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I think we should legalize all drugs. I think we should make certain behaviors associated with some of those drugs, such as hurting others around you, should be illegal.
So, if someone uses heroine, and then they are in an automobile accident that kills a bunch of people, you punish him for that. Same as we do with alcohol. It sucks to those people who have family to die, but thats the cost of freedom, death.
Absolutely agree. Behavior, such as driving under the influence of ANYTHING should be against the law. Drug use has been around as long as man has existed in the physical dimension. Prohibiting drug use is about as realistic as prohibiting sex. Can't do it. Drug use exists everywhere in our society, only some are more tolerated. When Rush is busted trying to score Oxy-Contin illegally, does anyone care? Not really. Prescribed psyco-active drugs have been linked to more homicidal rage shootings than any other drug - are they still being prescribed? - yes. Some of the money that we save going after pot-heads and speed-freaks can be used for preventive drug education programs, and for those few who will always abuse whatever they get their hands on, drug treatment programs (hi Brittany).
I don't use drugs and don't recommend them. But blaming drugs for unproductive people is incorrect. I know lazy bums who cannot hold jobs or be responsible, and they would be that way with or without drugs. The millions of people hooked on anti-depressant or lithium-type drugs, have their own set of issues, unrelated to drug use. We need programs to help people cope and learn productive skills, without the use of any drug crutches. Drug education can help to show kids the negative effects of drugs, like the speed-freak without teeth, and the pot-user who can't think straight.
We can't legislate morality, unless it crosses the boundary of criminal behaviour. A pedophile crosses that boundary. An impaired driver under the use of any drug, crosses that boundary. A person sitting in his living room stoned, listening to music does not, or should not, cross that boundary.
We have enough idiots and druggies. We dont need anymore. **** that.
There have been several studies, in several countries, that when prohibition of any drug has occurred, the numbers of users either increases very little, or not at all.
Users will be users, regardless of legality or not.
If someone wants to smoke a plant that grows on this God-made world, do I have the right to take away his liberties, and imprison him? What about if he ingests a mushroom that has psychedelic properties? Should I toss him in jail for doing that? Why are these actions illegal? Can we afford to continue to spend billions a year trying to prevent this sort of behaviour, and imprison people whose only crime was to use or sell drugs? If you had the choice between seeing your policemen and firemen laid off and libraries closed, or legalizing drigs, which would you choose?
Because drugs are bad and that is all there is to it. You might counter that alcohol and tobacco are legal and they cause a lot of harm as well. This is true, but unfortunately it is too late to make them illegal. By " too late" I mean that the government already makes billions of dollars from the taxes on both of them (which is needed to lock up illegal drug users), so we'll just have to settle with treating smokers and drinkers like s--t and run PSAs that make them look bad. Much like a man who sleeps with hooker and then beats her up.
Because drugs are bad and that is all there is to it. You might counter that alcohol and tobacco are legal and they cause a lot of harm as well. This is true, but unfortunately it is too late to make them illegal. By " too late" I mean that the government already makes billions of dollars from the taxes on both of them (which is needed to lock up illegal drug users), so we'll just have to settle with treating smokers and drinkers like s--t and run PSAs that make them look bad. Much like a man who sleeps with hooker and then beats her up.
Since you could build a case that prescription drugs (illegal without a prescription) cause as much harm and are just as addictive as illegal drugs, you could bring bring ALL drugs under prescriptive status. While a black market does exist for synthetic heroin (Oxy-Contin) type prescription drugs because of the high markup, we could do away with the hugely wasteful narco-wars, empty out some of the non violent offenders that we waste billions a year chasing and incarcerating, and by removing much of the drug profit, we could end a lot of gang related violence. Sure, we will always have the 3 vices, prostitution, gambling, and drugs, but the first 2 have been largely legalized, ie, Las Vegas, Indian casinos, 'escort' services... time to add the 3rd vice to the list of 'don't ask don't tell' type of legalized vice.
Last edited by KRAMERCAT; 02-07-2010 at 09:17 AM..
Because drugs are bad and that is all there is to it. You might counter that alcohol and tobacco are legal and they cause a lot of harm as well. This is true, but unfortunately it is too late to make them illegal. By " too late" I mean that the government already makes billions of dollars from the taxes on both of them (which is needed to lock up illegal drug users), so we'll just have to settle with treating smokers and drinkers like s--t and run PSAs that make them look bad. Much like a man who sleeps with hooker and then beats her up.
I like how you are comparing people who drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, smoke pot, and do any other drugs, to a wife beater who sleeps with hookers.
Way to link all criminals, as just one kind of criminal, the worst one.
Be sure you do the speed limit when you drive, don't turn right on red, and don't have oral sex in many states either.
Lots of stupid laws on the books, check out this site.
SEX (http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/flux/gSpot/sexLaw.html - broken link)
I guess someone that has oral sex in Georgia, is just the same as a guy who sleeps with prostitutes, and beats his wife.
Some of the statements being made in here are ridiculous.
Why is it that people believe that if drugs were legalized, all of a sudden everyone would start shooting heroin and smoking crack? It doesn't matter if drugs are legal or illegal, the people who want to use them are going to use them. And then there are those saying things like "we already have enough drunk drivers on the road"...well heres a news flash for you: just because using a substance is legal doesn't automatically make driving under the influence of it legal. "But we can't do breath-a-lizers for marijuana, cocaine, and heroin"....right, but we can't do them for prescription drugs either. That's why you have a sobriety test. If you can't pass a sobriety test it doesn't matter if you are drunk or high off of other drugs, the penalties are the same. I personally know someone who has gotten a DUID(driving under the influence of drugs) because he smoked way to much pot, got pulled over, and failed a sobriety test.
Why should we WASTE money trying to police people's own choices? Everyone cries about the billions of dollars being spent in bailouts, but no one even mentions the billions we waste each and every year on the "war on drugs".
The biggest drug dealer is the government, who give out prescriptions for "safe and effective" drugs that kill over 100,000 people annually. That's right, 100,000 people die each year from LEGAL prescription drugs reccommended by our trusted doctors. Valium alone causes more ER visits each year then heroin and cocaine COMBINED. Google any of these statistics and you will see that they are indeed true.
Tobacco kills nearly 4 times what prescription drugs do and you can buy it at any gas station when you turn 18. Don't you see the hypocrisy?
I like how you are comparing people who drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, smoke pot, and do any other drugs, to a wife beater who sleeps with hookers.
Way to link all criminals, as just one kind of criminal, the worst one.
Be sure you do the speed limit when you drive, don't turn right on red, and don't have oral sex in many states either.
Lots of stupid laws on the books, check out this site.
SEX (http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/flux/gSpot/sexLaw.html - broken link)
I guess someone that has oral sex in Georgia, is just the same as a guy who sleeps with prostitutes, and beats his wife.
Did you even read my post?
I was comparing the deliberate policy of making so much money off of the legal drugs while demonizing their users to a guy who sleeps with hookers and then beats them up. You know the idea of despising someone who is useful to you?
And I was pointing out the mishmash drug policy of the government in general. Some drugs are legal and some aren't. Some drugs that are relatively harmless are outlawed (magic mushrooms and in some places, saliva) while relatively harmful drugs are legal (alcohol and tobacco). Makes tens of billions of dollars in taxes off of alcohol and tobacco and yet supporting denormalization programs to discourage their use and to make their users look bad.
The bottom line is, should the government have the right to rob, imprison and blacklist via criminal record people who simply choose to put chemicals in their body that may or may not harm them?
Why is it an accepted norm that the government has such sovereignty over an individual's own body? If anything can be called anti-American, it's this.
Some of the statements being made in here are ridiculous.
Why is it that people believe that if drugs were legalized, all of a sudden everyone would start shooting heroin and smoking crack? It doesn't matter if drugs are legal or illegal, the people who want to use them are going to use them. And then there are those saying things like "we already have enough drunk drivers on the road"...well heres a news flash for you: just because using a substance is legal doesn't automatically make driving under the influence of it legal. "But we can't do breath-a-lizers for marijuana, cocaine, and heroin"....right, but we can't do them for prescription drugs either. That's why you have a sobriety test. If you can't pass a sobriety test it doesn't matter if you are drunk or high off of other drugs, the penalties are the same. I personally know someone who has gotten a DUID(driving under the influence of drugs) because he smoked way to much pot, got pulled over, and failed a sobriety test.
Why should we WASTE money trying to police people's own choices? Everyone cries about the billions of dollars being spent in bailouts, but no one even mentions the billions we waste each and every year on the "war on drugs".
The biggest drug dealer is the government, who give out prescriptions for "safe and effective" drugs that kill over 100,000 people annually. That's right, 100,000 people die each year from LEGAL prescription drugs reccommended by our trusted doctors. Valium alone causes more ER visits each year then heroin and cocaine COMBINED. Google any of these statistics and you will see that they are indeed true.
Tobacco kills nearly 4 times what prescription drugs do and you can buy it at any gas station when you turn 18. Don't you see the hypocrisy?
Psychotropic drugs have been linked to far more killing rampages than any other type of drugs, but drug companies make billions pedaling them legally.
Rush takes Oxy-Contin and people shrug.
An Olympic athelete puffs on a joint and - HOLD THE PRESSES!
Corporate profit and politics have a major effect on the laws governing the legality of drug use in this country. Here is one of many links regarding the effects of psychotropic drugs.
Prozac - Ingredient in a Deadly Rampage?
As the victims are laid to rest from the horrible rampage that occurred at Red Lake Indian Reservation just days ago, which resulted in the deaths of 10 people, some are questioning the role Prozac may have played in this tragedy.
16-year old Sky Grant, a friend of Jeff Weise said he and Weise talked in detail about antidepressants. He said Weise told him he was taking 40 milligrams a day of Prozac: 20 in the morning, 20 at night.
FDA now states that it has determined that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents with major depressive and other psychiatric disorders”.
The text also notes that a study of over 4,400 children in short-term placebo controlled studies that the analysis revealed a greater risk of suicidal behavior or thinking in pediatric patients during the first few months of treatment. The average risk was 4% among children receiving antidepressant drugs, including Prozac, whereas those receiving placebo had a 2% risk. In other words, those taking the antidepressants were at “twice the risk”.
According to Drug Facts and Comparisons 2005, there are a number of possible side effects of Prozac. Among the side effects listed are: apathy, euphoria, hallucinations, hostility, neurosis, paranoid reaction, personality disorder, psychosis, antisocial reaction, delusions, confusion, suicidal ideation, and violent behaviors.
Over the years a number of horrific events have made it into the headlines:
1989 – Joseph Wesbecker walked into a printing plant in Louisville, Kentucky and killed eight co-workers and then himself. Mr. Wesbecker was taking Prozac, which had recently been approved.
1998 – 14-year-old Kip Kinkle, who was on Ritalin and Prozac, killed his parents and then went on a shooting spree at his Springfield, Oregon, high school, killing two and injuring 22
1999 – Eric Harris, one of the teen gunmen in the infamous Columbine massacre in 1999, had been
prescribed Luvox, an antidepressant similar to Prozac. The two boys entered the school with an arsenal of weaponry killed 12 people with many more injured before taking their own lives.
2001 – Christopher Pittman killed his grandparents while taking Zoloft, another antidepressant similar to Prozac. His lawyers faulted the drug, but a jury in Charleston, S.C., convicted him of murder in February.
Psychotropic drugs have been linked to far more killing rampages than any other type of drugs, but drug companies make billions pedaling them legally.
Rush takes Oxy-Contin and people shrug.
An Olympic athelete puffs on a joint and - HOLD THE PRESSES!
Corporate profit and politics have a major effect on the laws governing the legality of drug use in this country. Here is one of many links regarding the effects of psychotropic drugs.
Prozac - Ingredient in a Deadly Rampage?
As the victims are laid to rest from the horrible rampage that occurred at Red Lake Indian Reservation just days ago, which resulted in the deaths of 10 people, some are questioning the role Prozac may have played in this tragedy.
16-year old Sky Grant, a friend of Jeff Weise said he and Weise talked in detail about antidepressants. He said Weise told him he was taking 40 milligrams a day of Prozac: 20 in the morning, 20 at night.
FDA now states that it has determined that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents with major depressive and other psychiatric disorders”.
The text also notes that a study of over 4,400 children in short-term placebo controlled studies that the analysis revealed a greater risk of suicidal behavior or thinking in pediatric patients during the first few months of treatment. The average risk was 4% among children receiving antidepressant drugs, including Prozac, whereas those receiving placebo had a 2% risk. In other words, those taking the antidepressants were at “twice the risk”.
According to Drug Facts and Comparisons 2005, there are a number of possible side effects of Prozac. Among the side effects listed are: apathy, euphoria, hallucinations, hostility, neurosis, paranoid reaction, personality disorder, psychosis, antisocial reaction, delusions, confusion, suicidal ideation, and violent behaviors.
Over the years a number of horrific events have made it into the headlines:
1989 – Joseph Wesbecker walked into a printing plant in Louisville, Kentucky and killed eight co-workers and then himself. Mr. Wesbecker was taking Prozac, which had recently been approved.
1998 – 14-year-old Kip Kinkle, who was on Ritalin and Prozac, killed his parents and then went on a shooting spree at his Springfield, Oregon, high school, killing two and injuring 22
1999 – Eric Harris, one of the teen gunmen in the infamous Columbine massacre in 1999, had been
prescribed Luvox, an antidepressant similar to Prozac. The two boys entered the school with an arsenal of weaponry killed 12 people with many more injured before taking their own lives.
2001 – Christopher Pittman killed his grandparents while taking Zoloft, another antidepressant similar to Prozac. His lawyers faulted the drug, but a jury in Charleston, S.C., convicted him of murder in February.
If only people could be happy with.... just smoking POT.
Damn pharm. companies ARE the biggest drug pushers and they pedal stuff that hasn't been researched NEARLY enough before it hits the market and your doc gives you (the guinea pig) those free samples.
Marijuana has been researched to DEATH over the years and it has far greater benefits for depression, insomnia, irritability, etc. than ANY of the garbage these pharm. companies have ever developed.
Be HAPPY if your kid chooses to ONLY smoke pot and not mess with all the other stuff....both LEGAL and ILLEGAL.
BTW...IMO, these pharm. companies should be forced to pay some HUGE fines for their dangerous pills and the manner in which they have been PUSHED onto the American public......often with disasterous results, like those mentioned in your post.
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