# The war on drugs. Would you vote to end it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 13, 2011, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853 "2011-07-13T10:31:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/41 "2011-07-13T21:20:28Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > [I’ll](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor) [grant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Ray_Vaughan) [you](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_hendrix) [that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Belushi). But I’d rather live in a world where people who don’t get high have a shot at entertaining me. > > To the extent that their intoxicating effect can be measured (i.e., blood alcohol level), yes, actually. My parallel here is that it’s legal to drive a car, but if you use a car to, for instance, [kill someone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicide#Criminal_homicide), that makes it in some jurisdictions [a different crime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_homicide#Georgia). You’re a fan of hyperbole, right? You said “commit any crime” + drugs= life in prison. Even if one agrees that vehicular manslaughter under the influence ought to result in life in prison, that’s quite a lot narrower than “commit any crime”. Assault, indecent exposure, theft? Prison lifer 1: “What are you here for, man?” Prison lifer 2: “I killed a guy. You?” Prison lifer 1: “I smoked a joint and stole a fifth from the liquor store.” Prison lifer 1: “Man, you hard.” As for : “absolutely no use for people who want to get high”. Patently false, given the proportion of people who’ve taken drugs. Do you feel this way about people who want to get drunk? People who don’t want to get high do have a shot at entertaining you. It’s allowed to be a sober artist. The fact that, while they do have a shot, they often don’t, that doesn’t argue in favor of your point. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/42 "2011-07-13T21:31:03Z")
I think legalizing marijuana and restricting it to age 21+ like beer is a good idea; hell, do it now and it’d probably help the economy with the taxes it would bring in. But I don’t want to see all drugs decriminalized. I’m afraid that if all drugs are legalized, it would lead to more children dying from neglect when their now perfectly law abiding parents are less likely to draw the eye of CPS. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/43 "2011-07-13T21:32:06Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > You’re a fan of hyperbole, right? Yes, I am, thanks for noticing. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/44 "2011-07-14T17:01:30Z")
Would prescriptions still count as controlled substances? (like opiates) I can fairly easily see legalizing softer drugs that are already borderline and not intravenous (weed, ecstasy, salvia, and mushrooms come immediately to mind). I don’t have the ability to predict accurately what would happen if suddenly meth and crack were legal to possess and sell, though, and cannot answer the entire question. I do think full-on legalization of every single drug as posited in the OP is a bad idea, if only because doing it all at once feels like a bad idea compared to doing it gradually. It’s like… that doesn’t consider a whole excluded middle of a gradual rollout, or decriminalizing today and legalizing it in a few years when there’s more business infrastructure in place. Lots of other options that I’m not thinking of too, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/45 "2011-07-14T17:12:01Z")
I didn’t vote because I think the poll is poorly framed. I can’t, in good conscience consider marijuana and crack the same. They should legalize marijuana and tax the shit out of it, in my opinion. I have no problem with coke, crack, meth, etc, being illegal. They might actually win that war if they weren’t busy catching the low lying fruit that bud smokers are, burning up police resources, clogging up the courts, jamming up the jails, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/46 "2011-07-14T17:29:03Z")
Decriminalize all of it and legalize most of it. I wouldn’t like to see the hardest stuff actually legal but people shouldn’t go to prison for it either. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/47 "2011-07-14T17:34:50Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Would you also say that marijuana led him to computer piracy? > > Barring further elaboration from **purplehorseshoe** , I’d say it was the stint in jail with hardcore criminals that introduced him to the harder drugs. IOW, it was the _illegality_ of pot - not the pot itself - that led him down that path. Had pot been legal, this kid wouldn’t have landed in jail and might have been just fine in the long run. You didn’t happen to notice any whooshing sounds recently, did you? 🙂 Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/48 "2011-07-14T17:46:08Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I didn’t vote because I think the poll is poorly framed. I can’t, in good conscience consider marijuana and crack the same. I gave my reason for that in post 24. I don’t consider crack and pot to be the same thing, but I don’t agree that pot is harmless either. I also think that if we’re using the “drugs turn people into monsters” argument, we’re going to have to re-adopt alcohol prohibition, too. I don’t believe “hard drugs” are any more harmful than hard drinks. And yes, I’ve known quite a few hard drug users/addicts in my time, so I know what I’m talking about. Two of my brothers were drug addicts, one died of a drug overdose, the other spent a little time in prison and a lot in rehab. Seeing that particular horror story up close proved to me that making drugs illegal is a recipe for disaster. I honestly believe that if “hard” drugs were legal and available on prescription to be used under supervised conditions, I’d have more brothers than I do now, my family would have been spared a lot of agony, and society as a whole would be better off. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/49 "2011-07-15T07:00:06Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > legalize the stuff that grows in nature, which includes chewing coca leaves but not processing it to cocaine This is fundamentally similar to the current policy, in that it makes no sense unless you’re already using some of the substances you desire to keep from everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/50 "2011-07-15T07:55:15Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m not sure if this is a joke question or not, but a google search returned hundreds of “how to” hits. Apparently they are incredible easy to plant and grow. Poppies both grow wild, and in my grandmother’s garden. Well they did when she was alive. The particular stand of poppies had probably been in the same place in the garden since the house was built by my great grandfather … I know the tulips had been, and the huge oak tree that was planted when the house was built. The ease of creating opium latex bu slicing the bulb of the poppy after the leaves drop off is also very simple. The trick is chemically modifying it into heroin. Not that we should legalize recreational use of opium or heroin … just saying that the opium is dog easy to produce. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/51 "2011-07-15T08:07:20Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Originally Posted by aruvqan View Post > legalize the stuff that grows in nature, which includes chewing coca leaves but not processing it to cocaine > This is fundamentally similar to the current policy, in that it makes no sense unless you’re already using some of the substances you desire to keep from everyone else. How so? the amount in coca is about the equivalent to caffeine in coffee, effectwise, or so I understand from reading stuff online. Also it apparently has some beneficial effect on mouth health. I understand that there is some form of noncocaine coca extract toothpaste available in Peru [? not going to bother to google it but I believe it has been mentioned on the dope previously] I will admit to having tried coke back in the late 70s, with the decision that it gave me the exact same effect of having had novocaine and a filling done, and for $175 I would prefer to get a filling done and see something in return for my money. I have no particular interest in bothering with coke ever again, unless perhaps it is in the form of the toothpaste as a curiosity. Current policy is nothing like i described - the smallest amount of pretty much anything means heavy legal problems. What I am describing is a sensible approach to certain organics that are about as bad as having a beer and a cigarette [except for the vomiting bit of the hallucinogens] though weed does have some medical use - the hallucinogens don’t, unless you need fast and harsh emesis. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/52 "2011-07-15T08:17:24Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I think legalizing marijuana and restricting it to age 21+ like beer is a good idea; hell, do it now and it’d probably help the economy with the taxes it would bring in. But I don’t want to see all drugs decriminalized. I’m afraid that if all drugs are legalized, it would lead to more children dying from neglect when their now perfectly law abiding parents are less likely to draw the eye of CPS. You think drugs would cause more child neglect than alcohol does? I doubt drugs would cause more child neglect than world of warcraft, honestly. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/53 "2011-07-15T12:25:57Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > You didn’t happen to notice any whooshing sounds recently, did you? Man, the humor runs across a broad range around here. Some of it is like getting hit with a fencepost, and some of it is like a hearing sensitivity test. There are people here who would earnestly hold the opinion you expressed, so absent any smileys in your post, I took it for the real deal. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/54 "2011-07-15T18:40:42Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Not that we should legalize recreational use of opium Except you just said that, when you said we should “legalize the stuff that grows in nature, which includes chewing coca leaves but not processing it to cocaine”. That includes making opium out of opium poppies; even if you revise it to say that heroin is also out, you don’t need to make heroin out of it to use it like any other opioid. Besides, on a practical level, once people can grow coca how are you going to stop them from making cocaine? Even _trying_ to enforce that law would lead to an even more invasive police state than what we have now. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/55 "2011-07-15T19:03:55Z")
For a guy who doesn’t use drugs I have a pretty radical view on the subject - I’d legalize everything. Marijuana, heroin, crack, meth, PCP - if you want to fry your brain, it’s your own problem. The only restrictions I’d have would be banning sales to minors and having some tough laws about doing things that endanger other people when you’re high. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/56 "2011-07-15T20:00:48Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Besides, on a practical level, once people can grow coca how are you going to stop them from making cocaine? Even _trying_ to enforce that law would lead to an even more invasive police state than what we have now. Why would trying to stop people from making cocaine be any more invasive than trying to stop people from even having cocaine? ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/57 "2011-07-15T20:19:29Z")
Actually, nevermind, I think I see what you mean. Any ingredients or items used to make it would become slightly more of a pain in the ass to get, like how you have to show your ID now to buy the good Nyquil. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/58 "2011-07-15T20:22:23Z")
Can somebody explain to me the logic of decriminalizing drug use? What’s the point in making it legal to buy and consume something while keeping it illegal to sell or produce it? Where are we pretending all those legal drug users are getting their drugs from? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/59 "2011-07-15T21:22:30Z")
Legalize and license the users/addicts. Make it clear that obtaining a use license will limit the medical care they will get, and penalize them for dealing. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/60 "2011-07-15T22:52:14Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Let us imagine for a moment that your national government had enough moral courage to admit that the war on drugs has been a catastrophic failure. Your poll is total fiction, fantasy. They already know it. It is not a moral issue, it is an economic issue. Drugs will never be legalized because there are too many cops, too many prison guards, too many judges, too many prison companies, too many lawyers, too many politicians, and the mafia, who get too much money and too much power by keeping drugs illegal. Legalizing drugs would cause the crime rate to drop like a rock. tens of thousands of cops, prison guards, judges, attorneys would be out of a job. There is no way that drug laws, the gravy train, will ever be repealed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853.md?page=4)