Legalize Drugs?

[cobraboy]

Originally Posted by Castellamonte

I believe drugs should be legalized, licensed, taxed and sold in WalMart!

I totally disagree.

They shouldn't be taxed, nor sold at WalMart.

They should be FREE and readily available on demand at the street corner gubmint free drug store.

Give druggies all they want, ESPECIALLY the really hard, dangerous drugs. Encourage the seeker of soft drugs, pot, to take the hard ones. They want 5 crack rocks? Give 'em 10, with a new pipe as a bonus.

Let them all die. Let their friends and families watch them wither away and die. Let all of society see it happen. Put it on TV, complete with video: "Breaking news, 3 more found dead, their corpses rotting in a fecund apartment infested with rats and feces..."

Cull the herd. Soon. Quickly.

No demand=no supply.

Hardcore? You bet? Effective? I'll bet a WHOLE lot more than we see today. Or do what Singapore does: hang them.

[Bronxboy]

Originally Posted by cobraboy

I totally disagree.

They shouldn't be taxed, nor sold at WalMart.

They should be FREE and readily available on demand at the street corner gubmint free drug store.

Give druggies all they want, ESPECIALLY the really hard, dangerous drugs. Encourage the seeker of soft drugs, pot, to take the hard ones. They want 5 crack rocks? Give 'em 10, with a new pipe as a bonus.

Let them all die. Let their friends and families watch them wither away and die. Let all of society see it happen. Put it on TV, complete with video: "Breaking news, 3 more found dead, their corpses rotting in a fecund apartment infested with rats and feces..."

Cull the herd. Soon. Quickly.

No demand=no supply.

Hardcore? You bet? Effective? I'll bet a WHOLE lot more than we see today. Or do what Singapore does: hang them.

Sorry , my friend, but this post seems a bit TOO harsh.

When the world is a picture perfect world, then drugs will seize to exist.

I hope you will never have a child hooked on them. Then you will retract your post I bet.

Not all drug users are losers. These people just got caught up in a violent world.

I say education is key and drugs SHOULD NOT be legalized.

This is my opinion and my 2 1/2 cents.

I also value your opinion BUT think it is rather harsh.

[cobraboy]

Originally Posted by Bronxboy

I hope you will never have a child hooked on them.

Is a sister close enough?

[windeguy]

I am very happy to see a leader that is seeing that the drug war as failed and causes more problems than it solves. A very strong YES to legalize and regulate.

[suarezn]

I used to think legalization was the answer, due to some of the same things already discussed here (control, taxes, etc)

Now after seeing how my community has changed over the last few years due to drugs, I'm at the other end of the spectrum and think that very harsh penalties- a la Singapore - is the only way to contain it...not prevent it, but at least contain it.

A junkie will steal from his own mother, break into any home and even kill to feed his / her habit. You can't "cure" a junkie...

It's a moot point though as they will never be legalized and The DR is never going to exact the harsh penalties I believe are needed, when the government itself is involved to the hilt in the business

[DRob]

Originally Posted by suarezn

I used to think legalization was the answer, due to some of the same things already discussed here (control, taxes, etc)

Now after seeing how my community has changed over the last few years due to drugs, I'm at the other end of the spectrum and think that very harsh penalties- a la Singapore - is the only way to contain it...not prevent it, but at least contain it.

A junkie will steal from his own mother, break into any home and even kill to feed his / her habit. You can't "cure" a junkie...

It's a moot point though as they will never be legalized and The DR is never going to exact the harsh penalties I believe are needed, when the government itself is involved to the hilt in the business

Changing one's mind happens, esp. when personal circumstances intervene.

I remember seeing formerly conservative "by your bootstrap" IT people standing in lines to receive unemployment checks after the dot-com bust.

We just saw hard-core no-government-interference types beg and eventually demand a 2 trillion dollar global bailout.

Dick Cheney became less of a social conservative when it turned out his daughter was a lesbian.

And now, people have stronger views on drug legalization when it finally hits home.

'Tis the way of things, I suppose.

[Beads]

Originally Posted by DRob

That's like blaming wall street for forcing you to take out that lousy mortgage on that house that cost far more than you can afford, beads.

Bad decisions at the top are often the result of bad decisions at the bottom. People who use poor judgment elect poor leaders who are susceptible to lobbyists who represent companies that make money off selling poor products to people with poor judgment, and so on.

I know you want to point a finger at some nebulous corporate bogeyman, but the best place to start is usually a mirror. Try using the one attached to your medicine cabinet.

I don't blame wall street for people taking out lousy mortgages I blame the people who singed for a mortgage they couldn't handle.

As far as finding officials who are not susceptible to lobbyists thats another touch problem without a fix as long as lobbying is allowed. I would suggest that if you removed the ability of lobbying and tracked the income of our elected officials more thoroughly this couldn't happen. This is a difficult task but by legalizing drugs you would removed the lobbying drug companies from a big portion of the equation.

Your still missing the point here. People will do drugs. Your NEVER going to stop it. Nothing you can do will stop it. Prohibition only made the illegal activities available for criminals to get rich off it. By legalizing these substances in the same way you take the biggest piece of the equation away..... THE MONEY

Sure people in Colombia can export their coke but it won't be as costly to the consumer because the criminal middle man can no longer make a profit competing against a true business and it will allow the governments to tax it and use that money for good uses.

Removing the lobbyists will take a bit out of the corruption.

The common denominator is making these things not generate MONEY for ccriminals.Once the money is no longer there to be made we'll see a difference until then things will remains as they are.

[kirkland1222]

Legalize marijuana. Tax it. California although having enormous budgetary problems does this and is able to stem some of their shortfall through pot-shop tax revenue.

[frank recktenwald]

No matter what one tries you'll never get rid of drugs since it has been part of humanity for thousands of years. The best thing to do is to educate people how to deal with vices as they do in Holland there the coffee shops also pay taxes.

[mido]

Originally Posted by Beads

... This is a difficult task but by legalizing drugs you would removed the lobbying drug companies from a big portion of the equation.

Your still missing the point here. People will do drugs. Your NEVER going to stop it. Nothing you can do will stop it. Prohibition only made the illegal activities available for criminals to get rich off it. By legalizing these substances in the same way you take the biggest piece of the equation away..... THE MONEY

Sure people in Colombia can export their coke but it won't be as costly to the consumer because the criminal middle man can no longer make a profit competing against a true business and it will allow the governments to tax it and use that money for good uses.

Removing the lobbyists will take a bit out of the corruption.

The common denominator is making these things not generate MONEY for ccriminals.Once the money is no longer there to be made we'll see a difference until then things will remains as they are.

This is exactly the point, if you take the criminal part out of it there would be less violence.
Now, one of the biggest legal drug addiction is probably smoking tobacco. By doing a lot of effort in education and prevention, certain restrictions (no smoking in restaurants, trains and others) we were able to reduce the percentage of smokers in our society significantly.