# Drug legalization: are some worse than others? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 24, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316 "2014-10-24T02:22:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316/61 "2014-10-26T10:56:52Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > For the sake of argument: What’s “iffy” about LSD? **eschereal** ’s post is food for thought. However, I based my list largely on practicality and risk. All the items I listed can easily be grown in a garden, or basement. Or made very, very simply. Therefore, as a matter of practicality, their use cannot truly be prevented. All the items on the list can be used at no risk of overdose, or serious short-term illness. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316/62 "2014-10-26T11:35:31Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > All the items on the list can be used at no risk of overdose, or serious short-term illness. I could be wrong, but I believe that both hashish and psychedelic mushrooms can lead to (or at the very least exacerbate) serious short-term psychological illness, much like LSD did in **eschereal** ’s case. Is that incorrect? ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316/63 "2014-10-26T13:39:57Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > If we legalize a drug we will, indeed, see more abuse and more addicts. The question is whether the trade-off - in theory less crime and destruction - would make up for that. I think it’s pretty well established that it would. The real issue is the crime, incarceration inequities, and destruction affect the lower classes. Transfer the same ills to the middle-class and we’d see a huge turnaround on how we deal with the issues. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316/64 "2014-10-26T13:45:03Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > What about cocaine? That stuff is just vile. IME, the only effect it provides is a desire to do more of it, right now. Then, it last about 20 minutes, after which there comes a headache that you just know can only be driven off with a few more lines. Who cares, if it is legal the shit will be $20 bucks a pound out of a bin at Drugs R Us. Oh shit I feel the desire to do more, do it, who cares. ---
**Author:** ![JayRx1981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71e660/32.png) [@JayRx1981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JayRx1981)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316/65 "2014-10-29T12:38:21Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > So one of the most complex parts of the drug legalization debate for me is whether to go “all or nothing” with it. Some drugs, like crystal meth, seem SO bad that it’s viscerally repulsive to imagine them being sold at the corner drugstore. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Nobody would do crystal meth if amphetamines were legal and available. Crystal meth is the homemade solution, at least the first few times. (I guess it’s really, really addictive, in a way pharmacy amphetamines are usually not.) While technically not Crystal meth, at least one methamphetamine product actually sits in Schedule II, approved for use in patients with Attention Deficit Disorder, under the brand name Desoxyn. It’s also used off-label for treatment resistent depression. It’s very rarely used, but it exists. > [@WhyNot](#): > > I was all for blanket legalization…and then Krokodil happened. Do not google image search it. Trust me. > > So, yeah. On a scale of weed to meth, Krokodil goes to 11. Eh, without the smell to go along with it, necrotic flesh isn’t THAT terrifying to look at, at least for me. I’m a bit odd in the head though. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’d legalize them all. It’s not that I think people should be using drugs. But it just seems obvious to me that criminalization hasn’t worked as a means of fighting drug abuse. It just adds the problems of being a criminal to the problems of being a drug abuser. (And serves as an economic incentive to a whole bunch of other crimes.) I think we need to take a new approach and treat drug abuse as a health care problem. > [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](#): > > People who want to abuse drugs will find a way. I do believe the war on drugs has been a failure, and causes more harm then good. I believe we should decriminalize almost all drugs of abuse… HOWEVER… That doesn’t mean make them legal. I’m in Hirka’s camp on this one. Legalization, no, decriminalization along with increased funding for substance detoxification/maintenance therapeutic modalities, yes. I’m fine with leaving the selling of drugs, outside of officially ok’ed channels like hospitals and pharmacies, as illegal and prosecutable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316.md?page=3)