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I'd vote to actually start a war on drugs rather than spend taxpayer money on DARE, posters and platitudes.
Gangs dealing drugs and drug purchasers are the cause of all downstream violence, especially gun violence.
However the electorate and legislators are only capable of passing and approving ineffective laws. Until the electorate wakes up and begins to use new criteria to elect legislative representatives all we will ever have are unimaginative attempts to actually address our problems.
Reported lifetime use of "all illicit drugs" increased from 7.8% to 12%, lifetime use of cannabis increased from 7.6% to 11.7%, cocaine use more than doubled, from 0.9% to 1.9%, ecstasy nearly doubled from 0.7% to 1.3%, and heroin increased from 0.7% to 1.1%
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 06-01-2013 at 04:17 PM..
I'd vote to actually start a war on drugs rather than spend taxpayer money on DARE, posters and platitudes.
Gangs dealing drugs and drug purchasers are the cause of all downstream violence, especially gun violence.
However the electorate and legislators are only capable of passing and approving ineffective laws. Until the electorate wakes up and begins to use new criteria to elect legislative representatives all we will ever have are unimaginative attempts to actually address our problems.
I agree need to quit playing around, and get serious with the war on drugs. Before we leave Afghanistan, we need to ensure every poppy and cannabis plant is destroyed, and after that we get serious with South American and domestic growers.
Not in Arizona. Get caught with less than 2lbs and it is a class 6 felony.
Arizona has been perpetually governed by idiots, thats why. Certainly the case in my 47 years here.
Thankfully most of the rest of this country isn't so stupid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wutitiz
In times past I would have unequivocally supported legalization of everything from mj to heroin. It's not the business of any nannyist do-gooder in DC what I choose to put in my body. Per John Locke's quote "Every man has a property in his own person" drug prohibition is fundamentally a violation of property rights, a theft.
Now as we move further down the road to socialized health care, I have rethought things. Now the taxpayer is increasingly on the hook for the health consequences of drug use. The whole drug rehab industry seems to be problematic to begin with. If we legalize, use will tend to increase. Now we'll have hordes of rent seekers coming into the picture to work the system as rehab/treatment providers. Medicare fraud has been estimated as high as 20% of outlays. It will be a mess. We'd be trading one mess for another.
I wouldn't support any legalization at this time. If you have a welfare state, you must have a nanny state to go with it.
The only way you're ending the drug war is to legalize everything and sell it cheap enough so that drug lords cannot make a profit. I'm seeing a major downside here.
Drugs would fall under FDA control for quality standards and would have to be manufactured by drug companies. You'd have to stop the underground market completely by undercutting prices but that means the drug companies are going to have a hard time making a profit. You could not allow anyone who wanted to to cook whatever they wanted. The cost of regulating this would be astronomical. You would not end the war on drugs at all. You'd start a new one trying to enforce quality standards and STILL have an underground market.
I don't see legalizing drugs helping much. We'll still be fighting underground drug activity and quality control issues. The drug cartels are not going to give up their business without a fight and they aren't going to submit to FDA regulations nor are they going to pay liability for, say, tainted products. In short, it won't work. It still has to be illegal to have a meth lab because of the dangers of having a meth lab so we still need the narc squad. Only now they'll have to police anyone and everyone growing mj in their basement or back yard and make sure kids aren't getting a hold of drugs...so it will have to remain illegal to grow/make your own.
And then there's the question of health care. Do drug users deserve to drain the health care system?
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 06-01-2013 at 04:22 PM..
Why not? You'd still have to finance the habit and crime is the junkies preferred way making money.
How many people knocking little old ladies down to feed their $100 a day cigarette habit? None becsue they are cheap. Drugs are expensive only becsue they are illegal, I just looked at a site that quoted $200 per gram for heroin. That gets reduced to a couple bucks and whatever taxes they put on it.
I agree need to quit playing around, and get serious with the war on drugs. Before we leave Afghanistan, we need to ensure every poppy and cannabis plant is destroyed, and after that we get serious with South American and domestic growers.
...and what would you do about the fact that any person can buy a lethal dose of a drug in any of hundreds of varieties right down at your corner liquor store? Hmmmm? Oh yeah, we tried to outlaw that with Prohibition--and the results were just as stupid, expensive, and counterproductive as the "War on Other Drugs" that you evidently favor.
How many people knocking little old ladies down to feed their $100 a day cigarette habit? None becsue they are cheap. Drugs are expensive only becsue they are illegal, I just looked at a site that quoted $200 per gram for heroin. That gets reduced to a couple bucks and whatever taxes they put on it.
You think legalization would bring down the price from $200 to a few bucks? LOL. Go buy some legal pot in CO, but be prepared to pay almost $200 per ounce, and a lot more for higher quality.
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but I do like firing up a spliff once a day
