Posted on 01/21/2016 5:32:19 AM PST by BraveMan
“And where’s the evidence that “our laws are not enforced”?”
“Drug addiction isn’t a disease, it’s a character flaw.”
Tommy Lasorda
I cannot understand how anybody could favor legalization of black tar heroin. The OD rates are huge as well as the misery it causes.
where's the evidence that "our laws are not enforced"?
6,000 out of 'approximately 100,000 drug offenders in federal custody.' That, along with the below points from your link and the continuing arrest of drug dealers, undermines your claim that "the risk for criminals is drastically reduced".
'The DOJ emphasized on Tuesday that the new policy does not let prisoners off the hook. "Even with the Sentencing Commission's reductions, drug offenders will have served substantial prison sentences," Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told the Washington Post. "Moreover, these reductions are not automatic."
'Though the number of released prisoners is unprecedented, each case still requires the approval of a judge.'
Exactly why executions should be publicly broadcast!
The central problem is that you cannot get people to recognize their responsibility outside of their immediate circumstances. They want to get high, and are oblivious to the costs they transfer onto society at large, and to people in other nations (e.g., Central America.) If you legalized substances like heroin, you would have much larger populations of wasted, aimless, unemployable folks. With the economy shifting to activities that require the best and highest of human capabilities, the last thing we need to do is degrade the population further by tacitly accepting addiction.
In the Milwaukee Journal recently was an excellent and long overdue piece on a typical shooting in Milwaukee (black victim, former resident of Milwaukee, back visiting for a high school reunion, and is carjacked/shot by black youth.) Instead of covering it in the usual fashion they broke out a full cost accounting of a particular shooting incident that had happened in 2014. It was not a homicide, the victim recovered, with some residual disability. Cost to taxpayers? $700K+. This is what goes unstated in all of these crime stories. The transfer of costs from the perpetrator to society in general.
In the case of the drug or alcohol addict, it is the transfer of the costs of their indulgence onto the backs of the larger community and taxpayers. What needs to be reintroduced is a sense of responsibility, and a sense of shame (at having indulged in a personal desire, to get high, for example, that imposes on so many others who are not part of that discretionary choice.) How you accomplish that in this world, I don’t know.
That may be true, but one shouldn’t throw those people in jail unless they willfully hurt others, and the fact that people with character flaws exist shouldn’t be any excuse for a government to steal property or invade privacy or otherwise strip rights from citizens.
I belong to a large patient board where we share info. One of the most discussed issues is pain, as so many of these ‘hidden’ health issues come with it. Some of it can’t be touched by traditional narcotics. Or the doses are to low to be effective unless we want to be Zombies. Many advocate MMJ, well it doesn’t really work on pain, it just makes you euphoric so you think you are in less pain few understand that. All they want is pain relief, so they can function.
Drugs like Lyria, Cymbalta or Gabapentin which is Neurontin come with a boat load of horrible side effects and are as addictive as narcotics, maybe more so.
The new Federal rules of a new script monthly, which must contain the wording CHRONIC PAIN is a stupid step for people who truly live in chronic pain. And a good Primary can weed out the other types. As most of us won’t take any more than we must. We are to aware of the addiction issue and the GI issues. But in the end it comes down to how much pain must we live in. Many have had pain pumps put in, or a nerve disruption device only to find they don’t work as advertised. Have complications from the surgery to do it. And batteries must be replaced which means another surgery to do that. Yes, some are more sensitive to pain, others have learned to tune out the minor pain. I can go sleep off a headache, I can’t the spinal pain. So it’s a trade off with the Arthritis strength Tylenol which damages your kidney’s of the ineffective NORCO which is the most common prescribed narcotic.
Fixing backs often doesn’t work or you end up with more pain. With a -4 OP score I’m not a candidate for degenerative spine issues, most of them PT caused.
In order for me to even take a Tylenol 3 I have to have Promethazine or Phanagan Or I just puke my guts up. Same goes for all narcotics. What I’m given is 5 mg of NORCo is as effective as Extra Strength Tylenol, doesn’t work well, takes 15-20 mg just to begin to bring the pain down to a 5 last only 4 hours. Then you have to have Nexium to stop the GERD, along with the Promethazine or Phanagan. Nexium to stop the Reflux...GERD, which will tear up your bones with Osteoporosis, meaning more pain or Barrett’s Esophagus a type of early type of pre-cancer. Then you have the GI bowel shut down to deal with. Very vicious circle has been created along with new health issues.
Narcotics only seem to work on joint or back pain, not intestinal. I think it leads to early death in patients with the really rough cancer’s like Colon Cancer as it has to be administered at such a high dose it effects the heart.
Then we wonder why our ancestors used Whiskey for pain, It actually works, if you don’t mind being loopy for awhile.
So there's a large population of people who are deterred by heroin's illegality but who would be undeterred by its intrinsic harms? Can you offer any reason to accept this counterintuitive hypothesis?
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