[–] individualin1984 ago
I always struggle with this, due to the very negative affects on individuals with some drugs. I also don't like to be the kind of guy that is always worried about drug legalization because there are greater concerns for me. That said, I have to say that observations of the affects of making drugs illegal are far worse on all of us as a society.
Criminalization of drugs have created more criminals from the drug users that can't afford the drugs, to the people that seek easy cash. Overall illegal drugs make more and worse criminals. I won't even go into the evil of drug lords and cartels.
Criminalization of drugs has eroded our freedoms and militarized our police. As the criminals have stepped up within the drug community so have the police. This more than anything scares the shit out of me. When I was young the concept of a swat team was completely foreign. Police used their minds to subdue suspects not come in shoot the dog and put your boot on the side of someones head as they lay on the floor. The fact that we have become blase about this is one of the most horrifying things in my mind.
An economy that no one but the criminals are benefiting by. There is no taxation, there is no reinvestment, there is nothing but the closed loop of drugs and criminality.
It has put illegal guns in criminals hands. The money from drugs has helped in the spread of guns to people that have no problem using them to harm others. This is not a gun control issue in that its not the general availability of guns or the legality of them that is causing this. If you are going to get 15 years for your kilo of cocaine and maybe 10 years for using a gun to shoot someone, do you see the issue here?
It distracts from real law enforcement. So much theft, larceny, murder is left unchallenged due to the prioritizing and sentencing of drugs.
I won't go into the demographic social issues such as minority incarceration and family separation dynamics, that is far to big a discussion at this point.
Benign drugs like alcohol or marijuana should be legal. Drugs that people will kill for should be illegal but the penalty should be rehab, jail for repeat offenders, and not a lengthy prison sentence. Everyone should be allowed to buy any legal drug from a pharmacy without a prescription. For antibiotics, the price should be set prohibitively high to discourage unnecessary use with reduced prices for people with proof of an infection.
[–] Steve_French ago (edited ago)
Yes but at the same time there needs to be some real information being spread about them, no scare tactics just the truth. Combined with a good rehabilitation system, which would cost pennies compared to the drug war, could definitely reduce addiction rates and the amount of OD's,
I think as a society we are going to have to approach drugs better than before though. With the ridiculous alcohol culture in many places it could get pretty messy with easy access to tonnes of great quality drugs.
Also much more research on drugs.
[–] bayesianqueer ago
Yes please. Admittedly a good 20% of my work load in the ER would tank, but I'm good making that much less if I never have to deal with another chronic pain patient who ran out of his meds early and his doctor is out of town, dead, or only in clinic alternate Tuesdays.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
[–] Pwib 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
How would throwing those people in prison benefit anyone?
[–] [deleted] ago
[–] Emrico1 ago
You're right in the fact that tobacco and alcohol being legal makes for a hypocritical failing system. People will mess themselves up on whatever legal or not and prison does not help the problem. At all.