Is drug dealing immoral?

[infectedmushroom]

I've been thinking lately about the moral shades of grey surrounding the "trading" of different substances on the black market. I do not believe simply because something is illegal, it is therefore immoral. So I ask, from an ethical and moral standpoint, where do you draw the line?

For example, is it worse to sell meth to someone than normal amphetamines? Is it any worse than pharmaceutical companies drugging millions of children with "add" at very young ages with potent amphetamines?

Are tobacco and alcohol companies immoral? Are they any more so than a heroin dealer?

Is selling crack worse than selling Xanax? You get my point.

I honestly do not know where I stand on this so I'd love some of you clever ol' Bluelighters thoughts.

 

[Smoky]

Good questions!

Is the War on Drugs moral?

 

[Mysterie]

if your intentions are just to make more money for yourself, at the cost of other peoples lives, then its immoral.

if you do it for the love of it, you source your psychedelics or weed from suppliers you know take good care of their plants, and you do it with the intention of bringing people to a place of greater unity and wellbeing then its not immoral.

i think you have to look at what the repercussions are going to be from your actions, are they bringing people more joy or misery, in the long term.

 

[One Thousand Words]

Dealing to an addict is no different than dealing to an intellectually handicap person. Neither have the ability to control the damage done to themselves so you could argue this is immoral.

Recreational users who are in control and not harming themselves are fair game though.

 

[Erikmen]

if your intentions are just to make more money for yourself, at the cost of other peoples lives, then its immoral.

if you do it for the love of it, you source your psychedelics or weed from suppliers you know take good care of their plants, and you do it with the intention of bringing people to a place of greater unity and wellbeing then its not immoral.

i think you have to look at what the repercussions are going to be from your actions, are they bringing people more joy or misery, in the long term.

I agree with you.
It matters when you lose perspective of how much you may be hurting one + his/her families, health, work etc.
I´m opened to discuss about these issues, but would never be capable of selling drugs for example.
It´s immoral to gain money knowing this is going to cause misery.

Drinking companies and Immensely great labs have different levels of work. It´s more difficult to judge them as one may simply be a scientist.

 

[Erikmen]

Dealing to an addict is no different than dealing to an intellectually handicap person. Neither have the ability to control the damage done to themselves so you could argue this is immoral.

Recreational users who are in control and not harming themselves are fair game though.

It might be a matter of time. I have never seen a recreational opiate user who happens to be using it like that for 50 years.
I´m saying this because in my case, when I was younger we literally moved on to another country where heroin would not be sold.
When you are doing this you meet people looking for the same purposes so it helped the situation as I could never score H. So no H. anymore.
Not as simple as life moves on, but at that moment that move saved my life.

 

[Abject]

There is a demand for x, providing better quality or cheaper (or better service) or whatever reason people buy from you is not immoral.
The same clientele are going to procure x from another dealer if you get busted/leave the game/never started dealing.
At the same time, selling dangerous drugs to vulnerable friends means whatever consequences come of it (such as a lethal OD) would be on you, but the same could be said if you simply gave your friend drugs (that you purchased from a third party)

There's nothing wrong with dealing drugs. Any bad practices from drug dealers would be bad practice in any field, when stripped to it's fundamental cause.

 

[Homegrownuk]

no. its fine.

 

[socko]

Is putting people in prison for the possession of small amounts of narcotics for personal use which, consequently, causes them to have a criminal record that will forever make it hard to get into college or get a good job moral?
Is flooding inner city slums with crack cocaine moral (a CIA operation sometimes called "the War Against America")?
Those who tell us it's immoral have long ago lost their moral authority.

 

[Erikmen]

There is a demand for x, providing better quality or cheaper (or better service) or whatever reason people buy from you is not immoral.
The same clientele are going to procure x from another dealer if you get busted/leave the game/never started dealing.
At the same time, selling dangerous drugs to vulnerable friends means whatever consequences come of it (such as a lethal OD) would be on you, but the same could be said if you simply gave your friend drugs (that you purchased from a third party)

There's nothing wrong with dealing drugs. Any bad practices from drug dealers would be bad practice in any field, when stripped to it's fundamental cause.

I guess it depends on how you see it.
It´s immoral to me to sell something that might cause harm. If you know your product may cause consequences, including death, why would it be okay, I wonder.
Because someone else would do it?
It seems to me as an excuse to keep doing it.

 

[murphythecat]

selling heroin, crack, cocaine, id say its immoral
selling weed, mushrooms isnt immoral to me

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

I would have to say that it's immoral to misrepresent drugs when selling them. If you are selling an unknown mixture of powders that could be fentanyl instead of H and you don't know which it is, that is immoral. Ignorant dealers are out there just to make money, if you test your product and relay to your clients exactly what they are buying then that is perfectly fair in my opinion. So I would say most street dealers of hard drugs are immoral for that reason.

I'd like to make a special exception for krokodil, I don't think there is anyway you could sell that morally.

 

[Smoky]

Is putting people in prison for the possession of small amounts of narcotics for personal use which, consequently, causes them to have a criminal record that will forever make it hard to get into college or get a good job moral?
Is flooding inner city slums with crack cocaine moral (a CIA operation sometimes called "the War Against America")?
Those who tell us it's immoral have long ago lost their moral authority.

this ^

 

[Erikmen]

It's a democratic country. People were elected to be there. Blaming the Government IMO is like washing your hands and looking the other way.
Let the dealers do what they do, it's not our fault, is it? That's what I hear.
There is a lot of fine Manhattan guys selling dope. That's immoral to me. College boys.
At the meantime, lots of people die taking something cut or having too much.
Maybe the Government will do something. Or not. Can't cross your arms.
When it comes to save your own you become an active part of a community because IMO there will be no country committed to that, that far, as far as I know.
I don't like the policies either but like I said, can't just blame the immoral system.

 

[LuGoJ]

Dealing to an addict is no different than dealing to an intellectually handicap person. Neither have the ability to control the damage done to themselves so you could argue this is immoral.

Recreational users who are in control and not harming themselves are fair game though.

This is how I feel. I feel like being a dealer would carry a lot of responsibility, way more than i would ever feel comfortable taking on.

 

[ThePharmacist4925]

I mean shit... wherever there is enough demand, there will ultimately be a supplier. Also is it immoral for gigantic pharmaceutical corporations to profit off pushing pills that many people could probably do without them or god forbid might even be better without them? Also are we going to look the other way as large food and beverage corporations essentially sell us poison that's labeled as food? Idk, I look the other way every damn day and it is frustrating but, I don't have the time nor the resources to solve problems of such a magnitude. Also how did I forget Phillip Morris and Jim Beam, are we okay with them?

I mean I'd flip a shit if they tried to take my smokes away, fuck its one of the few things I have left. Goodness knows my grandmother is 85 and wants to drink her days away until she dies, she had a hard life she should be left to do as she pleases.

Idk really think there is anything wrong with meeting the demands of the market as long as no one is getting seriously hurt physically or emotionally in the process. I always knew some suppliers who went above and beyond to make sure they were getting people hooked on their shit, rubbed me the wrong way even though who the fuck am I to talk after everything I've done. I've also known people in the business who really weren't going out of their way to make anyone's life worse or better for that matter. There's always been a few that had very strict rules about who they dealt with and that their product stay far away from teenagers; but I mean come on it has nothing to do with the kids at the end of the day, they just want to avoid the trouble that comes from dealing with minors. WTF. Do we have no honor at all? I guess not unless there is honor in being selectively dishonorable as opposed to flat out dishonorable.... No shame in that... well yeah there is, but we're living in the age of smartphones where we have a few thousand friends online but our neighbor is the enemy if we don't share a social network on Facebook, that makes no sense either so fuck em' I want a cigarette and my dog wants me to have a cigarette so she can go make territorial pissings on top of the other dogs, fuckin'a even the animals want a taste of the action, what's a white kid from the boondocks gonna do?

 

[infectedmushroom]

Because the illegality makes those who participate in the trade in any way criminals, I guess it comes down to the individuals conscience. Honor among crooks is BS IME so think for, and watch out for, yourself. Each of us (spare the sociopaths among us) has a moral compass which says "hang on, this might not be right." Best use introspection and listen to that voice if selling X to Y or selling X in the first place doesn't seem like the right thing to do. Which means, of course, there will still be people selling crack to pregnant mothers without a second thought: it won't be me, though.

On the point of not selling something which might cause harm: anything might cause harm. Once it leaves your hands, sometimes you don't know exactly to whom its going and how they're going to use it. A relatively safe substance, for example mushrooms, would be fine in the hands of a tripper with a basic knowledge of set and setting and what to expect and how to dose appropriately. In the hands of someone who thinks you just eat the whole bag and see pretty colors, well, there's the potential for a seriously bad trip with lasting emotional and mental complications. Same with pot, i'm afraid to say. Some people just shouldn't smoke pot, and you could sell them a tiny amount, but just enough that they roll into a joint and smoke and have a terrible panic attack which triggers further panic attacks in the future. I know marijuana and mushrooms and other psychedelics, at least to me, do not carry the same moral "weight" as say selling heroin or crack - just playing devils advocate and reminding everyone they can cause harm as well.

 

[Erikmen]

This is how I feel. I feel like being a dealer would carry a lot of responsibility, way more than i would ever feel comfortable taking on.

That's what I was trying to say. Absolutely.

 

[Xorkoth]

I think it depends. It boils down to intent and practice. If you're selling damaging drugs to people who are addicted, and screwing people over, and causing pain to others through your drug dealing, then yes, it's immoral. On the other hand, if you're selling drugs to consenting adults for the purpose of providing experiences to people who want them, and not causing people pain, then IMO you're doing a public service. Someone's got to do it.

 

[Erikmen]

I think it depends. It boils down to intent and practice. If you're selling damaging drugs to people who are addicted, and screwing people over, and causing pain to others through your drug dealing, then yes, it's immoral. On the other hand, if you're selling drugs to consenting adults for the purpose of providing experiences to people who want them, and not causing people pain, then IMO you're doing a public service. Someone's got to do it.

That´s true, someone will always do it. The demand will always be everywhere. It´s epidemic, global.

This is one of the reasons I like BL. It´s harm reduction and not run by the Government.

NA, AA also play important roles.

Voluntary services often needed in clinics, etc.