war on drugs debate thread

[Harry Dresden]

Has the war on drugs failed, just like alcohol prohibition, and should we legalize every drug, including crack and heroin, or was the war on drugs not harsh enough, and do we need to start killing drug dealers like Singapore? These are questions that deserve answers. So I made this thread to debate the war on drugs. Personally, I'm not sold on ending the war completely because legalizing all drugs might be a disaster, but I would support things like medical marijuana and think the DEA screwed up many times, like arresting doctors for treating patients with medical marijuana.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

The framing of the war on drugs annoys me, it implicitly assumes that peaceful possession or sale of a substance is something that needs to be "warred" against in the first place
If the last 100 years taught us anything, it's that declaring war on voluntary behavior results in the same predictable results every time. Black markets, organized crime, corruption, overcrowded prisons. If that was the goal with the war on drugs, mission accomplished, I couldn't have done it better if I tried.
Reminds me of a joke I encountered, along the lines of "with how the war on drugs is going, why didn't they declare war on employment, savings, and freedom?"

The way I see it, if peaceful adults use or sell substances to other consenting adults, that's nobody else's business, especially not the government's

 

[Perfect Day]

Good luck having a rational debate with druggies on this. The failure of the war on drugs starts with weed, which is supposed to be a soft drug (basically the same as drinking a beer). Its widespread consumption and inevitable legalization always has the same effect on people, it makes them lazy, complacent and horny (to a disturbing extent). Every user will argue that it doesn't have the same effect on them that it has on 99% of people using it. They are always the exception.

Another factor is that the THC content of cannabis has dramatically increased since it was first introduced. Originally, the pot that people smoked in the 70's had a THC content of about 8%. Today a 20% THC content is normal, some product go up to 30%. At this point, it's not a class C anymore. You can add edibles and synthetics product to the mix and you can imagine the consequences of widespread use.

The argument that weed = alcohol is also completely fallacious. European populations have developed a natural tolerance to alcohol over millennia. After the fall of the roman empire and up until the industrial revolution, nobody in Europe had access to clean water and we didn't understand germs and bacteria. Drinking water was often a death sentence so as a result, you would be drinking alcohol (usually cider) from the day you were born to the day that you died. As a result of this, only individuals who could adapt to this diet and function with alcohol were able to survive and reproduce, No such adaption was at work for other mind altering substances such as those derived from plants found in other cultures. This also explained why liquors had such a devastating effects on native Americans populations.

Drugs may have had some positive effect on societies in the past for where they acted as a stimulant to increase productivity (eg, cocaine was given to workers who built the American railroad system), but an argument can be made that this is not relevant anymore. A lot of post industrial societies are heavily welfarized and when you combine welfare + Internet access, you get autism and degeneracy.

The war on the "war on drugs" is a by-product of the era of liberal leftism that characterized the 80's and 90's, once the Woodstock generation took over from their parents who also didn't give a shit. Abandoning the war on drugs was a mistake. We created a generation of pothead gooners, crackheads and fent users. No drugs should ever be legalised. They turn women into prostitutes and men into fags.

 

[Beautiful Border]

If there had never been a 'war on drugs', the progressives who are most vocal about ending it would be the exact people pushing to have one.

Look at the antipathy with which they talk about the alcohol and tobacco industries. If cannabis hadn't been given a counter-cultural "cool" status because it was banned by conservatives, right now they would likely be at the forefront of a prohibition campaign against it.

The main issue with drug legalization is safety. Most drugs that can be used recreationally are not safe enough to be responsibly sold as consumer products. Take MDMA, for instance. Despite the positive press it generally receives from its association with 90s rave culture, it's neurotoxic and dangerous to use with essentially any level of frequency. As infrequently as "once every three months" is entering into risky territory. Do you trust the average retard to not use it weekly?

Ketamine is safe in a medical setting, but again, used weekly it will destroy your bladder and leave you with urinary incontinence.

Even cannabis, which is really the obvious candidate for legalization, really isn't safe to use daily for years at a time. Granted, that's a similar story to alcohol, so I still think full cannabis legalization isn't a bad idea. But it's both still not harmless and things get less safe from there.

I do believe there should be a lot more willingness to trial prohibited drugs in medical settings, though. Psilocybin is apparently an effective treatment for cluster headaches, but it cannot be formally studied for this in clinical trials because it's in Schedule I. If nothing else, those barriers should be removed.

 

[Taser Confetti]

Virtually every illicit narcotic was legal at one point. Society watched countless people ruin their lives when heroin, laudanum and cocaine were available at just about every drugstore over the counter.

 

[umseriously]

We should just legalize euthanasia clinics at this point to be honest.

 

[AMHOLIO]

When given no punishment for drugs, rational people do irrational things like try them and end up on the hard path of life ruination. The cost isn't their life, but their family and friends' lives, their savings, their mental and somtimes physical health. Basically, some sort of barrier needs to be put up like a speedhump to prevent people from going full retard in addition to making the substance not legal to manufacture without a license or use without a medical reason/setting.

It's all "yeah let the druggies kill themselves" until son breaks into dad's house with the spare key and steals all the money & valuables lying around. Or until your mother beats you or holds you at gunpoint for money.