I am of the opinion that the drug war has caused more harm than drugs ever could. With a black market, children in many cases have easier access to drugs than adults and report easier access to illicit drugs than alcohol (in a recent study). Do you think: The direction we are moving is the right one, we just need to commit more time and funds to this approach. The direction we are moving is the right one and we need to spend about what we do on it. The direction we are headed is wrong and we should experiment with decriminalization (not arresting users, but keeping the distribution illegal) of some currently illegal drugs. The direction we are headed is wrong and we should experiment with regulation and taxation of some currently illegal drugs.
That doesn't really make much sense how children could have easier access to drugs than they do to alcohol. I mean the single most obvious thing that prevents them is lack of money. I will agree the drug war has done nothing to limit people's access to get drugs, but bringing children into it doesn't seem to make much sense.
There was a study done recently that found that kids report that mar1juana is easier to access than alcohol. This was discussed at length in the other threads I started. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60766 http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60450 http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59520 Sorry I don't have time to look for the study right now, but one of my contentions is that we can reduce the number of kids that can get drugs in much the same way that we have reduced their access to alcohol and tobacco over the past decade. If we can take out the black market, we CAN have a positive impact on the rates of drug use by kids. If we continue along the same path, our kids will continue to become addicted at the same rates year after year ad nauseum.
Here is a study from last year that depicts what andymoon says: http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0,1854,553559,00.html "A new survey found that teens had an easier time buying mar1juana than cigarettes or beer, the Associated Press reported Aug. 20." The same study shows the following: "Despite the reports of easy youth access to mar1juana, 75 percent of the teens surveyed said they did not use the drug. The study also found that 63 percent of the students said they perceive their school to be "drug-free," nearly double the number of teens who said the same in 1998. Drug prevention programs and tough policies on drugs are credited for less drug activity at schools." I suspect if the study is right about easier access to mar1juana than alcohol, it must also be right that drug activity is lessening at schools due to current programs and policies.
I want to use smarter strategies and actual scientific measurements to reduce the number of people using drugs. I don't call that quitting, I call that changing tactics, which is what you do when you are not winning a war.
I also think that it would be nice to know within a few ounces how much of each drug was consumed in this country every year. Once we have accurate numbers, we can use strategies (education and treatment) that ACTUALLY reduce drug use rather than tactics used by politicians to "send messages." The only way to have accurate numbers is to have the government and legitimate businesses doing the distribution. With a black market, we don't have the first clue (outside of estimates) how much gets into the country, how many people use, or how much those people use.
A kid can go get a $10 bag of mar1juana off the street corner but can't buy a $6 six pack out of store unless the cashier allows them to. If a kid could buy a $6 six pack, I'm pretty sure he or she can buy a $10 bag. Now when you start talking about harder drugs, yes the price does become a factor.
And once the price becomes a factor, the kid can just start dealing to support their habit, which ties them even closer to the criminal underground, virtually guaranteeing them a life of crime, prison, and eventually, death. There is a better way.
"If at first you don't succeed then try, try, again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it." - WC Fields
I know, I know, it smacks of quiting.... But really, will we ever win this war? Will we end people smoking dope, totting lines and shooting up for all time? This is a war that can not be won because there are no frontlines, no enemies to send the Marines (hoo-rah!!!!) to kill and our enemies are all around us, be it the kids in the bathroom toking on a joint or the crackhead prostituting herself to pay for her habit. The illegality of it has made it a black market affair replete with murders and bribes and the profits for the few entrepeneurs in the millions. If we want to win, we only penalize distribution, not possesion on the hard stuff, legalize weed and watch our prison populations shrink rapidly. The government could tax and regulate weed and make it much harder for kids to get access to it. The benefits much outweigh the costs. My .10
The war on drugs has an admirable aim, one which can be mostly realized if we change the tactics we are using. Many of the harmful effects of drugs (use by minors, addiction, etc) can be minimized by taking a harm reduction approach. We start by reducing the harm done to society by drug use and abuse. The black market by itself causes more harm (violence, overdose, crime) than drugs ever have. Personally, I believe that we start to experiment with regulation of the so called "soft drugs" in order to come up with a model that works for all of them. The only problem I have with decriminalization is that it keeps many of the harms of black market distribution in place and does not capitalize on the vast profits that could be realized from these substances. We can win the WOD if we change our tactics and make drug use and abuse a health care issue rather than a criminal justice issue. Doctors should be dealing with drug addicts and nobody should be harassing responsible drug users.
