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Originally Posted by Hooby I made this thread because I wanted to know how people feel about drugs, nearly all of these questions cater to the anti / borderline drug folks; specifically #2 and #3. That being said, I will try to make the questions somewhat independent and unique of eachother.
1) Do you think drugs should be legal or illegal, and why?
2) For those of you who don't do any illegal substances, would you try them if they were legal?
3) If you knew and respected a person, unaware that they used drugs a fair amount, would learning that they consumed drugs change your opinion of them as a person?
4) What event/medium influenced your opinion on drug use the most? The law, media, friends/family etc...
5) Lastly, have you ever willfully tried any drugs? If so, which kinds and how often.
I am asking this because a lot of happening going on brought these questions up to me, I will answer in a seperate post to avoid confusion. Thanks to people who answer  |
1. Drugs should be legal
There are many reasons why drugs should be legal:
A: Certain drugs weren't made illegal until roughly 100 years ago. The reasons why they were made illegal were racist. This was primarily to screw over the asian immigrants with opium, the hispanic immigrants with cocaine, and the black population with pot.
B: As stated, all of these drugs were legal over 100 years ago. You could easily buy any drug you wanted in the cities and elsewhere. Even though these drugs were available, cheap, and legal there wasn't a situation of everyone turning into a junkie. Drug use wasn't rampant. Most people either didn't use them at all or used them casually, thus having little impact on their normally productive lives. The world existed long before the USA and long before those laws were made. The planet didn't implode on itself and have all of humanity doomed when drugs were legal.
C: Drug laws create violent crime. Since drugs are illegal there is great risk in transporting and selling them. This means they are priced higher than they would be otherwise. Drugs can be an extremely expensive habit. Average people who get hooked on drugs cannot support their habit on the pay of normal jobs. These people turn to crime in order to afford their addiction. This includes robberies, murders, etc... Prior to these drugs being made illegal there wasn't a large amount of crime for the above reason. People could easily afford their drug habits working normal jobs. For the most part people kept things under control without resorting to violence.
D: Drug laws create rich, powerful drug lords. Think about prohibition. What happened when the government banned alcohol? Gangsters and other groups filled the gap, creating a black market for booze. They got filthy rich and a lot of violent crime was committed in the middle of it all. It threatened to tear the country apart. It's worse with illegal drugs. The illegal drug trade makes over 1 Trillion dollars each year. We have extremely wealthy drug lords with their own personal armies. These thugs rule over their area with a frightening power. They have more wealth than 99.9% of Americans will ever see. Their business is founded on blood. It also creates similar people locally. They exist because the laws outlawing drugs creates them. Just like with prohibition, if you remove the laws then you essentially remove the violent drug lords. They would be replaced by corporations, just like we currently have Coors, Bud, etc...
E: Drug laws creates crime via gangs. Because of the drug laws, local gangs fight to control turf. This leads to gun fights among other things. A lot of people in poor, destitute areas get caught up in this. Innocent people are shot and clueless children are recruited into the gangs because no one was there to teach them otherwise. A long list of crime streams from this source on the local level.
F: The 'War on Drugs' is a waste of resources. Governments have pored billions of dollars into this bottomless pit. Countless people have been killed trying to enforce these laws and many criminals have been killed trying to protect their goods. There's been a lot of bloodshed. What do they have to show for it? Not a damn thing. Drugs find their way into the country without fail and you can buy just about anything you could want at almost any location. The man hours and money would be better spent improving our country instead of fighting something that isn't beatable.
2. I don't do drugs and no, I wouldn't do them if they were legal.
I don't do illegal drugs for the same reason I don't smoke. I don't do them for the same reason I don't smash my balls with a hammer. I understand that it would not help my life and that it would cause a negative impact on myself and those around me. You don't prevent people from doing drugs by making them illegal, you prevent drug use by educating people about the dangers associated with drugs. As I said earlier, you can buy any drug you want anyways. Them being illegal has nothing to do with it.
The idea that millions upon millions of normal people would rush out and become junkies if drug laws were erased is completely ludicrous. I would remind anyone saying that of the fact that over 100 years ago these laws didn't exist and people who abused drugs at dangerous levels were a very small percent of the population.
3. Yes.
I would trust a person less if I found out they were doing hardcore drugs. I also dislike people more if I find out they smoke tobacco. I also dislike people who drink too much. The list goes on and on about why I wouldn't like a person, much as it would for anyone else.
4. Family.
Quite a number of my family members used drugs. It completely ruined their lives. Drugs being illegal didn't prevent those things from happening. It did, however, teach me first hand that doing a lot of drugs was a good way to fuck your life up. I don't do drugs because I've seen excellent reasons not to, not because they are against the law.
5. No.
*As a side note, Tobacco and Alcohol kills over 400,000 Americans each year, yet they remain legal. Pot kills virtually no one. Other illegal drugs kill a very tiny fraction of that number, even though they are easily obtained. This is how you know the 'War on Drugs' has nothing to do with the governments (or anyone in power) concern over your personal health and well being.