Drug legalization?

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:14 pm Post subject: Drug legalization?

I think all drugs, including prescription-only drugs, should be legal--then the ones that are "street drugs" now would be taxed like crazy and that tax money would go into non-religious programs to help people quit and for the medical treatment of side effects. I think if people have major issues with side effects of something they were not prescribed, they shouldn't have the right to sue, but they SHOULD be able to get treatment for those issues.

chuq · Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 135 Location: Gulf South

Sorry, I pretty much shot my wad about drugs on the Paul threat. Sorry, if I had noticed I would have posted here.

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:15 pm Post subject:

chuq · Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 135 Location: Gulf South

I will agree, the system now seems to create as many probs as it says it eliminates.

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:18 pm Post subject:

Are there really people out there who truly believe from the bottom of their hearts think we can actually win the war on drugs?

Hackfest · Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 413

The War on drugs was lost right before it began.

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:19 pm Post subject:

It has been as effective as prohibition was, except it costs a LOT more.

jq · Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 1124

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:20 pm Post subject:

I think if we ARE to have certain drugs illegal, I definitely think meth should be one of them. Heroin may be another one.

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:51 pm Post subject:

I recently saw a post that equated the death of Heath Ledger as a reason to crack down on drugs more.

I didn't quite understand it, but I didn't want to go on a lot about it because it would derail the thread. It was probably too late though--I probably already derailed it Sad

Anyway--to me, if people want to kill themselves with pills, it's their choice. If someone wants to commit suicide--it's their choice, as long as they don't kill or hurt anyone else in the process, and "the pain of having lost a loved one" doesn't count as "hurting someone".

I don't understand how people can believe in the war on drugs. It hasn't stopped the problem and it costs the kind of money that could be used to fix education and a whole bunch of other things. Too much money is spent on the war on drugs. This is of course, my opinion.

debateman · Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 349 Location: New Mexico

And being the poster that suggested that we needed a drug crack down, I would like to respond.

I respect your desire for freedom. I respect your analysis, but I fear that the analysis is flawed for several reasons.

1) Drugs are objectively bad. They are a threat to society. One person doing them is not the problem, it's that one person sending the message that it's okay to do them. Telling people that it's okay to do drugs lead to a real harm. The loss of parents, the loss of spouses, both economic and emotional impacts beyond losing a friend.

2) Society pays for the ills of drugs either way you slice it. If we allow drugs we encourage the costs to society to rise.

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:08 pm Post subject:

Well then why don't we make alcohol illegal? It causes a lot more problems than some of the drugs that are illegal. How about cigarettes? If we're to have a war on drugs, we need to make cigarettes illegal too. Why shouldn't alcohol and cigarettes be part of the same crackdown?

debateman · Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 349 Location: New Mexico

Again, I would agree with your analysis, but shouldn't we concentrate on one item at a time?

Kizzume · Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject:

I'm just saying -- if we have alcohol and cigarettes LEGAL, we need to do the same to the others.

If we're going to have the other drugs ILLEGAL, we need to do the same to alcohol and cigarettes.

It needs to be one way or the other, in my opinion.

debateman · Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 349 Location: New Mexico

But you cannot do an immediate ban or you create a huge black market. You have to do one, then eliminate the black market, do the next, eliminate it's black market... so on...