John Stossel: LEGALIZE EVERY DRUG

Ham-milton

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LEGALIZE EVERY DRUG

The other day, reading the New York Post's Page Six gossip page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: "ABC's John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high. ... The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs."

I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New York State Assembly's passage of a medical-marijuana bill. ( The bill hasn't yet passed the Senate. )

I told the audience I thought it pathetic that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a possible remedy would merit such a celebration.

Of course medical marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal. I'm amazed that the health police are so smug in their opposition.

After years of reporting on the drug war, I'm convinced that this "war" does more harm than any drug.

Independent of that harm, adults ought to own our own bodies, so it's not intellectually honest to argue that "only marijuana" should be legal -- and only for certain sick people approved by the state. Every drug should be legal.

"How could you say such a ridiculous thing?" asked my assistant. "Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect. If you do crack just once, you are automatically hooked. Legal hard drugs would create many more addicts. And that leads to more violence, homelessness, out-of-wedlock births, etc."

Her diatribe is a good summary of the drug warriors' arguments. Most Americans probably agree with what she said.

But what most Americans believe is wrong.

Myth no. 1: Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect.

Truth: There is no evidence of that.

In the 1980s, the press reported that "crack babies" were "permanently damaged." Rolling Stone, citing one study of just 23 babies, claimed that crack babies "were oblivious to affection, automatons."

It simply wasn't true. There is no proof that crack babies do worse than anyone else in later life.

Myth no. 2: If you do crack once, you are hooked.

Truth: Look at the numbers -- 15% of young adults have tried crack, but only 2% used it in the last month. If crack is so addictive, why do most people who've tried it no longer use it?

People once said heroin was nearly impossible to quit, but during the Vietnam War, thousands of soldiers became addicted, and when they returned home, 85% quit within one year.

People have free will. Most who use drugs eventually wise up and stop.

And most people who habitually use drugs live perfectly responsible lives; their habits are invisible to their neighbors. As Jacob Sullum writes in "Saying Yes," there is a "silent majority of users: the decent, respectable people who, despite their politically incorrect choice of intoxicants, earn a living and meet their responsibilities."

In 2005, the British Journal of Health Psychology reported that a study of 126 long-term heroin users showed that: "Participants had levels of occupational status and educational achievement comparable to that in the general U.K. population, and considerably higher than typically found in heroin research."

The researchers advised, "Drug research should more fully incorporate previously hidden populations to more fully inform theory and practice," adding that the "pharmacological properties of specific substances should not be assumed to inevitably lead to addictive and destructive patterns of drug use."

Myth no. 3: Drugs cause crime.

Truth: The drug war causes the crime.

Few drug users hurt or rob people because they are high. Most of the crime occurs because the drugs are illegal and available only through a black market. Drug sellers arm themselves and form gangs because they cannot ask the police to protect their persons and property.

In turn, some buyers steal to pay the high black-market prices. The government says heroin, cocaine, and nicotine are similarly addictive, and about half the people who both smoke cigarettes and use cocaine say smoking is at least as strong an urge. But no one robs convenience stores for Marlboros.

Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the Mafia. Drug prohibition is worse. It's corrupting whole countries and financing terrorism.

The Post wrote, "Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter doesn't think [legalization] is a good idea."

But that's not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably abuse.

I'm not so sure.

Banning drugs certainly hasn't kept young people from getting them. We can't even keep these drugs out of prisons. How do we expect to keep them out of America?

But let's assume my daughter is right that legalization would lead to an increase in experimentation, and that would lead to more addiction. I still say: Legal is better.

While drugs harm many, the drug war's black market harms more.

And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right to harm themselves.


http://www.nysun.com/opinion/legalize-every-drug/80204/
 
It's a good peice, I didn't know he felt this way.

tried finding a photo of his daughter to decide if I'd do her. couldn't, but I saw him and I'm doubtful.

why I care, I dunno. It seemed pertinent.
 
FUCK YES! This dude hit the nail on the head i must say. Usually most people dont understand what hes saying until they've seen it first hand.
 
Um, sorry to say, but actually there is scientific evidence/studies that have been done that show (specifically cocaine), damages the "stop and go" system in your brain. Basically damaging your own body's sense of willpower. I don't remember the specifics, but it's true. I saw it on some credible documentary a few years ago. I think more drugs than just cocaine damage this area of the brain as well. It doesn't make you any less smart or anything like that...but inhibiting/having a "rusty"/"lemon" of a "willpower machine" in you could and I presume would lead to some stupid mistakes.
 
^ all conducted in addicts. Nothing for recreational use.

And it's not exactly the most compelling evidence, since we know addicts reform and maintain sobriety.
 
Awesome article. Brilliant man. I agree with him 100%. Without question all drugs should be legal!
 
I'm pleasantly somewhat suprised, for what it's worth.

Keep in mind that when saying that oil isn't that expensive, he noted that ice cream costs more a gallon than gas. Maybe if I needed to eat 10 gallons of ice cream a week he might appear to possess the gift of logic8)
 
Keep in mind that when saying that oil isn't that expensive, he noted that ice cream costs more a gallon than gas. Maybe if I needed to eat 10 gallons of ice cream a week he might appear to possess the gift of logic

Oil is one of the cheapest liquids in the world, for what it's worth. And they call it "black gold" nonsense.
 
Ham-milton said:
And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right to harm themselves.


http://www.nysun.com/opinion/legalize-every-drug/80204/

Damn right, if i dont want to wear my seatbelt when im in a car that should be my own decision not the governement. Same goes for drug laws. Why should it be the governments job to "protect us from ourselves". The fact that the government uses lies, scare tactics and even force to enforce thse laws that are unconstitutional and subversive show just how far we have strayed from the original ideas of democracy.

Im not sure who this guy is... but I like him.
 
Care said:
Damn right, if i dont want to wear my seatbelt when im in a car that should be my own decision not the governement. Same goes for drug laws. Why should it be the governments job to "protect us from ourselves". The fact that the government uses lies, scare tactics and even force to enforce thse laws that are unconstitutional and subversive show just how far we have strayed from the original ideas of democracy.

Im not sure who this guy is... but I like him.

To play devils advocate: you get in an accident your flying body is quite likely to injure or kill someone else.

While it matters little to your dead carcass, the invalid / dead invalid's family might be a little peeved- and for good reason.
 
That is about the least propagandicaly (is that a word??) written articles I have seen a long time; especially from the main stream media.

Go John Stossel
 
panic_the_digital said:
Keep in mind that when saying that oil isn't that expensive, he noted that ice cream costs more a gallon than gas. Maybe if I needed to eat 10 gallons of ice cream a week he might appear to possess the gift of logic8)

LMFAO...you have surpassed ninjadan (until further reveiw) and have been anointed the new lord of logic
 
2oclockbeanfiend.2 said:
LMFAO...you have surpassed ninjadan (until further reveiw) and have been anointed the new lord of logic


My favorite comparison of things that make gas not seem expensive was whiteout...

At something like $30 a gallon, it makes $5 gas look like a bargain.

I mean... if my car ran on whiteout (a - I'd have a car... b- I'd wouldn't be @$^&ing about gas prices) I couldn't afford to get anywhere.


The comparison was a, "Just be glad your car doesn't run on..."

Not... "Look, gas is cheap!"
Though... the logic of consuming 10 gallons of whiteout (in a week) is even worse than the logic of eating 10 gallons of ice cream in a week.
 
Ham-milton said:
Oil is one of the cheapest liquids in the world, for what it's worth. And they call it "black gold" nonsense.

I know oil is relatively cheap, and I personally don't care if the price continues to skyrocket. However, I'm sure the heads of Exxon-Mobil would beg to differ on your assessment of its value.
 
DexterMeth said:
Um, sorry to say, but actually there is scientific evidence/studies that have been done that show (specifically cocaine), damages the "stop and go" system in your brain. Basically damaging your own body's sense of willpower. I don't remember the specifics, but it's true...
After saying "go" to cocaine for 24 years, I said "stop."

It was no big deal.

The ibogaine probably helped for the first two weeks, but after that it was all me. So maybe the damage, if it ever really existed, is reversible.
 
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