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Cigarettes kill 400,000 people in the U.S. every year. Legal.
Alcohol kills 150,000 people in the U.S. every year. Legal.
Heroin and cocaine combined kill less than 7,000 people in the U.S. every year. Both illegal.


The reason alcohol isn't banned is because the U.S. tried that already. It just gave rise to organized crime.
Banning any mood-altering substance and expecting the population to abstain from it purely because of its illegality is akin to saying if we take away all the condoms people will stop having sex. Some people will weigh their actions differently, but most won't, because they like to get drunk, or they like having sex, or they like getting high, or they like to eat junk food [HI RUDY!]. People are generally self-concerned. What feels good and what's good for them don't overlap that often, and if forced to chose most will go for the first.
Controlling social deviancy with legislature is just setting oneself up for failure, because the human instinct isn't changed because some guy in an office in Washington said so. You can't change how somebody thinks or what somebody does by making a law against it.

*climbs off soapbox* Sorry, this topic usually inspires a rant wink

The problem is that usually those people leave us to clean up after them. I'm for people killing themselves if it doesn't cost me a cent and if nobody has a mess to deal with.

I also agree with people being allowed to kill themselves or hurt themselves in any way they want.

If people are stupid enough, allow them. Its when they hurt others in the process that actually matter. Ultimately you should have rights to your own body, regardless of how it affects others.

This doesn't mean that help shouldn't be given. It just shouldnt be enforced (just offered).

What was I talking about?

Don't fear the reaper, man.

Logically.

Nothing gets done in a philosophy class.

Its all about what someone said a long time ago. When people argue philisophically, they always connect to ideals or ideas given to them in a philosophy class rather than deciding on their own.

Aka: a philosophy class becomes an arguement of old arguements.

Other classes are more flexible and you dont expect someone to say something or think something specific just because they label themselves to be a platoist or ******** philosophers. Make your own philosophy!

What class ISN'T built upon previous classes? History is all dependent on the past. Law cites precedents. Math builds one theory on top of another. Science experiments usually comes in series, and certain areas get boons. Theology, philosophy, and literature all work in movements. Hell, the computer I'm typing on right now was built with technology that was an improvement of other technology, which was built with other technology, improved from still earlier technology...

What subjects out there synthesize their own ideas? Don't you recall the answer to your question in Coding Theory yesterday?