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Thanks for bringing up this topic again. I know I sound like a broken record but I will keep repeating it over and over again. We should follow the drug policy of Portugal and decriminalize all drugs and give people who want it help. I would rather my tax dollars be wasted on helping people who want to help themselves instead of helping feed the prison industrial complex of making America #1 in the world for incarcerations. Stop the insanity and legalize. I am glad states are standing up with the power of voting to tell the feds to back off and let them follow the 10th Amendment.
Orrrr we could look at what works and what doesn't work, historically. Prohibition doesn't work. The Scandinavian countries seem to be doing much better--instead of criminalizing drug use, they treat it as a medical issue and work to solve the root of the problem--why people turn to drugs to begin with and how to rehabilitate them back into a healthy lifestyle.
Or we could just keep the war going, because that's working so well, right?
It's almost too easy of a solution for most people to digest... and I am not sure why. Put succinctly: We just need to copy a country with drug laws that work.
We all know the truth, that drugs like pot, LSD, Ayahuasca, Peyote, and Psilocybin mushrooms don't create criminals, so decriminalizing those won't hurt anything or anyone. There are laws in place regarding drinking alcohol while doing particular activities and those could easily be extend to cover the newly legalized substances.
Regarding cocaine and drugs created from it, I really wonder if legalizing those would be a big issue as well. Sure they are addictive, and sure people seem to sometimes screw up their lives on them, but if they were legalized and the population educated on their use and effects vs threatened with imprisonment for possession or use, perhaps culture wouldn't spontaneously combust (can we just see what other countries have experienced doing this, which ones have done the best etc?).
It would seem that there's so much fear driving the drug laws it is a bad joke. Likewise way too many people are incarcerated for drug offenses that didn't actually hurt anyone. Re-evaluation of these laws is overdue and with the Information Age, now would seem to be a good time to do it.
Truly think about what you're saying. You want to make it easier for people to access heroin. That is absolutely insane. Why? So some hood rat can be a heroin junkie without having to also be a prostitute?
If you said open an isolated island and people who want to go do heroin go live there and not come back - sure. But you want to make it easier to access heroin in communities across America. Unreal.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 11-03-2014 at 06:56 PM..
Reason: Language
Not enough americans support total legalization of everything... they could in theory try voting on it but it would most certainly not pass unfortunately... not even in CA or AK. In the meantime the prisons fill up and the government agencies continue to rake in the profits from the enforcement of existing laws.
People dont support legalization for different reasons... heck the left would ban tobacco if they could...
I think that the idea wouldn't work, because there will always be people who don't like the high of methadone. People will always come back to other drugs.
Crack, from my experience, is not that destructive of a drug and not as widely spread as other drugs. Meth, for now, would be the most harmful in my opinion. Research seems to back that theory up. There is actually a medical use for methamphetamine, where crack has little to none, which is why I believe we should revisit drug classification in our country.
The way to end the war on drugs is to simply end it. Allow companies who are checked and monitored to manufacture and produce drugs for legal sale. Don't ruin people's lives and jobs over a failed drug test or drug conviction. People are going to decide to use whatever they are going to. Even the most restrictive society has drug use.
Take the lesson from prohibition. People drank more before and during prohibition, on average, then they still do today. We introduced age requirements, we made special package stores, and that alone seemed to help curb alcohol addiction and use in our country.
The way to end the war on drugs is to simply end it. Allow companies who are checked and monitored to manufacture and produce drugs for legal sale. Don't ruin people's lives and jobs over a failed drug test or drug conviction. People are going to decide to use whatever they are going to. Even the most restrictive society has drug use.
Take the lesson from prohibition. People drank more before and during prohibition, on average, then they still do today. We introduced age requirements, we made special package stores, and that alone seemed to help curb alcohol addiction and use in our country.
I was fortunate I guess as a teenager. I was born in 1953. I knew of illegal drugs, and read of pop groups like The Beatles who smoked weed, and some like Jimi Hendrix dying of heroin addiction. But, other than that, drugs didn't come in my orbit. I didn't know anybody who used any illegal drugs. Even my time in the army in the 70s didn't bring drugs around my social circle.
But, drug use seemed to grow as the 70s went on. There was lots on the news about major drug busts, and people jailed. The authorities seemed to be getting on top of this problem. I now know this wasn't true. I started seeing events like police raids on houses. Doors kicked in, and even whole window frames ripped out for the police to gain entry. I was still all for this crackdown, and thought in the end, the authorities would win this so called war.
Then new drugs came along like crack and ecstasy. Ecstasy in particular seemed to grab the imagination of the young. Crack cocaine caused havoc, especially in minority neighbourhoods in America. Then I started hearing of drugs like meth. It dawned on me this war wasn't being won at all.
Some folks have decided they like illegal drugs, and will use them, no matter what. No matter they are jailed, some of our jails are full of drug use. Some say authorities here in England turn a blind eye as the drugs help to keep the prisoners quiet. The war is lost, and the drug barons have won. The public buy their product, and that's that. We need to end the drug war, and supply and tax. Try to contain drug use, and keep it away from children. Spend some of the profits on clinics to help folks who wish to come off addictive drugs.
We need a building in each town where people can go to buy drugs. No advertising allowed. Round the back, shooting galleries for addicts, with clean needles supplied to stop the spread of disease. There will be many other things needed I'm sure, but I don't use drugs so I don't know what. But I am sure any addict can tell the authorities what is needed.
This is very distasteful, which I fully understand. But, I don't know what else is to be done. The authorities have failed to stamp out illegal drug use, so we need to go down a different road. We need to protect the public from criminals hurting us to get money for drugs. Plus the cost of jailing users, and suppliers, is massive. I don't see what else we can do. We have to take drug supply out of the hands of criminals getting rich off this.
I was fortunate I guess as a teenager. I was born in 1953. I knew of illegal drugs, and read of pop groups like The Beatles who smoked weed, and some like Jimi Hendrix dying of heroin addiction. But, other than that, drugs didn't come in my orbit. I didn't know anybody who used any illegal drugs. Even my time in the army in the 70s didn't bring drugs around my social circle.
But, drug use seemed to grow as the 70s went on. There was lots on the news about major drug busts, and people jailed. The authorities seemed to be getting on top of this problem. I now know this wasn't true. I started seeing events like police raids on houses. Doors kicked in, and even whole window frames ripped out for the police to gain entry. I was still all for this crackdown, and thought in the end, the authorities would win this so called war.
Then new drugs came along like crack and ecstasy. Ecstasy in particular seemed to grab the imagination of the young. Crack cocaine caused havoc, especially in minority neighbourhoods in America. Then I started hearing of drugs like meth. It dawned on me this war wasn't being won at all.
Some folks have decided they like illegal drugs, and will use them, no matter what. No matter they are jailed, some of our jails are full of drug use. Some say authorities here in England turn a blind eye as the drugs help to keep the prisoners quiet. The war is lost, and the drug barons have won. The public buy their product, and that's that. We need to end the drug war, and supply and tax. Try to contain drug use, and keep it away from children. Spend some of the profits on clinics to help folks who wish to come off addictive drugs.
We need a building in each town where people can go to buy drugs. No advertising allowed. Round the back, shooting galleries for addicts, with clean needles supplied to stop the spread of disease. There will be many other things needed I'm sure, but I don't use drugs so I don't know what. But I am sure any addict can tell the authorities what is needed.
This is very distasteful, which I fully understand. But, I don't know what else is to be done. The authorities have failed to stamp out illegal drug use, so we need to go down a different road. We need to protect the public from criminals hurting us to get money for drugs. Plus the cost of jailing users, and suppliers, is massive. I don't see what else we can do. We have to take drug supply out of the hands of criminals getting rich off this.
I think the biggest fear, and I agree with your assessment mind you, is expanded use. But as I said, alcohol use actually went down after prohibition ended here in the states, not up. The production methods were controlled, no bath tub gin anymore. No drinking rubbing alcohol.
Human biology produces addiction. The idea is to control that addiction with taxes and local government control. Locking people into jail makes no sense. Its far cheaper and cost effective to legalize drugs and treat the addiction out of prison then to punish use with jail time.
Time to end the war on drugs. I go to Bonnaroo every year, where drugs are readily available and openly used. 99% of the people still have a good time and control themselves. Lets lock up the bad behavior, like theft, associated with addiction ñ but not the people that manage to maintain work and a life, while using drugs
I think the biggest fear, and I agree with your assessment mind you, is expanded use. But as I said, alcohol use actually went down after prohibition ended here in the states, not up. The production methods were controlled, no bath tub gin anymore. No drinking rubbing alcohol.
Human biology produces addiction. The idea is to control that addiction with taxes and local government control. Locking people into jail makes no sense. Its far cheaper and cost effective to legalize drugs and treat the addiction out of prison then to punish use with jail time.
Time to end the war on drugs. I go to Bonnaroo every year, where drugs are readily available and openly used. 99% of the people still have a good time and control themselves. Lets lock up the bad behavior, like theft, associated with addiction ñ but not the people that manage to maintain work and a life, while using drugs
I used to hear many years ago, "oh weed is a gateway drug. The next step is heroin." I used to believe anything the authorities told me. It's only learning over the years, that many folks who use weed, never move on to harder drugs. Some young people experiment with some drugs, and grow out of them entirely. Others don't, and some become addicts.
I agree with what you say about human biology producing addiction. Some opinions state that addicts are born, not made. We even have folks addicted to things like gambling. But, it does seem a minority that drug use becomes a real problem. But that minority can cause havoc in our societies.
It's the same with alcohol. Billions of people indulge, a minority cause problems. Sometimes major problems, but no one seriously considers banning alcohol. I don't know how we allowed this situation to get to where we are today....... a total mess. I think many in authority know a different approach needs to be seriously considered. But, drugs have been demonized for decades, and I think going down a different road frightens many.
Legalize drugs but enact death penalty(public hanging) for sales and possession of substantial quantity of hard drugs(meth, crack, heroin). Problem solved.
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