watched episode of cops last night
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It's true, I am actually working with the goverment to establish an orwellian society within the next two decades.
But seriously, how free is a free society when one person's absolute "freedoms" step on another's?
Absinthe
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You haven't really explained how one's personal drug use encroaches on somebody else's freedom.
The Monkey
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I support the legalisation of soft drugs, such as marijuana or hashish, but not the hard drugs, such as heroin. Legalizing that would only bring more problems than it solved. It would be much easier for children, who, let's admit it, aren't mature enough to make their own decisions. However, that marijuana would be a gateway drug to harder drugs is nonsence, as The Netherlands, where marijuana is legal, has fewer heroin users than Sweden, where marijuana is illegal.
Pesmerga
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Smoking pot will never directly infringe upon the rights of others. I think pot should be legalized at 21, in one's own property or in the company of another's private property, and should be treated exactly like alcohol in cases of driving under impairment, child custody, adoption, and all other things the use of alcohol can interfere with.
Then again, as much as I am for libertarian ideologies, can anyone name the societal improvements brought with legalization? Perhaps weakening the black market, extra taxation, decreased monies spent on drug crimes and penalties, ...?
It might be a "Pfft, I'm 18, I can drink alcohol anyway!" kind of thing, but... who knows?
Then again, as much as I am for libertarian ideologies, can anyone name the societal improvements brought with legalization? Perhaps weakening the black market, extra taxation, decreased monies spent on drug crimes and penalties, ...?
It might be a "Pfft, I'm 18, I can drink alcohol anyway!" kind of thing, but... who knows?
Pressure
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Legalize hard drugs too.
It's easier for a child to get hard drugs than it is for them to get something legal such as alcohol. Why? Because drug dealers don't card. I guarantee you if you were to give a 12 year old kid $20 and told him to go get you any kind of substance he could get his hands on it would be some kind of drug.
If it were legal it would be much harder for kids to get their hands on it. Legalizing would also allow give piece of mind as to what's inside the actual drug as it would be regulated, and allow companies to sell dosages that won't kill the user. Not only that, but it will also allow doctors to help patients who might be hooked on a hard drug and want to stop to get off it. Hell, you could even require that the drug stores be run by specialists who've go to school like a sort of pharmacist.
It would cut down the size and cost of the prison system dramatically. All these people getting arrested for non-violent drug crimes is ridiculous. It would kill the drug market. Do you buy alcohol from some strange dude down the street? No. Not only would the store stuff be better quality, but it'd be cheaper too. How could you lose?
I know a kid who uses cocaine as a recreational drug. Has he destroyed his life and the life of everyone around him? No, because he uses it in moderation like any normal person. You never hear about those cases because it's not interesting enough to blast over the local news. "Local man uses drug in moderation. Did he have a good time? Find out at 11!" I certainly would never use it, but it's his RIGHT as a human being to do to his body whatever he wants.
Pesmerga
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I think it's irresponsible for a legal governing body to allow the usage of immediately dangerous substances. Cocaine and crack cocaine, among almost all hard drugs, cannot be compared to alcohol. Even in small amounts cocaine can be lethal, and leads to outrageous behavior, enabling them to be a threat to society far more immediately than alcohol.
Besides, hard drugs mess the body up and usually makes the user immediately addicted. Legalizing hard drugs like cocaine, meth, crack, ex, heroin, etc, is just irresponsible. It's giving the populace a sure fire way to drown themselves in addiction and abuse.
You'll say it's up to the user to decide; of course it is. But a government can only handle so much stress before its citizens drown itself. And we all want order in our little world, don't we?
Besides, hard drugs mess the body up and usually makes the user immediately addicted. Legalizing hard drugs like cocaine, meth, crack, ex, heroin, etc, is just irresponsible. It's giving the populace a sure fire way to drown themselves in addiction and abuse.
You'll say it's up to the user to decide; of course it is. But a government can only handle so much stress before its citizens drown itself. And we all want order in our little world, don't we?
_Z_Ryuken
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Sulkdodds
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Eh, I think hard drugs are a pretty cool guy. They are rarely necessarily dangerous.
I am not of the belief that all drugs should be immediately and necessarily dangerous because I recognise that some of them can cause people to harm others and addiction can hurt families etc. Liberty should only be forfeit to preserver greater liberty etc. However, they are not the only thing we sell that does that. It is pretty much indisputable that most of the problems caused by drugs are actually caused by the prohibition of drugs. While I was at school, for example, ecstasy was constantly featured in education videos - and yet the primary danger from extasy is either that it will be cut with something toxic, or that through poor education about usage, the user will hurt themselves. Both of these things are far less likely to happen if the drug is legalised and regulated. Vast crime networks trading in substance? Gang wars over stashes? Inflation of prices, exploitation of junkies, inadequacy of education? All of these things would be vastly reduced by legalisation, as long as that legalisation was accompanied by regulation. In the face of this - plus the vast benefit to law enforcement agencies, no longer beholden to spend millions on futile crime suppression wars - I cannot see why exactly anyone would think that the presumed breakdown in values or social order or whatever that legalising heroin would cause would be so much worse.
I mean Pesh, what evidence have you for cocaine (for example) being so damn lethal and addictive on first dose? Yes, some things are dangerous, yes, care is needed, but the reaction to most drugs by governments, the money and time spent on stopping them, and the level of prosecution of the users, far outstrips either the danger or the required care. I agree with pretty much everything said by Pressure and repiv; in essence, I am not at all convinced that the liberty preserved by prohibition is greater than that which would be created by legalisation - in fact, I'm some way towards being convinced of the opposite. And surely it speaks volumes that I, arguer with repiV and reader of Ben Goldacre, am advocating the drug industry be turned over to Big Pharma.
In the light of all this - there we go, back on topic! In the light of all this, I find it absolutely absurd that police might ever bother to prosecute users of all people. If anything they are the victims of the vast and terrible machinery of drug supply which is currently in operation. It's a legal principle in the UK that motive (mens rea) is all that one needs in being convicted of soliciting or similar crimes, but god damn, what a waste of police time. If there must be a war on drugs, let it be against the soldiers, not the civilians - and frankly I would still prefer diplomacy.
Pressure
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You know drugs were only made illegal recently right? Why was the United States not in chaos before hand?
Also,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1CvW38cHA
Pesmerga
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Perhaps the drug market wasn't up to snuff? I'm not sure, and I won't be changing my mind because of a comedian.
Also, I am closed to all other opinions. Shoot up and **** off.
Pressure
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Heh, if you thought I was trying to sway you with a comedian you are sadly mistaken pessy. I just thought it was fun. It wasn't actually even aimed towards you, but rather towards something I said. I just didn't feel like quoting myself. Teehee, hawhaw. It's meant for funneh.
I'm not a drug user by the way, so I'm afraid I won't be shooting up. I won't be ****ing off either. It's all about personal liberties and clearly you don't believe in individual freedoms. I do, thus I support the idea.
I'm not a drug user by the way, so I'm afraid I won't be shooting up. I won't be ****ing off either. It's all about personal liberties and clearly you don't believe in individual freedoms. I do, thus I support the idea.
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