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 Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:57 pm
How does everyone feel about the War on Drugs?
Keep it going, or ditch it instead for some sort of legalization? Tax the crap out of it or allow a free market?
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:11 am
I believe drugs should be legal to a certain extent, things like Heroin, Cocaine, PCP, etc. should stay illegal but things like Acid, Weed (you can see my use of technical terms XD), Salvia (which is already legal, and have some in my pocket XD), and other "soft drugs" should all stay/become legal. I am extremely against alcohol, but people have the right to drink it, though alcohol should be carefully given out so there isn't as many drunk driving victims.
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:44 pm
I should start off by saying I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and LSD. Decriminalization, as my comrades in the drug-reform movement hasten to inform me, takes the crime out of using drugs but continues to classify possession and use as a public offense, punishable by fines. I've never understood why adults shouldn't enjoy the same right to use verboten drugs, as they have to suck on a Marlboro or knock back a scotch and water. An individual’s body is their property and they have the right to use it in whatever way they please as long do not harm other individuals.
Prohibition of alcohol fell flat on its face. The prohibition of other drugs rests on an equally wobbly foundation. Not until people choose to frame responsible drug use — not an oxymoron in my dictionary — as a civil liberty will humans be able to recognize the abuse of drugs, including alcohol, for what it is: a medical and personal matter, not a criminal one. And it's not a stretch to conclude that the Draconian approach to drug, that the United States government uses, is the most injurious domestic policy since slavery. In declaring a war on drugs, the state has declared war on peaceful individuals. War requires "hostiles" — enemies that one can demonize, fear and loathe. This unfortunate categorization of millions of individuals justifies treating them as dope fiends, less than human. That grants political license to ban the exchange or purchase of clean needles or to withhold methadone from heroin addicts motivated to kick the addiction.
The demand for illicit drugs is as strong as the individual’s thirst for bootleg booze during Prohibition. It's a demand that simply will not dry up. Whether to find god, heighten sex, relieve pain, drown one's sorrows or simply feel good, people throughout the millenniums have turned to mood- and mind-altering substances. Individuals are not about to stop, no matter what their government says or does. It's time to accept drug use as a right of adult individuals. Yet for some reason the state keeps stealing Billions of dollars at the point of a gun and then wasting then by housing prisoners guilty only of victimless, non-violent crimes, as well as in repeatedly unsuccessful attempts to stop the flow of illegal substances.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:33 pm
If I can quote a fellow Anarchist, Malatesta - Errico Malatesta It is useless, therefore to hope for anything from the law. We must suggest another solution. Make the use and sale of cocaine free [from restrictions], and open kiosks where it would be sold at cost price or even under cost. And then launch a great propaganda campaign to explain to the public, and let them see for themselves, the evils of cocaine - no one would engage in counter-propaganda because nobody could exploit the misfortunes of cocaine addicts. Certainly the harmful use of cocaine would not disappear completely, because the social causes which create and drive those poor devils to the use of drugs would still exist. But in any case the evil would decrease, because nobody could make profits out of its sale, and nobody could speculate on the hunt for speculators. Though I hasten to add that though I agree with RD in practice, I am totally opposed to his view of drugs - It is true that certain drugs about which there is much hysteria are more-or-less harmless. However, there are drugs which are extremely destructive of human life. It is not true to say that these drugs have been a fact of history, for the march of technology has refined and created substances that were previously unheard of. The effects of these substances are different from those humanity has been previously exposed to; they are more extreme. Addiction destroys people. But more than that, it puts them completely at someone else's mercy. It destroys their freedom. The purveyor of substances to an addict can extract work, money, anything from that person, and that person can do nothing about it. But drugs are bad on a more fundamental level, a level that has to do with human drives and emotions. RD has advocated that drugs have a variety of uses, and includes "heightening sex" and "relieving pain" in the list. Well, I think that both of these are medical uses of drugs, and quite permissible, so certain drugs with these uses should be made available to people. However, I deny that "finding god" is a good use of anyone's time, as it doesn't exist, is a tool used to prop up authority, and is certainly not something society should be wasting manufacturing effort or time on achieving. However, this is a separate and thorny issue, so I will grant that as a 'maybe' for now. 'Maybe' people would be better off if they could be prescribed drugs for genuine, religious purposes. Which brings us to the issues of "drowning one's sorrows" and "feeling good". These I will deal with together, as they present the same problem. If people can "drown their sorrows" and "feel good" by taking drugs, what is their motivation to do anything to fix their sorrows, or 'feel good' in a productive way? These natural drives are there for a reason. If people feel bad, it is because they have problems that must be dealt with (or depression, in which case certain drugs do help, but that's medical). If they have access to drugs, they will simply take the drugs - drug taking is always easier than solving your problems. The result: no one ever solves their problems. The problems stack up and society collapses. Similarly, if people can "feel good" by taking drugs, what motivates them to find love, work hard, or fulfil any of the natural, useful drives which motivate people. It is not true to say that 'it's their body, they can do what they want with it' because it isn't, and they can't. People don't exist in isolation. If everyone in my town is taking cocaine, instead of working or achieving anything, my life is impoverished. I'm sorry, RD, I know it looks like I've got some kind of personal thing against you, but it's just that you're a capitalist, and I'm a communist. Even if we agree about the evil that is the state, we disagree on economics, which makes up 99% of human activities. So the fact that we're both Anarchists is sort of redundant.
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:31 am
I believe that drugs [in general] ruin people. I've seen so many people, so many good people, just wash away and become a slave to their addictions. I've just recently learned that a group of friends from high school are currently experimenting with heroin in college... And these were the genuinely great guys... great athletes/musicians, very book smart, sweet... I considered two of them to be my close friends.
Any way... I know the demand for drugs will never end. I'm more lenient/tolerant towards marijuana, just because it is the lesser of all evils. If America ever decides to legalize the use of weed, the economy would benefit from the many uses, monetary income, and growth of farming jobs.
All other drugs like heroin, cocaine, and all that laboratory-battery-acid-s**t should remain banned.
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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:23 pm
Drugs should just be freaking legalized. As simple as that.
I mean, the only reason why drugs are used &/or abused is because Laws Were Made To Be Broken. Everyone wants to/has broken some law/rule.
And if you say you haven't, you're a lier. ninja stare
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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:40 pm
CrazieDoily Drugs should just be freaking legalized. As simple as that. I mean, the only reason why drugs are used &/or abused is because Laws Were Made To Be Broken. Everyone wants to/has broken some law/rule. And if you say you haven't, you're a lier. ninja stare People don't necessarily do something just because it's illegal. I think if someone chooses to do drugs, they would do it regardless of what the laws say or do not say.
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:03 am
CrazieDoily Drugs should just be freaking legalized. As simple as that. I mean, the only reason why drugs are used &/or abused is because Laws Were Made To Be Broken. Everyone wants to/has broken some law/rule. And if you say you haven't, you're a lier. ninja stare What, so we should just get rid of all laws and then everybody would stop killing and raping and stealing from each other? Laws were made to be obeyed, not to be broken, and they are there to protect us. People take drugs for a variety of reasons and making it legal is not going to stop that. It's going to make them more accesible to more people and that is not something that I want. If what you say was the case, then people wouldn't drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes, because hey, they're legal, where's the fun in that? The reason tobacco and alcohol cause so many more deaths than any illegal drugs is not because they are more dangerous (though I won't deny that they are more dangerous than, say, marijuana), it is because they are legal. And I won't deny that I've broken the law before. Jaywalking is illegal, after all. But there is no way that I would do something just because it was against the law, in fact that would deter me from doing it. Because that's what the law is there to do.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:48 pm
The drug war is expensive and has failed. I say we legalise drugs, then put the money we save into rehab for addicts and genaral public welfare programs.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:55 pm
All you do is tax the shite out of it.
Except Pot. Pot's not that bad. It's got the medicinal purposes.
And I J-walk. Then again in my city EVERY ONE does it.
A few of the city's finest can't stop practically the whole damn city from J-walking.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:43 pm
Cripes. I forgot about my Rebelling rant.
You know;
Don't let the Man bring you down, <******** Authority and shite like that.
AND that pretty much all teenagers rebel in one way or another.
Sometimes that Rebel-phase rolls over into adulthood.
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:02 pm
Lab-made drugs are stupid.
Natural drugs are A-OK! wink
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:06 pm
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Reply
