Originally Posted by deprav
Well, the same way you do it now, rehab, addiction meetings, psychologist, sub products (which would be way easier to propose in a legal environment). Except they wouldn't have to deal with street dealers and (even more) dangerous products etc...
Less diseases & contaminations, less risks, less violence, more visibility to the society, it would be easier to have a contact with addicts to pull them out from their conditions. That's the human thing to do ; in opposition with law enforcement and legal punishments, like jail time in overcrowded prisons & consequent fines for people already having issues, which is the fascistic thing to do, and we're doing it right now.
"Drug acceptance and normalization", you talk like it's a new thing. We've probably been doing drugs back to the time we were still nomads, maybe even apes.
Edit : also, you can't ban drugs. The "War on drugs" led by governments has been going on for decades, even with the anti-drug task forces improving their efficiency during those years, drug sales and consumption never went down, it probably went up.
You are just about right:
The main problem with drug usage, and why the distinction between legal and illegal drugs is necessary, narrow down to three factors: how addictive; how toxic; and how profitable.
How addictive and toxic are pretty straightforward, there's nothing that the media hasn't blabbered on and on about this subject: some drugs simply are more "dangerous" to people; and, ever since representative democracy was established, laws have been formulated, edited and signed with that in mind.
Even though I left how profitable to the end, it is intertwined with the previous factors, for how toxic and addictive the drug is interferes directly with how profitable an industry based on selling the drug is. That is why, for the most part, alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs: they can make you an addict eventually, but until then you will have already bought so many bottles of beer and packs of cigarettes that it doesn't really matter. In the other hand, the drug Krokodil... (NSFW, strong images, gore, search at your own risk, you have been warned, I am not legally responsible for any damage made to you, etc)
That's why it is necessary. Where the A drug is legalized, an industry will eventually be built around it and the usage will be normalized and the issues with abuse will start. If said drug were to be extremely addictive, and extremely toxic, it represents a danger, be it to the health care system, or to the industry itself. More to the industry than anything else, in my opinion, for it's not profitable to have a business with a scare ruining your product.
How do you stop underage kids from selling it, or using it?
Drug abuse is a subterfuge, and greatly so for underage people. Run away from reality for a night, high on LSD with the fake ID inside the club with your friends. Get stoned at your buddy's basement, if you don't want the hassle. Or just lock yourself in your room with the 'shrooms
It's fun, it lasts for some time, and when it's over, you want more. There's no escape from your pathetic existence. So you go for it again. And again. Until you're a shell of what you once were.
Last edited by JayWS; Oct 20, 2014 at 11:50 PM.
Reason: Forgot a thing or two.
Originally Posted by ImmortalPig
Legalizing it is a terrible solution.
The reason why the US government has put so much thought into the legalization of marijuana is because it's a low-risk/high reward drug. It's not addictive in and of itself, seems to have superpower medical capabilities, and sells like hotcakes. Putting it in government hands allows it to be taxed and regulated, and subsequently helping out with the national debt.
Other drugs, such as LSD, cocaine and meth aren't so lucky this way because while the latter two have a very lucrative industry behind them, they're also much more dangerous. Meth is dangerous just to MAKE, for pete's sake. These drugs will never be legalized, just because there is no way the government will actually profit from it without risking the whole industry every time they make more of the drug.
All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’'s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.
Originally Posted by hawkesnightmare
The reason why the US government has put so much thought into the legalization of marijuana is because it's a low-risk/high reward drug. It's not addictive in and of itself, seems to have superpower medical capabilities, and sells like hotcakes. Putting it in government hands allows it to be taxed and regulated, and subsequently helping out with the national debt.
"in and of itself" in other words, it is addictive...
"low-risk/high reward" for the US Gov't, maybe, but for the average drug user, they get none of the reward and all of the problems.
"superpower medical capabilities" this is a reason to allow it to be studied and used by medical professionals, not by everyday people.
"they will get money" sure, same thing if they taxed anything. Would you advocate legalization of murder if it was taxed?
Originally Posted by hawkesnightmare
Other drugs, such as LSD, cocaine and meth aren't so lucky this way because while the latter two have a very lucrative industry behind them, they're also much more dangerous. Meth is dangerous just to MAKE, for pete's sake. These drugs will never be legalized, just because there is no way the government will actually profit from it without risking the whole industry every time they make more of the drug.
As with pot, they are only dangerous to the one taking them and those around them. There's no danger to the government itself and they stand to make a lot of money.
Originally Posted by deprav
No, that was adressed to gorman.
It's not though. People do drugs because they think it's OK. A societal shift is all that is needed to remove drug abuse. We've seen it countless times in these threads, people think X drug is harmless, they enjoy X drug so it must be fine right?! They spew conspiracy theories and whatever else. Often their parents or others were drug users and that's how they got involved.
<Faint> the rules have been stated quite clearly 3 times now from high staff
