What did these people do before the 60's hippie protesters popularized illegal drugs? In 1955 I graduated from a very large high school and no one I knew had even heard of any drugs. Today we even have elementary school kids taking drugs. We have freepers advocating drug use. I don't think we can change back to the way it was. The WOD confuses me. I hate drug users, dealers and apologists. I don't see any viable options. If we legalize drugs, elementary school kids will still use them.
"If we legalize drugs, elementary school kids will still use them."
This is a real problematic issue. With NO controls and full illegality, yes, there is nothing to keep children away from them. As a former user who, by the grace of God, am clean (and who started at the age of 15), the threat and eventual reality of imprisonment was enough to help me see it was the wrong path after six bad years.
The bigger issues about the WOD is intertwined in these threads. It is true that alcohol, drugs, tobacco - some people are given over to addiction, period. You cannot change that, so society needs to try to make the dangers of abuse visible, regardless of its legal position. The problem, as mentioned in the gambling post, is that making drugs legal only helps legitimize it. Those people prone to addiction will still be a drain on society, and the questions will again be the same as they are now - what is the right solution to helping them get over it when they decide they have had enough? Free or additional meds? Incarceration? Hospitalization? Group therapy? And who pays the bills for this, if the user cannot?
On the legalization side, yes, the WOD is a failure. There is a LOT of dope out there, and a lot of bad people making money with it. I wholeheartedly agree with the post that stigmatization and public shame would go a long way to help prevent drug use initially. As long as the culture makes this a positive or value-neutral activity, the idea it is a bad thing to do will never take. Like tobacco, convincing people there is no good end to it would help solve the problem regardless of legality.
Also, yes, legalization would allow the substances to be regulated (taxed) and better kept out of the hands of the underaged; however, the feds would still remain in place to chase ILLEGAL creation/distribution/sale, which would not disappear with legalization. Moreover, given the various substances available, where would legalization stop? Pot? LSD? Herion? Crack? Meth? What level of psychotic reaction are we willing to live with legally as a society?
Next, what do we do to regulate the potential consequences of making this stuff legal? Right now, we deal with alcohol on a legal level, with stiff penalties for those who misuse it and hurt others as a result. 'Nothing more than that' is a feeble answer, because people on some of this stuff are not rational in many instances; a tab of microdot LSD is not like drinking a glass of wine with dinner. So do you register users when they buy? Do you restrict them to specific 'high' environments? Do you take away thier ability to drive? If they are too f*cked-up to work steadily, who pays for thier dope so they are not street criminals? Are they wards of the state? These are all questions that the legalization crowd needs to answer before I am on that band wagon.
In my case, the court system and punishment was enough to help shake me out of it; I don't know where I would be now if that fear hadn't worked. Freaked-out parents, caring teachers, reasonable friends, and associating with felons who were doing worse, non-drug related activites to support their drug use - nothing else could convince I was on the wrong path until I realized that this was my future.
They were never the good old days....
"I hate drug users, dealers and apologists. I DON'T SEE ANY VIABLE OPTIONS."
Actually there are very viable options. That is to teach the skill of reducing/eliminating internalized PAIN. Also learning how not to cause it in the first place. This can be accomplished starting in childhood. I started learning these skill shortly after our second child was born. He would observe me discharging internalized pain, and began to use the skills himself. In kindergarden he came home very angry at some children who had picked on him. I suggested he go to our sound proofed room and let out some feelings. He put a pillow on a mattress on the floor and started to jump up and down on it screaming and yelling at the %^*()(*&&^^ who had made him miserable. After a few minutes he stopped, smiled and said "I feel much better now, Mommy," and went off to play.
In the 5th grade his favorite teacher was looking very sad one day. At the end of the class, which was also at the end of the day, he went up to her and said she looked very sad and it was OK to cry, and gave her a little pat on the shoulder. She burst into tears, but stopped crying and smiled a few minutes later. My son came home feeling very empowered that he had been able to help another human being.
Some simple techniques. For ANGER, if you feel it in the shoulders get a punching bag. Or kneel facing a bed or sofa. If you feel it in the legs get an old tire, or wedge something soft into a corner. Kick or punch while at the same time cursing out the cause of your misery, keep doing this until you feel better. Sometimes you will want to cry, go ahead and cry until you feel better (this is especially hard for men, but do it anyway). If you are angry at someone close, family, boss, coworker, do this first, then talk to them when you feel rational and calm.
For PAIN and GRIEF, put on some sad music and have a good, long, hard cry. If you feel like screaming, scream into your pillow, or turn up the TV, or go out into the country. Keep discharing until you feel a lot better. This can often be 90 minutes or more. In fact this timing may be related to the 90 minute sleep cycle. For woman, releasing pain, will often reveal underlying anger, then revert to the paragraph above.
These are skills which can be taught, or they can be utilized and adapted without outside help by many, especially those with less severe distress.
ONE BIG QUESTION. How many here have actually converted your distress/disgust about the War on Drugs to action by contacting your elected representatives? Tell them to get rid of mandatory minimums, decriminalize lesser offenses. Put more resources into treatment rather than incarceration. Or whatever other solution you favor. Don't just COMPLAIN here at FR. If you are not part of the solution, are you part of the problem?? Right now politicians are afraid to make waves because they do not realize how many on both right and left think the WOD has proved an expensive failure. Let them know.