# Time to end the war on drugs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs/732553>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 26, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs/732553 "2015-09-26T12:17:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs/732553/141 "2015-10-01T13:42:56Z")

</div>

> [@Smapti](#):
>
> And you can drive through 9,752 green lights a day with no legal consequences, but if you drive through one red you can get pulled over.
> 
> Funny how that works.

Driving through red lights is dangerous! And I am vehemently against anyone under the influence to any drug to drive.

But is it better to be hit by a person high on weed or high on prescription painkillers?

I don’t care if people want to drug themselves into the gutter. BUT nobody should drink and/or drug and drive.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hiker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3be4f8/32.png) [@Hiker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hiker)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs/732553/142 "2015-10-01T15:53:57Z")

</div>

> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> Driving through red lights is dangerous! And I am vehemently against anyone under the influence to any drug to drive.
> 
> But is it better to be hit by a person high on weed or high on prescription painkillers?
> 
> I don’t care if people want to drug themselves into the gutter. BUT nobody should drink and/or drug and drive.

No one should drive under the influence of alcohol, weed or anything that impairs reaction times, vision or judgement. I guess we can all agree to that.

Where we differ is that I do care if people drug themselves into the gutter. (Are you sure that you really do not?) Besides, I do not believe that anyone who starts out on drugs really \*wants \*to end up in the gutter, though we cannot deny that for \*some \*of them that is what is going to happen. Less people starting out on drugs means less people having to face the undesirable consequences. (And yes, I am aware that some drugs make these consequences more likely than others - as long as we are talking about deregulation of \*all \*drugs that is not the point.)

We could debate, whether removing the restrictions on drug trade will result in an increase in the number of people who start using. But I suppose that really only makes sense, if you care about the consequences.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-end-the-war-on-drugs/732553.md?page=7)