cj
Bluelight Crew
What good comes out of locking people in cages for possesing it?
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DC Moderators: ghostfreak | VerbalTruist
Substance Legalization Discussion.
- Thread starter Foreigner
- Start date
What good comes out of locking people in cages for possesing it?
Sepher
Bluelight Crew
Hiya Boomer, welcome to Bluelight. This thread is not particularly appropriate to TDS, we're concerned primarily with supporting users in crisis, in recovery, etc. I'm moving it to a more appropriate forum for this discussion to continue.
TDS ->> DC.
TDS ->> DC.
Seyer
Bluelight Crew
Merged into our legalization thread.
OK no problem, I just wanted to get insight from people who had used and seen the negative aspects. If anyone else has anything to contribute I'd like to hear it, I don't really want to argue about whether or not is should be legalized because my minds already made up. I'm not interested in producing a hypothetical system that attempts to reduce use, and promote recovery, in the most humane and efficient way. That's why I'm asking people who are addicted and trying to recover, because they know what works and what doesn't about the current system.
bmoreharfordroad
Greenlighter
There is a great book called "Cop in the Hood" and it is written by a Harvard grad who ended up working 3 or 4 years as a Baltimore cop. Anyway he tells you how drugs are such a waste of time and money, the job of a marked policecar is to answer 911 calls today, they can not do their job when all they are doing is clearing corners all day. And they rarely sit on a spot, and you can't sit on a corner forever, and people will always come back to buy and sell dope. Their is a lot more to it than that though. If drugs were legalized a whole lot of money would be saved. But the criminal justice system is a racket too.
rickolasnice
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 6,807
Only read original post but..
A lot of deaths occur from one batch of "dangersous" drugs being stronger than usual.. Resulting in accidental overdose..
This wouldn't happen if drugs were legal.
Another thing is that people who are addicted will be more likely to seek help without the "nasty junky" stigma that comes about from prohibition, the governments AND the media's reporting of such things..
AND.. Think of the money saved (as well as freeing up scientists) from no longer attempting a war on drugs.. this will give rise to a lot better treatment programs by people that don't think: "urgh.. dirty junkies".. Now think of the money that can be made.. It's been a while but as far as i can remember the war on drugs in UK costs about 5 billion UK pounds a year.. and the money that black market dealers make is about 7 - 8 billion (i may be wrong here.. it's been a while).. That's 12 billion pounds a YEAR than could be potentially used for treating addicts, not punishing them (that has proven to be a complete failure)..
And all these points are ignoring the fact that if people want to take drugs, they either do, have or will.. Regardless of legality.
A lot of deaths occur from one batch of "dangersous" drugs being stronger than usual.. Resulting in accidental overdose..
This wouldn't happen if drugs were legal.
Another thing is that people who are addicted will be more likely to seek help without the "nasty junky" stigma that comes about from prohibition, the governments AND the media's reporting of such things..
AND.. Think of the money saved (as well as freeing up scientists) from no longer attempting a war on drugs.. this will give rise to a lot better treatment programs by people that don't think: "urgh.. dirty junkies".. Now think of the money that can be made.. It's been a while but as far as i can remember the war on drugs in UK costs about 5 billion UK pounds a year.. and the money that black market dealers make is about 7 - 8 billion (i may be wrong here.. it's been a while).. That's 12 billion pounds a YEAR than could be potentially used for treating addicts, not punishing them (that has proven to be a complete failure)..
And all these points are ignoring the fact that if people want to take drugs, they either do, have or will.. Regardless of legality.
mrflowers00
Ex-Bluelighter
i think less people would use drugs if they were legal because it would take the rebellious aspect out of it
One Thousand Words
Bluelighter
Would murders and rapes reduce if they were legalised as well?
I think you under estimate the effects these drugs have on society. PLenty of people point to Portugal and Netherlands when they speak of legalisation/decriminalisation but fail to mention that Britain had legal access to several similar compounds only a few years ago. Mephadrone in particular was legally available and the population of young people showed very little if any restraint. We are not talking about thousands dying from overdose that would be more likely with heroin but enough problems were created that the authorities rightly banned it again. Most people saw legal=safe and as a result used these drugs in ever increasingly more dangerous ways. I would hate to think how many of today's addicts were given their first taste of drug use during this time and are now hopelessly lost to drug addiction.
I think you under estimate the effects these drugs have on society. PLenty of people point to Portugal and Netherlands when they speak of legalisation/decriminalisation but fail to mention that Britain had legal access to several similar compounds only a few years ago. Mephadrone in particular was legally available and the population of young people showed very little if any restraint. We are not talking about thousands dying from overdose that would be more likely with heroin but enough problems were created that the authorities rightly banned it again. Most people saw legal=safe and as a result used these drugs in ever increasingly more dangerous ways. I would hate to think how many of today's addicts were given their first taste of drug use during this time and are now hopelessly lost to drug addiction.
Your first comment is absurd. No, they wouldn't be. The only way to reduce drug use is and addiction is through education. The reason drugs should be legal is because they are a victimless crime. People need to take responsibility for choices THEY make, instead of reaching out to the government to try to (unsuccessfully) stop them. You are deluded if you think the only reason people don't use heroin is because its illegal. Countries that have legalized/semi legalized weed did not see a massive surge in use. People who want to use drugs can usually find them under prohibition. Most people chose not to use drugs like heroin because they do not want an expensive habit that they will have to maintain for a long time.
Why do you care if mephedrone is legal or illegal? Personally I don't care at all. If people want to use it and potentially cause damage to themselves, that's fine with me. I've never used it, but I'm told it's similar to MDMA which I have used. Probably can cause long term neurotoxicity, but that doesn't put much of a strain on society because I don't think people can become addicted to it in the long term. If there is a large market for the drug (not sure if there even is, especially if MDMA were available in its place), then I do believe it should be legal, because making it illegal will just create a black market waste tax payers money. Do you really want your tax payer dollar/pounds/euros/whatever going towards locking people up for using the drug?
If you do care about those "kids" who chose to use it recklessly (by the way, I do actually care about the kids), a system in which actually educates the citizens and regulates the drug would have a positive impact. I'm not saying sell heroin to any random kid at corner stores like they were selling mephedrone, I'm saying put in a system first to educate people before they are allowed to purchase it, and if they still want to do it then go for it, I don't want to send people to jail for experimenting with drugs. Giant waste of tax payers money, and waste of users and dealers lives in jail, and waste of cops and courts time processing it all.
Very hipocritical (sp?) for someone who uses drugs to think they should be illegal. I guess you feel like your a criminal. That is sad. I love using various drugs. I don't cause problem when I'm on drugs, I don't steal, or hurt anyone, so I don't feel like a criminal. I don't think I'm a burden on society in anyway, or deserve a criminal record or to ever be locked up.
Again I want to stress (incase you didn't read the entire thread) that LEGAL DOES NOT MEAN ENCOURAGED. I'm not saying you should see commercials advertising how sweet heroin is. I'm saying the system we have now is extremely wasteful in terms of resources and human life. It doesn't treat drug addiction like the medical problem it is, which has a negative impact on addicts. Legalizing drugs and regulating them and restricting them would solve many of the problems we see now. It would also make it easier for researchers to research them and better inform the public on the risks.
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Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
I had assumed they posted it in TDS because they particularly wanted the opinions of people in recovery and one of their main questions was about how one would incorporate recovery into legalization/regulation. But considering the direction the thread took I agree it's more appropriate in DC.
The title seems unfair/biased - Pitfalls of the "legalization" argument?
Some of us, including boomer11, are looking for ways that legalization could potentially be implemented in a way that reduces harm and encourages recovery, not just for arguments against legalization. As I said before, the perfect should not be the enemy of the good, we shouldn't make no changes to drug laws and programs designed to help people who use drugs just because there isn't a perfect solution.
Do you mean about my own addiction and recovery?
I think I might have made less money if I had heroin or morphine prescribed for free, because I wouldn't have had the same motivation to make lots of money (I don't work as much or make as much money now that I'm clean) but the vast majority of my money was going to drugs and making lots of money doesn't equal a good life. I absolutely would have had a better life in many ways and my addiction would have been way less harmful to me.
I believe some types would be reduced. Drug-related murders would likely not be eliminated, because even with regulation there would still be a black market, but I truly believe drug-related murders would decrease, as would certain types of rape like rape of sex workers who do dangerous forms of sex work (such as street prostitution) in order to pay for their drug habits.
In an earlier post I touched on the prescription heroin program in the UK, which clearly is not easily accessible. Also, decriminalization or in a grey area and totally unregulated is different from regulated legalization.
I don't think that's accurate. A study of mephedrone users in Northern Ireland found they did NOT equate the fact that mephedrone was legal with it being safe to use. None of the respondents reported that the legal status of mephedrone implied that it was safe to use. Mephedrone was also still widely available during the studied time period following the ban, but respondents reported a greater reliance on dealers, increased costs and a change in mephedrone packaging following the criminalisation of mephedrone. The study also found that mephedrone being legal did not have a direct effect on people deciding to use it for the first time.
Besides that, there could be ways to reduce the likelihood of people viewing legality as implied safety, to promote harm reduction, to discourage use and to promote easy access to help to people who were already using drugs and wanted to quit.
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Seyer
Bluelight Crew
Edited to make it more general ^
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
I think a lot of the people who advocate for not legalizing heroin don't see the practical side of it, in fact it probably reduces usage and definitely reduces harms associated with use.
rickolasnice
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 6,807
All you have to think about, at the end of the day, is that people who want to use drugs will, do, or will do, regardless of legality.
Using portugal as an example group.. The amount of addicts more that halved within 10 years of decriminalization.
Using portugal as an example group.. The amount of addicts more that halved within 10 years of decriminalization.
One Thousand Words
Bluelighter
What I was asking is if you legalised murder and rape would you see people committing these crimes more or less because it is no longer taboo? I'm pretty sure we would see numbers increase.
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
I don't mind posting it here, I'm a pretty open person and maybe other people can get some use out of it.
It's going to be long though so who knows if anyone else will read it
During my use prohibition had MANY adverse impacts on me.
Initiation of use:
So I think prohibition really affected my decision to try heroin in the first place. A big part of this was that the drug education I received was mostly the "all drugs are bad and will rapidly destroy your life" type. We were lied to about drugs a lot, and illegal drugs were all sort of lumped together as "bad" and "just say no". I had tried things like cannabis and LSD and found that the authority figures were lying about those as while as MANY other aspects of drug use, like the idea that teens only try drugs due to "peer pressure" or the effects of the drugs themselves) and so I assumed everything I'd been told about heroin was a lie too. I think I may have also kind of been attracted to the illegality and stigma surrounding it, it made me more curious and I was an unconventional teen who felt drug laws mainly existed to control people. I also mistakenly thought (like many) that I would be able to control my use and not get addicted, in part because of societal beliefs which were especially prevalent at the time (due to the "War on Drugs" IMO) that drug addicts are just weak, bad people who have no self-control or choose to be addicted (this was said a lot, that "addiction is a choice"). Not that I believed judgments about drug addicts, but I did think I could deliberately avoid addiction. I also didn't understand the difference between mental addiction and physiological dependence and thought you could only get addicted if you used it every day, so I would just not use it often enough to get addicted, in fact at first I think I thought I would just try it once (these are all still common misconceptions for many people who start using heroin). After trying it once and liking it, I figured gee I'm not instantly addicted like I was told I would be, so I'm probably right that I can avoid addiction and it's probably fine to use heroin once in a while. I didn't know addiction built slowly over time. Easy access to truthful information about drugs would have made a big difference I feel.
Eventually I started using heroin to cope with emotional and physical pain (actually I'm sure that's what I was doing unknowingly from the beginning, even though curiosity, rebellion and the belief that there was no real harm in trying it were the main conscious reasons for that initial use). Somewhere along the line I just wasn't able to make myself go very long without using it anymore. Doctors and family weren't helping me and I'd found something effective. Doctors didn't take me seriously or help me, they just treated me like I was making up my problems or that kids/teens just want drugs (an indirect consequence of prohibition I feel), even though I never specifically asked doctors for drugs and non-drug options were not suggested by them.
Obviously merely making heroin legal and not changing anything else at all would not have reduced most of these problems, but I think that making changes to laws, education, health care, societal beliefs, access to support for mental illness or abusive situations, etc could greatly reduce them. If I lived in a different society and had different drug education and support I probably would never have tried heroin in the first place, even if it was completely legal and easily accessible.
Harm from drug use:
It was difficult to access harm reduction materials and there was little education about harm reduction. Being the type of person that I am I actively sought out this knowledge, but advice was often limited to very basic things like "don't share needles with others". I got books from the library on heroin before even using it but they were sometimes wildly inaccurate, like one said that heroin has no adverse impacts on the human body or brain and the only risk from it was overdose, whereas others were overly dramatic in the opposite direction - guess which one I believed? There was a small needle exchange operation in town with limited hours and one could sometimes get syringes from certain pharmacies, but neither were convenient and the pharmacies would often treat me like crap or refuse to sell them to me. For quite some time I didn't know there were any risks from reusing your own needles or injecting in the same spot over and over and I totally destroyed my veins that way. There was certainly no access to things like micron filters or reagent testing kits. Yes harm reduction could potentially be better promoted while the drugs themselves remained illegal, and it's certainly easier to access HR than it was back when I first started using, but I think there would have to be some major changes in laws and societal views on drug use for HR under prohibition to be as effective as possible.
Overdoses:
I believe that if drug laws were different I may not have overdosed. One overdose, as I mentioned, was from using street heroin in the same quantity as usual - if it were regulated/legal/standardized in some way I would not have ended up with a batch that was substantially more pure than the last. I was lucky that I had a friend there who was able to call an ambulance. Another overdose was from cocaine that was sold to me as heroin. I had a very high tolerance to heroin at the time and no tolerance to cocaine and overdosed on the cocaine. Obviously that wouldn't happen if people could be assured of what drug they were getting. I have also had adverse effects (unpleasant side effects, vein damage, etc) from getting street heroin that contained various impurities and cuts - again that wouldn't have happened if I could have been assured of getting pure heroin.
Costs:
This is a tough one, because I don't think that free unlimited opioids for first-time users is a good idea, nor do I think that addicts should have to pay outrageous amounts of money to maintain their addiction, so an ideal regulation would have to be somewhere in the middle and carefully and properly executed. I am absolutely in favour of at minimum decriminalization of buying and possessing drugs for personal use, but I think an ideal situation would be some form of regulated legalization, because decriminalization would only reduce some of the harms associated with using drugs - we would still have high prices, drugs that are impure and unreliable, crime to obtain drugs, etc. The high financial cost of my heroin addiction was a huge impact on my life. I couldn't function without it, so, until I eventually became a high-end escort, my life pretty much revolved around getting money for drugs and I put myself in all sorts of sketchy situations due to that. Let me know if you'd like specifics.
General problems due to illegality:
Having unreliable sources, times where my supplier would disappear and I wouldn't be able to function at all because I was so sick and so depressed, having to spend a lot of my time and effort obtaining drugs, being in all sorts of dangerous situations, being robbed/ripped off, being around people who were unhealthy for me, fear of arrest, etc. I had close friends who went to prison because of their drug use, for example someone selling drugs in order to pay for their habit and someone who was stealing to pay for their habit. Prison did NOT help them at all.
Recovery:
I feel my likelihood of quitting heroin and quitting opioids completely was greatly impaired by prohibition and everything that goes with the War on Drugs, societal beliefs, lack of truthful education about drugs, etc. When I first decided I wanted to quit heroin my only options were unmedicated short-term detox (with a waiting list), Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous (the goal being abstinence by going to meetings and using the 12 steps and people who were on drugs were not welcome at meetings), or methadone maintenance (with a waiting list). Quitting "cold turkey" and NA/AA did not work for me, so I went with methadone. I was told that methadone would completely eliminate all withdrawal symptoms and all cravings for heroin, had no adverse physical or mental health consequences of its own, and was much easier to quit than heroin (stuff like "you can easily taper off it with no withdrawal symptoms whenever you decide to, so there should be no rush trying to get off it," and "even if you were to stop methadone suddenly the withdrawal symptoms are much milder than heroin's"), which are all completely untrue. The societal belief was that methadone was "just legal heroin" and there were a lot of judgements about it. I truly believe that if I could have actually had legal prescribed heroin or morphine that would have been much better for me and that I would have quit sooner. Many of the problems I had with the methadone program was could definitely have been improved by changes to laws/regulations and education. Access to other tools for recovery (including some illegal forms that I have used) could definitely be improved upon.
*I am getting tired of typing so I'm going to stop here for now but I can elaborate more on the recovery section and what changes I would make to how things currently are later because there is a lot to it.
So I think prohibition really affected my decision to try heroin in the first place. A big part of this was that the drug education I received was mostly the "all drugs are bad and will rapidly destroy your life" type. We were lied to about drugs a lot, and illegal drugs were all sort of lumped together as "bad" and "just say no". I had tried things like cannabis and LSD and found that the authority figures were lying about those as while as MANY other aspects of drug use, like the idea that teens only try drugs due to "peer pressure" or the effects of the drugs themselves) and so I assumed everything I'd been told about heroin was a lie too. I think I may have also kind of been attracted to the illegality and stigma surrounding it, it made me more curious and I was an unconventional teen who felt drug laws mainly existed to control people. I also mistakenly thought (like many) that I would be able to control my use and not get addicted, in part because of societal beliefs which were especially prevalent at the time (due to the "War on Drugs" IMO) that drug addicts are just weak, bad people who have no self-control or choose to be addicted (this was said a lot, that "addiction is a choice"). Not that I believed judgments about drug addicts, but I did think I could deliberately avoid addiction. I also didn't understand the difference between mental addiction and physiological dependence and thought you could only get addicted if you used it every day, so I would just not use it often enough to get addicted, in fact at first I think I thought I would just try it once (these are all still common misconceptions for many people who start using heroin). After trying it once and liking it, I figured gee I'm not instantly addicted like I was told I would be, so I'm probably right that I can avoid addiction and it's probably fine to use heroin once in a while. I didn't know addiction built slowly over time. Easy access to truthful information about drugs would have made a big difference I feel.
Eventually I started using heroin to cope with emotional and physical pain (actually I'm sure that's what I was doing unknowingly from the beginning, even though curiosity, rebellion and the belief that there was no real harm in trying it were the main conscious reasons for that initial use). Somewhere along the line I just wasn't able to make myself go very long without using it anymore. Doctors and family weren't helping me and I'd found something effective. Doctors didn't take me seriously or help me, they just treated me like I was making up my problems or that kids/teens just want drugs (an indirect consequence of prohibition I feel), even though I never specifically asked doctors for drugs and non-drug options were not suggested by them.
Obviously merely making heroin legal and not changing anything else at all would not have reduced most of these problems, but I think that making changes to laws, education, health care, societal beliefs, access to support for mental illness or abusive situations, etc could greatly reduce them. If I lived in a different society and had different drug education and support I probably would never have tried heroin in the first place, even if it was completely legal and easily accessible.
Harm from drug use:
It was difficult to access harm reduction materials and there was little education about harm reduction. Being the type of person that I am I actively sought out this knowledge, but advice was often limited to very basic things like "don't share needles with others". I got books from the library on heroin before even using it but they were sometimes wildly inaccurate, like one said that heroin has no adverse impacts on the human body or brain and the only risk from it was overdose, whereas others were overly dramatic in the opposite direction - guess which one I believed?
There was a small needle exchange operation in town with limited hours and one could sometimes get syringes from certain pharmacies, but neither were convenient and the pharmacies would often treat me like crap or refuse to sell them to me. For quite some time I didn't know there were any risks from reusing your own needles or injecting in the same spot over and over and I totally destroyed my veins that way. There was certainly no access to things like micron filters or reagent testing kits. Yes harm reduction could potentially be better promoted while the drugs themselves remained illegal, and it's certainly easier to access HR than it was back when I first started using, but I think there would have to be some major changes in laws and societal views on drug use for HR under prohibition to be as effective as possible.Overdoses:
I believe that if drug laws were different I may not have overdosed. One overdose, as I mentioned, was from using street heroin in the same quantity as usual - if it were regulated/legal/standardized in some way I would not have ended up with a batch that was substantially more pure than the last. I was lucky that I had a friend there who was able to call an ambulance. Another overdose was from cocaine that was sold to me as heroin. I had a very high tolerance to heroin at the time and no tolerance to cocaine and overdosed on the cocaine. Obviously that wouldn't happen if people could be assured of what drug they were getting. I have also had adverse effects (unpleasant side effects, vein damage, etc) from getting street heroin that contained various impurities and cuts - again that wouldn't have happened if I could have been assured of getting pure heroin.
Costs:
This is a tough one, because I don't think that free unlimited opioids for first-time users is a good idea, nor do I think that addicts should have to pay outrageous amounts of money to maintain their addiction, so an ideal regulation would have to be somewhere in the middle and carefully and properly executed. I am absolutely in favour of at minimum decriminalization of buying and possessing drugs for personal use, but I think an ideal situation would be some form of regulated legalization, because decriminalization would only reduce some of the harms associated with using drugs - we would still have high prices, drugs that are impure and unreliable, crime to obtain drugs, etc. The high financial cost of my heroin addiction was a huge impact on my life. I couldn't function without it, so, until I eventually became a high-end escort, my life pretty much revolved around getting money for drugs and I put myself in all sorts of sketchy situations due to that. Let me know if you'd like specifics.
General problems due to illegality:
Having unreliable sources, times where my supplier would disappear and I wouldn't be able to function at all because I was so sick and so depressed, having to spend a lot of my time and effort obtaining drugs, being in all sorts of dangerous situations, being robbed/ripped off, being around people who were unhealthy for me, fear of arrest, etc. I had close friends who went to prison because of their drug use, for example someone selling drugs in order to pay for their habit and someone who was stealing to pay for their habit. Prison did NOT help them at all.
Recovery:
I feel my likelihood of quitting heroin and quitting opioids completely was greatly impaired by prohibition and everything that goes with the War on Drugs, societal beliefs, lack of truthful education about drugs, etc. When I first decided I wanted to quit heroin my only options were unmedicated short-term detox (with a waiting list), Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous (the goal being abstinence by going to meetings and using the 12 steps and people who were on drugs were not welcome at meetings), or methadone maintenance (with a waiting list). Quitting "cold turkey" and NA/AA did not work for me, so I went with methadone. I was told that methadone would completely eliminate all withdrawal symptoms and all cravings for heroin, had no adverse physical or mental health consequences of its own, and was much easier to quit than heroin (stuff like "you can easily taper off it with no withdrawal symptoms whenever you decide to, so there should be no rush trying to get off it," and "even if you were to stop methadone suddenly the withdrawal symptoms are much milder than heroin's"), which are all completely untrue. The societal belief was that methadone was "just legal heroin" and there were a lot of judgements about it. I truly believe that if I could have actually had legal prescribed heroin or morphine that would have been much better for me and that I would have quit sooner. Many of the problems I had with the methadone program was could definitely have been improved by changes to laws/regulations and education. Access to other tools for recovery (including some illegal forms that I have used) could definitely be improved upon.
*I am getting tired of typing so I'm going to stop here for now but I can elaborate more on the recovery section and what changes I would make to how things currently are later because there is a lot to it.
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
Not a useful analogy IMO. It's a logical fallacy if you are trying to imply that because murder and rape wouldn't be reduced by legalizing them that drug use wouldn't be reduced by some form of legalization. Furthermore, it is irrelevant because a person using drugs is completely different from a person killing or raping another person. Much of the adverse impacts to people other than the user from illegal drug use are because it is illegal. And legalization could be done in a way that greatly reduces the remaining harms, both to users and to other individuals/society.
One Thousand Words
Bluelighter
Plenty of rich powerful people with an unlimited supply of pure product fuck their lives up. Why wouldn't this happen to Joe Average even if the law turned a blind eye to them also?
I'm not necessarily even saying give them unlimited supply. But basically because its that persons right to fuck up their own life. Tax money is better spent helping them with recovery if it comes to that, than locking him up.
And I'm not sure who your refering to when you say plenty of powerful people. But regardless it's their life to fuck up if they so chose. I think program should be there to educate Joe Average to tell him "Hey, if your gonna do x, y will happen", but in a much more honest way than they do now (if you smoke cigs, your limbs will get amputated; not an effective way to stop smoking). And for people who don't listen to the warning, support will be made available if and when they need it, with harm reduction being the number 1 concern.
Using drugs come with inherent consequences. They all pose health risks, and some risk of addiction. Educating people about these will reinforce the natural punishment for drug use, which is the immediate and long term effects the drug has on the individual. That is why drugs were made illegal in the first place, someone thought hey, drugs are bad, I'm gonna make them illegal so that they'll go away. But in the modern world its obvious that they aren't going away. So we should act like grown ups and deal with them in a more sensible way. Continuing to punish people by locking them up and giving them criminal records isn't helping anybody. Drugs are still available, cops are wasting their time, police forces are wasting money that could be going towards better lab equipment to catch real criminal aka murderers and rapists. You know, protecting you from other people, instead of protecting you from yourself.
Thank you for sharing your story swimmingdancer. It was very helpful and informative. Sort of a sterotypical account. It sort of reflected the image I had in my head that I didn't think was necessarily true, but it turned out to be. I'd love to hear any more details you have, but on your own time. I'm sure you've got other things to do and I feel bad that I've taken up so much of your time. Anything you have to say I'd be interested to hear it, whenever you get around to it.
And I'm not sure who your refering to when you say plenty of powerful people. But regardless it's their life to fuck up if they so chose. I think program should be there to educate Joe Average to tell him "Hey, if your gonna do x, y will happen", but in a much more honest way than they do now (if you smoke cigs, your limbs will get amputated; not an effective way to stop smoking). And for people who don't listen to the warning, support will be made available if and when they need it, with harm reduction being the number 1 concern.
Using drugs come with inherent consequences. They all pose health risks, and some risk of addiction. Educating people about these will reinforce the natural punishment for drug use, which is the immediate and long term effects the drug has on the individual. That is why drugs were made illegal in the first place, someone thought hey, drugs are bad, I'm gonna make them illegal so that they'll go away. But in the modern world its obvious that they aren't going away. So we should act like grown ups and deal with them in a more sensible way. Continuing to punish people by locking them up and giving them criminal records isn't helping anybody. Drugs are still available, cops are wasting their time, police forces are wasting money that could be going towards better lab equipment to catch real criminal aka murderers and rapists. You know, protecting you from other people, instead of protecting you from yourself.
Thank you for sharing your story swimmingdancer. It was very helpful and informative. Sort of a sterotypical account. It sort of reflected the image I had in my head that I didn't think was necessarily true, but it turned out to be. I'd love to hear any more details you have, but on your own time. I'm sure you've got other things to do and I feel bad that I've taken up so much of your time. Anything you have to say I'd be interested to hear it, whenever you get around to it.