Should drugs be legalized under certain conditions? (Hope: home, gated)

[irishmom]

What a lot of people that pose this question don't know is that most of the illegal drugs (cocaine, marijuana, derivations of opiates) are already legal in prescription form. They are not administered in the way they are in street use...but they are available for the very reasons people want the street versions legalized. I think you'll find the people pushing for legalization of street drugs don't actually have any legal medicinal use for those drugs...which is why they won't become legal any time soon.

[YankeeTom]

Forest said "Taxed, regulated, and quality controlled."

I would add stop the kid glove stuff , when laws are broken like OUI , mantory jail time..no exceptions. Contributing to a minor? Jail time. Got a drinking problem and got into trouble? Jail time. No Excuses. Then watch the "problem" go away.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by irishmom

What a lot of people that pose this question don't know is that most of the illegal drugs (cocaine, marijuana, derivations of opiates) are already legal in prescription form. They are not administered in the way they are in street use...but they are available for the very reasons people want the street versions legalized. I think you'll find the people pushing for legalization of street drugs don't actually have any legal medicinal use for those drugs...which is why they won't become legal any time soon.

The people we're talking about use drugs to get high and escape.
Others sell these drugs to make easy money.

As I stated, I believe accepting the fact that prohibition of get-high drugs has not worked will allow us to treat drugs as we treat the most popular drug, alcohol. Getting them under control, taxed, regulated and quality controlled to put the gangs out of business and get a handle on who's using is a step in the right direction. What we're doing now is not working, no way no how not ever.

YankeeTom is exactly correct. A man I worked for as a teenager used to tell a favorite joke about the local drunk wallowing in the gutter: "Then he saw the judge coming down the street...and he got sober as a judge!" The kidd gloves give the message that we're not serious. That's why Ted Kennedy's still around making trouble. Nobody dealt with his manslaughter DUI when it happened. Now we reap the whirlwind.

[Acadianlion]

I wonder how many people posting to this thread have actually known anyone who was either involved with drugs from a using or a selling standpoint, or who has actually worked in the illegal drug business on any basis?

[deerislesmile]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

I wonder how many people posting to this thread have actually known anyone who was either involved with drugs from a using or a selling standpoint, or who has actually worked in the illegal drug business on any basis?

I think a better question would be "How many people are AWARE that they know anyone who used/sold drugs"- I bet there are many who don't even realize that some of the people they know use drugs illegally. I think if all was told, most people would be shocked at some of the "druggies" that they know (and of course, not at all shocked by others).


But to answer it in either case, I know so much about this, personally, that I wish I could go back and unlearn what I do know....
(Which is not to say that I use or sell said drugs. I have loved ones, clients, friends, neighbors, childhood friends, even a preacher (!) that I know who are addicted to one illegal substance or another.)

[flycessna]

How many billions of dollars spent on DEA,FBI, State and local law enforcement, Prosecution, incarceration, probation ect. ect. ect. don't legalize them, just don't make them illegal. Take half of the money that was spent on this supposed drug war and use for education, prevention, and rehabilitation. We will see no more people addicted to drugs then there already are. IMO!

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

I wonder how many people posting to this thread have actually known anyone who was either involved with drugs from a using or a selling standpoint, or who has actually worked in the illegal drug business on any basis?

I'd say everyone here knows someone involved with the overuse or misuse of drugs. Remember, alcohol is a drug.

[forest beekeeper]

I do find it interesting.

Pick a subject that is entirely excepted in society, maybe something that everyone does but is done discreetly like picking their nose.

Now, lets decide that only the poor and illiterate pick their noses, so we will push a big media campaign trying to convince folks everywhere that only the poor and illiterate pick their noses, so that we can push through a bunch of laws illegalizing nose-picking. Heck it will act to clean-up society!

Now wait 30 years, and society will have developed, and then in folk's minds it has become not only illegal, but now it is immoral and a sin to pick your nose.

A sin?

Heck lets KILL anyone caught picking their nose!

If not kill them, lets at least put them into prison for life!

Is there no standards for us to use to determine right and wrong?

Is there no written guidelines, that we can read and follow, so that today's concepts of right and wrong, could be stable and match yesterday's ideas?

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Dwatted Wabbit

I'd say everyone here knows someone involved with the overuse or misuse of drugs. Remember, alcohol is a drug.

Yep. Technically, caffeine is a drug.

Lots of drugs are legal. Some are not. Some should remain illegal. I really don't want anyone selling PCP or LSD at WalGreen's. Others probably ought to be decriminalized.

[mollysmiles]

nope nope nope nope nope.....I've worked in social services too long to see that happen. People tend to think that because we don't make huge leaps of improvements that none are being made. That's not true. What is true is that traditional rehab tends to fail miserably MOST of the time. I think that's where we need to put our efforts: find something that truly makes a difference as far as rehab for the LONG term. If I ever come up with that answer, I'll be sure to let you know....Hopefully, with some of the research into the brain right now we may begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know now for certain that prolonged drug abuse changes the brain---now, how do we UNDO that? To me, it's sad and scary....the best bet? Don't ever start in the first place!