Should drugs, in general, be legalized? What is the appropriate reform (if any) for the US current drug policy. It is glaringly obvious that we are spending huge amounts of money and throwing it in the garbage, as 1$ trillion has been spent and no results can be shown for it.
There are a lot of models for legalization, from available at every cornerstore to every individual, all the way to extreme restriction (but available to the general public).
Right now, despite the huge strides being made in marijuana legalization, there is not the same results for drugs in general. Support lies around 6% for drug legalization and has not changed much, while marijuana is making huge gains.
What is the solution to the obvious failure of current US drug policy?
A few starter facts:
40% of property crimes are committed by drug users who run out of money because drugs are so expensive on the black market.
The availability and use of drugs in general has not declined since Nixon declared a war on drugs 40 years ago.
In many areas, clean needles are illegal to buy without prescription, causing massive spread of HIV and Hepatitis C.
All of them. Repeal the controlled substances act. The minute Congress starts to debate what is safe and what isn’t, we get the whole thing back again. (Bullshit science from rich right wingers, etc)
Yes, drugs should be legalized. No, they won’t be anytime soon. Look how hard it is to legalize marijuana, which doesn’t have any semblance of logic behind its prohibition. Imagine trying to legalize things that DO have some.
But what is your preferred model of legalization? I didn’t start this thread to get a yes/no answer, I think it’s fairly obvious that drugs should be legalized, but under what model?
Should individuals need a license (that is easy to obtain), in order to purchase drugs? Age limit? Limit at one time?
Obvious to you. To the majority of Americans, less so.
I think I would like to see a new type of shop opened that sold them along with alcohol, tobacco, and other age-restricted consumer products. Sell the rest like alcohol, 21 years old no licence required. Take alcohol/tobacco out of regular stores - easier to police selling to minors that way.
I agree with hobostew - move alcohol, tobacco and marijuana/hash to adult only stores. I don’t think that the other drugs should be decriminalized/legalized, unless perhaps you move them to drugstores and need a prescription for them. Not sure if there is enough theraputic use for acid, X, coke, speed and such to warrant it.
This is a good example of the problem we face in legalization. By what definition are you describing hallucinogens as dangerous? Nobody has ever overdosed on LSD, for example. Psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) are similarly safe. That’s not to say that they can’t do any harm (people with mental disorders should steer clear, for example), but calling them “undoubtedly dangerous” is just not true.
As an aside, does anyone know of a chart that shows deaths per 100k users for each drug? It is tedious searching for each one individually.
Of course drugs should be legal. It’s revolting to think the state should regulate what I may do with my mind.
The strong hallucinogens are probably the drugs that need legalising most. The insights they give a reasonably intelligent person can’t really be reached any other way aside from temporal lobe epliepsy.
Are you saying that the only reason people should be allowed to use drugs is for therapeutic reasons? What about the right of people to ingest what they want to?
I say legalize it all, use age limits and such like with booze and tobacco, and put the money currently used to prevent drug “crimes” and house drug criminals for education and addiction services.
The tremendous addictive properties of opiates and speed, along with the demonstrable and specific harm they cause to the user, leave them out of my preferred legalization scenario. I consider the societal cost of legalizing crank and heroin to be greater then the cost of keeping them illegal.
I am satisfied from personal if limited, unscientific personal observation that moderate
daily cocaine use does not render one personally or economically unproductive.
From what I know of hallucinogens it is impossible to be productive if under influence,
unless you were a 1960s Rock musician, or something like that.
Plus I am old enough to have seen the strange glazed eyes of some of the victims
of US military LSD studies performed on unknowing US military personnel. Perhaps
those poor souls have had time to recover by now. I hope so.
Portugal provides a good model of decriminalization. Drug addiction is treated as a medical issue not a criminal justice issue, as I think it should be. Drug use is nearly a human universal. I know very few people who don’t drink alcohol, for example. You can’t stop supply or demand, but it can be controlled and made safer.
Pharmaceutical abuse is the big elephant in the room that no one talks about. Pharmaceutical abusers don’t suffer the stigma that illegal drug abusers do, even though in many cases the drugs they use are similar. They don’t have to worry about the violence that comes with the illegal drug trade. Their drugs usually come in controlled dosages, so they’re less likely to accidentally OD.
Drug decriminalization may come sooner than you think. Mexico and some other Latin American countries are considering it right now. It has devastated their countries as they suffer the consequences as they supply most of the drugs for the US’s huge appetite. Unfortunately, I think the US will strong arm them and they’ll acquiesce. The Drug Czar’s charter requires the US to be anti-legalization and to not even consider the opposite.
Right. Who needs facts when we have limited, unscientific personal observations? And why should being “personally or economically unproductive” be the test for whether or not something is legal? By that logic, you could outlaw World of Warcraft.
Here’s a comparison of dosage and addiction dangers of various drugs, at at the end of this is a chart rating various drugs in the same way.
LSD/Mushrooms are nowhere near as dangerous as coke. No surprise that heroin is #1, but alcohol and nicotine rate scarily high.
This could be a good template for a possible legalization scenario. Focus on safety and treatment, and TALK ABOUT addiction to everything - tobacco, Xanax, crank, whatever.
