Legalize all drugs

[Terminal23]

Being an ultra right conservative you would think I’d be against the legalization of all drugs. But, let’s look at the facts. http://www.narcknowledge.com/druguse.html
http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/dr...ibition_p2.cfm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/druguse.htm
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm
Let’s face facts. Our drug policies do not work, they never will and nothing we do will ever change that fact. So legalization is the logical conclusion. Prohibition failed and so does outlawing drugs. People that are going to use them will use them regardless if they legal or not. There will be a small percentage of people that might try them if there made legal. But, the majority will not. Think of all the money to be made taxing them. Think about how the crime rate would plummet if drugs were legal. There is no need to rob banks or convenience stores or murder people to get drug money. It would be no worse than the way it is now with people drinking. There are always going to be people that go to the extreme no matter what the vice.

[JacobM5727]

drugs like cocaine should be illegal.. however pot is mostly harmless, dispite the comical ads.. ok, so im evil.. but it is still true

do i do drugs? no
would i if i could legally? no

would them being legal make a difference in use, at all, for anyone? i doubt it

people who want to do them will do them anyway, they have already made up their minds

edit- i am not pro cocaine.. it was a typo.. ..really

[MD1032]

Drugs can be made illegal, but it will just make things worse. Sad world we live in.

What's classifed as a drug??

There are many therapeutic substances that are illegal to posess/sell without proper authorsation. Should we abolish this system and make them all legal??

Or should we make the so-calledillegal drugs authorisable??

Marijuana is a good case in point. There are benefits of this drug described, which could effectively help some with a better quality of life. Seemingly less dangerous than currently available alternatives (prescription drugs). Yet out society taboos marijuana and has disallowed it's use therapeutically.

A very complex topic, with questions about benefits/risks to individuals/society and much more.

Cheers
Mick

[daveleau]

I'm don't believe we as Americans should give up on this. We are not quitters. I think it has been handled wrongly in the past and has not been stringent enough. I think longer jail sentences and more active work by police on users is the best thing. It is debatable even between doctors as to the long-term effects of marijuana, but the harder drugs are all killers.

Do you think we should stop researching cancer because a definitive cure has not been found? Should we embrace it as well?

[Epidemic]

simply put, you cannot keep drugs out of peoples hands. All you do by fighting the war on drugs is make people rich and give an incentive for people to go outside the law.

I venture to say that the reason drugs wreck lives is two fold. first it bankrupts them (crime is the only way to pay), and clouds their minds( you can still function as meanial labor).

Several countries have proven that legalization removes the crime. all of these drugs really cost nothing to produce, therefore they cost nothing to use. If you can panhandle for a dollar you can afford your days fix. There is no incentive to become a thief.

Benefits
Drug dealers are now out of business, Gangs have no money and no way to lure people in. Police force reduction, minorities are no longer baited into a life of crime. People can lead somewhat productive lives if they are not forced to spend all their time finding money for their drugs. Huge reduction in murder and crime in general. Taxable product. When the lure of money is out of the picture the use of the drugs become less attractive and you may see a reduction in drug use

No change
People are going to ruin their lives with drugs (possibly a few more will be functional though)

Negative effects
Possible slight initial increase in drug use. Dealers no longer have any income awwwww.

I feel that there is no way to justify it's prohibition. Telling someone that they cannot do something has the opposite effect on desire to try it.

There is tons of evidence that prohibition does not work, americas prohibition of alcohol at the turn of the century did nothing to curb alcohol. It simply created rich people and caused crime/corruption. The mafia is almost exclusivly a end product of this. Countries that legalize drugs see huge reductions in crime and even reduction is use.

How can you justify a war on drugs. It does not work the human spirit and desire for money fuels it. You cannot fight that.

the ABC report simply reaffirms my beliefs. Look at all the negatives associated with drugs and tell me that you can see one benifit to prohibition (prohibition that is not successful that is). If you could remove drugs from the earth and no one could manufacture them in labs either. Then the elimination of drugs would be good. Do you see a way to successfully do that? If the answer to that is no then you have to find that prohibition should be repealed.

quoting myself above. from an ancient post.

[cracked]

i am against drug use but this does have a good and logical point to it. and let me add something. sad to say, but if drugs that kill were allowed then it would just make the population better as a whole (evolution, the stupid ones who try it die).

drew

[SpookyEddy]

It is debatable even between doctors as to the long-term effects of marijuana, but the harder drugs are all killers.

Actually after WWI many UK soldiers were adicted to heroin as it had regularly been used as a pain killer during field surgery. When they got back to Britain many lived perfectly normal lives with no major side effect to their health despite a continued dependancy as a readily available supply of clean heroin was provided on the NHS (National Health Service). Now I don't think this is a good idea but it does show that many people can live happy and constructive lives with a fairly major drug addiction if society is willing to accept it (you can debate the pros and cons of that among yourselves).

Not that I am saying that hard drugs aren't bad or that state funding peoples drug habits is a good idea, but I think its a combination of hard drugs and societies attitudes that are the real killer.

Regards

eddy

[thekingofpain]

Across the board legalization could be a mistake---PCP, Meth, Heroin, Cocaine, Ecstasy etc freely available to all?
Just dont seem like a great idea...

[cracked]

if only there was a drug that had no (bad) side effects, and still did what other drugs do.......all problems solved.....

drew