Question about end of the War on Drugs

Here is a question I want to ask any of you who are against an end to the War on Drugs. What would you do to get rid of the criminal element that surrounds drug prohibition and how do you propose we actually put an end to drug abuse in our society?


I asked this in campaign issues 2004, but I wanted to hear what the rest of you had to say.

Originally posted by cavscout

Here is a question I want to ask any of you who are against an end to the War on Drugs. What would you do to get rid of the criminal element that surrounds drug prohibition and how do you propose we actually put an end to drug abuse in our society?

I moved this over here from 2004

First part is easy just legalize it that takes the gangsters out of it.

Whens the last time you heard of a killing over booze? Happened every day during Prohibition.

The second part is a lot harder and to be honest I believe impossible.

About the best we could is invest some of the money we saved into rehab and thats about it.

Originally posted by Amuk

I moved this over here from 2004

Oh #, did I post it there? I hope no one else noticed. Thanks for fixing it man.


I also think the second part is impossible, but drug laws cannot make sense if this is true, so I wanted to find out if anyone has a plan they think would work.

What do you consider drug abuse?? anyone that uses a drug, or anyone that cant handle the drugs that they use and let it take over thier lives?
Humans have been using mind altering substances almost as long as we've been on this earth. Some of history's greatest minds have been drug users. I think the problem all starts with why people use drugs to begin with. Most true addicts use to forget thier problems. And most of those problems have to do with the state of our society today. The best place to start, IMO, is to fix society and the rest should take care of itself. Tall order, but nothing comes easy.

Originally posted by shoafy
What do you consider drug abuse?? anyone that uses a drug, or anyone that cant handle the drugs that they use and let it take over thier lives?

O.K., so I should have worded it better. My intent is to find out if those who support prohibition also think there is a way to end drug use (or even lower it significantly.) It seems illogical to continue incarcerating people if it will do no good, so I can't see how anyone can support the War on Drugs without thinking there will be an end to drug use someday. I would also like to hear how people think making it illigal will actually stop it.

I've always said that the war on drugs is a two-way losing battle.

First, you have dopers that going to use drugs no matter how high the price is. You can't fully stop the flow of drugs.

Second, the money that the dopers are spending on their high, could buy products that would in turn create more jobs.

Solution: Legalize all drugs to take out the criminal element, like Amuk mentioned. This would in turn bring down the prices where users could but more of their product. They know that drugs is destroying their lives but it doesn't matter to them, it's their life. If they happen to have a heart-attack in the process of using harmful drugs, then that's the price they'll pay. With their life.

Upon witnessing the deaths that is caused by drugs, those who may have a curiousity about using them will think twice about it, thus having the potential to curb drug use.

The dopers who don't have jobs and would rather steal to support their habits, put them in jail until they're clean, but make jail a place where they can't have television or privacy, make them eat the bare essentials to keep a person alive and make them work while they're incarcerated so they'll get used to working. Maybe, just maybe, something will click in their head that it's the life they don't wish for themselves.

Dopers don't want a life. They just want to get high and the hell with everything else. We need to give them what they want. If it kills them, then that one less problem.

This is my solution and I'm sticking to it!



[edit on 6/10/04 by Intelearthling]

Originally posted by Intelearthling
Upon witnessing the deaths that is caused by drugs, those who may have a curiousity about using them will think twice about it, thus having the potential to curb drug use.

How many people have ever died from marijuana use? Now tell me how many people have ever died from alcohol use. Ontop of that, how many people have died because of others drunk on alcohol? Yet it is legal.

[edit on 7-10-2004 by cargo]

Air, Shelter, Water, Food, Sex, Drugs.

These things will always be sought by humans.

The last two give pleasure. Pleasure brings guilt. Guilt is exploited as a means of control.

If the government were to legalize drugs, instead of recieving 100% of the income of imports, they'd have to settle for a percentage.

Thus, the stigma of drugs will always be maintained through the government and through its propaganda organs.

Pschological control. Financial control.

Drugs make a great scapegoat. "Why is the neighborhood so #ed up?" Drugs, son. Crack ruined the ghetto. Well Dad, crack's legal now, it costs .50 cents for a percetly safe FDA-approved hit. There's no more violence. What's the problem? "Lack of education and lack of jobs, son, let's change that."

War on Drugs. What, 22 years old now? If we have a 22-year-old War on Terror in the Future I'm going to laugh my ass off.

Originally posted by cargo
How many people have ever died from marijuana use? Now tell me how many people have ever died from alcohol use. Ontop of that, how many people have died because of others drunk on alcohol? Yet it is legal.

Marijuana prohibition is a joke. In many countries it's considered a soft drug. I'm talking about the harder drugs that 's highly addictive and cause more damage to the human body. Marijuana may not kill you yet, but it sure does take a person's motivation away and slows a person's reflexes not to mention it also affects their memory. You may disagree, but when a person is high, they're not being productive. All they can do is sit there and be "high".

Alcohol, on the otherhand, is the oldest man-made drug in existance. It does kill more people, directly and indirectly, than all the other drugs, both legal and illegal combined. Yet it is legal. The reason being is not greed. It's because it is relatively easy to produce and some producers, during the prohibition, were using lead-lined radiators in their distilling methods. It is a wicked drug and people get addicted to alcohol quite easily if they have a disposition to do so. It, like all drugs, have terrible side-effects that people who start using such drugs, never realize the harm they're doing to themselves. I'll take a drink and sometimes I'll over do it. But I'll tell you what, I sure as hell can do without any hangovers, that's for sure.

More ppl abuse LEGAL drugs than illegal ones.
More ppl die from LEGAL drugs than illegal ones.
Is there a criminal element involved there?
Bet your as� there is, it's called the Pharmaceutical industry!

The war on drugs is a joke.
Drugs were introduced into society in a big way by our own government to help control the population (and fund the CIA), especially the poor and African Americans.
In the 60's groups like the black panthers were organising people and neighbourhoods, black and white, and it scared the �rap out of the government.
An organized pissed off group of ppl are and should be a huge threat to the powers that be.
What better way to keep them down than helping them all get strung out on drugs.
The game is to keep the flow of drugs going and then convince the rest of society that they are doing something about it by declaring a "war on drugs."
("war on terrorism", do u c a similarity here? think about it).
If they really want to eradicate illegal drugs why can you buy anything from weed to heroin ONE block away from a major downtown police station in a major US city? In the 6 yrs I've lived here I've never seen anyone get busted (not that I think they should).
And the cops are sitting in there squad cars down the alley reading the freakin newspaper!!
I see far more ppl who have serious alchohol problems than drug problems.
And it's not cause it's easier to get. I can get any drug I want within 10 mins of leaving my house.
Where is the war on alcholism? The war on drug pushing doctors?
The war on totalaristic government? The war on poverty? The war on the fat bloated rich?
The problem isn't the drug abusers, it's the ruling elite who will use any method available to maintain their power. And as technology and communication becomes easier and more available to the "people" the more drastic those methods will become.
The govs major concern is keeping us under control and producing and consuming so as to maintain there positions of power. The military and police, which we pay for, are used for that end.
End of rant!


[edit on 7-10-2004 by ANOK]

Originally posted by Intelearthling
Marijuana may not kill you yet, but it sure does take a person's motivation away and slows a person's reflexes not to mention it also affects their memory. You may disagree, but when a person is high, they're not being productive. All they can do is sit there and be "high".

Abuse and excess will do that. The same point can be made of alcohol, where it eradicates peoples ability to reason logically, reduces inhibitions which may prevent risky behaviour and effects coordination required to operate heavy or dangerous machinery.

I'll be honest and say that I smoked pot during my time in University, I didn't just sit there and be high. In fact if anything it made me more focussed on what I was doing. I even spent time doing my assignments at home when high, and would get through hours and hours while so focussed on my work that I would look up at the clock and wonder how time passed by so quickly. This was a while ago, mind you, and any resonable person will realise when enough is enough. I havnt touched it since but have nothing against people who choose to use it as a recreational drug, like alcohol.

cargo,

I've had wild days also, but when I look back on those days I think about what I could have done if I wasn't busy being an anti-authority, wild tail. Getting out of school, going in the Army, getting married and having children made me realize that there is a better life to contend with.

I'm like you, I don't care if someone uses, as long as they don't mess with me. I know a lot of people that does, and they're good people, but I've got things I've got to do.