if drugs were legal, would drug use increase or decrease?

[cannabis sativa]

legalization of all drugs

i know that there are some people here who feel the drug war is a war on personal freedom and all drugs should be legalized and i admit there are strong arguments in favor of this view. however i'm interested in hearing proposals on how to deal with the tremendous drug problem that would result. if you look at the drugs that are legal now, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, you will see that they have an insane amount of users/abusers when compared to illegal drugs. making drugs illegal certainly deters many people who do not want to deal with the enormous hassle that goes with being an illegal drugsuser. i'm talking about dealers, getting ripped off, inpure substances, the risk of arrest, societal stigma, having to keep their use secret, etc. if all drugs were legal there would be nothing to stop certain people from using drugs all the time. imagine if you could go to the drug store and buy pharmacuetical quality LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, MDMA, MDA, cocaine, heroin, meth, benzos, barbituates, ketamine, 2c-i, 2-ce, 2c-b, DMT, PCP, sensimilla marijuana, AMT, GHB, ether, opium etc as well as all the paraphernalia to use them, all at resonably cheap prices. a small but significant segment of the population would go wild with drug abuse staying drugged nearly 24/7 and taking all kinds of crazy drug combinations endangering the public with their intoxicated behavior (much like alcohol absuers today). many other people would become hopelessly addicted to drugs and in some poorer areas people would likely live for drugs, only comming home each day to get their fix. drugs would become absolutely huge as people saw their friends using them and having a great time without dying. thousands if not millions of people would simply not be able to resist the allure of so many wonderful drugs so easily available, similarly to how many people cannot resist alcohol and tobacco today. feeling down? i'm sure a little heroin will chear you up. want to celebrate? why not try a speedball? opiate tolerance getting to high? why not substiture with some meth and ketamine? people might have too much control over their own conciousness for their own good as taking different cocktails of drugs would seem so much easier than solving your problems the right way. in america's cuiture of consumerism and excess outright legalization could be disastrous for the many people who do not understand the concept of moderation or simply don't care, many of the the nations poor and depressed would not be able to resist the relief they could in drugging themselvers. so if you support legalization, how do you propose to deal with these problems?

 

[etardedadam]

Im for legal pot, and maybe shrooms and acid. Nothing else, There are to many stupid people.

 

[shahab6]

If all drugs are legal there probably be a 10% increase in drug use. Not every one is going to use drugs, just because its legal. Like right now, people aren't using drugs not because the law says you can't use, they don't use because of potential health risk.

 

[Heavens to Betsy]

Ok, I think you're blowing the potential for people taking drugs way out of proportion. All my 'straight edge' friends are so because they have no interest in altering their consciousness through chemicals, the fact that these chemicals are illegal is largely irrelevant to their decision not to take them.

IMO, the problems that you outline are ones that we already face, those inclined to abuse drugs already do.

The problem with laws is that the good people don't need them and the bad people don't obey them.

Prohibition causes far more problems than it solves. We've all heard that drug trafficking funds terrorism, and the mob. The war on drugs has created a disgustingly lucrative black market with all the violence that that entails.
In 1987 (sorry, most resent figures I have to hand and I don't feel like trawling) 87% of cocaine related murders in NYC we committed 'in pursuit of the trade', i.e. by drug lords, dealers, etc.

The massive mark up on drugs, which is due to the relative difficulty and risk involved in producing and trafficking, creates two problems. Firstly it means a higher proportion of people turn to petty property crime, pushing, and prostitution, to finance their habit. Secondly it leads to stronger strains and faster delivery methods, as users demand more bang for their buck. Opium was almost always smokes or drunk before prohibition. Coca leaves were usually chewed...

It’s probably well too late to turn back the clock now. The War on Drugs serves too many people. Propaganda and hysteria have gripped too many people.

 

[cannabis sativa]

i'm not arguing against the legalization of all drugs, i'm asking how you propose to deal with any problems which will result from legalization. i'm well aware of the problems caused by prohibition and i never said it was a good policy, i'm just pointing out that legalization won't make the problems caused by drugs vanish either.

i don't think i am blowing the potential for people taking drugs that far out of proportion at all. just look at alcohol, caffeine and tobacco, these drugs are legal and they have many many times more users than illegal drugs. it's not the people that who have no interest in altering their conciousness through chemicals that are going to abuse drugs. its the vast numbers who already use drugs and would use considerably more drugs if they were legalized. i know many people who would go nuts with drugs if they were legal, the only things stopping these people from using more drugs is the inflated prices, lack of ability to find a good quality hook up, fear of being arrested, drug tests, etc. there are opiate users who abstsain for the sole reasons that they fear going into withdrawal when they cant score and have a hard time affording street opiates. for my cocaine using friends money is usually the biggest limiting factor in their usage. if you eliminate these difficulties there will be an explosion in drug use among people who are already drug abusers, especially the more reckless types. in addition many people who use alcohol and/or tobacco but didn't use other drugs because they were illegal would begin using them. poor and depressed people who don't use drugs because they cannot deal with the pressures of a being a street opiate abuser would suddenly find relief from their problems in a convenient legal form. people like myself who cannot find sources for many drugs such as ketamine and GHB would also begin using them. i think you are underestimanting the number of people who have trouble aquiring drugs or simply hate dealers. there are many teenagers who can't get anything more than weed who would jump at the chance to abuse harder drugs if they were legal and easier to get. also addicts would have a harder time staying clean if they could buy pure drugs legally at fair prices. they would face the same problem as alcoholics who find it hard not to drink when there is a bar/liquor store on every corner.

 

[cxsx]

this thread pisses me off. i am rather narrow minded when it comes to drug addicts. i dont really have alot of sympathy for them. i believe that they addicted themselves to drugs. it was their choice, i dont believe that there's a special gene for it or whatever. i believe it has to do with not being in control of your will, not being a disciplined person.
also, you say that the only thing that keeps your coke friends from getting coke all the time is finances. so then what's the whole purpose of this thread anyhow? if there's no legal issues for most people and it's a money issue? blah.
and
if drugs were made legal, who's to say that they'd be affordable to everyone and that money still wouldnt be a problem?

what i see being a huge problem if drugs were made legal is the bitterness and hatred that people harbor inside towards the lega system and gov't .
people who have lost loved ones to death, incarceration, being seperated from their families for years due to drug laws, years of their lives taken from them. lives destroyed due to these drug laws and now all a sudden - oops, we fucked up, sorry, drugs are legal now.
psshh.. i'd fuckin wanna murder somebody if my boys got killled or put in jail because of drug laws and then all a sudden it's not a crime anymore.

 

[qwe]

a primary argument of prohibitionists is that a huge portion of the country's society would become drug users (and to them, a drug user = a drug addict)

two questions... if drugs were legalised....

would the amount of people using drugs increase or dec?

would the amount of drugs being consumed inc or dec?

this is all assuming that you could go to the store and buy drugs just like alcohol, with a driver's license. however, how much different would the amount of use and the amount of users be if you had to go through a course, learning how to stay safe/alive/unaddicted, and get a drug license, to buy drugs (ie, goto a stimulant course 3 days a week 2 weeks, then you get your stimulant card)

 

[qwe]

this thread pisses me off. i am rather narrow minded when it comes to drug addicts. i dont really have alot of sympathy for them. i believe that they addicted themselves to drugs. it was their choice, i dont believe that there's a special gene for it or whatever. i believe it has to do with not being in control of your will, not being a disciplined person

if your genetics make you much more susceptible to the pleasures of a drug, you are more likely to get addicted. i dont see why this doesnt make sense to you. genetics also plan your entire brain... they could make withdrawal harsher, cravings stronger, etc etc. note that im not denying that addiction is also a psychological thing, im jsut saying you cant deny genetics also

also, you say that the only thing that keeps your coke friends from getting coke all the time is finances. so then what's the whole purpose of this thread anyhow? if there's no legal issues for most people and it's a money issue? blah.

if drugs were legal they'd be MUCH cheaper

if drugs were made legal, who's to say that they'd be affordable to everyone and that money still wouldnt be a problem?

because of the huge cost involved in illegal operations. they have to be hidden, transported through security, many times from europe or mexico (through the border. you cant deny that prohibition inflates prices. legal competition would drive the prices to teh ground

what i see being a huge problem if drugs were made legal is the bitterness and hatred that people harbor inside towards the lega system and gov't .

which was created by teh government in the first place anyway. society can change gears... once drugs are legal people will see how ridiculous the previous generations arguments for prohibition were, theyd see the benefits of ending prohibition

people who have lost loved ones to death, incarceration, being seperated from their families for years due to drug laws, years of their lives taken from them. lives destroyed due to these drug laws and now all a sudden - oops, we fucked up, sorry, drugs are legal now.
psshh.. i'd fuckin wanna murder somebody if my boys got killled or put in jail because of drug laws and then all a sudden it's not a crime anymore.

wtf??? your paragraphs say: if drug laws caused problems in my family, id hate to see them go

 

[yougene]

In a consumerist society like America probably. This country revolves around excessive consuming and pleasure.

 

[cxsx]

i'm not saying that i'd hate to see the drug laws changed, i am saying that i'd be incredibly pissed because of the wasted lives due to deaths as a direct cause of the drug laws and the wasted years people have spent in prisons .

i'll compare it to the bitterness and hatred that some of the blacks have for the whites because they were enslaved and mistreated. yea, they're glad that the laws changed but some of them are still bitter as hell.

pissed but at the same time glad and would have absolutely no respect for or trust in the legal system. if they legalize drugs they'll have to go about gradually and show medical studies that support the benefits of drugs.
they'll have to make it look like they're doing it for the ppl's benefit, but i always think they just do this shit to put money in their own pockets anyhow.

 

[paradoxcycle]

Originally posted by cxsx
this thread pisses me off. i am rather narrow minded when it comes to drug addicts. i dont really have alot of sympathy for them. i believe that they addicted themselves to drugs. it was their choice, i dont believe that there's a special gene for it or whatever. i believe it has to do with not being in control of your will, not being a disciplined person.

Why does the thread "piss you off"? Everyone has a right to discuss this and throw in their opinion if they want to. Have you ever been addicted to anything?

 

[tokeitUP420]

I'm not really sure if it would increase or decrease the use of drugs but I know that America would be making a shit load of money taxing the drugs, but I really doubt that heroin and meth and blow are ever gonna be able to be purchased in a store like alcohol

 

[cannabis sativa]

both would increase in a society like we currently have in the united states, most likely not in every society though. you only need compare the rate of consumption of alcohol, caffeine and tobacco with illegal drugs to see this. other examples would be rising abuse of prescription opiates compared to heroin. availability, purity, price and stigma are all big factors which limit the use of illegal drugs.

 

[Tanuki_23]

^Really you never think they'll sale meth at a store? honestly? i always figured they would come around and see the benefits . . . of course theyll never sale meth or heroin or coke in a store!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it would stay relativley the same to answer your question. Especially in a country like America where we have the freedom to hunt down drug dealers already. People who want to do drugs already do for the most part. People who want to be junkies already are for the most part, and a question of legality or availability is never a problem (first hand perspective and what ive picked up from every1 around me). If I want to get fucked up on pills I still need to hunt down a dealer. Now do I think less crime would be associated with drugs if the were legalized . . . mos def.

 

[elemenohpee]

Tanuki, there are definetly people who were kept away from drugs by their illegal status. I know some of em.
I think the drug use would go up, but the negative consequences from them would go down. Then again, with things like meth, who knows. It seems like for meth the negative aspects dont only arise from the illegality, like most of the problems associated with weed do.

 

[kittyinthedark]

Drug use would see at least a modest increase, but many of the people out there that don't do drugs are never going to do them anyhow. A few more people would probably try a few things out, but the addiction rates reported by the government are far higher than in reality - more people would try once or twice and not use again than would try once and start using regularly.

And in my "plan" for if it ever did happen, you would have to get a "certification" for any chemical you wanted to take by taking a class about it. I'm sure if you had to sit through four hours of lecture about the pros and cons of doing meth, the cons would scare a hell of a lot of people out of doing it. And the classes would also produce more responsible use, so even if the number of drug users went up fairly dramatically, it would fail to produce a large societal impact. (My plan also calls for nearly draconian penalties for fucking up while on chemicals - none of this 5 DUIs bullshit. You do things that endanger ANYONE besides yourself more than once and you do jail time and get a hefty fine.)

 

[shahab6]

[B
two questions... if drugs were legalised....

would the amount of people using drugs increase or dec?

would the amount of drugs being consumed inc or dec?

[/B]

Most likely it will increase, but not that much as some people believe.

 

[cannabis sativa]

^Really you never think they'll sale meth at a store? honestly? i always figured they would come around and see the benefits . . . of course theyll never sale meth or heroin or coke in a store!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it would stay relativley the same to answer your question. Especially in a country like America where we have the freedom to hunt down drug dealers already. People who want to do drugs already do for the most part. People who want to be junkies already are for the most part, and a question of legality or availability is never a problem (first hand perspective and what ive picked up from every1 around me). If I want to get fucked up on pills I still need to hunt down a dealer. Now do I think less crime would be associated with drugs if the were legalized . . . mos def.

it would not stay the same. there are many drugs i would like to do but cannot because i cannot get them, such as LSD, ketamine, GHB and synthetic mescaline. the same goes for most of my friends. anyone who thinks drug use would not increase if all drugs were legalized needs a serious reality check.

 

[cannabis sativa]

i dont understand why it pisses you off either? are you saying you think its wrong to make drugs illegal because people should have the right to do drugs? if so i fully understand your position, i'm only asking how you would propose to deal with the problems caused by the increase in drug use. right now we deal with the drug problem by shoving it under the rug and arresting the people we find using drugs (im not saying this is a good method, its just what we do). if all drugs were legal this method obviously wouldn't work. so what laws/policies would you propose to regulate drug abuse? would their be age limits? licenses? what about driviers (many drugs that impair driving are much harder to detect than alcohol). how would you deal the potentially large numbers of addicts and polydrug abusers?

i think its obvious that drug use would increase and become more "out in the open" if all drugs were legal, im not really interested in debating that point (although i guess it could be worth discussing to what degree). still that's just speculation, so for the sake of argument lets assume there would be a fairly large increase as well as the rising of many drugs which were stamped out by prohibition such as mescaline and barbituates. with the reintoduction of barbituates there would be inevitably be overdoses and public intoxication and the people against legalization would be up in arms over all the reported deaths, even if the number remained relatively small.

 

[kittyinthedark]

Regarding the original post in light of the one above this one, I think a much more pertinent question would be to ask whether drug ABUSE would increase. It is, as pointed out, quite silly to even ask whether drug use/consumption would increase - of course it would. If you could just get your favorite drug whenever you wanted, you would do it more often. I admit I somewhat ignored the OP's actual question because of my feeling that the question was fairly obvious...