# CRACKTOWN AND HEROINVILLE **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 4, 2001, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359 "2001-05-04T15:59:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2001, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/21 "2001-07-21T00:40:00Z")
Not at all, Grim, you are just focusing on one of the less immediate aspects of a pretty nutty idea. This idea gibbers and sticks bananas in its ears. This is a bad idea. Lets bring back Prohibition. Thats a better idea. The amount of human carnage and wasted resources as a result of alcohol in our society is staggering (snicker…chortle.) By what interpretation are any of these drugs, or for that matter, all of them combined, any worse for our society than plain ol’ popskull. Of course, thats a dumb idea. Its still better. And what about those of us, like myself, who are in an ongoing glaucoma prevention regimen? Gonna shove all the potheads on an island? Which one? Australia’s pretty much full, and they might resent it. You’ll put those nice folks over at Ben and Jerry’s _right_ out of business. You know, this idea is so dumb its hard to make fun of. ---
**Author:** ![hansel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/22 "2001-07-21T01:30:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Grim\_Beaker \* > \*\*Am I overlooking something? > \*\* You’re missing the fact that we’re not talking about red light districts here: we’re talking about specially created drug ghettos, where anyone who wants free drugs can go and burn themselves up. I suppose there would be pregnancies, but I suspect the infant mortality rate would be exceptionally high. ---
**Author:** ![Kaje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f04885/32.png) [@Kaje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaje)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2001, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/23 "2001-07-21T04:43:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hansel \* > \*\*I suppose there would be pregnancies, but I suspect the infant mortality rate would be exceptionally high. \*\* eek and I still say the government should force alcoholics to smoke pot ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2001, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/24 "2001-07-21T19:00:50Z")
Hmm, Cracktown. I could go for XTCLand. I would surely reside in LSDville. For the record, it would take pharmaceutical companies about two seconds to produce all illegal drugs which can be synthesized. This would include, but no be limited to, LSD, DMT, Ecstacy, MDA, Meth, Mescaline, and PCP. All the precursors necessary, and ALL of the equipment, is already lying around in labs. I have little doubt that “broken” equipment and missing materials are funneled into basement operations. Companies like **Sigma** already manufacture such drugs, and thus the turnover time would be zero. Let it be resolved, then, that the machinery for such a plan already exists. As well, it is pretty apparent that many a city block exists in the state we are hypothesizing. They also happen to be high-crime areas because of two reasons. One, the drugs and their manufacture and sale are already illegal. Two, the addict stealing to support his/her habit. I believe in the market and the government behind it enough that given appropriate regulations the economics of selling drugs would make it viable, and would remove much of the crime associated with murders between “territorial disputes” and selling bad shit. The only real problem that faces us, IMO, are the following: ODing, and debilitating addiction. Are we saying that these aren’t surmountable? I suppose we should add the following problem in as well: getting the land in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/25 "2001-07-21T22:35:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Badtz Maru \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Homer \* > > \*\*Think of it this way: A pack of smokes is 2/3 of an ounce, and costs ~$.5 to produce. They are sold, on average, for $2-$3. A pack of marijuana, 2/3 of an ounce, could be made for the same or less than tobacco. Yet people would willingly pay $20-$30 for 2/3 of an ounce of high grade, legal, marijuana. That’s pennies less than $20-$30 in pure tax profit for each pack. > > \*\* > > Reading this thread I was thinking ‘Yeah, but a lot of drug users would choose to stay where drugs were illegal but obtainable and you didn’t have to worry about crackheads constantly trying to steal your stuff’ - but if they are selling high quality pot that cheap there, I may have to change my mind! \*\* Well, while drug ghettos may be the way to go in the intermediary until society can adjust to the fact that this ignored, despised coalition of “druggies and harlots” are in fact their sons, daughters, cousins, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, friends, nephews, nieces, neighbors and coworkers, I still believe that while tobacco and alcohol are (relatively) successfully regulated and sold, so should marijuana be. I, for one, would smoke probably about a half a pack on Friday and Saturday, and maybe a single stick every other day during the week. That’s, what, $40-$60 a week that can be remaindered on my paycheck in income taxes, only to be reharvested in marijuana taxes. Less income taxes to bitch about, people who don’t like it don’t have to do it, and don’t have to pay it, and the Government still gets their monies. That’s a plan I could agree with. Alternatively, we could tax marijuana use like I said, but leave income taxes, and apply the full amount of the marijuana taxes to maintaining and supplying the “drug ghettos”. Make marijuana pay-for-play, as it would definately be the most popular, and let the received taxes pay for the rest of the “playground”. That way marijuana users help support their “brothers in crime” while remaining free and clear… am I making sense? –Tim ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2001, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/26 "2001-07-23T11:20:31Z")
Heroin is still illegal in the Nederlands, it isnt the same situation as Pot. The park was in Geneva. Rather than have junkies walking the streets, the let them all go and sit in a park. :rolleyes ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/27 "2001-07-23T19:06:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homer \* > Tobacco is more addictive and worse for you! (than marijuana, that is) Does anyone have any cites for these premises? While I have heard that tobacco is very addictive, I seem to have also heard that smoking marijuana can be very bad for one’s lungs. ---
**Author:** ![Kaje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f04885/32.png) [@Kaje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaje)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2001, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/28 "2001-07-24T11:47:00Z")
I searched for info on the harmfulness of marijuana and tobacco and found the following page: > **[States Where Marijuana is Legal… Medicinal & Regular Use](https://www.drugscience.org/bcr/index.html)** > > Alabama Fully Illegal Medicinal: 🚫 General Use: 🚫 Not yet legal even for medical. View State Laws Alaska Fully Legal Medicinal: ✅ General Use: ✅ 2014: Alaska voters legalized marijuana View State L… However, this hardly answers the question. It seems to contain small portions of about 30 different studies, and they all produce different results (but they aren’t all measuring the exact same thing). Here are some highlights: > [@](#): > > “A significantly larger proportion of smokers of marijuana and/or tobacco than nonsmokers reported chronic cough, chronic sputum production, more than 1 episode of acute lower respiratory tract illness within the past 3 years (increased cough and sputum lasting more than 3 wk), and wheezing. No significant differences were found when prevalence of these respiratory symptoms was compared across the 3 smoking groups: smokers of marijuana alone, tobacco alone, and marijuana plus tobacco. Breathlessness was reported by relatively few subjects and was similar in frequency across the 4 subject groups, with 1 exception: tobacco smokers reported a higher prevalence of shortness of breath than did marijuana smokers.” > … > “In addition, heavy, habitual smoking of marijuana, whether alone or with tobacco, has an adverse effect on large airway function, but marijuana use alone, unlike regular tobacco smoking, has no demonstrable impact on small airways function or on diffusing capacity.” > … > “It is also noteworthy that most tobacco cigarettes currently in use are filter-tipped and have a relatively low tar content, but marijuana cigarettes do not contain filters and generate about twice as much tar as tobacco per unit of weight, assuming a similar smoking profile. Furthermore, the techniques for smoking marijuana and tobacco differ substantially: on the average, with marijuana the inhalation, or “puff,” volume is about two-thirds larger, the depth of smoke inhalation about 40% greater, and breath holding about four times longer than those characteristics of tobacco smoking. These differences in filtration and smoking technique can result in about a fourfold greater amount of tar delivered to and retained in the lungs from the smoking of marijuana than from a comparable amount of tobacco, thus potentially amplifying the harmful effects of marijuana on the lungs.” there’s a lot more where that came from. So at least from that it would seem that marijuana is not MORE harmful than tobacco. And of course this doesn’t answer the “cancer question.” I did also find this: [http://www.ukcia.org/lib/lungs.htm](http://www.ukcia.org/lib/lungs.htm) which is entitled “Marijuana Less Harmful to Lungs than Cigarettes” though I didn’t read this one as it made it quite clear what its conclusion was. ---
**Author:** ![Lucifer12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b38774/32.png) [@Lucifer12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucifer12)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359/29 "2001-07-31T15:45:09Z")
Jesus, what are you John Carpenter? It sounds like ‘Escape From New York’. Cracktown-ha! Seriously, what would the difference be between the OP’s proposal and what we have now? There are already plenty of drug ghettos in this country. All we’d have to do is legalize it, and we’d have some more sin tax revenues. What could possibly go wrong? Also, the whole proposal kind of smacks of concentration camps. What’s next - Gayville? Catholic City? Jewtown? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracktown-and-heroinville/64359.md?page=1)