I think all the points you listed are assuming people will be using responsibly, once drugs are legal, when in reality, look at all the idiots driving cars when they are totally smashed and engaging in other risky behavior, not to mention deaths due to alcohol poisoning.
mostly, it's not a matter of using responsibly, it's a matter of getting clean drugs and knowing the dose which has the potential to save lives
Can you back that up with any actual research?
yes
Homicide and other violent crimes won't end. I actually think that violent crimes among people with underlying dispositions beginning to use PCP, meth, and other drugs would cause major increases in violent crime, especially domestic disputes.
following studies summed up:violence due to the illegal market makes up most of the violence associated with drugs, and this violence would no longer apply in a legal atmosphere
"The chart at the right illustrates the homicide rate in the United States from 1900 to 1998. It is important to note that
each of the most violent episodes in this century coincide with the prohibition on alcohol and the escalation of the modern-day war on drugs. In 1933 the homicide rate peaked at 9.7 per 100,000 people, which was the year that alcohol prohibition was finally repealed. In 1980, the homicide rate peaked again at 10 per 100,000."
Source: US Census Data and FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
"Generalizing from the findings on Prohibition, we can hypothesize that
decriminalization would increase the use of the previously criminalized drug, but would decrease violence associated with attempts to control illicit markets and as resolutions to disputes between buyers and sellers. Moreover, because the perception of violence associated with the drug market can lead people who are not directly involved to be prepared for violent self-defense, there could be additional reductions in peripheral settings when disputes arise (see Blumstein & Cork, 1997; Sheley & Wright, 1996)."
Source: Jensen, Gary F., "Prohibition, Alcohol, and Murder: Untangling Countervailing Mechanisms," Homicide Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, February 2000), pp. 33-4.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal published research on the
impact of a police crackdown on a public illicit drug market in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) section of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The researchers found that:
"Our results probably explain reports of
increased injection drug use, drug-related crime and other public-order concerns in neighbourhoods where activities related to illicit drug use and the sex trade emerged or intensified in the wake of the crackdown. Such displacement has profound public-health implications if it "normalizes" injection drug use among previously unexposed at-risk youth. Furthermore, since difficulty in obtaining syringes has been shown to be a significant factor in promoting syringe sharing among IDUs in Vancouver, displacement away from sources of sterile syringes may increase the rates of bloodborne diseases. Escalated police presence may also explain the observed reduction in willingness to use a safer injection facility.33 It is unlikely that the lack of benefit of the crackdown was due to insufficient police resources.
Larger crackdowns in the United States, which often involved helicopters to supplement foot and car patrols, have not had measurable benefits and have instead been associated with substantial health and social harms."
Source: Wood, Evan, Patricia M. Spittal, Will Small, Thomas Kerr, Kathy Li, Robert S. Hogg, Mark W. Tyndall, Julio S.G. Montaner, Martin T. Schechter, "Displacement of Canada's Largest Public Illicit Drug Market In Response To A Police Crackdown," Canadian Medical Association Journal, May 11, 2004: 170(10), pp. 1554-1555.
(paraphrase)
even for crack cocaine, a very strong stimulant, 85% of violence associated with it is due to the black market surrounding it rather htan the pharmacological affects of the drug itself
Source: Goldstein, P.J., Brownstein, H.H., Ryan, P.J. & Bellucci, P.A., "Crack and Homicide in New York City: A Case Study in the Epidemiology of Violence," in Reinarman, C. and Levine, H. (eds.), Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 113-130.
-Property crime go down? Again, I would doubt that. Kids getting their hands on drugs and going out with their friends being destructive, maybe even forming habits, and, not being old enough to legally purchase, breaking into people's homes to get their drugs.
nearly all property crime associated with drugs is because addicts have to steal to finance their drug habit. this is because drug prices are inflated by the prohibition on drugs. after legalization, a heavy heroin addiction could be easily affordable on a low paying job
are kids breaking into homes now to get whiskey?
by the way, about this "destructive behavior,"
alcohol is the only known substance to commonly induce violent behavior. in rare cases, meth, pcp, and lsd, can cause violent reactions, probably due to underlying psychosis
forget where i found this one, ask and ill take the time to find it
can you imagine someone on ecstasy beating someone up, someone on heroin getting off the cozy couch and destroying property, someone on marijuana acting wreckless? the only substances id be worried about are the stimulants and alcohol. but this isnt grounds for illegalization of these drugs
I only mentioned a few things here. I don't think we can even really begin to comprehend the problems that would arise from across the board legalization.
i only mentioned a few things too
-Do you really think everyone is going stop and read labels? Even now, if anyone is concerned about mixing drugs all they have to do a little research on the internet.
no one really trusts the information sources warning about drug problems right now (and they shouldn't), and not everyone knows how to search the internet, seperating good sites and anti drug sites and pro drug sites, not everyone has the internet, and not everyone knows such information is available at their fingertips. a simple label with a scientifically established claim is vital with these drugs considering misinformation is one of the primary causes of death
the other primary causes will all cease to apply after legalization (contaminents, unknown dose, etc)
sources thanks to this book...
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/
if i made a claim i havent sourced or fully explained just say so and ill address it
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
