Replies

With all due respect, the gradations are spurious. Drugs kill. All of them. Some kill quickly with easy overdose potential, and some kill over time. But all of them kill eventually.

This is why rational people cannot take this argument seriously. Saying that all drugs kill, therefore we cannot rank them, is illogical. We will all die from something.

It is an established fact that some drugs make communities much less safe. These drugs tend to be illegal. Most of us are very happy with this.

Yes, we have a right and duty to prevent folks from messing with our own lives. I don't need to live through the nightmare of drug legalization to know that it would make my home and family much less safe. Drug use by itself may be a victimless crime, but the culture that surrounds it is degenerate and destructive. Liberals and libertarians made the same argument about the sexual revolution and feminism, and you were wrong then and you are wrong now.

I will, however, cede the field to you. I am fairly uninterested in this topic, and since drug criminalizion is a fait accompli, I cannot get too worked up about it. My best to you, sir or madam.

I certainly appreciate you ceding the field. Now if you would just concede the law as well...

I am certainly NOT saying that we can't rank them at all--my argument is that the current rankings are silly in light of the primary arguments that 'drugs kill,' and 'addicts commit crimes,' and if you want me to say the drug laws are logical, you'll certainly have to show me how that could be when alcohol is legal, morphine is legal, and marijuana and MDMA are not. Alcohol kills more people than any other drug. Morphine is pretty much the most addictive drug there is.

And you state 'established facts' that aren't. Many areas where drugs are legal are quite safe, which puts paid to your 'established fact.' Some aren't, but some places where drugs are illegal aren't safe, either. Does there come a correlation between the two? I don't think so.

And the sexual revolution and feminism had less to do with the law and the legal status of women than the drug laws do. Women were chattel in many states before the advent of SUFFRAGE, certainly, but the sexual revolution and feminism had really minimal effect on the laws affecting women, and were more intent on reforming societal mores. The movement for reform of drug laws, on the other hand, is the RESULT of societal mores regarding drugs and drug laws imposed as a result of overzealous legislators, and those are laws affecting EVERYONE.

It is an established fact that some drugs make communities much less safe. These drugs tend to be illegal.

Alcohol is much worse for community safety than marijuana, yet the safer drug is illegal while the less safe one is legal.