Drugs are costly when calculating street value, but cheap when making social policy decisions.

You can't have it both ways.

Heroin Use

Either the police need to stop getting their funding and basing their penalty sentences based upon the total dollar amount they captured, or the media needs to paint a realistic picture of the situation that actually calls police out on their B.S. when they report $10M worth of coc aine out of a studio apartment in the ghetto.

Heroin is cheap, crack is cheap, hash is cheap. These drugs are designed to be $5 or less per dose so the average street junkie can scrape together some loose change and ring their bells another time. Heroin was designed by Bayer corporation, and personally I think they should be held liable for its impact on the world. If a corporation can have exclusive rights to profit off its invention, shouldn't it have exclusive responsibility to clean up the problem it created in the first place?

If the US were to legalize drugs like marijuana and untreated coc aine leaves, we could get rid of the harsh drugs by going after the black market dealers, treating the end user as a person with an illness instead of treating them like some violent criminal, and restore some sanity to our society. Time and again countries have proven that eliminating prohibition leads to a gradual reduction in the rate of addiction. This is because free beings don't like to be told what to do, and when you treat them like children, you leave them with no choice other than to rebel against you if they want to maintain the illusion of free choice.

a reply to: Nechash

I'm all for legalization but not until they take driving and DUI out of the equation.

I don't need someone driving 120 mph to get to their dealer 10 seconds faster for their next fix or having them nod off on heroin going down the highway. I've got 2 young kids what do you want me to say. . . drinking is bad enough on our roads.

a reply to: AnteBellum
Same applies for deaths caused by those driving under the influence of alcohol.
I don't see how your comments have much relevance to the points the OP made?

*Edit*
...and I don't think the OP suggestion of legal pot and coca leaves is going to make any difference to a crackhead or heroin addict, totally different drug effects, totally different addictions.

a reply to: AnteBellum

The idea is to move people away from harder drugs like heroin, not to legalize heroin. You legalize marijuana, shrooms, coca leaves, things that have a more passive effect and you change the statues regarding things like heroin. Heroin possession for personal consumption or use should not have any jail time associated with it. Maybe a fine, some community service, probation and mandatory rehabilitation programs, but not jail time. Things like marijuana should be legal to use in the privacy of your own home or in a private establishment just like alcohol, but not for driving around while using it.

Well, first off, a stoned driver isn't going to be the same type of problem as a drunk driver. If anything they'll be dangerous because they'll be slower than other drivers and might not notice dangerous situations as readily, but it should never be legal to operate a vehicle under any kind of impairment whatsoever. If you are on cough syrup, you shouldn't be able to drive a vehicle. lol.

a reply to: Nechash
I agree absolutely, the crimes committed by any drug users should remain crimes, but it would be more helpful to society if the use of the drug was considered a medical concern, and not criminal.

a reply to: Nechash

No, I totally agree I misread the post, funny I did it the last time I posted in a drug topic also.

Marijuana IMO makes some people drive better, more focused and coc aine leaves are harmful but very benign comparatively. Really if it wasn't for certain side issues I would be for legalization of everything but unfortunately there are to many stupid people that would screw it up.

a reply to: AnteBellum

Yeah. Ideologically, I am for the total liberty of the individual up to the point that their behavior negatively impacts other people. The problem with hard drug use is that there is a suggestion that with certain drugs like heroin or PCP, the changes in functioning and behavior transform a person into something so desperate that they can no longer be responsible within the confines of a civilization. I personally don't know how things would turn out, as some countries have run heroin clinics without a rise in crime rate. It would definitely be a very sensitive issue.

As an American, I do not see the people of my country embracing heroin clinics. Even if they were profitable and relatively anti-bureaucratic, they would be too offensive to puritan sensibilities. Practically, I don't see that happening without a stern backlash in my lifetime, so I hope for a softer approach.

a reply to: Nechash

This is a subject I am very fluent in, unfortunately.

Methadone and suboxone clinics are there to enable users to co-habitate with society. Most don't realize heroin is not itself dangerous until it's effects have worn off the individual addicted to them, if they didn't OD in the first place. I've seen people turn into raging psychopaths trying to get there next fix and if money is needed first, it just complicates the scene even further.
PCP and the other hallucinogens are all pretty much the same, unless the person is mentally able to handle the trip - Bye Bye!
Cocaine is similar to heroin where as the individuals go through extreme methods to get more, but crack and the little known sister to it - Bazooka(which is like super crack) makes people nuts to get more. If anything when they are using it they are harmless. They will barricade themselves in rooms to be alone, due to paranoia.
Marijuana in my books isn't even near as bad as alcohol, which is legal already and I have felt for years a swap between the twos legality should be made.
The methadone/suboxone clinics which are all over the country since the 60's are very useless. Long waiting lines, poorly staffed, poor therapy and simply money making machines using addicts to their advantage. A lot has changed in the industry but laws and policy makers(big pharma) put up constant roadblocks.

ATS thread I did a long time ago on this subject