Contempt for illegal drug use blinds American public to alternatives

Coach is Right ^ | 8/25/13 | Bruce Karlson

[Oldpuppymax]

Please do not be guilty of the above when considering the legalization of all recreational drugs. Anyone is legally permitted to kill himself slowly with tobacco, once addicted. Equally, a person may legally drink himself to death and/or wreck the lives of those around him with a bottle a day. For such people we have compassion. But for the users of illegal drugs, most of us have only contempt.

It is difficult (impossible, actually) to understand the logic of making certain drugs illegal. Apart from legality, what is the difference between smoking a “joint” and having a beer? Further, doing a “line” of cocaine makes for an apt comparison with having a dry martini. Oh, the “gateway” routine? Well, weed may be a “gateway” drug but Budweiser and nicotine are the “gateways” to weed. Shall we continue this line of reasoning??

Society is visited with problems from both legal and illegal drugs but the illegal ones support a criminal culture that is bankrupting...

[fr_freak]

Alcohol on the other hand, while potentially destructive, is not used typically to get wasted,...

Most of your post I agree with, but this line - ahahahahahahahahaha. Where do you live, Salt Lake City?

[fr_freak]

Unlike someone who has a martini on the weekend, pot users are demonstrably impaired the rest of the week. Ever work with a pot smoker? Whatever their job, they suck at it. They’re slow of speech because they’re slow of thought. They literally stink, even if they bathe.

This is pure unadulterated BS. I guarantee you that, for every stinking hippie pothead you've met in the workplace, there are four or five pot users who function so well that you don't even realize they smoke pot. How do I know this? Because I know a bunch of pot smokers who are successful professionals. They just don't go around telling everyone they smoke pot, for obvious reasons.

I swear, all this reefer madness hysteria is probably just government propaganda to get otherwise sane people to accept and support the unconstitutional police state that the War on Drugs has created. But, even if pot were such a horrible drug, the real question is, does the government, especially the fedgov, have the authority to dictate to individuals whether they can grow it or smoke it? Because if you say that they do, then you are saying that they have unlimited power over ALL OF US. If Michelle Obama wants to outlaw french fries, you are saying she is completely within her rights to do so (with complicity of Congress, of course).

[G Larry]

You’re pretty emotional...maybe you need to mellow out...smoke some good DOPE.

[Orangedog]

The only real difference between then and now is in that time, the nation had character strong enough to let them admit when they made a horrible mistake and fix it. In the decades that followed doubling down on stupid policies became the norm. Americans back then also seemed more willing to mind their own business. Today americans are mostly a bunch of cowardly busybodies who want to live in NerfWorld, where all of the sharp edges have been rounded off and padded. When confronted with any level of freedom they become hostile to whoever talks of taking away their chains. Tiberius summed up 21st century americans well when he spoke of his own senate as being men fit to be slaves.

[G Larry]

You saved this speech to defend adding intoxicants to the culture?

THAT is the primary liberty you chose for this application?

More people sitting around in a stupor isn’t going to add to the numbers ready to defend the more serious attacks on our Constitution.

[Orangedog]

No, it was more about adding some freedom and liberty back into the culture, but you aren’t about that. Your precious drug war and resultant police state have done way more damage to the constitution than a bunch of potheads ever could.

[G Larry]

The liberal tyrants are more than happy to have a drug infested, mind-numbed, populace to rope into compliance, while they destroy our Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, RIght to bear Arms, Freedom from illegal Search and Seizure, and States Rights.

Adding intoxicants is not the priority “right” that’s going to save this nation.

Buy, by focusing on it, that misplaced energy will certainly aid in the destruction of this nation.

[Orangedog]

The liberal tyrants are more than happy to have a drug infested, mind-numbed, populace to rope into compliance, while they destroy our Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, RIght to bear Arms, Freedom from illegal Search and Seizure, and States Rights.

You cheer on a police state and unconstitutional prohibition while paying lip service to bill of rights. Cute. You've got about as much respect for the constitution as a high school quarterback has for his drunk prom date.

[G Larry]

You pretend to care about freedom by pushing drugs as a Constitutional right?

Whatta joke.

[Orangedog]

At least my idea of “freedom™” isn’t forcing people at gunpoint to live the way I think they should. But I can understand your worry, since drugs being illegal is the only thing keeping you from becoming a meth head.

[A CA Guy]

There was or is a war on drugs because kids are getting tainted and becoming far more useless adults due to drugs.

I can see those with cancer of dying of something using it, but the recreational users and big losers and eventually IMO problematic for the whole country.

[gogeo]

Sure...why can’t we engage in destructive behavior also?

It’s not FAIR!!!!!!

[gogeo]

Oh sure, it's a black and white issue, right?

Wrong! We get to choose from equally odious alternatives.

[gogeo]

May I suggest another?

Anyone who injures themselves because of intoxication can lay in the ditch until they feel better or die.

[CodeToad]

” Further, doing a “line” of cocaine makes for an apt comparison with having a dry martini. “

Pot, no problem to me. Not a drug of violence or addiction any more, and much less so, than alcohol. Cocaine? Bad news, no matter how anyone tries to relate it to alcohol.

I am never for government to tell us what to put or not put into our bodies, but I am all for regulation to keep such crap from children and ensure other people’s, including companies, choice to keep it away from them is lawful and they can’t be sued, such as an airline cannot be sued for firing a pilot using pot or cocaine or alcohol.

Banning substances has caused more harm than the drugs. We need common sense regulation to help prohibit things we do not want around us, not laws that cause loss of liberties and the jailing of millions.

[DannyTN]

"...the entire purpose for the War on Drugs is NOT to prevent addiction but exists to create ARMIES of DEMOCRAT voting workers, in mindless bureaucracies across the nation, who pay dues to the DEMOCRAT UNIONS?"

Oh NO!!! NOT THE UNIONS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIII!!!!

The boogeyman's coming!!!!

Well, then. Let's stop the war on drugs. We'd much rather have more brain damage among our population that democrats. /s (Yeah I know it's the same thing. But one is reversible and it's not the effects of drug use.)

Seriously. Why does every dissagreement on this board end up with "It helps the unions."

Two can play that game. If you legalize drugs, the unions will be making companies keep drug users on the payroll. Whose helping unions now?!!!

[TigersEye]

Your point is that Americans won’t help each other unless forced to by the government!?! I don’t agree.

[DannyTN]

"Are you willing to trash the Constitution to have the Feds involved in that?"

I assume you're claiming that illegal drugs aren't interstate trade and don't cross state boundaries, and thus it's not in the enumerated powers.

Then I'd certainly be willing to pass a constitutional amendment to keep the FED's involved.

[TigersEye]

Like the study which showed that people who have more sex have higher incomes, when everybody knows that women are attracted to men's high incomes.

It's exactly like that. Correlation does not equal causation and a minor correlation is all they have ever found. Of course people who have mental illnesses are drawn to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. Particularly mental disorders characterized by delusional detachment.

[DannyTN]

Marijuana Use Causes Brain Damage Confirmed

Cannabis Exposure During Adolescence Causes Brain Damage and Schizophrenia, Study

Marijuana causes brain damage, find Australian scientists

Chronic Cannabis Use May Cause Brain Inflammation

Harvard did the first studies that showed a causative effect. But the pro-drug crowd claims every study doesn't prove causation, no matter how much proof there is that it does.