I am totally for legalization Marijuana which I deem not very harmful. There have been no deaths attributed to it but I have read reports about negative psychological effects of the drug(don't know if it is true or not). Legalization can generate huge revenues for the government, it would eliminate its "gateway drug" status(largely due to its illegality) and dry up a lot of the money which goes to criminal types who would do crime whether or not marijuana is an illegal drug. You all know the rest of the argument for and against. Here is a good article on the freakonomics blog making arguments for and against from four different experts.

A lot of people are for the the legalization of all drugs for many of the same reasons, but I think the health risks to society outweigh any of these benefits. Crack, cocaine, meth, ecstasy, heroin seem to be all very dangerous and even if regulated I can not see how you could allow people to do this. Tobacco which is legal and probably less dangerous then all of these drugs kill lots of people. I can't imagine making these drugs legal benefits society overall. Also I believe a large majority of Americans disagree with the legalization of all drugs and will for a very long time, and making this argument hurts the argument for making just Marijuana legal.

What are your thoughts on the topic article? Which drugs could be made legal and which ones should never be allowed? What did you think about the article?

You are only looking at one question: whether or not a drug is "dangerous". I find it objectionable that you think your personal opinion of whether a substance I have in my pocket is "good" or "bad" for me is enough to justify locking me up in prison. I do smoke pot, I have taken LSD, but I don't do coke or crack or meth or heroin or take painkillers, because I have thought through what the consequences of ingesting those substances would be and decided whether or not it would be a good idea to partake in them. In the case of pot, is it "bad" for me? Yes. It isn't good for my lungs and increases the chances of a bunch of different illnesses. But I still enjoy getting high with my friends every once in a while and that enjoyment makes the risk worth it. The same way every day millions of americans eat fried chicken and big macs because they enjoy a tasty lunch enough to put up with the higher risk of a heart attack or diabetes. But even though when I see a parent take their overweight kids into a fast food restaurant and think they are giving their kids something that is "bad for them", I am not going to try to make a rule telling them they have to eat apples and bananas instead, even though that would obviously be healthier for them.

There are lots of other questions to consider, like what the negative affects are from creating a lucrative black market for these drugs. If the people who sold drugs could rely on the legal system like people who sold legal goods could, we wouldn't have so many people killing each other over drug dealing territory or a disproportionate number of young black men in prison leaving kids to grow up without fathers. You should be looking at what the negative effects of that are as well. The fact that so many drug dealers kill and beat each other isn't because they are selling crack or meth, they do it because they are working in a black market with an artificially high price for that crack where they have no way to resolve disputes peacefully. When a one drug dealer gets cheated by another, he can't exactly hire a well trained lawyer and sue him for damages can he?

I voted to legalize all drugs believe it or not. I take the other side of the anti "War on Drugs" posts a lot because I think the conclusions that the "War on Drugs" has done nothing to curtail drug use (especially among teenagers)are wrong and I think that's a point worth noting. However, I see no reason that marijuana shouldn't be legalized. I suppose this stems from first hand experience in how important it was to my wife during chemo. It's just criminal to deny people relief going through that. I'm not totally convinced that drugs like crack and heroin should be legal In fact I'm not sure about a lot of other drugs as well. For instance an intense trip from a stong dose of acid is not something everyone can handle that well. But the nanny state telling me what I can and can't do in way too many matters offends me to the point that I'd rather see drugs legalized than have the nanny state protecting me from myself. I'm sympathetic to the arguments that too many drug offenders are locked up in jail when they could be dealt with in a different manner.

Your poll is not exhaustive. It's kinda hard for me to vote for "regulating", I imagine it will be even harder for the ACists.

(It's possible to want to legalize drugs for other reasons than so the government can make money from them.)

Where's the option for "get the F out of people's lives and stop shooting them for engaging in wholly voluntary transactions with other people or putting whatever substance they please into their own body"?

I voted to legalize all.

I actually think the case for legalizing marijuana is weaker than the case for legalizing crack/heroin/etc. Sure, marijuana is drastically less harmful, but the costs of prohibition are also quite small. No one is murdered by weed dealers. There are no communities blighted by pot (unless you go down to the level of individual college dorms). Few people are imprisoned for marijuana possession.

Also agree with adios that prohibition probably does decrease drug consumption, at least in the short- to medium-term

One of the reasons that 'hard' drug use is dangerous is because they are impure. How often do people die from drinking moonshine since prohibition ended? If drugs were legalized, dirty drugs like meth wouldn't be popular for long. The drug is addictive of course, and doesn't have a perfect clean replacement, so it's not perfectly analogous to moonshine, but most meth users would switch to something cleaner and cheaper.

And of course, as others have stated above it would eliminate gangs, cut down street crime, and immediately save the incredible amounts of resources spent fighting illegal drugs.

I disagree. If you convince people to support the legalization of marijuana but not other drugs, then what principle are they accepting that makes you think this change would have any staying power? Won't it suck if after all the time and money you spent fighting for this specific change, someone else comes along and finds an argument that swings them back?

I don't understand why so many people think "they" have to forcibly stop other people from harming themselves, as if everyone is born ill equipped to know what's best for him. Good thing you came along to save us. Did you ever think people might make better decisions for themselves if they weren't told what to do their whole lives?

If you're so concerned about people harming themselves with dangerous drugs, perhaps rather than use govt force to tell me which ones I can and can't use, you could start a drug education service and let me make my own decisions about which ones I'm comfortable with. If you don't have the time or the interest to do this with your life, fine. Then mind your own business.

Since 1992, approximately six million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. Annual marijuana arrests have more than doubled in that time.

http://skeptically.org/recdrugs/id8.html

That doesn't support conflict with anything that I said. Relatively few people are incarcerated for marijuana-related charged and most of those are incarcerated for dealing.

Also harming the cause of legalizing drugs... couching it in anarchist/libertarian terms. The argument for legalization that has the most appeal is that the war on drugs is extremely expensive, results in a lot of deaths and injury, and is ineffective in protecting neighborhoods and individuals from the bad effects of drugs. Focus on that, not paternalism in general imo.

You mean accurately?

I can't help it if you're determined to marginalize my thoughts on the matter. What exactly did I say that you disagree with?

I think you're wrong about the costs of prohibition for pot being small. Lots of people have their doors kicked in (many times wrongly), are shot or injured, and have property confiscated because of the prohibition on weed. Then there's the use of police resources to investigate, arrest, detain, cite, those found with weed as well as the use of court resources in the prosecution of these cases. My guess is that it costs us many billions of dollars to prohibit weed alone.

Certainly the families of these people would argue that the cost isn't small.

I doubt any of the drugs outside of marijuana are made to be so dangerous because of the other chemicals which are in them then the original stuff.

Education programs have been part of the War on Drugs forever and have failed miserably. Heroin, crack, and meth are the most dangerous and I don't think those can ever be legal. Just because once you try one of those 3 you would be in serious danger of getting addicted and harming yourself.

If you want to try it, you should have to jump through the added costs of dealing with criminals and its illegality.

fyp

I think that's a good image to check out.

Crack is for poor people in the inner cities who can't afford powder cocaine. People make meth in their basements using household products because it's cheap. Neither of these drugs would get any play if other cleaner, "better" drugs were made legal, and their costs were driven down. Heroin is rough, but I'm all for individual liberties when it comes to someone and their own body. If they wanna chase the dragon then why the hell not?

Yeah keep comparing unhealthy foods to dangerous drugs and Im sure we will get them legal real soon.....

If you are trying to make the point that because you can abuse it and it will be dangerous to your health then I would say that you would have to abuse those food a lot more then 3 substances to even come close to the effects of moderately using those 3 substances.

P.S I was surprised at first at the results of the poll but then I realize how many ACers there are and its not that surprising.

If the bolded sentence matters at all, which it seems from the rest of your post it does, then why should any of us really care about this argument? Its just quibbling over details and preferences. You dont think its dangerous, Mike does, you think its too costly, Dave thinks its bad for your soul, who the **** cares? You know that "dangerous" is pretty much an arbitrary standard, so have fun lying in the bed you've made.

Legalize all drugs !!!


Do you guys see this happening in the near future?

Even if true, I insist you add in "at an obscene cost both financially and in human suffering" whenever you say it.

I just wanted to discuss the subject and see what you guys thought. I am not passing judgment or anything so why don't you calm down and lay off buddy.

Of course not. The typical analogy is comparing making bad choices re: drugs to making bad choices re: fatty foods. I think its FAR more likely that we outlaw unhealthy foods than that we decriminalize drugs. Probably even if you are just asking about marijuana.

It has nothing to do with passing judgment, it has to do with your entire paradigm. If "I dont think its that dangerous so..." is driving your preference to legalize marijuana, then its only a matter of time, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm calm.

The problem with the substances you mentioned is that it's so hard to use it "in moderation". The same is true about unhealthy food. What % of the US population is overweight now? 2/3? Obese? 1/3? Sure seems like the 3 substances I mentioned are doing some serious damage.

I don't know every ACist in this forum, but it seems to me like three have voted in the poll. So that's four if you include me. I agree that it's an interesting dynamic how the drug war in it's current form has practically no defenders in this forum.