POLL: What to do about the Drug problem?

[Sled Puller]

I'm big on giving them away.

 

[Champane Flight]

Legalize

I am all for legalizing drugs. It is a problem that cannot be solved, where there is a demand there will be people supplying it. The war on drugs has failed. We spend billions trying to keep it out of the US and in foreign country's trying to stop manufacturing. We did see the same thing with alcohol during Prohibition.



I don't like the fact of drugs on sale and with easy access, but there is no easy solution to the problem. Alcohol is a drug and a very dangerous one. It kills more people than illegal drugs do, yet it is legal. I had a doctor tell me once that alcohol was one of, if not THE biggest killer in the US. He said that most of the deaths that were blamed on heart disease, liver failure, and others could be traced back to alcohol abuse.



I still think we are living in a dream if we think we are even making a dent in the drug war.

 

[Steve M]

Legalize

Legalize drugs and put drug dealers out of business. It's way out of hand and will not be brought under control in a free society.

Learn from the past and let prohibition be the teacher. I agree that alcohol is the worst of them all. Caffeine is also a drug and causes a lot of problems. It's also addictive. But socially acceptable.

 

[Arcticat]

Give up the war on drugs already, its such a joke. Even the president has done coke, so he should lead by example and throw himself in jail if that's the solution. It's pathetic how the defenders of the drug war refuse to address the fact that the two most harmfull and addictive drugs available today are lagal and in many cases being sold by the government at interstate rest stops. The one real world study we have is prohibition and it proves every point that has been made in favor of legalization. Much like we put bootleggers out of business when we ended that debacle, lets put lowlife drug dealers out of business by legalizing the drugs they sell. The worst of the drug warriors are those who will not even allow the use of marijuana as a painkiller. I wish a painfull death by a slow terminal disease to anyone who would deny a dying cancer or aids patient the ability to lessen their unbearable pain without fear of being thrown in jail for the rest of their few remaining days or months.

 

[EMDDIESEL]

Legallize and tax the hell out of it. It would crush all the drug trafficing.

 

[illflem]

Make school kids watch Ozzy for an hour every day

 

[QRTRHRS]

Originally posted by EMDDIESEL

Legallize and tax the hell out of it. It would crush all the drug trafficing.

Just like with cigarettes? I don't think so. The recent tax hikes on cigarettes just increase bootlegging.



I don't think it would change anything. Our legal system is a joke. As long as people don't take responsability and criminals have more rights than victims money is going to continue to talk.

 

[Steve M]

Not to forget the millions of dollars going to foreign countries to fund their corrupt governments. Illegal here just means more profits for them too. The problem of drug abuse is here regardless. But we could take the profit out of it.

 

[Whitmore]

Holy Cripes

illflem Make school kids watch Ozzy for an hour every day

You said it Bill, I say a portion of that show the other day and WOW is that family a mess, drugs screwed them up beyond repair.



And to think that that show is one of the top paid in history. sad sad sad what is our future

 

['956Wheel]

QRTRHRS beat me to what I was thinking.



Make them legal, TAX them just to the edge of going black market and use the moneys for education... . Do we have to provide clean needles?



It would seem the above tactic would stimulate the ecomomy and take the money from illegal operations such as TERROR.





Mike

 

[Sled Puller]

Originally posted by '956Wheel

. . Do we have to provide clean needles?









Mike

WOW! And I thought I was a cruel jerk giving the DRUGS away!!



I am starting to wonder what a vote in the whole country would come with.

 

[Peter Campbell]

My idea for the drug problem. Give them away. An addict just has to prove to a doctor that he is an addict. Give up all his public licenses ( driving, flying,etc. ) then he gets a persription card. Go to the ATM like machine and get your daily dose of drugs. With a low bid contract the government could produce crack for pennies a vial. Coke for a few dollars a kilogram. The hard core addicts would jump at this. They sell thier bodies, rob stores, mug people for the money for the drugs. They will not give those drugs up for anything. In a few months of being stoned and not eating they can be shipped off to the morgue. Everyone else would treat the addicts for what they are -the loosers. The lure and the profit would be gone. But there is significant resistance to an idea like this. The politicians do not want a solution to the drug problem. The police do not want a solution to the drug problem. Criminal lawyers ( is there another type?) would not want a solution to the drug problem. Those successful drug dealers with more inate business sense than the CEO of wordcom, would be then competing directly with conventional people in normal business. There would be no downtrodden minorities needing representation. Those leaders would be out of business. The billions spent on fighting the war could actually do some good- fighting terrorism. And the NARC police would actually need to do real work. "MMMNNN lets see send a LSD dealing deadhead to prison for 40 years or go undercover with the columbians. No columbian nectie today-All the deadheads are going to do is throw flowers, I do want to retire after all. " Guess what drugs still come in and guess who they busted?

 

[Rob Thomas]

I agree on giving them away, each drug infested city of town, should donate a vacant building to addicts where they can rot themselfs away in peace, and not bother the rest of us. Definatly cheaper in the long run, and as Sledpuller said in another thread, kind of "thinning the gene pool" in the process.



Later, Rob

 

[sdalton]

To all you parents who wish to legalize drugs: I only wish that you could fully feel what it would be like to have a loved one come home with a bag of your legalized crack cocaine or heroin. Then your 16 year old prom queen daughter comes home and says: "hey pops, chill out, I am just going to my room to shoot up a little heroin. It's not like it is illegal or anything. Bye the way dad, thanks so much for voting to legalize it, and being so vocal in the fight for my rights to do drugs. " Then your wife goes in to do a few speedballs with her. But who cares it is now legal, and you were the main instrument in helping it happen.



As far as Darwins theories go on survival of the fittest, how many teenagers would survive the legalization of drugs?? Who here with teenagers would trust them with legalized drugs. Being a teenager usually means doing stupid things and experimenting behind the parents back.



You think legalizing drugs is going to kill off these stupid abusers?? Think again. Adult abusers usually live for many years while they do their thing, and are major drains on the community they live in. Imagine what they will do to get their next fix. They usually steal, if they are men, the women usually prostitute themselves for money to buy the drugs. Let t's just immagine your pretty 16 yr old daughter on the corner getting picked up for $20, for sex, by your fat slob of a neighbor who could care less that she is your daughter.

If these words dont ring home, then you might be having a hard time with your own morals, or you just dont quite get the full picture or being your brothers keeper, or you dont really care about the safety of your loved ones.

 

[Doc Tinker]

Give drug addicts all the stuff they want, but make them sign off their bodies to science. Use them as human guinea pigs rather than using animals. That will make the animal right activists happy in two ways



Doc

 

[Steve M]

Who said anything about legalizing drugs for kids or allowing our kids to use drugs if they were legalized? Alcohol was legalized after prohibition failed. It's still a horribly abused drug but at least the profits were taken from the thugs and given to tax paying corporations who provide legitimate jobs for tax paying citizens.

All those horrors you described are happening right now in the inner cities and some rural areas. Being illegal isn't stopping it. It's making it more profitable for the drug dealers and corrupt foreign countries who supply our drug smugglers. Moral and ethical people aren't going to abuse it any more than they abuse alcohol now. It depends on the person. If a person is going to abuse drugs, they are obviously risk takers and they'll risk breaking the law to get their drugs. The high cost of illegal drugs only increases the need of drug abusers to rob people to pay for them. I'd rather they be legal and cheap so drug users will be less likely to involve innocent citizens in there rotten existance.

 

[sdalton]

Steve M, Think back on your teenage years, and the teenagers now. Alcohol was not legal for them then or now, but it is for us. Did that keep you from taking a few drinks back then, is it keeping the teenagers from drinking now?? What if hard drugs were legalized, and accessible as alcohol is today. I hate to burst any bubbles, but many of the drugs that would be legalized are instantly addictive. Even to a moral and ethical child, the temptation to experiment comes along with an immature mind. Not to say that it would happen to all, just a lot, just like alcohol drinking.

I had access to drugs, through acquaintances and friends growing up, but I never did them, some of my friends did, and it was a long battle for them to get off them. If it was cheap and readily available, they would probably be dead.

To think your child is above the temptation is just not realistic. There will always be someone every now and again trying to temp them with things, and with it being legalized, it takes a lot of the ethical and moral stigmas associated with drugs away, and gives them a clear conscience to do drugs.

 

[sdalton]

Steve M, The only way I would ever think of legalizing drugs would be to have places for people to do them, and stay while they are on them, like a flop house or opium den. They would have to do the drugs on the spot, and would not be allowed to leave until a prescribed sobering up period was reached. No drugs would be allowed off the property, and payment would be made up front, and administration of the drugs would be done by a person licensed to do so. Then if they wanted to do it they would sign an accidental death waver, and fry your brain cells till your hearts content.

 

[illflem]

What most of you are suggesting (sdalton excluded) is what I call sweeping the problem in the corner. Remember meth, one of the most abused and damaging drugs, is easily made in the kitchen with common chemicals, no foreign governments involved. The key to prevention is educating our kids with something they can believe (Ozzy) rather than propaganda.

 

[Steve M]

SD, That's part of the problem around here. Alcohol has to be bought from a store with proper ID. Crack cocaine can be bought by any teenager willing to go to the other side of town. No ID check, and it's usually sold by other teenagers. There's no telling if it's potent or not. Or even real. It's a real problem here. Kids killing kids and innocent residents to get their fix. There's no regulations on the streets. For every street corner dealer that gets busted, there's a line of others waiting to take their place. Sometimes they take out each other to increase their business territory. It's sad and I don't know of a perfect anser to the problem but I believe taking the profit out of it is a start. Making it cheaper would lessen the need to rob and steal to pay for it to some degree. That alone might save a life.

Yes when I was a teenager we experimented with drugs. I'm not an addictive person so I tried it, didn't like being stoned, grew out of it over twenty years ago and now drink a beer about once a week. We did more drugs than alcohol. Our parents drank alcohol so it was lame in our teenage minds. I still keep in touch with my friends. All are off drugs completely. One is a fire fighter and the others own their own businesses.