Drugs fuck you up, man

[BADecker]

Let there be taxes - at least then those drugs would gain some money instead of governments losing money trying to fight them.

Taxes go to government, not to drug companies.   

Some governments offer free health care, so tax money goes to drug companies indirectly.
Maybe he pointed that out. If there's no free health care then no problem for government.

Many of the people who are free to use marijuana oil (which can be made at home), have stopped using drugs.

[BADecker]

Once again, you are all ignoring the best solution for this. We should make all sorts of drugs legal. That will reduce the crime rate and gradually the drug consumption rates will also come down. Countries such as Uruguay and Portugal have legalized drugs, and they have witnessed sharp drop in deaths due to drug overdose.

Not legal. Nationalized. They should be produced distributed and controlled only by government. Without any kind of advertising and a good drug education in schools.

This way the money currently helping mafia would be in the hand of the government and would be used to get a better education and healthcare. That's a win win.

Government is Mafia multiplied a thousand times over.   

[catch.me.if.you.can]

The politicians keep the drugs illegal because they want to protect the interests of the drug dealers.

[UliJonHoth]

I'm all for decriminalization and legalization, thing is, the government and their cohorts are making tons of profit off of drugs - by keeping the prisons full - state, federal, and private (the private prison industry is HUGE) - every drug arrest ensures another person slapped with a misdemeanor or felony and thrown into the system be it through probation or jail which never ends there. Here in Texas having drug convictions can and will preclude you from being able to rent an apartment in all but the lowest income areas, most decent jobs won't hire someone with a recent drug-related offense, the list goes on... The whole thing is a mess, you've got to really wonder just why the powers that be won't legalize drugs when there is so much profit to be made, obviously there is more money or worth in them keeping them illegal.

[Spendulus]

Once again, you are all ignoring the best solution for this. We should make all sorts of drugs legal. That will reduce the crime rate and gradually the drug consumption rates will also come down. Countries such as Uruguay and Portugal have legalized drugs, and they have witnessed sharp drop in deaths due to drug overdose.

Not legal. Nationalized. They should be produced distributed and controlled only by government. Without any kind of advertising and a good drug education in schools.

This way the money currently helping mafia would be in the hand of the government and would be used to get a better education and healthcare. That's a win win.

Except where the government and the mafia are the same thing.  That's a lose lose.  And even if they were not the same, no reason to think that money would be well spent.

No reason at all.

[Spendulus]

I'm all for decriminalization and legalization, thing is, the government and their cohorts are making tons of profit off of drugs - by keeping the prisons full - state, federal, and private (the private prison industry is HUGE) - every drug arrest ensures another person slapped with a misdemeanor or felony and thrown into the system be it through probation or jail which never ends there. Here in Texas having drug convictions can and will preclude you from being able to rent an apartment in all but the lowest income areas, most decent jobs won't hire someone with a recent drug-related offense, the list goes on... The whole thing is a mess, you've got to really wonder just why the powers that be won't legalize drugs when there is so much profit to be made, obviously there is more money or worth in them keeping them illegal.

I pretty much agree with all you have said.  But where's the limit?  Some things simply cannot be allowed, legalized, decriminalized, whatever.

And example is sniffing glue.  We all know that kills brains.  Poisons can not be legalized, right?  So where is the limit?

[salinizm]

There's no problem in my country. I think USA (and Canada, because you are from Vancouver) had this problem for more than 30 years. 80's generation is crack babies, we can expect these conclusions because government had no policies back then. They want American people to sleep. If you educate yourself you wouldn't do any drugs.

i dont agree with you i am a well-educated person but i have a drug addiction... i dont see any relation between education level and  addictions..

[designerusa]

So for this politics topic I wanted to talk specifically about the harmful effects of illegal drugs and how the forum's users' cities' drug problem are. I will start off by saying that I have cerebral palsy and some mental health issues and to any casual observer, I may be a user of crack cocaine. This is not the case however; I have schizo-effective disorder. I do embarrass myself in public from time to time but I am doing my best.

Is there a rampant drug use problem in your city? In Vancouver, it seems everyone is on something. Soiled cloths, staggering. People love their drugs. To top it all off the drunks assault the alleged drug addicts. (I got assaulted by some douche keeping his neighborhood safe. Ignorance is bliss, ignorance is bliss.

How's the drug problem in your city?

As we know ., drug addiction leads us to live in a terrible life .. We can have some serious health problems but the worst one is Not one of these. . İt is losing one's self - esteem.  This one is the worst..

[bryant.coleman]

The politicians keep the drugs illegal because they want to protect the interests of the drug dealers.

Not just the drug dealers. Right now there are more than a million inmates out there in the federal and state prisons, who are serving their sentences on various drug-related offenses. I don't need to explain how big is the private prison industry in the United States. The other cartels, such as the banking cartel and the pharma cartel are also closely associated with the drug smuggling industry.

[bizerinm]

Drug problem is very big. Starting with children of flowers , hippic,70's and 80's..marijuana, lsd,cocain...genrerations have problems with drugs. And in school, street,clubs everywhere you see hey people..The problem lies in people, in relations with other people...it's not unusual that stressed people without friends go out in night club and then can easy become victims of the dealer..they want to find way out to run from problems but instead of that go in something terrible..

[protokol]

Once again, you are all ignoring the best solution for this. We should make all sorts of drugs legal. That will reduce the crime rate and gradually the drug consumption rates will also come down. Countries such as Uruguay and Portugal have legalized drugs, and they have witnessed sharp drop in deaths due to drug overdose.

I'm not ignoring that at all, and I agree that drugs should be made legal.  It's an unholy shitfuck of a mess that criminalization has created, and any "war" on drugs is a joke.  But for those who get addicted--and there are going to always be plenty of them, legalization isn't exactly helping them nor is legalization a cure.  And I do have sympathy for addicts, with limits.  Some people are born predisposed to addiction, some are not.  

Bit of an oversimplification, though, to assert that "all drugs" should be made legal.

Legal can be thought of as produced by legitimate businesses with quality control in place, then sold at some type of legitimate store or outlet at prices comparable to street prices (otherwise people buy on the street.)

It's easy to say this regarding the marihuana issues.

I would likely allow legalization of at least some hallucinogenics.  LSD, cactus.  There's certainly a long track record with these and some understanding of them.

What about opiates?  All?  Some?  Why?

What about meth?

Now what about cocaine and crack?

The problem is, by keeping drugs illegal you turn users into criminals, and therefore if they get caught, they go to prison rather than getting help. This setup also actively stops users seeking help (because they are afraid of punishment).

I understand your point of view, where you think the more benign drugs like weed and psychedelics should be legalized. But I think all drugs should be legalized. I don't agree with any law which punishes victimless crime, I think as conscious human beings we should have control over what we decide to put in our own bodies without fear of state punishment.

The key is education - if everyone was properly educated about the dangers of certain drugs then I believe there would be far less people with drug problems.

[gentlemand]

The key is education - if everyone was properly educated about the dangers of certain drugs then I believe there would be far less people with drug problems.

I agree with the principle but the evidence of what happens to you if you overdo your 'shit' is painfully visible all across the planet. Some people are hard wired to get fucked up no matter how much they're informed. And almost everyone suffers from 'it won't be me' syndrome.

[protokol]

The key is education - if everyone was properly educated about the dangers of certain drugs then I believe there would be far less people with drug problems.

I agree with the principle but the evidence of what happens to you if you overdo your 'shit' is painfully visible all across the planet. Some people are hard wired to get fucked up no matter how much they're informed. And almost everyone suffers from 'it won't be me' syndrome.

Yeah you're right, but at least with the proper education people will do things like weigh and test their drugs properly, and maybe stick to less dangerous and less addictive drugs. I certainly don't think throwing people in prison will solve anything.

[gentlemand]

Yeah you're right, but at least with the proper education people will do things like weigh and test their drugs properly, and maybe stick to less dangerous and less addictive drugs. I certainly don't think throwing people in prison will solve anything.

Indeed. I think education overall needs a huge overhaul. When I was a nipper we might've got one beardy dickhead in a patterned sweater giving us a rundown of why, like, drugs are bad while we all rolled our eyes.

It would be more productive to wheel out someone without a septum or a crack whore who microwaved her baby.

Also the utter misery of certain supply chains should be emphasized. Even if drugs worked on me I wouldn't do most of them for moral reasons. People refuse to eat non organic chicken but will shovel coke up their nose that might have caused hundreds of murders.

[bizerinm]

Well sounds crazy, but well educated people with university degree easy falls in drug hell. The one from middle or high middle class.They are educated, maybe have successful careers but they are alone and weak and because of that go so easy in that hell...on the other side people on medium or less education level are ekspected for that...some of them go because of friends or because they believe they would earn lot of money if they start dealing it..

[Spendulus]

Once again, you are all ignoring the best solution for this. We should make all sorts of drugs legal. That will reduce the crime rate and gradually the drug consumption rates will also come down. Countries such as Uruguay and Portugal have legalized drugs, and they have witnessed sharp drop in deaths due to drug overdose.

I'm not ignoring that at all, and I agree that drugs should be made legal.  It's an unholy shitfuck of a mess that criminalization has created, and any "war" on drugs is a joke.  But for those who get addicted--and there are going to always be plenty of them, legalization isn't exactly helping them nor is legalization a cure.  And I do have sympathy for addicts, with limits.  Some people are born predisposed to addiction, some are not.  

Bit of an oversimplification, though, to assert that "all drugs" should be made legal.

Legal can be thought of as produced by legitimate businesses with quality control in place, then sold at some type of legitimate store or outlet at prices comparable to street prices (otherwise people buy on the street.)

It's easy to say this regarding the marihuana issues.

I would likely allow legalization of at least some hallucinogenics.  LSD, cactus.  There's certainly a long track record with these and some understanding of them.

What about opiates?  All?  Some?  Why?

What about meth?

Now what about cocaine and crack?

The problem is, by keeping drugs illegal you turn users into criminals, and therefore if they get caught, they go to prison rather than getting help. This setup also actively stops users seeking help (because they are afraid of punishment).

I understand your point of view, where you think the more benign drugs like weed and psychedelics should be legalized. But I think all drugs should be legalized. I don't agree with any law which punishes victimless crime, I think as conscious human beings we should have control over what we decide to put in our own bodies without fear of state punishment.

The key is education - if everyone was properly educated about the dangers of certain drugs then I believe there would be far less people with drug problems.

actually I don't think you believe exactly what you said, bolded above.

Suppose there is a cancer drug that kills 1/4 of those who take it.  Should it be legalized?  Should the entire FDA approval process be discarded?

Are you trying to say "all drugs that might make me feel good should be legalized?"

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Once again, you are all ignoring the best solution for this. We should make all sorts of drugs legal. That will reduce the crime rate and gradually the drug consumption rates will also come down. Countries such as Uruguay and Portugal have legalized drugs, and they have witnessed sharp drop in deaths due to drug overdose.

I'm not ignoring that at all, and I agree that drugs should be made legal.  It's an unholy shitfuck of a mess that criminalization has created, and any "war" on drugs is a joke.  But for those who get addicted--and there are going to always be plenty of them, legalization isn't exactly helping them nor is legalization a cure.  And I do have sympathy for addicts, with limits.  Some people are born predisposed to addiction, some are not.  

Bit of an oversimplification, though, to assert that "all drugs" should be made legal.

Legal can be thought of as produced by legitimate businesses with quality control in place, then sold at some type of legitimate store or outlet at prices comparable to street prices (otherwise people buy on the street.)

It's easy to say this regarding the marihuana issues.

I would likely allow legalization of at least some hallucinogenics.  LSD, cactus.  There's certainly a long track record with these and some understanding of them.

What about opiates?  All?  Some?  Why?

What about meth?

Now what about cocaine and crack?

The problem is, by keeping drugs illegal you turn users into criminals, and therefore if they get caught, they go to prison rather than getting help. This setup also actively stops users seeking help (because they are afraid of punishment).

I understand your point of view, where you think the more benign drugs like weed and psychedelics should be legalized. But I think all drugs should be legalized. I don't agree with any law which punishes victimless crime, I think as conscious human beings we should have control over what we decide to put in our own bodies without fear of state punishment.

The key is education - if everyone was properly educated about the dangers of certain drugs then I believe there would be far less people with drug problems.

actually I don't think you believe exactly what you said, bolded above.

Suppose there is a cancer drug that kills 1/4 of those who take it.  Should it be legalized?  Should the entire FDA approval process be discarded?

Are you trying to say "all drugs that might make me feel good should be legalized?"

No one is saying they shouldn't be regulated.  Look at what's happening with marijuana.  Look at alcohol.   And the fda approval I think you're talking about is for new medicines and that's not relevant.   Also, everything is a poison.  It all depends on the dose.

[bitgolden]

Drugs are one of the biggest self inflicted injuries to mankind, physically, emotionally and financially.
Yes people do get a short-term buzz and a quick hype from these drugs but do not they realize the long-term issue ? the damage it causes to one's self let alone pressure for their families also.

[bizerinm]

Legalized or unlegalized drugs will be present and will be problem. It's the people who decide will they or won't take drugs..The worst is this new trend to make drug from heavy metals and chemistry mixed in crocodile and other ones..so there is no only official drugs like marijuana,met,lsd,cocaine..you have to deal also with new drugs which can be made from chemistry products you can legal buy in the shop

[bitgolden]

Legalized or unlegalized drugs will be present and will be problem. It's the people who decide will they or won't take drugs..The worst is this new trend to make drug from heavy metals and chemistry mixed in crocodile and other ones..so there is no only official drugs like marijuana,met,lsd,cocaine..you have to deal also with new drugs which can be made from chemistry products you can legal buy in the shop

Yes.. Ideally more needs to be done by the government of each and every country. More severe punishment for drug traffickers ,smugglers and street sellers to separately controlled punishment for drug users.