now living a happy normal life.
I have four foster grandchildren ages 1-5, from the same mother (she already lost custody of the 4 older ones). They are all special needs because of the parents' drug use. They have behavior problems and learning disabilities. Two have PTSD from the neglect and abuse. Our love and a stable home can only do so much - they will need many years of treatment.
I volunteer in our local food pantry. A huge percentage of our families are battling drug addictions. And the ones that have gotten off drugs are so thankful and absolutely know the dangers.
I don't know what the solution is, but making drugs more easily available can not be the best way to go.
I could tell you just as many stories about people ruined by alcohol, but once again do not think it should be illegal. Addicts will be addicts, regardless of the laws, and will just find something else to do if laws stop them. Ever heard of sniffing paint, glue, helium poppers? I even had a friend try smoking catnip once, lol... and no, it didn't work.
Instead of having the government hold our hands, and/or throwing people in jail for victimless crimes, we need to stress education instead. Teenage sex isn't illegal, and our numbers for teen pregnancies are the lowest they've been in decades (despite popular belief) - mostly thanks to increased and more comprehensive sex education, birth control availability, low-cost reproductive clinics, etc. If you want to fight drug addiction, history has already shown us that legal consequences aren't the solution. Have they worked yet? Judging by your stories above, I would say that's a big fat NO.
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And then there's the whole irony that our country now has mandated govt approved health insurance, makes kids wear helmets & sit in car seats, requires calories on menus, yet they would legalize new unhealthy drugs for the populace? Too bizarre.
We're talking about a hypothetical situation here, so the government isn't doing anything yet (except with marijuana). But if they did, I really don't see how that conflicts with mandated healthcare. I actually think that's our best path, to educate on and treat the problems - not to punish people for having them. Just my opinion, although I think past examples mostly corroborate them.
And the same will happen with marijuana, cocaine, opiates, meth, and every other substance we come up with to "cure" our worldwide depressive disorder. Addicts would be better off in rehab. But it's better to have them in prison than on the street, driving while high because everything is legal.
At least the way things stand, people are less likely to get behind the wheel because getting pulled over could lead to a drug arrest. This makes them more likely to do their drugs at home, and stay home.
It is and will continue to be illegal to drive impaired, just as it's illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol or (certain) prescription drugs. So if you truly think laws can keep people straight, the issue of driving impaired shouldn't change much with legalization... some folks will continue regardless, as they do with alcohol, while others will be deterred by the DUII laws.
What you are supporting/proposing, however, is punishing even those who DON'T drive impaired, just because some people do. To me that seems unfair all around, as we should only be convicting those who DO drive impaired - not those who solely do the substance that contributes to DUIIs, if you get what I'm saying. Are you anti-gun rights too? Because your line of thinking goes with that crowd, who think guns should be illegal because some people kill with them. I'm not "into" guns myself, but also don't think responsible owners should be punished for another person's crimes.
Because legalizing doesn't eliminate the crime. You still have people making moonshine that makes people go blind or die.
I was thinking about that the other day watching some show on the History Channel of whatever.
Who actually buys moonshine and why? You can go to most fair sized grocery stores and buy a 1.75 liter bottle of cheap vodka for around $10. Why would you spend money on something so dubious that has to be pretty close to the same price or they can't be making any money?
I know in some states the government controls alcohol sales and the prices are fixed, but even they don't charge much more for cheap stuff that is still safe.
I just can't believe there is much of a market for illegal booze anymore.
Anyway, I think there is something to be said for legalizing all drugs, but that's a little scary. Pot, definitely. LSD, cocaine and heroin, I don't know about that. They are highly addictive, especially coke.
Heroin, that's just suicide really.
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They are already trying to shove programs like this down the throats of intelligent, sober people, just think how much easier it would be to market these reality shows to pot heads and crack heads ! 
