Legalization of Drugs

I believe the federal government should not be in the business of telling what an adult should put in his own body. Legalization of what are now illegal drugs to the same level as current legal drugs alcohol and tobacco.

This will have a bigger impact on the quality of life for most Americans. For instance one Oxy pill costs about 20 cents to manufacture. We all know what Pot costs about the same as corn! Cocaine maybe a little more. Amphetamines cost the same as oxy.

Let's take the heroin addict, Oxy is "now" legal and he pays $1 per pill at the liqueur store. He will take 20 a day at most, most street addicts take closer to 10 daily. His habit costs less money than he can beg at street corners, or make cutting lawns, doing odd jobs etc living off his wife,, mother husband etc. . Even if he is a thief he only needs $140 for a week of highs. The $1.00 sale price of a 25 cent pill will finance the rehab facilities when they want to get clean and the cost of needles wipes etc. Right now a guy addicted to 10 a day has a $300 a day habit. How is that financed, by crime or the turning to street drugs such as heroin which will cost about $100 a day. again financed by crime.

The illegal drug trade has made our cities prisons for the people who live there. The big money to be made leads to massive violence both in committing the crimes to obtain funds and in keeping market share among dealers. This goes away overnite. How much of our police manpower goes to fighting drugs and the resulting crime? 1/2 it think would be a good guess. It costs $30,000 grand a year to keep a guy in jail for drug related crimes and there a a million in there now. Drug addiction is a medical condition and not a criminal condition.

The cost for Treating all these addicts will be financed by a tax on Pot at $100 per ounce. If 10% of the population continues to use pot at 2 ounces a year that is a billion of revenue to finance drug rehab and anti drug use education, never mind the billions you save in future prison use and police time.

right now a great proportion of young city poor can't get jobs due to prior drug arrests. Perpetuating the cycle.

I look forward to hearing your takes.

 

Drug laws make no sense. We learned this during prohibition. The only reason drug laws are in place is to generate revenue for the criminal justice system. Think of it as food stamps for lawyers.

 

The thing is, the "War on Drugs" is silly anyway you look at it. Cocaine and Heroin used to be very commonplace items, thus why Coca is in Coca-Cola (in Sears catalogs, you were able to buy not just heroin, but the needles as well). The problem also lies within how society has come to view drugs as a whole. Anyone who uses drugs is portrayed as a loser, a low-life, or scum, when its arguable to say the same about alcohol, since both alcohol and heroin work as opium's. Amphetamines are illegal in the sense that if they are in your possession, but not prescribed, it is illegal, but if its the other way around, its not since amphetamines are CNS stimulants but are used to control ADHD in people. The user, not the drug, should be blamed. The current drug laws that are in place is for the for-profit prison systems, and because marijuana users are often locked up, it causes these prisons to become overcrowded.

The fact we haven't abolished this War On Drugs is just pathetic.

Something we can actually reach a agreement on.

 

I agree that everyone is entitled to use/abuse their bodies as they see fit but not the right to become a burden on society. Drug laws do not stop people from using but do make it more difficult to obtain drugs. The laws are in place to protect society not the addict. Recreational use of marijuana is becoming more and more acceptable and either decriminalized or outright legal. It seems marijuana use has the same sort of negatives as social drinking. The jury isn't in on that just yet and I don't believe any studies exist but in terms of societal impact it is a lesser evil I suppose. I would support an employer's right to deny employment to any one who fails a drug test even if marijuana becomes legal.

 

Legalizing illegal drugs is stupid. Society does not need a bunch of people running around all doped up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drug dealers should be hung in public like in the old west.

 

And you probably buy into the line that marijuana is a gateway drug as well, despite the pros that far outweigh the cons when it comes to its medical uses......

 

In the "Old West" one could go into any drug store and purchase opiates, cocaine and other drugs over the counter. No one was getting hung or jailed for using, possessing or selling them.

 

Yeah. Our criminal justice system should be focused on restitution not retribution. Where you can't identify a victim, there should be no crime.

 

A burden on society in what way? Is an unwed mother a burden on society, An alcoholic? A welfare queen, a man/woman who does not support the children he fathers? They are all burdens that the majority of us support. They should be open to criticism and even contempt in some cases and they should be held up as examples of bad behavior by society but they should not be criminals. I don't support an employers right to refuse to hire someone based on tobaco, alcohol or pot use. I do think that he has the right to fire someone who uses any drug on the clock or is impaired while on the job.

Just like alcohol and tobacco use has seen decreases I think the same will follow with drug use. People who quit smoking and drinking are praised by love ones. Drug users now are pariahs who have lost support of family and friends due to their criminal behavior, that will no longer be the case and drug users will have a support network and facilities to help them kick the habit.

 

When it comes to hard drugs, like cocaine...I've never seen anything good come out of it for anyone. They have unanimously ended up looking like (*)(*)(*)(*), feeling like (*)(*)(*)(*), unhealthy as (*)(*)(*)(*). I can't possibly see b why people want that to become the norm. But, whatever lol, do you.

 

Yes and no. I do believe that in some cases, people need to be protected from themselves; I know, it's a sad truth, but there it is. Also, there's the "burden on society" argument. So I'd still take things on a case by case basis. (I'm one who believes the Dutch have taken things too far. Just my opinion...).

That said, the criminalization of things like liquor or pot? Those are losing propositions from the get go. Legalizing, monitoring and taxing pot will go a long way towards getting things back on track. And I too would support an employer's right to test for drug use (be the drug legal or illegal), and to deny employment based on the results of that test.

Yep, food stamps for lawyers; I like that...

Is alcohol a gateway drug? Marijuana should be classified in the exact same way as alcohol. Yes, once legalized there will be instances of abuse, and yes, there will be implications for society, but prohibiting the use of pot has neither stopped its use nor prevented a certain percentage of people from making their way towards harder drugs. Sorry, but the "gateway drug" argument appears to have fallen flat on its drugged up face...

 

A friend of mine just moved here to Dallas but he still has Denver Broncos season tickets from when he lived in Colorado. He goes back once a year to see a game. He says the pre-game tailgating is now absolutely horrible with pot smoked everywhere. It's a completely different atmosphere than it was five years ago. It's a druggie crowd and not very family-friendly.

He's in his late 40's. I'm sure you would get a different a view from someone in their early 20's with no kids.

 

Yeah, a bunch of drunks is more family friendly.

 

If you can't identify a victim in the pusher-user relationship, it's because your eyes are wide shut.

 

Why would that become the norm? The people that want to experiment with drugs will do so. All we can do is lessen their impact on society. right now drug users are spawning a criminal element that makes Capone and Dillinger and the like seem like choir boys.

 

I'm fine with that, as long as no taxpayer money is spent on free rehabs.

 

Are you ok with taxpayer money being used for prisons and thousands of cops. Are you ok with criminal taking over entire neighborhoods and drive by shootings. Are you ok with treating alcholoics?

 

Yeah I'm ok with social safety services. I'd rather pay to keep violent people in jail than have them running around killing people.

I'm not ok with crime overtaking neighborhoods, please refer to my comment on violent people above.

I'm not ok for paying for anyone's addictions, but what they choose to put in their body is fine by me.

Basically I'm saying you're free to make your own choices, but you're also responsible for those same consequences.

 

I agree with most of this, but complete decriminalization without regulation would be better.

 

Yes, so we get rid of the pusher and let the user get his drug of choice the same way he gets alcohol or tobacco now. Now the bad guy is gone, That dealer is replaced by the same guy who sells you a six pack.

 

We are not talking normally violent people but people who commit crimes to obtain a substance that is over priced due to it being illegal. Those crimes are no longer being committed to get pay $10 a day to feed your habit instead of $100 a day.

 

No, he just looks different. And the victim is just as he was before.

 

The problem is that the violent people currently providing those drugs will still be violent.

I'm not disagreeing with the whole "make something illegal you create industry around it". I agree with that. We should have learned that during prohibition.

Personally I think gang membership should bring life without parole, but I'm a little aggressive.

 

Should be easy enough to quantify the harm done and mandate restitution that makes the victim as whole as possible, whether the perp is a neighborhood pusher or a pain management doctor that over prescribes opiates.

 

No the pusher is a guy that will sell you bad dope, will kill other people who attempt to move into his neighborhood and is charging a guy $100 a day for his fix.
The liquor store owner does none of those things and sells a regulated product that has the same potency every day. yes some guy is still losing his soul to drugs, but at least the collateral damages that his drug use inflicts on the community is greatly lessened. We as a nation should not be telling a man/woman what he can ingest.