There have been many threads on the war on drugs around here (especially since the arrival of andymoon.) I just want to get a feel for where the board stands overall.
needs another option.... Supports mar1juana programs as detailed by my esteemed colleague. just a little unsure whether or not stuff like heroin should be treated the same way. but if you want to know if I think the War on Drugs has been a failure? then yes I do...
I am against the war. If I can buy a bottle of MD 20/20 at the corner store I should be able to buy a dime sack of pot too.
Don't get me wrong, I would start with mar1juana, it is just that any system I would design would be responsive to scientific data and would operate on the principle of doing as little overall harm to society as possible. If those were the parameters, cocaine and heroin would become legal once enough scientific study could be done.
oh, I do realize that....and it is my contention that since the data(both scientific and empirical) points to heroin and cocaine being so much more addictive(and harmful) than pot, then they deserve much stricter methods of legalization(if at all).. It would come down to the specifics of whatever method was proposed as to whether I would fully support harder drug legalization in a similar manner as mar1juana. Targetted treatment and education programs about the verifiable dangers of heroin/cocaine use would definitely be a major part of any said program. I dont feel it is as necessary for pot as it is for the harder stuff....people need to be made to understand the dangers and effects of longterm heroin/cocaine use on the body....nothing that pot does comes even close...
Absolutely. Both of those substances are WAY up there as far as addiction and harm, right up there with alcohol. They SHOULD be more strictly controlled than pot, though I would argue that any system that regulates the sales of recreational drugs would have to cover ALL drugs. The vast majority of the harm caused by illegal drugs as a whole comes from prohibition, not the drugs themselves. Honestly, a successful policy in my book would be one that minimizes the access that our young people have to drugs in general and to heroin and cocaine specifically. The vast majority of the people who become addicted to those drugs begin using when they are young and do not have the capacity to successfully use drugs. Pot doesn't cause anywhere NEAR the harm, that is true, but I would prefer to have education as a prerequisite to being licensed to purchase ANY drug (alcohol and tobacco included) as all of them can cause harm and at the very least psychological dependence.
You know what I would love? For some of the ten who voted in favor of continuing the war on drugs, can you please support your position? Can you point to even a single positive indicator? Can you name any positive impact that prohibition has that even comes CLOSE to outweighing the tremendous harms? In my life, I have encountered a LOT of people and so far, there have been only a handful that I have met in person who actually think this program is working. This "war" costs inordinate amounts of money and what return have we gotten? A five percent drop in reported mar1juana use by 12 to 17 year olds in 2003 doesn't even come close to justifying the tremendous amount of funds we devote to this debacle, even if those gains were not just paper and statistic games. Can anyone give a lucid explanation regarding the long term efficacy of this program?
I doubt it is working either, its like the war on terror, we spend money, but nothing but losses come of it...
Ok, after seeing the results of this poll, I think now would be a great time for andymoon to quit bombarding us with the war on drugs threads. Thanks in advance, brah. by the way - I am against the war on drugs.
I will continue to post thought provoking information in an attempt to help spread knowledge regarding this issue. Plenty of people have expressed their desire to continue seeing this information, so I would appreciate it if you would quit trying to tell me what to do with resources that don't even belong to you. Thanks in advance, brah. BTW, the most intelligent conservatives I know are against the war on drugs, the most prominent being William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman.
