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
A good point, yet the hypocisy continues. Works along the same line as you can take a girl out and spend lots of money in an attempt to end up in bed with that person, yet prostitution is illegal.
Pushers wouldn't hang around schools if drugs were legalized. There would be no reason for them to do so. As a matter of fact, your neighborhood drug dealer would disappear in areas where it was legal to buy drugs. The only people selling bootleg alcohol are in areas where it is illegal to buy it.
We have action plans for if we get attacked by any country. It's a fact. We might not need to implement the Canadian action plan, or the Belgiun action plan, but, they are there. The gov may not have an 'official' plan to regulate, but I believe have discussed this, have some type of plan ready to go 'in case', covering how they'll tax it, FDA rules, etc. ready to discuss in congress. What do you think those lawmakers do? All they do is plan new laws and regulations. If they can successfully regulate it, to generate dollars, they'd do it in a heartbeat.
Society should not encourage elements of society that break society down. (They should not for example encourage homosexuality for the same reson.) But the War on Drugs has reached a point where everyone involved has a vested interest in the status quo.
I would favor busting all users as well as suppliers and putting them in mandatory treatment centers. Coupled with a media campaign to show that "all you are gonna do is spend you best years in treatment".
That said, if we are not willing to go far enough to stop the use, then decriminalization seems the next step. I believe the full legalization (like alcohol and smokes) has been tried and has not been pretty . (the Netherlands)
Of course not! Ha ha! Because, duuuuh, all the Capone-era violent gangs that were responsible for distributing alcohol during the nation's disastrous experiment with Prohibition are still controlling the alcohol business today. Yessir, there's no such thing as a law-abiding purveyor of alcohol!
Oh, wait...
Ah, I see, it was a class thing. Big Brother watching out for us!
Yep, and this is one of the better reasons to de-criminalize it.
It is because of the cost to everyone else when you get screwed up and have to have everyone else take care of you.
It is the same with AIDS and other "freedom" junk.
If you would be a hermit and never have contact with anyone else who would be burdened by your garbage, then do what you want.
Just leave everyone else out of it.
It happened after Prohibition ended.
Truthfully, many would leave the life of crime because they could no longer make an easy buck. Selling drugs is easy, robbing stores is dangerous and the pay is crappy.
That's not true. There will always be vices and those gangs that make money on vices will just exploit other vices. I saw an ad on Fox News the other night that they are now smuggling terrorists into the US.
Some kids form and join gangs for protection. A personal example is what I witnessed on the bus Friday. A latino glanced at a black guy's latino girlfriend and the black guy threatened the latino with death...not just a "I'll kill you," but a full blown 10 minute threat of following him home and killing his whole family and all.
I would not blame the latino for joining a gang to protect himself from this lunatic. Then, when this lunatic tries to follow through with his threats, encounters a gang, he forms his own gang.
Whole thing sounds like a bad episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger".
I'm with Clarence Thomas on opposing the federal WOD's abuse of the commerce clause, and I think the WOD is one of the worst policies in the history of the US.
It's a tough topic. Continue the ineffective WOD, regulate it, or a 'free for all'. You know, the gov will never do the free for all, they want a piece of the pie. And until they can figure a way to generate income from drugs, they'll continue with the current status quo.
I would bet that this occurred in state that did not have CC. The proper response to this is to pull out your handgun and blow the idiot away. Repeat as often as necessary.
If you can't keep prison inmates from getting high, just think of what level of government control would be necessary to keep the citizenry-at-large from doing so.
That is one of the most stupid lines of reasoning I've ever encountered. Let's just let petty crime go unabated, because the dollar amounts are so low. Graffiti? No big. $20 muggings? Let it slide. Ripping off hubcaps? So what, cops should be pursuing Mafia Dons instead.
You are in the wrong forum. You want the DU, down the hall and to your left.
They can generate much more income from the legalized sale of drugs than they can from stealing $1200 here and there from street dealers. And the plus side is they don't have to spend the money prosecuting and jailing the offenders.
Hey, suppose his sister caught a bullet in the crossfire from a violent turf war fought over illegal, drugs, can he have an opinion then?
What if his sister had her home burglarized by a desperate addict forced to pay prices that are inflated several orders of magnitude by the war on drugs, can he have an opinion then?
What if his sister was a judge in Colombia, executed by powerful and exceedingly well-funded organized criminals, then can he have an opinion?
Suppose his sister is going broke paying higher taxes both to pay for this insane civil war and to make up the shortfall from billions of dollars flowing through the entirely tax-free black market, is he allowed to have an opinion then?
If his sister's best friend died of an accidental overdose because her drug of choice was not labeled for potency like alcohol is, then does he get to have an opinion?
Many of us have sisters who are harmed in some way, large or small, by the War on Drugs. And every single sister who's been raped and thrown out a window by a drug addict in the past century has been done so while drugs were illegal. Drug prohibition has not prevented it.
Give me the right to shoot tweekers dead on the spot if they assault me or mine, and I might agree. But until the meth heads quietly lock themselves in a closet while they trip, then it most definitely IS the government's business, because they are effecting all the citizens around them.
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