I don’t understand how this could possibly be the case – to support a big outlaw organization, and to make up for the huge risk the manufacturers, distributors, and dealers are taking, illegal drugs need to be priced extremely high. Much higher than their legal counterparts. That’s why people resell prescription drugs on the street – because street prices are so much higher than legal prices.
That would be like if you could only buy three beers and then you couldn’t buy any more until next week. Alcoholics will demand an underground market for unlimited booze, and one will thrive.
The same thing would happen under your scenario.
All, I think this whole “Waiver” idea for no seat belts and drug use is crazy. What defines a dangerous activity that would require a waiver? Skydiving, or permission to chew my food less than 25 times before swallowing? Talk about a nanny state.
If drugs are legal, dealers aren’t being thrown in jail anymore, manufacturers aren’t being busted, smuggling through customers is easier - I don’t know what would be done about drugs from overseas, but why search for it if it’s legal? - and there’s no longer any risk to drive up the price. If I walk out on the street today, I could pay $20 for a DVD of Britney Spears in Crossroads. Or I could buy it for half that, or less, on the street. It costs less on the street even though it’s illegal because there’s no overhead. It’s obtained by bootlegging the movie instead of going through all the normal channels and there are a lot of fees that don’t need to get paid. Same idea if someone makes a knockoff version of a drug that’s been developed in a lab.
I agree. I say that if we are going to outlaw plants, then poison ivy is more deserving. That shit can be used as a weapon!
As to the OP, who do you propose giving a cause of action to, in order to create civil liabiliy? Or are you talking about criminal fines, instead of incarceration?
I think all illegal drugs should be legalized and regulated like alcohol. People who are doing drugs now are doing the drugs anyway, legal or not, and there is no evidence to suggest that if they were legalized that more people who don’t use them now will start using them either.
Take the money that is wasted on fighting and locking people up and gear it towards programs and rehabs to help the people who do want to get clean, stay clean. Put more money into methadone clinics, more into suboxone clinics, more into halfway houses. As it is now, trillions have been wasted locking people up, only to have them continue to use and sell drugs. It’s a total waste.
You actually bring up another good point. Maybe just criminal fines should be enforced without any jail time for anyone. Hmm… (I am not saying I agree this is a good idea, but it is something to consider.)
Well, I don’t think anything you can grow should be illegal. I think non-drug crimes should be prosecuted as normally. If it is determined that drug use was involved in the commission of the crime, or if it was a contributing factor to the criminal intent, then mandatory drug testing/counseling should be a part of the setencing.
So, if you grow pot, or smoke the pot of someone who does, there’s no problem. If you snort cocaine, god help you, but it’s nobody else’s business but your own. If, however, your raging coke habit leads to petty theft, or if you are blitzed when you get in a fight, then you are subject to mandatory sobriety and interdiction in addition to whatever penalties accrue for theft or violence.