Posted on 07/05/2005 9:30:27 AM PDT by Sensei Ern
For many years, I have been a strong opponent of legalizing drugs. As you read this, remember that I am still against drug legalization, but I have more sympathy for the opposing argument.
The reason I have been opposed to drug legalization is to protect children. I grew up in a home that was one step up from a crack house..at least we had heat and food. I know first hand what can happen when a child lives in those conditions.
As a counter, I have always felt that use of tobacco and alcohol should be legal for those of a responsible age.
The reason I am considering a change is because of the pain I went through this last month. Four weeks ago, I had a root canal done on a tooth...it was Friday. Once the Novocain wore off, I was in serious pain because the doctor was inexperienced and left a partial root. I experienced pain worse than listening to Rosanne Barr sing the National Anthem. He forgot to write a prescription.
I called the emergency number only to be told I could see the doctor on Monday. TWO WHOLE DAYS IN EXTREME PAIN! I had some 800mg Ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet. That only took away enough pain to convince myself to not commit suicide to stop the pain.
On Monday, I was given a prescription of Tylenol 3 with Codeine and an antibiotic. That took away the pain. Until it ran out. Again, extreme pain. Another dentist did another root canal...and again did not get the whole root. I made sure he gave me a prescription for the pain, before I left the office.
Finally, when that ran out, and another dentist completed the root canal, the pain has subsided.
To be in the kind of debilitating pain I was in, cannot be described. Bill Cosby once talked about taking your bottom lip and pulling it over your head...that comes close.
I have always been an advocate of personal responsibility. That conflicted with knowing that some of the drugs offered today are so dangerous that they needed to be regulated. Then, I thought back about how things were a hundred years ago. The doctor prescribed a treatment, and you either made it yourself, or went to the pharmacist, who mixed up the more potential drugs.
Back then, the only regulation was, could you afford the cost? Drugs were available, and the pharmacist would determine whether you were abusing. If you OD'd on a drug from abuse, you died and life went on for others. But, you could get drugs if they were needed, and you did not have to wait until Monday. You didn't need to wait for approval from anyone to use a drug.
That is enough about that for the moment.
If drugs were to be legalized, they should be regulated like alcohol and cigarettes...have a legal purchasing age. Also, if you do harm to another while under the influence of anything, you should be held personally responsible...to the fullest extent, especially capital punishment for causing a death. If you are taking drugs to get high, strap yourself into a chair and sleep it off.
If drugs were immediately legalized, we could expect some immediate effects. For one, the drug addicts would run out and by everything, and we would have a rash of overdosing for about a month. The rest of us could then go on with our lives, only mourning the loss of a relative, instead of daily living with the horror of a drug addict in our lives.
Currently, I believe law enforcement should be stronger. But, I could be moved to undecided if I heard good arguments for the opposite.
--Pray for our troops --Pray they have wisdom to do the right thing --Pray they remain courageous --Pray they know we love and support them --Pray they get the equipment they need to do the job --Pray for their safe return home to a hero’s welcome
So you say drugs should be legalized and "regulated" yet you also say it's not the government's business? Make up your mind.
I'm lucky, I do neither, but I just don't get the hypocrisy.
If we didn't spend the money arresting them for drug sales/use, we'd be arresting them for something else.
I am not a drug user.
I never said you were. You might want to read my post again, slowly.
You are crazy. It is ILLEGAL to rape someone, just like to is illegal to take drugs.
"I have never understood victimless crimes."
Me neither! As far as I'm concerned, if there's no victim, there's no crime.
Along those lines, I think drugs, gambling and prostitution should all be legalized. If people screw themselves over in their indulgence of any one of those, so be it. They should be free to do that. But they should also know that when they do, its nobody else's fault (or problem) but their's.
No, he made it up so that he could make an argument for legalizing drugs. He had to suffer a few days without any pain medication, therefore drugs should be legalized. I'm just not buying it. It was the 2nd dentist that tipped me off. That's why I said specious - it sounds plausible but it's not. The whole thing is made up.
So legalize drugs and the guys who sell them will suddenly become law-abiding citizens?
Riiiiiiiight.
"(The gov has probably a written plan of action if they go that way, laws and guidelines, etc already developed)"
The government does not make plans waiting for the perfect time to impliment them. They do look at trends and determine how to respond. Most of the time, though, the people of the government have their heads up their behinds trying to figure out how they can keep their cushy job rather than how they can impliment some grand scheme.
Sorry, who's "both"? And anyone who lights a cigarette is aware that he's taking a risk with his health, just as anyone who lights a joint or pops a pill has the same awareness.
I don't think you want to hear what I have to say about alcohol.
Oh, but I do. If you think alcohol should be banned, please say so. Say it loudly and frequently. Demonstrate beyond doubt that you refuse to learn from history and are perfectly willing to follow policies that are proven failures.
And eating fatty foods is dangerous.
Only to the eater.
Ah. So you're saying that consuming drugs is dangerous to other than the consumer, because drugs Take Control of you and make you do Bad Things. Do you call yourself a conservative? Because most conservatives believe in something called personal responsibility. Most conservatives believe that if you willingly take part in an activity that might cause you to do something illegal, you get the blame for your actions, not the activity or substance that led to them. Should we ban books that are critical of the government, since reading them might cause people to take violent action?
When your sister has been raped and thrown out a window by someone who is high, let me know.
Okay. I think that we should execute all people who choose handles that start with ME, because those people are dangerous. When your sister has been raped and thrown out a window by somebody whose name starts with ME, let me know. Until then, you have no right to an opinion. Neener neener neener.
Hey, logical fallacies are fun!
BWAHAHAHA! (SNORT!)
It isn't as if we didn't try to ban alcohol. The stuff was deemed to be enough of a scourge on society that we criminalized it for many years in the early 20th century. It's just difficult to ban an addictive recreational substance once it's been legal for so long. The arguments for banning alcohol are much stronger than the arguments for banning marijuana.
True enough. But study after study has shown that drug and alcohol use are the biggest contributors to violence, particularly in the home.
So let me know when YOUR sister gets raped and thrown out a window by someone who is high.
"As a positive side effect, most drug abusers are liberals."
Hard core Abusers of hard substances?...perhaps...
Hemp smokers in general?...
*cough*....stereotype....*cough*
Working class people dont like crime any more than anyone else....
Cut hemp from the herd and you'll get so many tips on the hard crap ,they cant all be checked...
History, mainly. There is absolutely no logical rationale for the one to be legal and the other to be prohibited, other than the fact that historically alcohol was the drug of choice for the powerful and marijuana was the drug of choice for the powerless.
"He had to suffer a few days without any pain medication, therefore drugs should be legalized".
Who cares if he never suffered a second? Or for that matter if he made it up?
Are you saying that as "free" people, we should only be allowed to do what the government "allows" us to do?
Exactly how is that philosophy squared w/ our Constitution?
I'm up for that...we can all drive big nerf-mobiles and wear goalie outfits everywhere...
If I were the dictator, I'd legalize drugs and impose no mandatory regulations on them. (My assumption is that probably private regulatory companies such as the Underwriters Laboratories and Consumers Union would arise to give voluntary stamps of approval to various products, as consumers would likely demand.) But I'm not the dictator, and getting drugs legalized, regulated, and taxed would be far, far preferable than the current situation, and a lot more politically possible than just getting the government to leave everybody the hell alone.
The trouble with this is that many are only there for "non-violent simple possession" because they plea bargained to a lesser charge. If you were to get rid of the easy plea bargain system we use, and charged, for example, weapons charges whenever they applied, I might agree. But only if we also banned recreational drug users from any public medical assistance. And, yes, I include tobacco and alcohol in this.
"And eating fatty foods is dangerous."
>> Only to the eater.
Not really. What if some tub of lard gets a heart attack while driving?
>> When your sister has been raped and thrown out a window >> by someone who is high, let me know.
Try blaming the a##hole - not the drugs.
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