Just wondering how many of you feel that drugs should be legalized.

I am for the decriminalization of the cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. I believe current criminal penalties for possession and use of small amounts of marijuana are disproportionately harsh.

As it is with the use and possession of alcoholic beverages for consumption, a certain level of maturity and responsibility is required of the user.

This is my opinion and I don't expect others will feel the same as me.

That is a tough question. I have some friends who are members of the cannibas club. A lot of cancer, and one good, good friend of mine is in the advanced and final stages of hep C. He needs a liver transplant deperately, and may die without ever having one.

That is the only reasons above that i believe one should have marajuana.

Other drugs need to remain illegal.

Just my opinion

In terms of Marijuana, I think that in most cases, they make too much of it, and it's not a reason to go to prison.
In terms of other drugs/narcotics-no.
If my boyfriend was able to use heroin legally, or freely, he would be dead by now.
Pot won't kill you. Heroin, Crack, Meth, Etc, will. Prison saved my boyfriend's life, for now.
My opinion.

I am on the fence for medical marijuanna. But solidly against legalization of any of our currently illegal drugs, even mariijuanna.

I voted "NO" I am very anti-drug~

I agree with Freya!

I am also against any kind of drug becoming legalized. As a child who grew up with an addict for a father I know what happens to people while under the substance. A lot of people think that pot is harmless, but I honestly believe that it is a gateway drug that does lead to others... Just my opinion

Marijuana is okay. Like alcohol it depends on the amount you incorporate. There's currently a rumor in Germany about the legalization of marijuana and I support it. The possession of small amounts for personal use is illegal, but is not prosecuted here. I also understand those who are against legalization. After all it's still a drug.

I vote a firm No! You cannot show me one verifiable benefit from legalizing drugs, including marijuana. I know that opinions difer on the 'medicinal use' of marijuana, if there truly where scientifically documented proof that marijuana had actually medicinal uses, then every pharmacutical company in the USA would be lobbing to have it legalized. Truth is some fringe doctors support it's use, but no one in mainstream medicine/pharmacology agrees with legalizing it.

It's a slippery slope type issue, once it starts where would it end.

Nothing positive in drugs - period

I VOTE YES THE ONLY REASON WHY THEIR NOT ALREADY IS THE GOVERMENT CANT TAX THEM. MOST DRUGS ARE EASY TO MAKE OR OBTAIN. AND THIER ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO USE THEM ALREADY THAT LEGALIZING THEM WOULD EFFECT MUCH OF ANY THING. BUT WAIT THE GOVERMENT WOULD LOOSE MONEY IF THEY COULDNT PUT PEOPLE IN JAIL FOR THAT. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY WITH THE DEFICIT LIKE IT IS THEY JUS TRY TO GET MONEY ANY WAY THEY CAN

I'm new here, but I just had to put in my 2 cents on this subject. I'm all for legalizing marijuana. It doesn't even fall under the definition of an illegal drug. Guess what does though? Alcohol and cigarettes. Cigarettes are the #1 gateway drug. I've taken many polls on other forums on this issue. With questions like "in what order did you try drugs?" And the #1 answer the majority of the time is cigarettes, with alcohol a close second. Marijuana is a medicinal herb. Not a drug! It is not manufactured by humans as all other drugs are. Alcohol and tobacco should be unacceptable in our society, they kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, and have no medicinal qualities.

I am solidly against legalizing any drugs. But, I do feel doctors should be able to prescribe marijuana to those who need it. Lets face it, if someone who is going thru chemotherapy can get some relief from smoking pot, then they should be allowed to do so at their doctors disgretion.

For those of you that feel Marijuana is a drug, and should not be legalized....I understand your opinion, you haven't been educated on the matter, you've only heard the propaganda, what the government wants you to hear.


But what I'm saying is lets call a spade, a spade, if drugs are to be illegal, make the most dangerous drugs known to mankind illegal........alcohol, and cigerettes.


The prisons are overflowing with people convicted over harmless marijuana growing or possession. If the laws were changed, there would be more room for the violent criminals that need to be there, and more money could go to education, where it should be.


How many women are abused because there husbands/boyfriends are marijuana smokers? No, that's alcohol!
How many people are killed by people driving stoned? No, that's alcohol!
What about lung cancer from marijuana? No, that's cigarettes! All we have to do is look at the statisticts. Just because in society it is acceptable to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, doesn't mean it should be legal anymore. We've all seen the destruction these drugs cause.

I'm with you, LadyX. Alcohol is far more devastating. So is tobacco. But prohibition leads to a black market which leads to crime, violence, broken families- a huge expense. Is there anyone here whose big reason for not using drugs is because they don't know where to find them? Believe me, in any community in America, if you don't know it's because you don't care to know- not because they are illegal and hence impossible to obtain.
Prohibition also adds an aura of excitement and glamor for rebellious kids- it's a way to be baaad, long before they realize how deadly the trap. I also think a lot of depressed, bipolar, and otherwise unbalanced people self-medicate rather than get help.
As I understand it, in Europe, kids have a little wine at the family table as they grow up and learn to drink responsibly. Their rates of alcoholism are way lower.
Marijuana is the only "illicit substance" I could imagine letting in to society as acceptable in some settings- medical and even social. As for it being a gateway drug I think that's upside down- most people who go on to try wose things have OF COURSE tried pot too, but a lot of pot smokers wouldn't touch harder stuff.
My admittedly way radical view- decriminalize. ALL OF IT. Medicalize instead. Put those drug war dollars into creating the kind of society where life is too sweet for people to want to miss out on it by getting numb and dumb (education, etc.) and treat addiction as the spiritual sickness that it is. I respect those who say prison may have saved a loved one from addiction, but might there not be some better way? I know it ain't fear of prison that keeps me from being a cokehead or a meth freak. It's having found things about life and about myself that are worth staying conscious to enjoy.
There is an alternative philosophy on dealing with drug use called harm reduction, and I personally believe it is where we should be headed- not a war on our own citizens. would also greatly lessen the profit margin for the real nasty thugs.
Hope I haven't made anyone too mad, just my 2 cents.

I agree with your statement about prohibition. It's not logical. But what angers me is the poor people with aids, MS, and other life threatening, painful diseases, being arrested for growing or possessing medicinal MJ. Even in the states that recognize the use of it. Something has to be done.

I used to be for a return to prohibition and now here I am going to vote for legalizaton. Guess my views have changed in the last 20 years or so. :) Not because I think drug use is good but because I think the cost of prohibition is too high and the real problem isn't even being addressed. I don't use any drugs, I've never even drank alcohol although it is legal. I think people should be allowed to make even BAD choices for themselves though. 'Drugs', at least mood altering substances, were legal for many years in this country. People were expected to make intelligent decisions about thier own well being. (I think it is no coincidence that many of these substances became illegal just when the big drug companies were getting patents on thier own medications- just a stray thought.) I believe a lot of the war on drugs is ridiculous. If they really wanted to stop drug use they could use money collected from the legal sale of drugs to finance rehab centers. It would be cheaper than all this prison time that taxpayers are currently providing and I think a lot of the violent crimes related to drug deals would stop as well.

Marijuana should be legal....every body's doin' it anyway

I don't know if I necessarily agree with the statement that everyone is smoking pot :) but I think that maybe they should treat pot like they treat alcohol. Something along those lines. Legalize it, but have the rules that they do for alcohol. Of course that will cause problems, just like alcohol does, but to send people to jail because of weed is just taking up space and spending money that could be used for other things.

Pakalolo has been around my whole life so to me if any drug should be legalized it should be this one. Yah you can sit on a corner and smoke a doob but you can't a glass pipe

Originally posted by Kalei151
Yah you can sit on a corner and smoke a doob Not on my corner you better not! I will make sure you are arrested and put away!
Why? Because you don't have permission!
Don't like the law, then don't break it!

As for legalization, I think they should legal and regulate ALL drugs, but only in your private homes, NOT OUTDOORS, not in public. Why? Because you need to know where to draw the line! Once you learn that, you will no longer have an addiction.

And legalization with strict regulation is what WILL FORCE you to draw the line.

As it has most people with alcohol. Think about it. With alcohol, you cannot have open liquor in the car, nor give to a minor, nor can you sit and loiter on a street corner with open liquor. These things FORCES people to establish and respect limits. Which is what users need to learn. It's called responsibility.

Ever hear of "drink responsibly"? Well, you should "use responsibly" too. There should be no difference.

Having two sets of laws (one for drugs, one for alcohol) is messing people up. If everything was just put all together and standardized as one, learning limits would be much easier to learn and get adjusted to and familar with.

And if you don't like it, then you don't do it. How much simpler can it get?

Well that sounds so perfect but unfortunately some drugs, permanent changes happen in the brain, and in other drugs in the body. The sense of responsible is actually altered quite dramatically. Its not quite like waking up in the morning with a hangover, there is a real take over of body and mind even when not on the drug. If you want I can send you some links on some research data that goes into great detail about this and how quickly after starting the drug this change takes place. With some drugs and some people it can happen after the first use. Let me know if you would like to see the research on this Margaret.

So witchlinblue, which do you think, should drugs be legalized or not?

Ive already answered this on the poll and in more than one thread. I believe in legalization of medicinal pot, the rest would be a death sentence for society and most of all our children and I would hope that no civilized country would ever legalize any of the other drugs unless it was for some sort of very regulated medicinal purpose. I also believe that no one should drink even one drink and drive, I believe that no one should drive after consuming anything that can affect the mind or body including anti-depressants, etc. I think if they are going to crack down then they got to crack down on everything that is harmful to the body, I would even agree to booze being gone if that is what it takes, and even tobaxxo, since studies have shown that the same area of the brain that is affected by tobacco addiction is also the area that is affect with addiction to many hardcore drugs. I believe in drug testing in schools, I believe that cops should be testing for drugs and booze when doing car stops, I believe that what ever it takes to stop the incoming drugs and whatever it takes to get addicts better thus lessening the demand which will bring down the dealers, etc.

Margaret, I sent you a PM

By the way, smoking medicinal pot has health hazards and they have a pot pill now and also various other ways of intake that are less harmful. Most of the diseases that its approved for in Canada, traditionally are treated with drugs that are much more harmful, and sometimes deadly.

I dont buy the arguement that because pot is no worse than alcohol or tabacco, that it should be legal. They are all bad, so why make things worse?

I am fairly educated on marijuana, not just propoganda. I believe in using it as a narcotic, which it is, for medical purposes with a doctors consent. It is a narcotic, it is a narcotic, it is a narcotic. (hoping it will sink in) It is addictive and it does cause lung cancer. Some recent studies show far greater risks of lung cancer from pot than from tobacco. But, I know the pro pot guys will never accept this.

Yeah, I agree it is a narcotic and treated medically as one. You are very right.

What?
as long as the 2 worst drugs are still legal (Cigarettes killed 450 thousand people & Alcohol killed 650 thousand! & distroyed at least that many Families Too!) Last year.

I say legalize ALL drugs.

The 3rd worst drug is Cocaine & it killed 26 K last year. Meth killed less than 2 K

Marijuana has never killed NOT 1 PERSON.

THE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS KILLED 47 K BUT THIS INCLUDES SUICIDES BY OVERDOSE OF THEM.

Aspirin & Tylenol combined killed 13 K !

Where is the Question Mark?
Peace,
Benjamin:thumbsup:

thats a very valid point there.... :thumbsup:

I think Marijuana should be legalized. It doesn't harm you. I'm with LadyX on this one. I say that because I used to smoke marijuana for years. I stopped smoking because I am pregnant even though it doesn't harm the child, a nurse told me she didn't think I should smoke while pregnant.I don't plan on smoking it after my child is born but I still feel its okay. As far as the other drugs no they should not be legal because they do harm.

i think if drug were legal then they should be aloud so much of one drug in a time limit and in a place they can do nothing foolish or out of line i dont get why weed id ilegal it does nothing bad honestly thats my thoughts but all down to it i believe they should be a limit on alcohol ciggs. weed but others no it just getting off which makes it so hard

For those who do not use drugs (I am one of those now), is the choice not to use drugs a result of the legal consequences? OR is it a choice based on education and preference?
I am a firm believer that the choice is a result of personal preference NOT the fear of the judicial process.
IF in fact (DARE) kids were taught the TRUE legal implications of getting involved in the underworld, perhaps our jail cells would not be jammed packed with non-violent victimless offenders.
Think long and hard about this:
Do you honestly believe that its more difficult for highschool children to buy beer or buy dope....the answer might surpise you.
$20 billion a year to fight a war against our own citizens and America's youth is on the front line.
Its time for a solution.
071

I'm rather fond of a quote from the author Philip K. Dick (who was himself an admitted heavy drug user): "The choice to use drugs is a personal choice. So is the choice to step out in front of a moving bus".

It is a principle which the United States government refuses to accept. In regarding the populace as so unable to act responsibly or take care of itself, it insists on playing parent via legal restrictions on various psychoactive substances. Meanwhile, it places little or no restriction on the sale and possession of other such substances (alcohol being especially dangerous)--and perhaps by no coincidence receives significant tax revenues from the sale of same.

The lack of taxes and quality standards for "street drugs" are what make them so profitable for organized crime. Decrease the profit incentive, have the FDA insure that buyers are getting what they really think they're getting and I'd bet that the Mob would turn its attention to other ventures in short order.

Who makes sure we have illegal drugs in our neighborhoods??? Duh... the government is the ones who make it happen.... I did a paper about drugs and the Biggest Drug Lords is our own government.

I think there is no reason why marijuana shouldnt be legal. Its not any worse for your health then tobacco and u can function on it WAY better then alcohol, and alcohol is legal. If anything, marijuana should be legal and alcohol shouldnt be. PPl. who drive drunk can kill themselves and others not to mention the negative personalities alot of ppl get from drinking and also how very sick it can make u. Marijuana has a completely different effect, and its not gonna kill anyone. Of course if they did legalize it they should make the legal age ATLEAST 21, probly older in all reality, alcohol should have an older legal age also in my opinion. But a little marijuana for the ppl who like to come home from a long day and smoke a little should definately be legal, its harmless, theres no reason to penalize ppl for using it. But thats just my opinion!

Good God, I leave for a few years and look what happens!! Of course drugs should be legalized. Look at Amsterdam and Portugal and bla bla bla (you've heard all the pro-drug arguments already I'm sure).
Meth didn't ruin your life, you ruined your own life. Take responsiblity. There are many others that can do drugs or drink without letting it become the number one focus in our lives.

i think that marijuana should not be illegal, but other drugs should be,and its hard for me to say that ive been there done that but stopped since i got pregnant and had my baby, but if all drugs were legal there would be many many more deaths of overdoses then there already are and alot more tragedies

IF in fact (DARE) kids were taught the TRUE legal implications of getting involved in the underworld, perhaps our jail cells would not be jammed packed with non-violent victimless offenders.
Think long and hard about this:
Do you honestly believe that its more difficult for highschool children to buy beer or buy dope....the answer might surpise you.
071

I remember back in the 1980's, the elementary school I attended was very much for presenting its students with the DARE program. They used puppets and cute stuffed animals to warn the class about the dangers of using drugs. The way they went about it was more amusing and inticing to me than anything else. And I don't remember one mention about the TRUE legal implications of drug use. I think that a program regarding the legal, mental, physical, and emotional consequences of substance and alcohol abuse should be installed among every high school where teenagers must pass the program with 80% or higher or they won't qualify to graduate. I would say that 99.9% of the time I could score drugs before alcohol while attending high school. Did the DARE program teach me anything? No, not really. I had no clue what a drug was until the DARE program and the little puppet informing me of taking a substance (LSD) that would cause me to see cartoons and pretty colors got me pretty darn curious. My drug abuse was my choice and rehabilitating myself after the damage was down was my choice as well. But I do feel that an in depth program would benefit our youth more so than a program that just skims the surface of a serious program plaguing the US today.

I hate when I see all the commercials and stuff about the war against drugs because the government is the one thats bringing all the drugs in here. How else is it getting across the borders? I also agree that it is a personal choice as to using drugs or not, but I dont think legalizing it would fix the problem either. However I do think marijuana is an exception but everyone especially our youth should know the health risks with it just like alcohol and tobacco.

hell yeah i think drugs should be illegal...
i was heavily addicted to h for a few years & if that shit was legal the country would be over.. its terrible & i dont wish that apon anyone,
what i do hate
is govt makin money off ppl like me.. possession charges ending up costing me thousands of dollars? id rather be in jail

Legalize...regulate...tax...Everything.
More folk die from aspirin and eating Big Macs than from illicit drugs. If drugs were legal, the dosage units regulated, and the quality control standards set, there would be even less deaths still.

Deaths in the United States in a typical year are as follows:

Tobacco kills about 400,000
Alcohol kills about 80,000
Workplace accidents kill 60,000
Automobiles kill 40,000
Cocaine kills about 2,500
Heroin kills about 2,000
Aspirin kills about 2,000
Marijuana kills 0There has never been a recorded death due to marijuana at any time in US history.
All illegal drugs combined kill under 20,000 per year, or a small percent of the number killed by alcohol and tobacco.
Tobacco kills more people each year than all of the people killed by all of the illegal drugs in the last one hundred years.


From The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
The Califano Report
Drug Prisoners

1,360,000 Drug Prisoners in America
1.7 million Americans are incarcerated in prisons or jails, more per capita than any other nation.
Nearly 80% of all prisoners in America are for drug related offenses.
Ten million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.

Legalize...regulate...tax...Everything.
More folk die from aspirin and eating Big Macs than from illicit drugs. If drugs were legal, the dosage units regulated, and the quality control standards set, there would be even less deaths still.

Deaths in the United States in a typical year are as follows:

Tobacco kills about 400,000
Alcohol kills about 80,000
Workplace accidents kill 60,000
Automobiles kill 40,000
Cocaine kills about 2,500
Heroin kills about 2,000
Aspirin kills about 2,000
Marijuana kills 0There has never been a recorded death due to marijuana at any time in US history.
All illegal drugs combined kill under 20,000 per year, or a small percent of the number killed by alcohol and tobacco.
Tobacco kills more people each year than all of the people killed by all of the illegal drugs in the last one hundred years.


From The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
The Califano Report
Drug Prisoners

1,360,000 Drug Prisoners in America
1.7 million Americans are incarcerated in prisons or jails, more per capita than any other nation.
Nearly 80% of all prisoners in America are for drug related offenses.
Ten million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.


Now how can u not agree with that??!!

I think that the government should legalize some drugs and take over the controls of selling them (like liquor) (at least in PA it is like that). They could tax people on them and make money and could manage what was being used and where. They would dramatically decrease the prison population and would save tax payer dollars on that as well. But if you ask me I think they already make a precentage off of the drugs sold in the US. (Just a theory of mine)

Well that is a pretty broad and open question. "Should drugs be legalized?" I say legalize the marijuana. It has been proven that it does no harm to your body or alter your mind to an extent of causing harm. It has great medicinal uses such as the ease of gluacoma and helping aide cancer victims of pain. Then I am sure that there are plenty more uses for the herb. It is just that a herb. The government says it is legal to smoke tobacco. The number one cancer causing agent and killer. Yet it is okay to smoke cigarettes. I think that alcohol should be a controlled substance. There are more people killed each year by alcoholics than any other legal substance. As far as legalizing other drugs......they are legal. You just have to get a doctor to write you a prescription. As far as the people who abuse their narcotics presricptions they should be charged with the illegal distribution that most of them are doing. When the doctors write prescription drugs it is recorded by the pharmacies and the DEA and FDA. The dependence of narcotics is a choice. If you take your medication as prescribed it doesn't become a problem. And the methadone clinics. That is the governments way of using a drug to combat drug abuse. This is another legal way of obtaining what would be a controlled substance. The narcotics are legal already. They need to be more controlled to prevent the abuse of them and selling them. As for heroin and meth and coke these drugs should remain illegal. These are the more deadly drugs and life altering as well. When it comes to the question should drugs be legalized there are different aspects to different drugs. The list could go on and on.

There are two kinds of welfare programs in America. One is because you are not earning sufficient income to porvide subsistence living for your family and the other is being a soldier in the drug war. Of course, the latter seems noble and respectful and the other??? If one was to realize the cost in policing, investigating, judicating and imprisioning offenders, one would have enough money to send the same number of high school graduates to college for four years as there are persons in prison for an offensive, if that, against themselves.

I don't think drugs should be illegal. Look at alcohol. That's a drug also. You can't outlaw certain drugs and not outlaw others. If you are going to make drugs illegal, make ALL drugs illegal. Don't pick and choose.

I think drugs should be legalised.
Politically, drugs can be taxed and prisons would be much less crowded. If you could legally buy drugs, what would the dealers be doing? Finding productive work. With the money that they'd be making off the taxes, they could provide rehabilitation to addicts as well as clean up areas where drug use and crime is prevalent
With the legalisation of drugs, the quality can also be ensured and there would be less of a risk of the spreading of infections & diseases by infected needles.
Currently drugs are taboo which makes them glamourous to many people.

It's my opinion, from both sides of the story.

yeaaaah well......then there would be something new to add to the mix...so how would the crack heads get the money to buy the legal drugs ?? They aren't going to be productive citizens......so how ?

I would presume much the same way that alcoholics get money for their liquor. The major change would be that our prisons would not be stuffed with crackheads, except for those who had committed legitimate violent or property crimes.

Originally Posted by MsChevyKat
Legalize...regulate...tax...Everything.
More folk die from aspirin and eating Big Macs than from illicit drugs. If drugs were legal, the dosage units regulated, and the quality control standards set, there would be even less deaths still.

Deaths in the United States in a typical year are as follows:
Tobacco kills about 400,000
Alcohol kills about 80,000
Workplace accidents kill 60,000
Automobiles kill 40,000
Cocaine kills about 2,500
Heroin kills about 2,000
Aspirin kills about 2,000
Marijuana kills 0
There has never been a recorded death due to marijuana at any time in US history.
All illegal drugs combined kill under 20,000 per year, or a small percent of the number killed by alcohol and tobacco.
Tobacco kills more people each year than all of the people killed by all of the illegal drugs in the last one hundred years.


From The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
The Califano Report
Drug Prisoners
1,360,000 Drug Prisoners in America
1.7 million Americans are incarcerated in prisons or jails, more per capita than any other nation.
Nearly 80% of all prisoners in America are for drug related offenses.
Ten million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.

************************************************** **************
YES! That ruled! Thanks MsChevyKat for those stats!!! <3

Many types of drugs are used for medicinal purposes not just pot. The drugs aren't the problem. Our lack of values,self worth and wiliness to survive are the problem. We as Americans do not know the meaning of moderation. i.e. Addiction...whether it be obesity, drugs, shopping or vanity. You name it, we CAN'T HANDLE IT! It's time to take a look at ourselves and stop blaming the item that enables us. So yes I am for legalization.

Just thinking. What if marijuana was legalized, but heavily taxed like cigarettes are in some places? We could funnel the tax money into public education. Statistics show that the more educated people are, the less likely they are to enter the criminal justice system.

no what truely makes them more dangerous is making them illegal

The problem with drug laws, is that they make NO sense. Alcohol and tobacco are legal, neither serve ANY medical purposes, and both are detrimental to the health of the user.

Marijuana, needs to be legalized for medical use, and regulated and taxed by the government.

Marijuana, was lumped into a category in which it did not belong with the other drug laws, because as usual, the government did not understand it.

Meth, Coke, Crack, Heroin - for street use, doesn't need to be legal. But cocaine is an anesthetic and heroin does have some medical value, so as long as they are used and/or prescribed in the medical realm - I have no problem with them.

Truth is, people need to take more responsibility for knowing what they are talking about sensibly before flying off the handle and taking a stand on something they are not educated on. That's what got us in trouble with Ephedra - an herb, been in use in Asia for thousands of years, for bronchial and lung problems. Short term use to solve those problems. Then some lazy fat ass in America decided it would be a good substitute for diet and exercise and shortly it was abused and now it's harder than hell to find for the purposes for which nature intended it. Abuse anything and it will cause you harm and/or kill you. Educate yourself and you can damned near eliminate the need for Western medicine.

I almost choked when the FDA wanted to start regulating herbs and supplements. We don't need that. If you're stupid enough to take something without educating yourself on what you're taking and why you're taking it, then by all means, hurt yourself. But please don't take away my right to treat myself with Eastern medicine and cure myself of a disease instead of throwing thousands of dollars down a rathole watching Western medicine treat my SYMPTOMS with drugs that are killing me slowly, because some idiot out there can't be bothered with self education.

ALL drugs must be controlled taxed and regulated. The more dangerous a drug is, the more reason we have to legalize it. Our current policy is called prohibition, and no I'm not talking about the 1920s with alcohol. It exists today! In the 20's prohibition created Al Capone, today it creates people like Freeway Ricky Ross, and Pablo Escobar. This does NOT mean we sell crack at a convenience store. It must be controlled and highly regulated, and most important the drug trade must taken out of the hands of violent criminals. Once we regulate the drug trade, then we can control who gets drugs, how much they get, and where they get to do them. In the short-term drug use might increase slightly, but the social harms will be reduced. In the long-term drug use might actually decrease. We see this with tobacco where use rates are constantly decreasing due to public education despite the fact it's still legal!

Let me show you were the people in favor of making plants, and plant derived chemicals illegal go wrong in their reasoning.

There's this idea because heroin is so horrible and dangerous to people's health that we must continue with our current drug policy, and if we did anything different the world would fall into chaos.

What is occuring here is people are mixing up the Drug Problem, and the issue of Drug Policy. The Drug Policy issue is about the crime and violence, prohibition creates black markets, black markets are breeding grounds for violence and crime. This is an indisputable fact. By legalizing heroin, we are not saying "Heroin's not that bad, it's okay to use it." We're saying that prohibition is making the problem worse, because of the violence and crime associated with black markets.

Once we legalize heroin, only then can we effecitively address the DRUG PROBLEM. If we continue to give the power of the heroin trade to criminal cartels, only THEY get to say the purity, only THEY get to say who it's sold to. Why do we keep allowing these cartels to become rich? Once we legalize it, then WE get to decide, then WE get to control it. And once we have control over it, then we can adequately address the DRUG PROBLEM and deal with the horrendous addiction heroin causes. Addicts will now be able to get treatment they need, the money spent on prisons can now be spend on HONEST anti-drug education.

These issues get muddled together, and we need to evolve pass the caveman mentality of Heroin= Bad, Ban it. We've never banned anything out of existence, WE NEVER WILL. It's time we used some common sense and addressed the problem, rather than funneling societies undesirables into cages where COs become their treatment counselors.

Being against the War On Drugs, does NOT mean you are for allowing kids to gain access to heroin. The fallacy is this...

"Keep doing what we're doing and keep all drugs illegal, or society will collapse into ruin"

This is called a false dichotomy, in logic it's what's known as a fallacy. Such propositions are NEVER true. It's time for some honest debate and accountability in this war on drugs.

Drug addiction is a disease. People should not be punished with prison, they should be treated medically. Prison does NOTHING for an addict. In fact, most addicts continue to use while in prison.
The legalization of drugs has only made the problem worse and crime rates sky rocket. The real crime is that drug addicts are not given proper resources for care. They are arrested and put in prison. Prisons are NOT rehabs. My husband is NOT clean because he is in prison. Prison did not do that for him. On our own we discuss when he wants to use, we talk about his addiction, we don't act like it is somehow going to go away, we take it one day at a time. I let him be an addict, I do NOT try to fix him. He has been clean for 2 years now and that has nothing to do with prison. That has to do with the support I give to him. I do not treat him like he is a criminal, I treat him like a human being should be treated.
I do NOT condone his past drug use. but I know it is a disease.
Prison is NEVER going to solve the problem, more laws is NEVER going to solve the problem. Education and rehabilitation is what will help.
I did my research on the way Amsterdam handles drug policies and I have to say, I am impressed. Our country could learn a lot from that country.

THIS IS AMERICA! About FREEDOM!! I'm against drugs personally, but people should still have the rite to choose what they will to their own bodies.I'm a social smoker and thats my choosing. And i agree with the marijuanna is a medical drug to what extent i dont know.