War on drugs *Adult discussion*

[Lady Rawr]

Hello!

So I’m pretty tied into certain things here in the UK – and one such cause I strongly support is the end of the war on drugs. There are countless reasons I could throw into the pot regarding this – and my area of particular expertise would be the big 420 – cannabis use. Though the current situation regarding the whole war on drugs thing has made me take a step back and realise that it’s not just legalisation/decriminalisation of that particular drug that interests me – but all of them.

An intelligent discussion on the matter would be splendid I think! Anyway – currently I have it in my head that the vast majority of arguments to continue the war on drugs are extremely flawed and narrow-minded. I was either looking for someone to explain to me some valid reasons or anything along these lines other than ‘drugs r bad y u legaliz?’ and generally expand my view point on the matter.

It’d also be good to explain why I am pretty much 100% convinced in the matter – that the war on drugs needs to end for any progress to be made in that area.

My views in a nutshell are basically that - drug user or not - you should be in support of ending the war on drugs for many reasons. It'd take me too long to list everything here which is why I'd rather have a discussion, but basically:
Taxation, Regulation(distribution & production), taking a massive chunk of criminal/terrorism funding, freeing up massive amounts of police/government funding to be spent elsewhere, industry (jobs & development this would create) as well as the basic fact it would stop the imprisonment of thousands of people who are in no way effecting others (recreational users - who are only doing wrong because of the prohibition they are forced to follow)

Oh! And I almost forgot the fact that it is getting to a point where the majority of the general population (at least In the UK) want the laws to change as they just don't work.

I could expand on each point and I am sure I've missed things - but yeah a nutshell

Anyway – is there anyone else who would like to discuss this?

[Hellis]

I believe your stance to INCREDIBLY naive. I shall go into detail later when not at work.

But for now. You would end up legalizing daterape drugs and strong, incredibly deadly substances and it is gonna travel down to the younger ons really quickly once legalized.

[Seravee]

You've stated that any arguments against your own stance are "extremely flawed and narrow-minded," yet I do not really see where you've stated your own argument. If you'd like an intelligent discussion, it may help if you give us something to work with regarding your own views.

[Mogtaki]

There would be no war if they were certain ones that were legal, for there would be nothing to fight against on that front.

Evidence: Amsterdam.

The end.

Saying 'adult discussion' is like saying teenagers aren't intelligent enough to discuss such a manner which is a bit narrow minded.

Thinking cannabis is 'bad' is pretty naive though, especially when it's safer than alcohol and tobacco combined. The government only hate on it because of the many beneficial properties it carries and how it would destroy the tobacco industry and what not because it's so easy to cultivate (seriously, you don't need heaters and intensive lighting to keep them alive).

Uhh and Hellis, date rape drugs are often antihistamines and sleeping pills, over the counter drugs. They're rarely E's because those are expensive.

[Lady Rawr]

Entirely possible – and I do look forward to that discussion.

Though I’d like to say that when something is illegal the distributions of said drugs are left to the criminal element – and a dealer needs no ID, only money. Where as a chemists for example would need proper documents (Be it identity or prescription) before anything were distributed?

If prohibition meant that the substance disappeared then sure – I’d be all for it. But the bottom line is that these substances will always be around legal or not. Surely its better for the people in control to be regulated in some way? (again for an example the use of alcohol increased substantially during the prohibition of it and there were so many more cases of poisoning and death due to improperly regulated production – aside from the boom in crime due to the illegal distribution)

But yeah – As I said I would be very happy to hear something I can agree with all I meant again when I said the discussions against ending the prohibition are flawed and narrow-minded is I've heard very little that are intelligent and accepting of valid points.

By putting adult discussion I in no way wanted to limit the age of who can post and what not - it was just a disclaimer to the fact i was discussing drugs and what not and wanted a more mature discussion

[Lady Rawr]

I’ve now added a sum up of my views to the opening post

[MorningWood]

Crocodile. Now THAT'S a drug that fucks people up good. Keep prohibiting that shit, 'cause that's dangerous man.

[Lady Rawr]

That shit does indeed sound nasty - but Krokodil only takes roughly 30 minutes to an hour to prepare with over-the-counter ingredients in a kitchen apparently. So it's not that possible (like trying to make a plant illegal some would say )

Wouldn't it be better if it was decriminalised? So the users and Junkies could... well actually looking at the pictures of that shit you'd have to be pretty damn desperate to use that instead of heroin. Maybe if heroin was decriminalised - some junkies would of been able to get help instead of turning to... painful zombification as they are so desperate for a fix.

Then when they go to the... Heroin store the guy could be like oh sure - here is some Heroin, but only if you enrol in this programme ect ect.... Not a perfect system, but surely better than letting criminals sell heroin to users time and time again, exploiting their weakness for profit whilst we sit there going 'well it’s okay because we made it illegal - we did our part' whilst criminals laugh at us for being so naive.

[Darkmatter]

This issue is incredibly difficult to discuss for one reason; where do you draw the line? How do you define which substance is legal and which isn't. Prohibition was already mentioned, and almost a hundred years ago in the United States, alcohol was illegal. It was another illicit substance.

What I'm getting is that it's always going to be objective. I for one drink quite often, I would say about 10 units a week on average. I'm also a strong supporter of legalising marijuana. Why? Well the reasons have already been stated, it's less dangerous and less addictive than alcohol or tobacco.

What about harder drugs? What about your cocaine and crystal meth, which is quickly becoming the dominant power drug. I would say, that legal or illegal, licit or illicit, some people will always use them despite their huge risks. If you legalise and regulate them it won't change much, you'll still have all the illegal trade of it.

[mdk]

Methamphetamine was legal once.




Every once in a while, the price of prohibition is worth paying. Yes, people are going to do it anyway -- you could say the same thing about gang violence, but that doesn't mean we should go and legalize gangbanging.