Regulate Drugs

[Strongerthenbefore]

If hard drugs like crack, cocaine, meth, etc, were made legal and regulated by the government, would things be better or worse in America?

 

[Moonglow]

Better as far as humanitarian concerns..

 

[Strongerthenbefore]

Has The war on drugs made any difference, or has it just been a big waste of money?

 

[Moonglow]

It's made some folks richer and killed several...

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I remain convinced that recreational drug use (including alcohol) is destructive to individual, and destructive to society; and that society has a very strong legitimate interest in discouraging it.

However, I am willing to be convinced that there is a better way to achieve this than treating it as a criminal problem. I do not know what other options there may be, but I am open to the idea that there are other, better options.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Has The war on drugs made any difference, or has it just been a big waste of money?

It has made no difference. It's primary purpose is to collect more tax funds.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

If people want to eat shitburgers, let them. They'll die off eventually.

Don't steal from me to convince them otherwise.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Has The war on drugs made any difference, or has it just been a big waste of money?

There was never a war on drugs.

 

[The Professor]

The war on drugs was lost decades ago.

In 1992, a group of attorneys and judges drafted a letter to appeal to the country for open and honest discussion about drug use. These legal scholars realized that the war on drugs was both non-productive and a waste of money and human lives. Although written decades ago, it is just as applicable today- perhaps even more so – that it was back then.

“As judges and lawyers, we share with all Americans a deep concern about the threat that drugs pose to our children and our country. For more than twenty years, our nation's response to this threat has been a “war on drugs” enforced primarily through the criminal justice process which we administer and observe on a daily basis.

“Though we differ in political orientation and career experience, we unanimously observe that neither drugs nor drug abuse has been eliminated nor appreciably reduced, despite massive spending on interdiction and harsh punishments. Attempts at enforcement have clogged the courts, filled the prisons with non-predatory offenders, corrupted officials at home and abroad, bred disrespect for the law in important communities, imperiled the liberties of the people, burdened the taxpayers, impeded public health efforts to stem the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases, and brought the nation no closer to abstinence. As congress and and state legislatures enact more punitive and costly drug control measures, we conclude with alarm that the war on drugs now causes more harm than drug abuse itself.”

You will find a lot more at the following link:

Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed

I also thought you might enjoy the following assessment of the war on drugs, a war we losing and will never win.

“If I were to be scandalized by anything, it'd be a policy that exacerbates crime, especially in communities often the least able to bear it; that produces so much corruption in the ranks of those charged with enforcing it; that empowers terrorism and insurgents with easy money; that squanders immense resources trying to interdict drug shipments' that requires the erosion of property and privacy rights to sufficiently enforce it; that encourages the outright looting of the American people to pad drug-war budgets; that militarizes the police and threatens innocent citizens' lives; and that unjustly imprisons so many people for either a preference of their own taste or a crime problem created by the government in the first place

Rollback by Thomas E. Woods, p. 179; quoting Bad Trip by Miller, p. 179,180.

The inflexibility of drug law enforcement has caused senseless deaths. There have been a number of men and woman who died from drug overdose because they were not able to get to the hospital in time. The fear of being arrested for drug use caused their friends to wait until it was to late to seek medical help. The following is from the book Rollback by Thomas E. Woods, p. 188.

“When twenty teenagers died of drug overdoses in one year in the town of Plano Texas, the community discovered that the victims' friends, afraid of potential prosecution for using illegal drugs, pursued medical assistance for them only after it was too late. Asked why the town had not simply declared sometime during the year that people reporting drug overdoses could do so without risk of criminal penalty, authorities replied that such a statement wold “send the wrong message' – the right message being that you should let your fear of the police prevent you from bringing your friend to a hospital.

“A similar incident occurred in 1986, involving the death of basketball star Len Bias. Excited about being he Boston Celtics' first round draft pick, he tried cocaine for the first time. An allergic reaction to the drug killed him. By the time his friends got him medical attention, though, he was already in his third convulsion. No one wanted to get Bias or himself arrested. He night be alive today were it not for the prohibition policy.”

I would be in favor of a law which provided that no one would be prosecuted for drug use when they report a life threatening overdose. I would go one step further; the law would also provide that no evidence discovered during the process would be used as a basis for obtaining a search warrant. I would hold everyone completely harmless thereby encouraging them to report an overdose as quickly as possible.

One last thing which I hesitate to mention because I cannot remember the source. Decades ago, cheap, non-addictive drugs were developed which would produce a high similar to illegal drugs. Of course, they were not allowed into the marketplace. Perhaps if the laws were relaxed to the point where producers of legal drugs could squeeze providers of illegal drugs out of the market a lot less people would be killed and a lot less lives ruined.

It is time for all Americans to ask some brutally honest questions: How much more as a country are we willing to surrender to this lost cause? How many lives will be lost or wasted in an endless pursuit of an unattainable goal? When do we end the pain and suffering the war on drugs has caused and direct the funds used to wage it for other things: drug treatment, health care, education, shelter for the homeless and a host of other needs?

But that is just my humble opinion.

 

[Ringel05]

Prohibition in the 1920s and early 30s worked sooooooo well.......... Obviously the government never learned from that experience.

 

[Moonglow]

We can't ban guns because they don't hurt folks but we can ban a weed cause it don't hurt folks...

 

[deannalw]

Prohibition in the 1920s and early 30s worked sooooooo well.......... Obviously the government never learned from that experience.

Exactly!

Prohibition was way up there on the list of worst mistakes ever and did untold damage to the country and the people.

If I had been alive when that piece of shit came to be, I'd of been phhhrrrt and making beer in my bathtub the next morning.

 

[Moonglow]

Education and rehab works way better than incarceration...

 

[Moonglow]

Prohibition in the 1920s and early 30s worked sooooooo well.......... Obviously the government never learned from that experience.

Exactly!

Prohibition was way up there on the list of worst mistakes ever and did untold damage to the country and the people.

If I had been alive when that piece of shit came to be, I'd of been phhhrrrt and making beer in my bathtub the next morning.

You could get booze from a doctor's prescription, most families had ailments that allowed bottles to still be drank...

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

If hard drugs like crack, cocaine, meth, etc, were made legal and regulated by the government, would things be better or worse in America?

Better.

 

[deannalw]

We can't ban guns because they don't hurt folks but we can ban a weed cause it don't hurt folks...

We can't ban guns because of the constitution.

We can ban weed because of stupidity.

 

[Moonglow]

We can't ban guns because they don't hurt folks but we can ban a weed cause it don't hurt folks...

We can't ban guns because of the constitution.

We can ban weed because of stupidity.

They could ban guns if they really wanted just like they banned weed cause they really wanted...

 

[deannalw]

Education and rehab works way better than incarceration...

We spend stupid billions on an asshole attempt to stop people from smoking pot and house them in prisons when that fails. Damn.

 

[dblack]

Has The war on drugs made any difference, or has it just been a big waste of money?

The "War on Drugs" has had huge impact on American society.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Prohibition in the 1920s and early 30s worked sooooooo well.......... Obviously the government never learned from that experience.

I believe many of the same people responsible for the 18th Amendment went after reefer following the repeal.

Not a question of learning, but of control and revenue.