# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**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, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/61 "2011-07-15T22:58:38Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > 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. I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine we’d run low on crime. The resources we’re devoting to enforcing drug laws would just be switched to other crimes. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/62 "2011-07-15T23:16:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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? In my case, I picked the second choice only because it was closest my position which is a bit more detailed. For starters, I think marijuana should be removed from [the federal Controlled Substances Act’s list the list of Schedule I drugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Schedule_I_drugs_(US)). From there, I would make it like alcohol and leave it up the states on how they wanted to regulate it. If, for example, the people of California wanted to legalize adult use, let them to do it. However, that would also mean you would probably have the equivalent of “dry” states and counties regarding control of marijuana. As for the other harder drugs, I would definitely move away from the policy of punishing users and emphasize rehab. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/63 "2011-07-16T00:19:12Z")
i’d decriminalize everything and legalize pot just because it’s so damn prevalent. in my demographic i know much more habitual marijuana users than tobacco users. to me, drug use is akin to speeding. it makes you much more apt to harm others and you should be punished - but only at a misdemeanor level. until you actually go out and hurt someone it’s more or less only a risky behavior. now of course speeding has varying degrees. eating some shrooms vs being on meth is roughly the difference between going 35 on the freeway and going 175 through a school zone steering with only your cock… blindfolded\*. varying penalties will apply. \*of course if you can manage to pull off racing past a school at 175mph blindfolded without harming anyone? it’s still just a speeding ticket. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/64 "2011-07-16T01:52:19Z")
Legalize pot and coke subject to same restrictions as alcohol and tobacco. Angle Dust and hallucinogens do a lot of the damage pot was supposed to but actually does not, so keep them illegal. ---
**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 16, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/65 "2011-07-16T02:47:31Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > 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. I forgot about opium, as I said I didnt have a copy of the schedule in front of me and I wasnt going to google it. Read what I post =) And do you have any idea how much coca it takes to make a kilo of cocaine? If you want to have a coca plantation, knock yourself out .. I think I remember from a documentary it literally takes multiple 100 pound bales to make the paste to make a single kilo of cocaine … this [page](http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/psychedelicchemistry/chapter8.html) 1% is the active ingredient so 2200 pounds of leaves to make 1 kilo of the paste [i think, as i have said before i hate math … and i have no desire to be a coke czar] and if you will just wing it and agree that a coca leaf is the equivalent in size of a mint leaf, you can fit about 1 pound of mint into a gallon ziplok bag so we are talking of enough leaves to pretty much fill a 40 foot semi trailer. I don’t know about you, but i cant really see the average slacker coke head taking the time and effort to tend something on the order of an acre of bushes, picking, drying, processing and then doing chemically shit with it to get a kilo of coke. Hell, you can barely get a lot of slackers to mow a freaking lawn, you expect them to actually _work_ at getting lit up? Almost a years work for a measly kilo [actually about 70% of a kilo apparently if I read that page right] not to mention the money they need to spend on land rent or taxes, the chemicals for growing, the chemicals for processing, the labor for picking an acre of leaves … hell I am getting tired just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/66 "2011-07-17T10:19:04Z")
yes. you can’t stop ppl from wanting to experience an “alternative reality.” (Prohibition didn’t work either.) even animals over-imbibe when they find fermented fruit…profit from it—tax & regulate—and stop putting kids in prison for just wanting to get high. (thereby eradicating drug lords/drug wars.) I have yet to be robbed by somebody wanting Doritos… ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/67 "2011-07-17T17:07:28Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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. This, basically. It’s no-one’s business what I put in my body but mine, unless I put others at risk or cause harm to them. The thing is, it’s already illegal to put others at risk or harm them, so there’s no need for new laws related to drugs, just enforce the old ones. Drugs should be taxed to cover the medical\* and policing costs of use, not punitively. For that matter, alcohol and tobacco taxes should be reduced to cost, not punitive, levels. \*We have government health care where I live, there’s probably no good argument for much tax on drugs in the US. The vast majority of drug-related crime vanishes with legalisation, what’s left would be a pretty small percentage. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/68 "2011-07-17T18:25:44Z")
Drugs will thankfully never be legal in America. The wrong type of people would make money from it. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/69 "2011-07-17T18:41:47Z")
> [@YaraMateo](#): > > Drugs will thankfully never be legal in America. The wrong type of people would make money from it. Do you contend that the right sort of people are making money from drugs now, whilst it’s illegal? Or was your comment a joke? ---
**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 17, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/70 "2011-07-17T20:02:26Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > This, basically. It’s no-one’s business what I put in my body but mine, unless I put others at risk or cause harm to them. The thing is, it’s already illegal to put others at risk or harm them, so there’s no need for new laws related to drugs, just enforce the old ones. Not necessarily. It’s illegal to do something that actually harms somebody but there’s a large grey area in the legality of doing something that is potentially harmful. For example, there’s no law against driving a car obviously. And there are laws about hitting somebody while you’re driving a car. But I feel there are valid grounds to make it illegal to drive a car while under the influence of drugs - even when you haven’t hit anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/71 "2011-07-17T20:33:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Not necessarily. It’s illegal to do something that actually harms somebody but there’s a large grey area in the legality of doing something that is potentially harmful. > > For example, there’s no law against driving a car obviously. And there are laws about hitting somebody while you’re driving a car. But I feel there are valid grounds to make it illegal to drive a car while under the influence of drugs - even when you haven’t hit anybody. To take your example, there are laws against dangerous and reckless driving, at least where I am. I would assume it’s either dangerous or reckless to drive a car under the influence of drugs. If it isn’t, it’s not clear that it needs to be illegal, to be honest. It’s the same with laws against drink driving, or drunk and disorderly behaviour. Either the behaviour is unacceptable whether one is drunk or not, in which case it should be illegal whatever one’s state of drunkenness, or it’s it isn’t. To make it very clear, I’m saying driving a car when you are unfit to do so should be illegal, regardless of the reasons, not that drunk driving is ever ok! ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/72 "2011-07-18T00:53:12Z")
> [@YaraMateo](#): > > Drugs will thankfully never be legal in America. The wrong type of people would make money from it. Tobacco is more harmful than marijuana (I’m not talking about hard drugs here) and arguably alcohol too (considering drunk driving death numbers). Are brewers and tobacco manufacturers “wrong” people too? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/73 "2011-07-18T01:42:03Z")
Legalize, regulate, and tax…and auction off exclusive production and distribution rights in the United States for the next 30 years to the highest bidder. (It’ll _[probably](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj9UcKj7Dxo)_ work fine. ) The [del]spice[/del] weed must flow. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853/74 "2011-07-18T03:43:47Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Tobacco is more harmful than marijuana (I’m not talking about hard drugs here) and arguably alcohol too (considering drunk driving death numbers). Are brewers and tobacco manufacturers “wrong” people too? he’s talking about race, not morality. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-war-on-drugs-would-you-vote-to-end-it/588853.md?page=3)