It once was...Cocaine fortified wine endorsed by the Pope!
Cocaine and heroine on the same level as alcohol and tobacco?
Tell you what, I'll drink three beers a night for the next month. We'll let the author do three lines of coke per night, and let's see who's in better shape.
Libertarians do themselves in with the pure ridiculousness of their arguments. So pure to an ideology that they let the obvious get in the way. There are some good arguments made in here, and I think, particularly with the nutritional supplement industry and the advertising of pharmaceutical drugs, that our politicians are sticking their noses where they don't belong.
That said, cocaine and heroine have no reason to be available for consumption.
"Tell you what, I'll drink three beers a night for the next month. We'll let the author do three lines of coke per night, and let's see who's in better shape." So is that the criterion by which we decide public policy? If you believedoing something will cause someone to be in poorer shape than you are? Ought we then have laws, perhaps designed by you, telling people what they may eat so they don't get fat, or otherwise out of shape? Or maybe you want to require everyone to exercise daily so they will be in the same good physical shape you undoubtedly are. Do let us know.
Alcohol kills, too - but take a moment and see the dreadful result of prohibition in the 1920's. Like cocaine nowadays, people could still drink alchohol if they wanted to.
The black market enriches criminals, crooked police, and corrupt politicians.
There are certain vices that people will partake in no matter how illegal it may be - the organised criminals take advantage of this.
America learned from the drive-by shootings and mafia wars of Prohibition, and repealed the 18th Amendment, realizing that it's worth it to have some people choose to overdo legal drugs, in order to take the profit away from the Mafia.
The current corruption makes the 1920's criminals look like a bunch of Girl Scouts at a picnic.
Prior to the laws against cocaine, how many people partook of it in pure form, and how many people instead ingested it in things like beverages and such?
Outside of D.W. Griffith's For His Son, which was produced after Coca Cola had already switched to caffeine, how much evidence is there of people's lives being destroyed by cocaine when it was available in a five-cent drink?
Maybe your analogy would be more fair if instead of three beers you downed three fifths of whiskey.
Cocaine and heroine on the same level as alcohol and tobacco?
Tell you what, I'll drink three beers a night for the next month. We'll let the author do three lines of coke per night, and let's see who's in better shape.
Libertarians do themselves in with the pure ridiculousness of their arguments.
Authoritarians do themselves in with the pure ridiculousness of their arguments.
Three beers are on the same level as three lines of Cocaine? Get real.
-- And in any case, using beer & coke are not the issue. -- Fighting an unconstitutional 'war' on the people that use them is the issue.
Alcohol can be deadly for some people, and tobacco is as addictive as heroine. Though I agree that heroine is geniunely dangerous to all users, and cocaine somewhat less so, maybe pot should not be grouped with those two.
I personally know many very highly functional, professional people who do pot occasionally, and I know some alcoholics whose lives have been severely damaged by booze. Libertarians feel that people should be responsible for making their own choices about what goes into their bodies, but should be forced to deal with the consequences (drunk driving).
That said, I think it is a collossal waste to be criminalizing drug use (particularly pot). Much better spent in drug counseling and rehab. Of course criminal behavior like DUIs, breaking and entering, violence should be dealt with throught the penal system. Enforce the laws on criminal BEHAVIOR, and otherwise let adults do as they wish in private.
Scary just how addictive these two are. Addictive, seductive and expensive...Social and financial ruin ahead of you, if you think you can play with these drugs.
My money's on the guy who does the coke. No worrys about beer gut plus all that extra energy could be used to workout. What size are the lines anyway?
It's apelled H-E-R-O-I-N.
A heroine is a female hero.
Tell you what - smokeless tobacco is just as deadly as heroin and cocaine. It's still legal. I've known cocaine users who abused the drug for years without developing any diseases. Smokeless tobacco? Kids use it and develop oral cancer within a matter of months. Have to get their jaws reconstructed or removed. It's that deadly.
Why not? The root plants grow right out of the ground using a process we can't duplicate artificially (create life) and they do it naturally all over the place. 