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That's actually not true. Any study of prohibition looking into this has shown that it had curbed alcohol consumption overall. Less ready availability does usually curb consumption overall. My thing is that some drugs that are made illegal are made so disproportionate to their actual harm and are better to regulate than to relegate towards the black market as the black market often acts as a single market unit (i.e. those who sell or operate this illegal thing also does this other illegal thing and the funds from one activity ultimately help partially fund other activities). Prohibition didn't work because it was a giant funnel of money into organized crime that was nearly impossible to stamp out especially as it's so culturally ingrained, easy to make (it is ridiculously easy to make your own alcohol in virtually any climate) and our borders make it easy for it to come in through both the north and south. This is not the case for every drug.
There's little proof that marijuana by itself is of great physical harm to people, so I'm for just regulating it. There's not a great idea of how well this would go on a massive consumer market like the entire US, but nothing seems to indicate it would be worse than alcohol given the various somewhat smaller roll outs that have entailed several millions of people. So I'm for legalization of it with some regulation. I am not in favor of total legalization of all drugs, even with trying out different regulatory structures, for this city, state, and country. If somewhere else wants to try it, then I'm interested in seeing what its effects are, but I'm not in favor of being the guinea pig here. I'd rather other places do the testing and then we see what happens and act accordingly. There's little risk for marijuana because there have been plenty of studies in laboratory and real world settings. I just wish we rolled out legalization far earlier given what we've known for a good long time that its effects aren't all that bad. Fewer questionable incarcerations and much more corporate, personal, and tax revenue over the years would have been great.
Prohibition did not curb alcohol consumption. It merely drove it underground and fueled organized crime as people simply bought illegally made alcohol.
Cocaine is very available, and banning it didn't make it hard to get. Ditto heroin. Crystal meth is home made, and it's pretty easy to get. It's comparatively easy to get a doctor to prescribe opiates, and people resell them on the streets.
Outlawing drugs simply does not work. In fact, all the cool bars in NYC or any hot place where people like to go out are major distribution centers of drugs. If's a huge part of the underground economy, so everyone who wants to use, uses.
Also people are much more likely to overdose from opiates which can be brought legally than they can be from cocaine which is illegal.
Oregon has defelonized LSD, heroin, cocaine, meth, ecstasy, and one other "hard" drug, so the trend towards defelonization is happening in the US.
In NYC itself, these days users of any drug rarely get in trouble. The dealer might get busted, but dealers often deal to people they know using cellphones. So the police are unable to catch enough of them or stick charges on most of them. That is actually true of the country as a whole. And since this was an issue in much of the world, many nations are decriminalizing and legalizing.
People will do whatever they want to do, and it's also the individual's right and choice as to what kind of lifestyle they can lead and what's appropriate for them to consume.
Prohibition did not curb alcohol consumption. It merely drove it underground and fueled organized crime as people simply bought illegally made alcohol.
Cocaine is very available, and banning it didn't make it hard to get. Ditto heroin. Crystal meth is home made, and it's pretty easy to get. It's comparatively easy to get a doctor to prescribe opiates, and people resell them on the streets.
Outlawing drugs simply does not work. In fact, all the cool bars in NYC or any hot place where people like to go out are major distribution centers of drugs. If's a huge part of the underground economy, so everyone who wants to use, uses.
Also people are much more likely to overdose from opiates which can be brought legally than they can be from cocaine which is illegal.
Oregon has defelonized LSD, heroin, cocaine, meth, ecstasy, and one other "hard" drug, so the trend towards defelonization is happening in the US.
In NYC itself, these days users of any drug rarely get in trouble. The dealer might get busted, but dealers often deal to people they know using cellphones. So the police are unable to catch enough of them or stick charges on most of them. That is actually true of the country as a whole. And since this was an issue in much of the world, many nations are decriminalizing and legalizing.
People will do whatever they want to do, and it's also the individual's right and choice as to what kind of lifestyle they can lead and what's appropriate for them to consume.
No, I meant what I said. The data might be sparser than the kind of collections we do now, but Prohibition drove state side consumption down. The problem, and it was a massive problem, is that it was a bonanza for organized crime (and crappy for people who just wanted a tipple but wished to stay within the law). Give me a week when I get back on jstor, and I can find this for you if you request it.
Defelonization and decriminalization are not the same nor are they the same as legalization. The idea of legalization of marijuana makes sense to me. It does not necessarily hold to all other substances in my view. I’m not strictly opposed to it, but again, given there are differences in consumption patterns on the larger level and physiological effects on a personal level among different drugs, I am not in favor of legalizing all drugs here as a guinea pig. I’d rather that happened elsewhere as a test case.
No, I meant what I said. The data might be sparser than the kind of collections we do now, but Prohibition drove state side consumption down. The problem, and it was a massive problem, is that it was a bonanza for organized crime (and crappy for people who just wanted a tipple but wished to stay within the law). Give me a week when I get back on jstor, and I can find this for you if you request it.
Defelonization and decriminalization are not the same nor are they the same as legalization. The idea of legalization of marijuana makes sense to me. It does not necessarily hold to all other substances in my view. I’m not strictly opposed to it, but again, given there are differences in consumption patterns on the larger level and physiological effects on a personal level among different drugs, I am not in favor of legalizing all drugs here as a guinea pig. I’d rather that happened elsewhere as a test case.
Defelonization and decriminalization are steps towards legalization. Marijuana started out being decriminalized, they legalized for medical purposes, then legalized for recreational. Other drugs will follow the same pattern.
And have already, depending on the country.
It doesn't matter what you want, trends are what they are.
Defelonization and decriminalization are steps towards legalization. Marijuana started out being decriminalized, they legalized for medical purposes, then legalized for recreational. Other drugs will follow the same pattern.
And have already, depending on the country.
It doesn't matter what you want, trends are what they are.
Whoa, buddy, I never said what I want dictated trends. I also don't believe that a trend towards legalization of marijuana necessarily means a defelonization or decriminalization of other drugs. Marijuana was never really a potent drug that was a major issue even in the era of mass production/industrialization. Not all drugs are made equal. Just having a category of things doesn't mean they're equivalent. Again, I'm not against the idea, but I'm also not completely open to laying all of these as equivalent.
I'm in agreement about trying to test legalization of all drugs everywhere--it might be a worthwhile policy for various reasons even if it's obvious that physiologically and sociologically not all drugs are equivalent. I believe that most perhaps all drugs are about the context. In that sense, I do not want this city, state, or country to be the first context and test of this. Marijuana looks to be fine with little to no risk and overall pretty good benefit. I'd want us here to wait for somewhere else to try this. It also doesn't matter if you want to go full bore on this right now--that is not happening no matter what you want. However, something that's within voting reach is legalization of marijuana. And given the opiod crisis hitting parts of the city (and this state and this country in general), it's unlikely people are going to really support this.
hm...its kind of sad that most of country is obsessed with drugs, gambling, and social media. We don't build anything anymore. We can barely finish the 2nd avenue subway.
Our space program barely explores and the state of medicine is still primitive and not readily, easily, and affordable to the masses.
hm...its kind of sad that most of country is obsessed with drugs, gambling, and social media. We don't build anything anymore. We can barely finish the 2nd avenue subway.
Our space program barely explores and the state of medicine is still primitive and not readily, easily, and affordable to the masses.
That basically sums it up
__________________
"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
hm...its kind of sad that most of country is obsessed with drugs, gambling, and social media. We don't build anything anymore. We can barely finish the 2nd avenue subway.
Our space program barely explores and the state of medicine is still primitive and not readily, easily, and affordable to the masses.
I am a minority and I love fried chicken, but not weed. That is why society rejects me.
Love that chicken from popeye
Do you remember the fried chicken joint at 155 street/Broadway in Harlem (a block away from the cemetery)? Corporal Fried Chicken. It was run by a Mexican lady.
hm...its kind of sad that most of country is obsessed with drugs, gambling, and social media. We don't build anything anymore. We can barely finish the 2nd avenue subway.
Our space program barely explores and the state of medicine is still primitive and not readily, easily, and affordable to the masses.
No one cares about the space program because it's not going to provide much more in the way of benefits. We have satellites for communications and other purposes, and while these are important, it's not like there's any reason for us to go to the moon or Mars and these world's are not habitable, and leaving the solar system really isn't possible.
Drugs, gaming, and social media are a part of our lives and a part of how we interact with each other.
As for building stuff, have you not seen all the new construction in NYC. Things get built all the time.
If you've been to Los Angeles, their metro system is expanding rapidly. To do anything for MTA NYC has to do with corruption, in part because of corruption within both the unions and the contractors. Cuomo has finally started to force them to complete certain projects, and this legislative session will have relevant legislation on that and on MTA funding.
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