legalize drugs ?????

Drowned Out wrote:

holy fuckballs....that article is so full of lies, disinformation, and well...utter bullshit, that I could hardly finish reading it. I will go thru it point by point when I have time...but the logic is beyond flawed, as are the 'facts' he uses to support his point....the main one being that prohibition makes it harder to get drugs....it does not. Anyone who wants drugs; whether illegal, script, or otherwise, can get them easily.
Treatment, not punishment.
How many treatment and education centers/programs could you build/fund for $50 billion a year?

Prohibition does make them harder to get. I can't easily get anything. Weed is possible, but anything else is out of the question. If you do drugs or hang around people that do drugs, then maybe it is easy.

I define easy as going down to a local and legal store. I define hard as making numerous calls, finding contacts and possible risking my freedom or job to make a purchase. I have friends that smoke and they couldn't get anything harder without a real effort.

I know people that won't smoke weed because it's illegal and could cost them their job, but they will go smoke K2 / Spice because they can buy it at the local tobacco shop ... and who knows what is in that shit.

Jason P wrote:

Prohibition does make them harder to get. I can't easily get anything. Weed is possible, but anything else is out of the question. If you do drugs or hang around people that do drugs, then maybe it is easy.

I define easy as going down to a local and legal store. I define hard as making numerous calls, finding contacts and possible risking my freedom or job to make a purchase. I have friends that smoke and they couldn't get anything harder without a real effort.

I know people that won't smoke weed because it's illegal and could cost them their job, but they will go smoke K2 / Spice because they can buy it at the local tobacco shop ... and who knows what is in that shit.

Well it depends how you set up legalization....I'm def not talking about selling heroin at the 7/11....but if you don't think you could score coke within a half hour by going to a nightclub tonight, or asking your weed dealer, I think you're probably mistaken. Prohibition interconnects all drugs (NOT by a 'gateway')....
I'm not talking about making it legal to get high at work either, so that wouldn't change, would it?

Godfather. wrote:

have you ever spent some time with a real drug addicted person ? I mean really addicted...they steal from their own kids, mothers,fathers ,friends...and when their addiction kills them their familys and kids get stuck with their fucking bills and the task putting their dead ass in the ground and it ain't cheap...unless you have the city do for you and in that case if the family does not claim the dead father, son,child or friend after 30 days the city pays for it...so yes by all means legalize drugs and spend time and money to enable the drug addicts. :?

Godfather.

Everything you wrote you can also write about alcohol.

it may not prevent abuse, but who are you to tell me I cannot trip, or get high, or smoke. until it involves you in a criminal way...it shouldn't even matter
non-violent drug offenders should not be in federal or state prison.

decriminalize or legalize drugs and you remove the back alley aspect.

but ultimately if someone chooses to harm themselves, I don't think it should be illegal to do so. if they choose to harm others...than by all means go crazy.
If the government have the dollars for treatment that we spend on losing the drug war...we would have already saved more lives than it would have cost us.
the stats on Portugal are obviously debatable. one of the highest homicide rates is that drug related homicides or homicides in total...maybe the Portuguese are hot heads ...they had a severe problem to begin with...the stuff I have seen points to decreased new starts and overall users.

I know you are dead set against it, but it isn't the feds job to protect us from ourselves...it is ours. it is there job to protect me from you, and you from me...when those lines are crossed there is a price to pay...just like with Alcohol

Godfather. wrote:

have you ever spent some time with a real drug addicted person ? I mean really addicted...they steal from their own kids, mothers,fathers ,friends...and when their addiction kills them their familys and kids get stuck with their fucking bills and the task putting their dead ass in the ground and it ain't cheap...unless you have the city do for you and in that case if the family does not claim the dead father, son,child or friend after 30 days the city pays for it...so yes by all means legalize drugs and spend time and money to enable the drug addicts. :?

Godfather.

a REAL addict..yes...
yes i have...its no picnic
its heartbreaking and there is nothing that you or i can do about that specific person
only they can change it...and have to want it really bad...cuz its not easy..not easy..most people probably can't even come close to comprehending what its like to be (or live with) a real junkie

that being said..i can't believe the ignorance of the statements that legalizing marijuana has led to so much increase in other drug addictions and human trafficking etc.....makes no sense.... smoking pot just makes you too damned lazy to engage in much of that other nonsense

i think that is a bunch of propaganda on the part of those who want to keep it illegal...consider:

have you ever considered that maybe those who would have marijuana remain illegal are precisely those who are making a crapload of money off of the whole thing? its not the penny-ante pot dealer down the street, he gets it from someone, who gets it from someone who gets it from someone else who gets it from a well oiled organization (unless he's got a plot in the field behind his house, that is) and that well-oiled organization is running the show peeps..its not the pot smoking that's the problem, it IS the fact that it is illegal that allows all the nasty nasties to go on ...really nasties

anyway....i may be getting slightly off topic here...but i just have to say that i don't believe that the issue for legalizing pot should have any impact whatsoever on the argument for or against other, harder, "addictive" drugs...they are not one in the same..one does not lead to the other..buying pot (simply because you have to go to your friendly local dealer) may expose you to people to have access to other drugs, but drinking beer also exposes you to free and open access to any other alcoholic beverage up to and including grain alcohol..which will kill you just fine, thank you very much..and yes, alcoholism is a terrible disease...but you see my point, right? just because you or i might enjoy a frosty brew after work doesn't make alcoholics, same as if you or i choose to smoke a bowl instead...not a junkie..not a drug addict. see?

example of money running the show... and you all know this....cigarettes contain nicotine and other highly addictive agents...but they are legal and available precisely because "the someones" who matter are making an obscene amount of money off of marketing them..they know they're bad for you...addictive..cancer causing...horrible..but no problem... cuz what's important is making money, which equates to power in our society ... they make the rules according to their priorities (and that is certainly true..tobacco lobbyists, right?) and those that want to take advantage of the influence that power controls, will follow at every turn

AND NO LAW ..one way or the other, has, or is ever going to, stop those who are determined to gain pleasure from one substance or another...never.

am i wrong?