Here is why I think all drugs should be legalized, and how:
It benefits the economy. We wouldn’t be spending so much time and effort on a useless War on Drugs if it were legalized; if we grew and sold it legally, it would be cheaper, and because it would be cheaper, the illegal market can’t compete, and without any income, the illegal market declines, and America grows rich.
It benefits our legal system. No one would have to resort to illegal activity to deal, sell, and buy drugs, so we’d have more room in our prisons for more serious offenders like rapists and murderers. It’d be available to people at any age, because face it, kids have ways of getting these things, and they normally aren’t legal. With more room in our prisons and more money to spend on other crimes, our police force would be much more effective.
Less death. With legalization would come regulation of purity and strength of drugs, as well as the amount a person can buy at a time, so no overdoses or potentiated effects can occur; less people die. People under the influence would also be regulated and prevented from driving; less auto accidents from people DUI. With legalization, any drug would become much less popular among youth, so less kids die.
Less ruined lives in youth. Without drugs being as popular while legal, less people would do it, less people would mess up their lives, and less kids would die. Doing drugs would be legalized in schools in special rooms that don’t disrupt others; some people find that drugs help them intellectually, so more people who do any drug and lead a productive life can do it safely; other people whose intellects decline can get outside help when problems arise instead of having drug use discovered in a teen in some other (usually not at a good stage) way.
Benefits medicine. With drugs legal, many more studies can be done on them to make them safer. By making them safer, people would less likely end up in hospitals from drug-related problems.
There would be no age regulation, there would be specified areas where you can do drugs and prohibited areas.
I’m with ya up to #3. Drug use should be illegal for minors. Drugs are dangerous, and most minors do not have the mental capacity to adequately asses the dangers and make an informed decision.
“ALL DRUGS” would include inhalants, Lysol, crack, PCP, etc…
It would be impossible to sell anything stronger than marijuana because of the liability. It would be lawsuit heaven for anyone affected by the drug (not just the user).
Even marijuana would be hard to sell because it would be regulated into something as potent as hemp. That would drive the user back to dealers. This scenario would play out for every drug.
The argument to eliminate jail time hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. Laws regarding use and sale have been softened over the years and will probably continue to do so.
Would sure love to unburden the prison system but I don’t see it.
Which is why, if its legalized completely, minors don’t have to listen to other kids giving them the wrong idea about “everyone’s doing it”, “its cool”, “it’s harmless”, etc. With legalization comes better education of what they’re doing because of medical studies, so minors get a better understanding. In my school, most minors disregard what they learn in health, others don’t really care.
The reason I want it legalized for all minors is because they WILL get it anyway, legal or not, preferably legally where they won’t have to resort to going through their mothers’ purses to get it.
I don’t really consider inhalants drugs. They’re common household products. You spray paint in a bag and inhale, anyone can do that now, legal or not, because they’re so readily available anyway. There’s no purpose in relabeling paint thinner as a recreational drug.
As for the liability, there certainly would be a disclaimer. The user assumes responsibility for any side effects or bad reactions, and understands he/she cannot sue the company because the user was the one who decided to take something that he/she KNEW could possibly cause damage; not the company’s fault.
And when I say purity and strength are regulated, I mean that heroin would be pure heroin, not 99% baking soda and milk powder, 100% heroin. Maybe there shouldn’t be regulations on how much you can buy, I changed my mind about that. An indicator on the package/bottle/whatever can show what the measurements are for a small dose, a normal dose, a large dose, a severe dose, borderlining permanent damage, then onto permenant damage and then overdose or something, but that would be difficult to determine for individual users. Only a moron would say “this stuff’s weak lets have some more” and inject something higher than the overdose level, which is also a reason people overdose on OTC medicines because they multiply the RECOMMENDED dosage by a ridiculously high number; our medicine needs specifics, otherwise people are going to get careless.
I’d still have a problem with so-called “hard drugs” being legalized to the point of being freely and widely available. A substance like these that are powerfully addictive, can kill you if taken in too large a dose, and does serious harm to the body should be regulated and controlled in at least some fashion. Our current system doesn’t work, that much is clear, but I think making opiates and the like freely availble might be worse.
No one has ever died of an overdose of marijuana, and I’d have utterly no problems with it being legally available to adults. People have died from taking too much heroin, or cocaine (people have also died from alcohol poisoning, for that matter.) The “hard drugs” are just too dangerous.
They are very dangerous, but they’re even more dangerous if they’re illegal, when you don’t know what’s in them, how much you’re supposed to take, you resort to robbing places to get the money to pay for it because its so expensive. It’d be better if you knew what you were taking was what you were taking, how much you’re supposed to take is how much you’re supposed to take and not too much, you only need to spend so-and-so dollars to get some, etc. while its legal.
As I said, purity and strength would be regulated, and specific measurements of doses and their effects would be shown TRUTHFULLY. The policy with alcohol is that, above a certain amount of BAL is dangerous; however, many people drink more than that BAL to get drunk, which is why the government and drug programs need to be more truthful instead of making drugs look much worse than they really are, giving kids who’ve tried them the wrong idea that they can take a lot more and actually be fine, which they won’t. That way, people would not take too much.
Dran-o can kill you, as well. Yet no one attempts to regulate it. As a matter of fact, there are a nigh-infinite number of substances that are far more harmful than any illegal drug that no one is attempting to regulate. If it is purely a safety issue, why not?
I disagree. When drugs are totally illegal, they are totally unregulated. If you’re breaking the law selling dope, there’s no incentive not to also sell it to children. You’re already breaking the law, right? Plus, you already have this huge mechanism in place to bring drugs into the country (or manufacture them domestically) and distribute them. If drugs were legalized for adults, this smuggling and distrubution system will collapse because there’s no profit in it. Legal dealers will be unlikely to sell to children, because the profit/risk ratio is too high; it’d be easier and safer to legally deal to adults.
We can already see this working with tobacco and alcohol. It’s a lot harder for kids to get beer and cigarettes than pot and LSD, because most bartenders or convenience store owners aren’t going to risk their legitimate buisness by breaking the law and selling to minors.
I see problems with “quality enforcement” of legally-manufactured drugs as well, unless only a few certain suppliers can make/sell them. If anyone can manufacture and sell, it would be extremely had to trace back a “bad batch” to its maker. Hard to put a brand name on a powder.
If only a handful of manufacturers and outlets are allowed, then there’s still be the incentive for street vendors to compete price-wise. Heavy addicts might not be satisfied by the dosage in what they can legally purchase, and would want stronger stuff. I know of a guy who still makes moonshine, though alcohol is legal. There will always be a black market.
Can we protect people from the very-human failing of hedonism? Of course not. We can’t possibly control people’s sometimes self-destructive urges. We can’t rid our world of any and all substances which are dangerous. People will always want to take too much of a substance which gets them buzzed.
But there are reasons why I can’t stroll down to CVS tomorrow and get myself a bottle of OxyCotin or morphine. These drugs could be dangerous to my health if abused. There should be at least some attempts to try to regulate their usage, and limit the potential harm they could do.
A warning lable that lists the side effects won’t do a thing, in my opinion. The pack of cigarettes here on my desk warns that I can develop a host of ailments should I use the product. Nor would dosage instructions necessarily be adhered to. I occasionally take three aspirin, even though the bottle says to take two.
This information is potentially only of interest to the novice, because a practiced user would already know how much they need to get high, and would ignore any lable that indicated he should use the drug below what he believes his tolerance level to be. He may be confused about the comparison of how pure the state-allowed drug is in comparison to what he’s used to. Unless he has a sophisticated testing kit, he may have trusted his dealer’s assurances that the drug he was used to was very pure, and might think there’s little difference. If he usually inhales three lines of the cocaine he generally buys and does the same with a higher-potency drug, he could die. Or, if he distrusts the potency lable, he may foolishly take extra to compensate.
Manufacture would likely be controlled and regulated. Makes taxes easier.
Nonsense. The black market is significantly more expensive than legitimate retail, because of the serious legal risks involved, increasing costs across the board. The guy you know who makes moonshine: does he sell it, or does he just make it for himself and his friends? Individuals making their own drugs for their own use will always be a problem, but if there’s a mainstream, regulated alternative to underground drug labs, the majority of users will go for that, undercutting the vast majority of the dangerous illegal manufacturers.
Can we? Obviously not. The question is, should we? I don’t think we should. If people want to self-destruct, that’s their decision. No one has any business making it for them.
Cheeseburgers could be dangerous to your health if abused. No one tries to regulate that.
Warning lables aren’t there to save people’s lives, they’re their to deflect the company that produced it from liability.
This is already a huge problem with drugs. There’s absolutely no standards of manufacture with illegal substances. If they were legalized, they would be standardized, and therefore safer. No, it wouldn’t completely alleviate the problem, but it would massively decrease the number of accidental overdoses.
Is there any nation where all, or nearly all, drugs are legal? Some of the N.European nations have (as we all know) rather liberal drug laws, but even they nix the hard stuff. Probably a lesson to be had in that. But then again, look at the drop in alcohol-related crime when Prohibition was repealed.
Eh. Not enough people use hard-drugs to want to repeal laws against them. Marijuana, maybe. The finest pervian flake? Never.
I’m not of a set opinion on this issue. I’m in favor of legalizing marijuana, and I agree that the drug war is a total tragedy and a failure that should end now. But that doesn’t mean I’m sure legalizing heroin and coke is a good idea. I really don’t know.
As to this thread specifically: I don’t buy #3 and #4, and I don’t really go for #5 either. I think the research bans are stupid, but I doubt there’s much to be gained from these drugs medically. Banning them may be harmful, but these substances are also harmful themselves.
How are you going to regulate the amount of drugs people will buy at a time? I can’t imagine that being enforceable. Increased purity for any drug will lead to increased potency, which could conceivably bump up overdoses.
You’re also forgetting that, even in regulated use, these drugs ALL cause long-term damage. You may reduce overdoses, but increased use would lead to an increase in those problems in the long run. A major one, I suspect, since some are VERY addictive and VERY harmful.
Also, different amounts of alcohol get people more and less drunk depending on body mass and such, and the same should be true of heroin and other drugs. One uniform standard won’t get everybody. People kill themselves with (legal) alcohol alone from binging. You can try and regulate the amount people buy, though again I can’t see how, but you can’t control how they use or abuse it. One of the major arguments in favor of mass legalization is that you can’t control what people do in their own homes, and that applies here as well.
You’re also neglecting tolerance as an issue. People often do increasing amounts and OD because the same amount of, say, coke won’t get you off forever. You need a greater amount to get the same buzz, and people don’t necessarily want the SAME buzz, they want a better one. So regulation of the amount people can buy also falls apart there.
Regulated how? DUI is already illegal, so that would have no impact. Driving drunk is illegal even though drinking is legal, and there are plenty of drunk driving-related deaths.
Can you back this up somehow? I know the logic, but numbers or solid evidence of some kind would be nice. That’s my response to most of #4 as well - you need to back up what you’re asserting; I won’t rebut it since I’d just be repeating the above.
BUT:
This is an unbelievably horrible idea. Legalizing drugs is one thing, this is flat-out encouraging their use. Students can get high, smoke or drink in high schools if they know how to hide it (it’s not hard). It’s still disruptive since they come to class in an altered state. And needless to say, they rarely learn anything under those conditions. If LSD is legal in schools, and a kid does some, he may be tripping for hours or the whole school day. I see that as a problem. I know how hard it is to keep kids from cutting, but saying “go ahead and cut if you want - and while you’re at it, do some drugs!” doesn’t strike me as an improvement.
As a general rule, it seems to me you’re viewing drugs as something you just turn on and off, not as something that affects your behavior whether you’re high or not. Your view of drugs pretends addiction pretty much doesn’t exist. You treat heroin and coke just like eating cheese, as if you can use it whenever you like and not use it whenever you like, purely at your discretion.
That’s because they’re addicted and are unable to function without them. You don’t get smarter from shooting up or getting high. Quite the opposite, as weed (for example) hurts your attention span and your short-term memory, among other things.
Some argue that drugs help their creativity, but even Hunter S. Thompson admits that when you’re wasted, you can’t even type properly, and you mostly write crap that you can’t understand when you’re sober. And famous addicts like Miles Davis and John Coltrane both said they played better after cleaning up. It’s way easier to think of people whose lives and creativity have been ruined by drugs than those who’ve been helped by them. Syd Barrett, anyone? Jim Gordon? John Lennon’s “lost weekend,” or Clapton for much of the mid-70s?
Legalization might help here as it would hopefully remove the stigma. Then again, I’m concerned it would make people somewhat less likely to acknowledge they have a problem and get help.
People who become addicted to these drugs (and some of the drugs that you are advocating legalization of are very addictive) will not be able to support their habits with general paychecks, or with unemployment checks after their addiction problem gets them fired from their job. Do you think these people are going to just say, “Oh, shit, I’m outta bucks! Guess I’d better not get my heroin fix today!”?? No, they’re going to be desperate for their fix, and will do anything to get it. So, if they rob a liquor store or mug and old lady to get money and then buy the drug legally, how is this reducing crime?
Also, the idea of making these substances available to minors is incredibly bad! Yes, the kids who really want it are going to get it anyway, but a lot of kids are law-abiding, and don’t buy drugs. But if the drugs were legally sold to them, this wouldn’t be an influencing factor. Also, it is my understanding that children (partly because of their smaller size, I think) are much more easily addicted than adults. In legalizing the sale of these drugs, you may very well end up with a number of adults who only use casually, but I’d bet money you’d end up with a lot of addicted kids! Society would have to pay for their addiction treatments, the havoc they wreak, etc. So I don’t think this legalization would save society money in the long run.
So far as I know all inhalants used for “huffing” is already legal. Unless they banned Lysol and whipped cream without telling me.
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He makes a very valid point folks. Look how badly they’ve been going after tobacco for the past 20 years. Now think how badly certain parties would go after manufacturers of cocaine or heroin. I don’t care how carefully the drug companies label their products. At best you’d have to accept a system where a doctor prescribes the drug.
I reiterate my question: Plenty of household substances are far more fatal than any recreational drug. If we regulate out of a desire to protect people from themselves, why is this so?
People often have a strong desire to take heroin, cocaine or PCP. They normally have no desire to consume rat poison or chlorine bleach. There lies the difference.