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Basically, drug prohibition causes more problems than it solves.
The only reason why drugs remain illegal is due to the Religious influence of our laws (which I believe violates separation of church in state), and also corporate influence of pharmaceutical companies as well as alcohol and tobacco.
There is a direct correlation between prohibition and crime rate, with Alcohol and the current prohibition. Just as alcohol prohibition gave us Al Capone and the Mafia, drug prohibition gave us the drug gangs and drive by shootings. Americas murder rate rose 70 percent during alcohol prohibition, then fell back down to its original level after it ended.
According to statistics the DEA only stops 1% of the current amount of drugs in the U.S, clearly proof that illegal drugs are practically unenforceable.
Nearly one half of all police forces are used to stop drugs, if we stopped drug prohibition then we would have double the police force to stop theft and violence that litters our streets today.
What do you think of this? In favor of ending prohibition or keep it as is ?
Which theft and violence the junkies robbing and killing ?or just your "normal" everday robbery's and killings?
If we had 100 percent of the police forces efforts to stop the real crimes of violence and theft instead of the current 50 percent of police efforts we would be much better off, I am sure crime rates would go down with more police officers focused on theft and violence instead of enforcing drug use.
Junkies rob and steal due to the large increase of drug prices that prohibition causes, most wouldn't resort to crimes but with drugs so expensive they tend to lean towards criminal behavior to support their habit. The DEA acknowledges this price increase that their efforts cause like it is a good thing "making drugs harder to access due to being expensive" But really it is a bad thing due to users resorting to criminal behavior to support their expensive habit.
I think some of the "illegal" substance should be legalized and taxed. It's ridiculous to make things that aren't hurting anyone but the user illegal. Sell them like cigarettes and booze. Same with prostitution. Make it legal, and medically "safe", and tax it!
Think of all the extra "pork" Congress could fund with the proceeds!
I agree that drugs should be legalized. However, it's not going to happen any time soon. More generalized prevailing cultural attitudes are what we'd need to work on changing first, as drugs are illegal for this reason. Unfortunately there's no transparent, relatively simple method of changing cultural attitudes, so I don't quite have the answer how we'd even begin, and the changes I've witnessed in my lifetime so far have seemed to evidence the mainstream moving further away from libertarian attitudes instead. However, that may end up being the key--people are often reactionary, so if things get to a point of anti-libertarianism where folks feel unable to engage in the kinds of things THEY want to engage in, OR it ends up affecting their wallets, then it will make a cultural swing the other way far easier.
Which theft and violence the junkies robbing and killing ?or just your "normal" everday robbery's and killings?
It's people like this that make our economy collapse. They don't realize that because of our drug laws, we incarcerate over 1% of the population, which is the highest rate in the "civilized" world. The economic costs of that alone are staggering. But it doesn't end there, we spend BILLIONS outside our borders to combat cartels in Columbia, Mexico, Afghanistan and elsewhere that would go out of business the moment we legalized.
Imagine this: Cocaine, Heroin, Meth and Ecstasy are all legalized and regulated just as Alcohol is. They are given a 15% tax, used to educated and rehabilitate and to provide the rest to the criminal justice system to solve actual crimes. Cocaine would be taken out of the hands of ghetto superstars and put into the hands of multi-national corporations that pay taxes, employ people legally and who adhere to US laws. Immediately the Mexican cartels lose most of their funding because there is no longer a desire for Mexican coke to come over the border. The murders fall because the money falls and it's less valuable of an industry. How does that hurt?
Now we go to weed, which is far less dangerous than alcohol and less addictive than cigarettes (though just as dangerous for the lungs if smoked and not eaten or vaporized). Weed is obviously not difficult to get, but the money spent on it goes only to dealers and growers. If legalized, the same people would be smoking weed, but instead of sending their $300/month to a dealer and his grower, they'd be sending it to the Altria group, who pay taxes and who employ law-abiding citizens.
Prohibition didn't work with Alcohol, it led to the most violent period of the last century and was repealed because it was clearly a mistake, so why does the moronic prohibition continue on drugs when the results have been exactly the same as with Alcohol. Once legalized, alcohol left the control of the Mafia, Al Capone and Murder, Inc. and became the basis for the economy of Milwaukee, St. Louis, Denver and New Orleans. If pot (and other drugs) were legalized, the economic fallout would be immense, and the crime would have to go down simply because corporations have to answer to authorities that cartels simply do not. Anyone who argues otherwise is simply not looking at the facts. Pot is illegal, I can still get it from many different sources and can smoke it every day, so why can't I pay $20/oz to support education and rehabilitation while also supporting a legitimate business instead of a dealer?
Prohibition didn't work with Alcohol, it led to the most violent period of the last century and was repealed because it was clearly a mistake, so why does the moronic prohibition continue on drugs when the results have been exactly the same as with Alcohol.
Simply cultural acceptance/tradition. You can't expect most folks to change their minds on that stuff via logical arguments or presentations of facts--they didn't reach the view they have because of some logical argument, they reached it via a combination of beliefs they already had and cultural influence, and they can easily rationalize whatever view they have and provide (what turns out to be) ad hoc reasoning for having it. (Bascially, it's possible to hold just about any view one wants to hold and argue for it if one is intelligent enough, familiar with the mechanics of argumentation, etc.)
That's why I said that the way to attack this isn't a direct attack appealing to reasoning. That's not gonna work at this point. The cultural phenomena that lead to the current status quo on this issue (or whatever other one you might want to change) are what need to be changed instead.
http://stuffwhitetrashpeoplelike.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/yeah_meth.jpg (broken link)Legalizing drugs is GREAT for America.. http://www.crystalrecovery.com/Pics/MethBA.jpg (broken link)
Would your argument be that you do not believe that people should be able to decide what they'd like with their own bodies, or? Force them to remain attractive-looking to you?
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Sure legalize meth ....
