Junk Food vs Drugs Legalisation & taxation

[CultureCitizen]

I see several common factors shared by Junk Food and Drugs :

- They are both addictive
- They both cause health damages ( though junk food will take longer time to ruin your health)

O the other hand drugs have the nasty side effect of causing brain damage , which is something junk food can't do ( as far as I know ).

My point of view is that both substances should be legal but have a high tax ( e.g 50% )

The tax can then be applied to the health budget to cover for the extra expenses caused by their consumption. Evenmore the tax could be applied for R&D to investigate healthier substitutes ( healthier snacks and drugs which do not cause brain damage , like endorphines).

What's your viewpoint ?

 

[Michelle420]

They should be legal, welcome to usmessageboard culture.

 

[PratchettFan]

Prohibition has never worked. It is not the role of the government to protect people from themselves. It should be legal, regulated for quality assurance and taxed.

 

[Katzndogz]

What is the level of cognitive impairment cause by junk food? Can you eat potato chips and still drive a car afterwards? How many fatal car accidents were caused by too many Oreo cookies? Has the ingestion of chocolate ever caused a cannibalistic attack where an innocent man had his eyes ripped out and eaten on the spot?

There is no correlation between junk food and drugs except in the mind of a drug addict that finds drugs perfectly innocent. They aren't. More people have been killed by those under the influence of drugs than under the influence of junk food.

Prohibition didn't work. Ending prohibition didn't work either and we have spent the past 70 years thinking up prohibitions while maintaining the technicality of legality.

 

[BlindBoo]

I don't think junk food or recreational drug use should be illegal or overly taxed.

 

[CultureCitizen]

What is the level of cognitive impairment cause by junk food? Can you eat potato chips and still drive a car afterwards? How many fatal car accidents were caused by too many Oreo cookies? Has the ingestion of chocolate ever caused a cannibalistic attack where an innocent man had his eyes ripped out and eaten on the spot?

There is no correlation between junk food and drugs except in the mind of a drug addict that finds drugs perfectly innocent. They aren't. More people have been killed by those under the influence of drugs than under the influence of junk food.

Prohibition didn't work. Ending prohibition didn't work either and we have spent the past 70 years thinking up prohibitions while maintaining the technicality of legality.

I agree , junk food will not provoke cognitive impairment.
But if we consider only the deaths per year caused by diabetes ( whose main cause is obesity ) the number is aproximately 75,000 persons per year. The number of deaths caused by car accidents is 25,000 persons per year and the number of deaths by drug overdose is aproximately 35,000. Arguably obesity is much more dangerous than drugs.

Still we would have to factor how much of that obesity is due to junk food, but the correlation is high from what I recall from a chart in the American History Museum at DC.

Sory for not providing any links , I am new and still haven't goten to post 15.

 

[CultureCitizen]

They should be legal, welcome to usmessageboard culture.

Thanks. Hemp is already legal in several states , which is good , from my viewpoint. It has several medicinal uses which might be exploited.

 

[DarkLion]

Has the ingestion of chocolate ever caused a cannibalistic attack where an innocent man had his eyes ripped out and eaten on the spot?

Bath salts (which was the drug involved in the crime you are referring to) and synthetic marijuana are byproducts of prohibition. If pot and other drugs were legal, we would not have this influx of synthetics which are even more dangerous than their contemporary counterparts.

They aren't. More people have been killed by those under the influence of drugs than under the influence of junk food.

And yet how many people have died from the health complications of eating junk food? Unlike drugs, which even the user know are dangerous, the dangers of junk food are insidious because they are downplayed to the point of many consumers being ignorant of the real implications of what they are putting in their bodies.

 

[Crackerjaxon]

My view is that you should let people do what they want and leave them alone. The world would be a much happier place. So light up a joint and head on over to MacDonald's. Stop being such a damned wet blanket.

 

[Political Junky]

What is the level of cognitive impairment cause by junk food? Can you eat potato chips and still drive a car afterwards? How many fatal car accidents were caused by too many Oreo cookies? Has the ingestion of chocolate ever caused a cannibalistic attack where an innocent man had his eyes ripped out and eaten on the spot?

There is no correlation between junk food and drugs except in the mind of a drug addict that finds drugs perfectly innocent. They aren't. More people have been killed by those under the influence of drugs than under the influence of junk food.

Prohibition didn't work. Ending prohibition didn't work either and we have spent the past 70 years thinking up prohibitions while maintaining the technicality of legality.

Twinkie defense - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dan White got a slap on the wrist for two murders. His lawyers cited junk food [the Twinkie Defense].

 

[Pogo]

I see several common factors shared by Junk Food and Drugs :

- They are both addictive
- They both cause health damages ( though junk food will take longer time to ruin your health)

O the other hand drugs have the nasty side effect of causing brain damage , which is something junk food can't do ( as far as I know ).

My point of view is that both substances should be legal but have a high tax ( e.g 50% )

The tax can then be applied to the health budget to cover for the extra expenses caused by their consumption. Evenmore the tax could be applied for R&D to investigate healthier substitutes ( healthier snacks and drugs which do not cause brain damage , like endorphines).

What's your viewpoint ?

"Drugs are addictive"? Which ones? "Junk foods are addictive"? Which ones? How?
"Drugs have the nasty side effect of causing brain damage , which is something junk food can't do"??

You didn't think this through real deep before posting, huh? Blanket statement much?

Chew on this if it's not too deep:
>> Fall 1967-- Dr. Harold Waisman, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin, conducts aspartame safety tests on infant monkeys on behalf of the Searle Company. Of the seven monkeys that were being fed aspartame mixed with milk, one dies and five others have grand mal seizures.

Spring 1971-- Neuroscientist Dr. John Olney (whose pioneering work with monosodium glutamate was responsible for having it removed from baby foods) informs Searle that his studies show that aspartic acid (one of the ingredients of aspartame) caused holes in the brains of infant mice. One of Searle's own researchers confirmed Dr. Olney's findings in a similar study. <<

-- Just a couple of entries pertaining to one single fast food additive.

Next time try to form a complete thought before posting. And eschew the simplistic blanket statements. They are addictive and cause brain damage.

 

[CultureCitizen]

I see several common factors shared by Junk Food and Drugs :

- They are both addictive
- They both cause health damages ( though junk food will take longer time to ruin your health)

O the other hand drugs have the nasty side effect of causing brain damage , which is something junk food can't do ( as far as I know ).

My point of view is that both substances should be legal but have a high tax ( e.g 50% )

The tax can then be applied to the health budget to cover for the extra expenses caused by their consumption. Evenmore the tax could be applied for R&D to investigate healthier substitutes ( healthier snacks and drugs which do not cause brain damage , like endorphines).

What's your viewpoint ?

"Drugs are addictive"? Which ones? "Junk foods are addictive"? Which ones? How?
"Drugs have the nasty side effect of causing brain damage , which is something junk food can't do"??

You didn't think this through real deep before posting, huh? Blanket statement much?

Fall 1967-- Dr. Harold Waisman, a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin, conducts aspartame safety tests on infant monkeys on behalf of the Searle Company. Of the seven monkeys that were being fed aspartame mixed with milk, one dies and five others have grand mal seizures.

Spring 1971-- Neuroscientist Dr. John Olney (whose pioneering work with monosodium glutamate was responsible for having it removed from baby foods) informs Searle that his studies show that aspartic acid (one of the ingredients of aspartame) caused holes in the brains of infant mice. One of Searle's own researchers confirmed Dr. Olney's findings in a similar study.[/COLOR] <<

-- Just a couple of entries pertaining to one single fast food additive.

Next time try to form a complete thought before posting. And eschew the simplistic blanket statements. They are addictive and cause brain damage.

Pogo ,
Sory , yes , my statement did have some forethought and I have several links supporting my statement. Unfortunately I'm new at the forum and by the forum rules I am not allowed to post links until I get 15 posts. So don't be so cranky.... I had to remove your link from the quote so I could answer.