Posted on 07/05/2005 9:30:27 AM PDT by Sensei Ern
For many years, I have been a strong opponent of legalizing drugs. As you read this, remember that I am still against drug legalization, but I have more sympathy for the opposing argument.
The reason I have been opposed to drug legalization is to protect children. I grew up in a home that was one step up from a crack house..at least we had heat and food. I know first hand what can happen when a child lives in those conditions.
As a counter, I have always felt that use of tobacco and alcohol should be legal for those of a responsible age.
The reason I am considering a change is because of the pain I went through this last month. Four weeks ago, I had a root canal done on a tooth...it was Friday. Once the Novocain wore off, I was in serious pain because the doctor was inexperienced and left a partial root. I experienced pain worse than listening to Rosanne Barr sing the National Anthem. He forgot to write a prescription.
I called the emergency number only to be told I could see the doctor on Monday. TWO WHOLE DAYS IN EXTREME PAIN! I had some 800mg Ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet. That only took away enough pain to convince myself to not commit suicide to stop the pain.
On Monday, I was given a prescription of Tylenol 3 with Codeine and an antibiotic. That took away the pain. Until it ran out. Again, extreme pain. Another dentist did another root canal...and again did not get the whole root. I made sure he gave me a prescription for the pain, before I left the office.
Finally, when that ran out, and another dentist completed the root canal, the pain has subsided.
To be in the kind of debilitating pain I was in, cannot be described. Bill Cosby once talked about taking your bottom lip and pulling it over your head...that comes close.
I have always been an advocate of personal responsibility. That conflicted with knowing that some of the drugs offered today are so dangerous that they needed to be regulated. Then, I thought back about how things were a hundred years ago. The doctor prescribed a treatment, and you either made it yourself, or went to the pharmacist, who mixed up the more potential drugs.
Back then, the only regulation was, could you afford the cost? Drugs were available, and the pharmacist would determine whether you were abusing. If you OD'd on a drug from abuse, you died and life went on for others. But, you could get drugs if they were needed, and you did not have to wait until Monday. You didn't need to wait for approval from anyone to use a drug.
That is enough about that for the moment.
If drugs were to be legalized, they should be regulated like alcohol and cigarettes...have a legal purchasing age. Also, if you do harm to another while under the influence of anything, you should be held personally responsible...to the fullest extent, especially capital punishment for causing a death. If you are taking drugs to get high, strap yourself into a chair and sleep it off.
If drugs were immediately legalized, we could expect some immediate effects. For one, the drug addicts would run out and by everything, and we would have a rash of overdosing for about a month. The rest of us could then go on with our lives, only mourning the loss of a relative, instead of daily living with the horror of a drug addict in our lives.
Currently, I believe law enforcement should be stronger. But, I could be moved to undecided if I heard good arguments for the opposite.
--Pray for our troops --Pray they have wisdom to do the right thing --Pray they remain courageous --Pray they know we love and support them --Pray they get the equipment they need to do the job --Pray for their safe return home to a hero’s welcome
Yep, and people that are high don't act in a rational manner. Plenty of news reports every day of people who did dumb or violent things while 'high'.
Right ... I am about 50/50 on de-criminalization of drugs, but if we used half the resources we do to fight drugs, we could catch these sickos and put them away!
Yeah, a WAG all right. Make sure you wipe it off real good; considering where you pulled it from it stinks to high heaven.
Illicit drugs (all illicit drugs, combined) are responsible for fewer than 20,000 deaths per year. Compare and contrast: over 400,000 deaths per year from tobacco use, about 90,000 deaths per year from alcohol use. The latter figure includes only those who die directly from alcohol poisoning; it does not include the tens of thousands of alcohol-related deaths from motor vehicle and other accidents. Do you really think that deaths from illicit drugs will increase by a factor of 375 were they legalized? Bear in mind that a significant percentage of even the relatively minuscule number of deaths from illicit drugs are directly caused by prohibition: deaths from adulterated substances that have no legal requirements for purity, deaths from accidental overdoses caused by unknown dosage levels thanks to an absence of labeling requirements.
Yeah. If drugs were legal, about 7.5 million people would die from them. Right. This is 11 times more Americans than are killed annually by heart disease, 13 times more Americans than are killed annually by cancer, 71 times more Americans than are killed annually by accidents, and more than 3 times more Americans than are killed annually... by all causes. Brother, I want some of what you're smoking.
Look at the origins of drug criminalization. It wasn't just a bunch of do-gooders looking to control everyone else (as with Prohibition) but southern Democrats looking for another reason to jail black men (just like gun control was used to disarm blacks), many of whom used inexpensive cocaine instead of alcohol.
And just like gun control, they eventually got around to oppressing EVERYONE. The government spends BILLIONS of dollars evey year in a war on the people. Thousands of people are murdered every year by drug dealers over turf. When was the last time two liquor dealers battled it out? (I'll give you a hint: it was before Prohibition ended) Every year thousands of people have their private property stolen by the government on the SUSPICION that it MIGHT have come from the sale if illegal drugs, and the government doesn't even have to do so much as make an arrest.
We spend billions more incarcerating men who at one time would have just been ordinary merchants looking to make a few extra bucks. Take a fraction of that money and treat the people who become addicted and help THEM rather than the government.
Legalize drugs and practically overnight the murders over drugs will cease. The government will immediately have hundreds of thousands of jail cells empty so that child molesters can spend their full sentence.
I have never understood victimless crimes.
I'm sure you think you're being humourous. Let me know when your sister gets raped and thrown out a window by someone who is high. Then we'll talk.
You wrote that like you have used drugs in the past. I'm calling the DEA.
Are you going to answer any question that anyone asks or respond to any of the posts?
I'm certain you'll find no quarrels here.
After all, who but a control freak socialist would want the government to decide what a person should do for their own health?
I think everyone would agree that here at FreeRepublic.com, we are in absolute unison with regard to this matter.
"Is the Drug War a Conservative or Liberal Issue?"
The drug war is a control issue. It doesn't matter the political leaning. It's all about the politicians and the government writing laws to control you life. Plain and simple.
Our elected officials are flaming hypocrites. They take in tons of tax money on tobacco and alcohol but get uptight about drugs. The SCOTUS ruling on marijuana is a damned joke and a violation of states' rights.
Is the Drug War a Conservative or Liberal Issue?
IMHO, neither.
It is a big government issue.
And
It is a failure
I am sick and tired of people disregarding the dangers of drug use in order to feed some need they have.
Bear in mind that some people here would be happy to ban alcohol and cigarettes completely0 (Reason: they don't like them - and think of the children)
"So you think stuff like crystal meth should be legalized and "regulated"?"
First, I am still on the side of fighting drug abuse.
Second, my attitude is that if we release some drugs, release them all. Let the dummies OD and get them out of the gene pool.
As a positive side effect, most drug abusers are liberals. We would see a rise in conservatism as a majority again.
Another positive side effect is that most drug abusers are not strongly religious. We would see this country become stronger in the religous percentage as well.
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