I don't mean to hijack the thread, but this is a great topic and I'd like to get your opinons on this.... there are a lot of people here that have proposed the legalization of drugs such as meth.

It seems that most people agree that being on drugs leads to some pretty bad decisions. It's my opinion that the drugs being legal would make the decisions any better.

What would you say to someone who thought meth, herion, etc should be legal?

I'll go first. Granted, that would end prison time for drug possession. But reading this thread and hearing similar comments from others, I think all legalized drugs would do is fill the prisons even more from crimes committed while on drugs or trying to get the money to buy drugs.

Thoughts?

Hmm, legalizing ALL drugs? NO WAY!!! I just had a family member whom went to prison 2 yrs ago for drugs and just got out on July 11, 2006. I feel that you're right! DRUGS wouldn't do anyone any good by being an individual to depend on themselves in supporting their habits by committing more crimes to get their additions met. If they did legalize them, they could control the users of these drugs and by controling the usage it would put prisoners in rehab facilities instead of prisons to keep the cost of the states funding down and would sent the funds to the rehab centers to cure those who are addicted. Further more, Legalizing drugs and all other substances that are illegal would be taxed accordingly and therefore would have to be worked for and overseeing by authorities to administered to the addiction addicts to help their rehabilitations. Over all, I do suggest that drugs don't be legalized as it has been going on for generations of young people and their peers would have gotten ahold of and delivering with the helping hand of someone close to them for advise on how to do this or that. Our drug status started out in the early 60's and kept right on going and its time to end it here now.

I will have to agree inmateswife, legalization is NO answer.....if we think its bad now in this world, what would happen then???? It certainly would not eliminate crime......

no no no no no and more no no no no no no no no no no are you get my point lol no no no no no no no no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No way.

My husband cooked meth...it was his way of quitting coke. Legalizing it won't make it any less deadly. That stuff doesn't have one ingredient in it that can't be lethal on its own. Why on earth would someone want to combine them all into potentially deadly doses & think this would be something they'd want to snort, inject, or smoke?!?

Legalizing drugs wouldn't make people more "responsible" addicts. They'd still be the same reckless addicts they are today - only their problems would be excusable & covered by medical insurance more readily. Insurance companies would go broke covering losses due to treatment/deaths causes by these legal substances.

It's one of the worst ways out of a terrible society problem.

I would like to see a world in which a law against these drugs was no more necessary than a law against sawing your own foot off with a butter knife, because people just plain dang well knew better. I don't think legalization is the answer but I would like to see the problem medicalized. A certain type of person is attracted to the druggie lifestyle BECAUSE it is illegal, allowing them to feel like a Glamorous Rebel instead of just an idjit.

Hand it back over to the government LEGALLY and the prices would skyrocket. The implications being on the plus and minus side. Tough question. I can tell you this if back in the day I could get straight meth not some watered down diet pill version from my doctor with a measly co-payment sheesh I'd have been there. Still the end had to come legal or otherwise. Just because I never had to rob people to get my stash doesn't make me a wonderful person infact I was just one of many functioning addicts. This is one of those questions that comes along and makes one think of peeling an onion, so many layers...

Patty

JJ, I could not agree more. Alcohol is a legal drug that destroys lives daily buy abuse and then abuse and driving. It all starts at home and edcuation.

The education is there, those who would rather be involved with drugs choose to ignore it. Rehab and detox is available. Drugs are a choice. They destroy lives. Making them legal is a rediculous idea.

. . . Why on earth would someone want to combine them all into potentially deadly doses & think this would be something they'd want to snort, inject, or smoke?!?
The only thing I can possibly think of on that one sandra is because drugs are only dropped in certain communities as a trap -- one guy will sell the other will buy AND THEY BOTH WILL GO TO JAIL. That's the master plan.

In other communities, however, it's not so convenient. I mean if I wanted some heroin, coke, crack or dust all I gotta do is go up the street. In other communities, it ain't like that so instead of venturing off into the neighborhoods where you can find a plenty of whatever you want, I guess they go up under the sink to take a look at what's under there, and then they get creative.
Legalizing drugs -- no good!!! If somebody wants the hard stuff that bad, the way I feel is LET 'EM WORK FOR IT because they shouldn't be doing them in the first place. And, as proven with meth, if a person wants something to get high or tore up off of, they will do just that. My take is "so why make it easy for people to destroy and kill theirselves.

Legalizing drugs like meth, heroin or any other drug would make it so much easier to be an enabler. Take a drug such as meth...look at all the harmful chemicals that are used. Chemicals affect the brain and other vital organs to the body. Legalizing would be telling people it's ok to put harmful chemicals in your body, mess up your natural body chemistry and if you die you die. Why not just make rat poison an every day staple? Legalizing drugs would not be one of the smarter moves our rulers of the country could make. JMO

I'm kinda on the fence with this issue, but I'm leaning towards legalizing. I think people that choose not to do it now would still choose not to do drugs if they were legal. Addicts are addicts. They substitute one drug for another. Look at all the people that are addicted to prescription drugs. I personally know someone who is an ex cocaine addict/alcoholic, but is now addicted to oxycontin. Which is worse?

I was ready to say HELL NO on this one. But before I answered I thought I would take a look at Amsterdam's policy on Legalized Drugs. Here's two excerps I found. Makes you stop and think (I took these from a private web page, so I'm hoping it's okay to post.)

To my mind the present day 'war on drugs' creates a situation comparable to the USA Prohibition which caused mayhem in the nineteen-thirties. The present day USA 'war on drugs' is its later day cousin. This beastly policy will endure as long as the current prohibition rules lasts. I do think every conceivable drug should be available at low prices in government controlled drug stores, and a massive publicity campaign should discourage drug use. People cannot be stopped in taking in mind altering substances. But they can be talked into intelligent use of drugs if the quality of their life is decent enough.


From the perspective of Big Town or Small Town USA, there is a strange thing missing from this list of currently perceived social problems. Drugs and prostitution are indeed not seen as a major issue in Dutch society. Prostitution is well nigh legalized. Soft drugs are indeed consumed by an appreciable group of youngsters.
Dutch society (law and law enforcement) now distinguishes between soft drugs (i.e. hashish, marihuana, which are considered socially acceptable and although posession is illegal small amounts are tolerated) and hard drugs (mostly heroin or crack, which are seen to be the unglamorous dead end for losers).
Using soft drug or posessing small amounts of soft drugs is no problem. Up to the month of April 1997 a citizen with less than 20 grams of soft drugs in the pocket would NOT be persecuted, but this amount has now been lowered to 5 grams. Probably as a result of pressure from France and the German Federal (central) government.

There is however a serious but rarely effective enforcement policy on hard drugs. But in this hard nosed 'war on hard drugs' one exception is made: Dirty heroin needles are replaced quietly and for free by new ones - no names or questions asked - in order to stop the spread if HIV and AIDS.
Indeed only a small percentage of these hard drugs are actually caught during transportation. But even the ban on hard drugs is under discussion. A number of police chiefs of the major towns have openly declared that the 'war on hard drugs' is unwinnable. Recently an open letter was published in newspapers by a group of 43 prominent Dutch artists and performers, proclaiming that 'hard drugs' are not necessarily harmful. Many hard drug users -they claim- do not end up in the gutter of society. Instead many users continue to function as productive members of society, not stealing the necessary funds to procure drugs but earning it in their regular jobs.

I'm still saying the hard drugs should not be legalized.

No!

no way jose never

When I consider the havoc the "drug war" has created and the disaster visited upon families as members go to prison for drugs, and considering the money poured into stupid crap like spraying the coca fields in someone else's country, and the fact that terrorist groups make bundles on drugs currently considered illegal, I have to give a qualified *yes*.
Soft drugs should be non-jail. Hard drug users should be immediately put into deep therapies, not jail or prison.
It really needs to be nipped in the bud, rather than 20 years down the line.

Just Say "no"!!!

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but this is a great topic and I'd like to get your opinons on this.... there are a lot of people here that have proposed the legalization of drugs such as meth.

It seems that most people agree that being on drugs leads to some pretty bad decisions. It's my opinion that the drugs being legal would make the decisions any better.

What would you say to someone who thought meth, herion, etc should be legal?

I'll go first. Granted, that would end prison time for drug possession. But reading this thread and hearing similar comments from others, I think all legalized drugs would do is fill the prisons even more from crimes committed while on drugs or trying to get the money to buy drugs.

Thoughts?

No way should that ever be legal, that stuff kills. I can understand weed but nothing else.

NO

i'm With Patti On This One She Couldn't Of Summed It Up Any Better!!! Drugs Hurt Everyone The Addict The Victims The Loved Ones Everyone Involued In Their Lives,if They Legalized Drugs It Would Be Saying Its Ok To Steal,lie ,cheat And Slowly And Surly Kill Yourself DRUGS WILL TAKE A Good Person With So Many Talents And Turn Them Into A Whole Different Being That They Grow To Hate,it Destroys Them And The Person Who They Really Are,the Prisons Are Full Of Drug Offenders And In Most Cases It Saves Their Lives, And Other Innocent People From Being Victims,addicts Will Steal,lie And Do What They Have To In Order To Get That Next Fix Including Having Reckless And Un Safe Sex,(man Or Woman).leagalizing Drugs Will Not Make Things Any Better,you Got To Keep In Mind The Pain,the Crimes,The Deaths That Are The Out Come From Drugs.

Absolutely not. NO NO NO I fear this more than anything when my husband comes home. He is completely drug and alcohol free now. He tells me the hardest drug to quit and stay off was tobacco and he fights that one everyday.

Legalize everything, tax the heck out of it, and use the proceeds for rehab for those who become addicted and wish to quit. If anyone under the influence commits a legitimate crime, let them be held responsible for that crime, not for some substance they had in their systems when they committed it.

If street drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies were available at K-Mart, that would be the end of the streetcorner drug dealer, and might well eventually put organized crime out of business. Like other "sin items", limit purchases to those 21 or older, make sure folks have clean needles, etc. Yes, a certain percentage of people will become addicted, much the same percentage as now become addicted to alcohol. Treat them as we now do alcoholics, on the principle of individual responsibility. I hardly think there will be a rush to Target to try heroin--oh, a few more people than do now might well try it, but will more hardcore addicts result? I doubt it.

It may be worth noting that through the majority of this country's history, there was no federal regulation of what we now know as "street drugs" (prominent exceptions being the amphetamines and barbituates, which were developed during the 20th century). Opiates, cocaine, and marijuana were common ingredients in patent medicines for pretty much anything that might ail you (so, I might add, were arsenic and strychnine), cigarettes, chewing gum, and plenty of other forms (the original formula for Coca-Cola, developed as a headache cure, contained cocaine). The old-time cowboys were known for relaxing by rolling up a bit of "weed" at the end of the day--hardly surprising in that it was difficult to get tobacco in parts of the West. By some accounts, the legislation which outlawed marijuana was sponsored by distilleries which had lost business during Prohibition to former customers who switched to "wacky tobacky". Even LSD, when first developed, was completely legal through much of the 60s and available as a pure Sandoz pharmaceutical product instead of the result of some basement lab. Any number of natural products containing variants of LSD and mescaline remain legal--you can buy them on eBay.

What's curious about this part of our early history is that during the period before the government got into the regulating business, the violent crime rate was a fraction of what it is now. Prohibition brought organized crime and its associated violence to prominence--over alcohol. Prohibitions on other substances continue to have the very same effect.

Mind, by advocating the legalization of drugs, I do not advocate that everyone rush out to buy them. The adverse health effects of most are well-known, and public awareness campaigns should remain high, just as they do for cigarettes, alcohol, and compulsive gambling.

Let's just see what happens. We just might find out that people deserve far more credit for being able to behave themselves than our present system allows them. We own our own lives, and to the extent that we do so without injuring others, the government has no business dictating the terms of ownership.

Amen, Dave Moff!!!

And I am sure anyone who has witnessed some of the street crime associated with the illegal sale of certain types of drugs would agree!