Ever known anybody who got a hold of a Roxycodone or Desoxyn prescription? Trust me, they don't take them orally. They snort them, and then, if they progress, they start to bang them. There is a reason why. Richard Prior lit himself on fire freebasing before crack was available. The big innovation with crack was that it was freebase that was portable and didn't explode. That didn't mean people didn't freebase before hand. When people were taking Vin Mariani they were driving steam powered Maxwell automobiles. Maybe if we reintroduce the Maxwell, people will stop driving 100 MPH race cars and go back to driving around 10 MPH and stopping to refill their cars with water every 30 miles. Or maybe people just like to drive faster, and prefer the modern, faster, more convenient ways to get around. Probably, people in the past would have preferred to drive Ferrari, too, but they hadn't been invented yet. It is weird to me that you used to be a drug councilor, and you don't understand that the initial rush is what motivates heroin and coke users, with the nod or the extended high being decidedly second.
The only point was that people come up with a weed story, and say, "End the war on drugs" when they should probably be saying something more nuanced, like "End the part of the war on drugs that involves mar1juana" because the former statement advocates ending the war on all those other things that you put in a different league and don't advocate decriminalizing, while the latter more accurately reflects what your response indicates you believe.
I completely understand that motivation, one which occurs in a relatively small number of the people who use them (10% for mar1juana, 20% for cocaine, 25% for heroin and similar opiates, and 30% for nicotine, per Sanjay Gupta http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-mar1juana/). I'm not saying that regulating the market will eliminate addiction. Nor do I believe that harmful, drug related behavior can be eliminated from our society. However, I completely believe that prohibition is 180 degrees from the appropriate way to deal with the issues of drug use and abuse in our society. We should not spend the effort and money we do to prohibit use by people who are responsible enough to use those substances without causing harm to themselves and others, which according to all sources I have seen is the VAST majority of us.
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My best friend in DFW suffered from seizures. His girlfriend at the time was from Los Angeles and her mom had a best friend out there who was epileptic as well. She smoked weed to stop the seizures. My friend never had seizures when he was a pot smoker. Fast forward about four years when the seizures started happening, and after hearing about his gf's mom's friend, he started smoking again. Has had minimal seizures since. Less than when he had the huge pill box, taking multiple pills multiple times a day.
I know me I am prescribed Roxi's for a degenerative spinal condition. I assure you that I only take them orally, and usually less than the prescribed dosage. Some of us are legit pain management patients and are able to take meds like this as prescribed.
I've read that one in eight people in prison are there for convictions involving pot. That's ridiculous and it should stop. Unfortunately until big pharma gets involved to get their cut it will probably continue.
