Some Find Hope for a Shift in Drug Policy

NYT ^ | February 15, 2009 | WILLIAM YARDLEY

[microgood]

There is no justification for legalizing any drug that alters perception in any way.

Ouch. There goes alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, chocolate, sugar... You are consistent, however. Most drug warriors believe that Prohibition was a good thing.

[DJ MacWoW]

People don't lie, kill and steal to get alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, chocolate or sugar.

[DJ MacWoW]

Btw, you have kids? Put them in a car and let them go for a ride with someone on crack or pot.

[meyer]

People don't lie, kill and steal to get alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, chocolate or sugar.

Sure they do - they just wrap it up in a pretty little package called welfare (or, "spreading the wealth").

[SmallGovRepub]

“Btw, you have kids? Put them in a car and let them go for a ride with someone on crack or pot.”

Put your kids in a car with someone who is drunk. I know that if for some reason I just had to put my kids in a car either with someone who was drunk or someone who had been smoking pot, I'd go with the guy who had been smoking pot because he's going to be a safer driver than the drunk guy.

But I don't have to put my kids in a car with someone who has been drinking or smoking pot or smoking crack and I wouldn't do that. Are there people out there on the roads who have been doing these things. Sure, and I have no problem with the police arresting these people and taking them to jail.

[DJ MacWoW]

Which was my point in 16. We’ll have to support the legalized druggies AND their habit. No thanks.

[SmallGovRepub]

“People don’t lie, kill and steal to get alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, chocolate or sugar.”

Some people do lie and steal to get their nicotine or alcohol. I’ve worked as a prosecutor and a public defender and I can tell you without a doubt that that occurs. And if we made these drugs illegal and thus much more expensive even more would do these things to get these drugs.

[DJ MacWoW]

Put your kids in a car with someone who is drunk.

We don't drink. And it's illegal to drive drunk. Add legalized drugs to that. Yeah, they'll drive while flying. More revenue for the states too. And more dead innocents. Great idea, let's make a bad problem worse.

I'd go with the guy who had been smoking pot

I wouldn't. Went to church with a guy who used to be a pot fanatic. Just pot. Couldn't string two words together.

[SmallGovRepub]

“The only real barrier these days is employment-based drug testing.”

And if we legalized drugs that would still go on and employers could discriminate against drug users just like they are allowed to discriminate against people who use tobacco, a legal drug.

I am not for legalizing all drugs though. I am strongly opposed to legalizing anything but marijuana.

[DJ MacWoW]

Cute name, SmallGovRepub. You want to legalize drugs? BIG government bureaucracy to control it. Yeah, we need MORE government.

[SmallGovRepub]

I am actually strongly opposed to legalizing anything other than pot. It's not harmless but it isn't that bad and it's already everywhere in this country. It's easy to get anywhere and for the most part it's already cheaper than beer on a per use basis. I don't think we could make it much easier to get, and I don't think the laws are stopping many people from doing it. Most people don't smoke pot because of all the good reasons not to smoke it that have nothing to do with its legal status. The very slight risk of getting caught and getting a slap on the wrist is not stopping many folks. And the tiny few who are just waiting for marijuana to finally become legal so they can finally smoke it have already shown that they are fairly responsible and law abiding and they have some self control or they'd already be smoking it. I doubt they'd be much of a problems for us if we did let them smoke pot.

Some battles are worth fighting, some aren't. We lost the war on pot a long time ago. We're wasting fortune trying in vain to keep up the ban. We're allowing organized crime to make billions of dollars a year on marijuana. Mexican drug trafficking organizations control the biggest part of wholesale illegal drug distribution in this country and they make the lion's share of their money from marijuana sales. We are causing more problems than we are solving trying in vain to keep up the ban on marijuana. In this one instance, the best thing for us to do I think would be to legalize the production and sales of marijuana and regulate it similar to the way we regulate alcohol.

[microgood]

People don't lie, kill and steal to get alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, chocolate or sugar.

People steal for a variety of reasons. What we should focus on is that they steal, not why. Outlawing inanimate objects is a distraction from the real problem.

Besides, the reason they do not steal to get those products is precisely because they are legal. If they weren't, they would.

In any case, I was responding to the following:

There is no justification for legalizing any drug that alters perception in any way.

[microgood]

Btw, you have kids? Put them in a car and let them go for a ride with someone on crack or pot.

Do you expect the government to preventing this from happening? As a parent, I certainly would not. They certainly have failed to date. There is no evidence that the thirty year drug war has had any effect on drug usage.

[SmallGovRepub]

You don't think drug prohibition is big government? Come on. We have huge agencies burning through billions of dollars a year. We have a plethora of laws on the books dealing with drugs and all things related to drugs. We have hundreds of thousands of people we are supporting as our guests in our prisons for drug crimes. This is massive government.

Again, I'm not for legalizing all drugs, only marijuana. Yes, there would be regulations and regulators involved. In many ways though the government would be less involved and instead of blowing a fortune trying in vain to enforce the ban we'd be generating tax revenues. The taxes would easily cover the costs of regulating the marijuana industry. The billions we spend trying in vain to keep up the ban are just wasted.

[jimt]

Yeah, drugs are such a benefit to society. /s

Alcohol is similar, as is tobacco.

Why don't we follow your "logic" and ban them both ? Oh, yeah, that didn't work too well, did it.

Sounds like a "free country" to me.

[jimt]

The victims (plural) are the druggies themselves, the people they prey on and the families of both sets of victims.

You think someone hurting themselves is equal to murder or rape ?

SOME druggies violate other, moral laws. Theft, etc., for which they should be punished no doubt.

The families ? Shall we prevent you from gambling, overeating, or indulging in adult beverages, or smoking because it hurts your family ? Why not ?

[narses]

“You think someone hurting themselves is equal to murder or rape ?”

It can be. The enslavement of the person to addictive drugs is a powerful force for evil. If you do not understand that you either have never been around hardcore addicts or are wilfully blind.

[narses]

“Alcohol is similar, as is tobacco.”

Wrong. Strawmen have no weight.

[Mariner]

"Every time a druggie gets taken off the street, we all benefit".

I guess it depends on the drug, right?

Perhpas one day one of your kids will be "taken off the street" for smokin' pot.

[narses]

I doubt that. Is pot your thing? Are you a pothead?