Posted on 01/19/2020 3:44:01 PM PST by conservative98
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is calling for the U.S. to legalize currently illicit drugs.
“If we take that step to legalize and regulate, then we're no longer treating people who are struggling with substance addiction and abuse as criminals and instead getting them the help that they need,” the 2020 presidential candidate said at a campaign stop in Merrimack, New Hampshire on Friday.
She was responding to a voter who asked whether her plan to end the war on drugs centered on more harm reduction and treatment or if it involved moving to “legalize and regulate narcotics so that you're no longer seeing tainted drugs on the street...and involvement in the black market.”
The congresswoman replied that her answer was “all of the above.”
“The costs and the consequence to this failed war on drugs is so vast and far reaching, socially and fiscally, that if we take these necessary steps, we'll be able to solve a lot of other problems that we're dealing with in this country,” she said.
Gabbard, who has sponsored several marijuana legalization bills during her time in Congress, had previously said in an interview last year that she supported “decriminalizing an individual’s choice to use whatever substances that are there while still criminalizing those who are traffickers and dealers of these drugs.”
Gabbard’s latest comments, which were first noted and recorded by journalist Michael Tracey, go beyond that by indicating she backs a legally regulated method of producing and distributing drugs.
The stance also puts her a step further than former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a rival Democratic presidential candidate, who has endorsed simply decriminalizing possession of all drugs.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Less no-knock pre-dawn raids by swat teams, sometimes going to the wrong house.
Not to mention more dead kids.
‘Legalization and regulation’ has never stopped very young people from accessing alcohol, tobacco, marijuana. How can anyone think it will stop kids from getting into even more, and more immediately dangerous, drugs? It will just make it easier.
When I was young, more ‘libertarian’, and less wise, I believed in the legalization of many things. Then I saw the American Family fall apart, and many kids go completely wayward without even the minimum of proper guidance from responsible adults. I changed my mind about the legalization of drugs, then.
A lot of the ‘adults’ in our nation will have to seriously grow up, before this idea will be safe for our society, and especially for our children.
Illegal drugs should be sold in liquor stores. The buyer can get a legal +high++ while making is easier for bureaucrats to collect delightful extra taxes.
And drive home on a cloud...
/
Parents are responsible for raising kids properly. Why should the tax payers be forced to pay for improperly raised kids abusing drugs?
I speak as a parent who raised 2 kids. We monitored every activity. The kids thought we were overly protective at the time. But now that they have grown up into adulthood, they both thank us for enforcing rules and disciple. Both are doing great in their careers now.
And marijuana criminalization has failed to keep that drug away from young people; they have been reporting since well before any state had legalized that they could get marijuana almost as easily as cigarettes or beer, although the latter two are much more widespread among adults. The available evidence indicates that the best way of keeping a drug away from young people is to legalize it for adults - which gives its sellers an economic incentive to confine their sales to adults, namely the risk of losing their legal adult market.
We may not be personally, individually responsible for the children of others; but we are responsible for what we legislate and which may negatively affect the children of our society in general. ‘Other Peoples’ Children’ are the future of our Nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls7rhJbr_rk
Better that than me paying income taxes I can't avoid to jail them.
And drive home on a cloud...
People don't get drunk at liquor stores and drive home; even a hardcore alkie can wait until he gets home to open the bottle.
Marijuana criminalization has negatively affected the children of our society in general.
I congratulate you. I was raised the same way that your kids were, and I am also grateful for it. It kept me out of a lot of trouble.
Unfortunately, we have many, many kids who aren’t ‘monitored’ at all; many who have been given no moral guidance; many who haven’t been taught how to think and choose wisely.
Suggesting to them that using ‘recreational’ drugs is ‘OK’ - because it’s legal, and adults do it - is only encouraging them to think that it’s harmless to indulge. They will find ways to do so, and plenty of unscrupulous adults will be happy to help them.
So we should make illegal for adults everything we don't want kids doing? Alcohol? Tobacco? Sex?
If anyone thinks that legalization and regulation will make the war on drugs go away and end the police state practice of civil asset forfeiture they are quite mistaken.
While I’m not in favor of legalization, I believe that putting non-violent users in prison for years is not doing any good and probably making it worse.
Alcohol and tobacco have been with us for centuries. I don’t think you can compare them to all of the substances available now.
I’m never exactly sure what people mean by ‘legalize and regulate’. But by what I perceive as the logical extension of your stance, we should ‘legalize and regulate’ everything possible, and make it all available to all ‘adults’.
It seems to me that we should make wise judgments about individual things, according to where we currently stand as a society, and whether we are in a position to deal appropriately with the possible consequences. And I think we’ve always done that.
Decriminalization is necessary but far worse things happen on the supply side. Bringing the black market into a white market would drive crime down long term. The demand side needs to be dealt with between family, friends, and health services. As remedies are concerned, the war on drugs and the prison system have been an objective failure.
What could go wrong? What a dumbass.
Frigging scumbag libertarians. Worse than rats.
We should have that in this country.Works pretty good in Singapore.
Exactly
You still have the pushers and that is the problem I have with it.If the pusher is the unwilling victim,TFB
If you really want to control drug abuse, forget opinions and theories. Learn from others who have either succeeded or failed. There is ZERO drug zombies in Singapore. If you want the same result, learn why Singapore has succeeded. And they do NOT spend a fortune addressing incarceration or reforming drug addicts.
Learn from others and avoid mistakes, because there is not enough time make makes and recover.
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