From: "E.J. Totty", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>""Are you implying that we have a law regulating the MISUSE of drugs?
--snip--
>I've had friends use recreational drugs in the past, and I can tell you
>that this is a prime example of prohibition causing more problems than
>it ever solves.
--snip--
>--
>I totally agree with you John, there are so many people in Walsall
>who have gotten onto heroin the way you describe that it is
>exceptionally hard for anyone to convince me that marijuana and
>ecstacy should remain illegal.
--snip--
>Also clearing out the jails of people convicted of growing
>marijuana would make space to keep the smack dealers in for
>much longer periods of time.
>
>Steve.
Steve, & John,
Well, if you were to go the complete run and re-legalize
the whole group of drugs that are currently outlawed, and merely
make them obtainable by signature at a local apothecary/pharmacy
or what have you, then the government would have a real idea as to
the dimensions of drug use within the community -- something they
have no idea of now. And, if every item were packaged with a
description of the actual effects upon the body that the substance will
have, as well as the long term effects, that could serve as a restraint.
And, instead of playing the current lock'em up game, it
would be a much better use of funds to simply have treatment centers
for those who wanted to kick the addiction.
As for the illegal market? If the price is so low that even the
most poor could well purchase whatever, then there is no black market.
To be sure, there would always be the abusers, but the
glamor aspect has been removed. And the caveat of illegal usage: no
concurrent activities that would cause others harm. If the price for
breaking that law is stiff enough, it would deter the greater number.
As you know, there will always be the hard cases.
Allow me this: those who become addicted to any substance
are pretty much of the same psychology: the aren't sick people, they
are looking for an out from something that is bothering them. I you
can get them into counseling, you can get to root causes of their
dilemma.
The general idea of getting young people to stay away from
abusive drug use, isn't well thought out. Nobody I know of simply
tells them the real story:
"Your bodies are still growing, and everything you put into
them will have an effect later on in life. When you abuse a substance,
you are essentially weakening the building blocks of your life, creating
possible havoc later on down the line. Everything in life is momentary
except life itself. "Act in haste, regret in leisure". And regret lasts a lot
longer than haste."
Young people aren't taught to think in terms longer than
the shortest spans of time, thus deriving the shortsighted mental
attitudes that prevails in almost every culture.
But that's another story.
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=*= Liberty: Live it . . . or lose it. =*=
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ET
--
My personal view based on far too much sorry experience with young
people in the local area is that any drug that has seriously harmful
effects and is addictive should be banned. But also things like
ecstacy and marijuana which at best are only mildly addictive and
have mild health effects should be legal. My theory being the
one of the lesser of several evils. Driving through some of
the council estates in Walsall is an enlightening experience.
There are people who live in Blakenhall who have sold the glass
and doors out of their council house to buy heroin.
People who advocate total legalisation do so on a flawed assumption
of economics. I've always said that the problem with libertarianism
is that it works great on civil rights, not so well with economics.
If a substance is highly addictive, then demand is perfectly
inelastic, regardless of price. The higher the price becomes
the more crime you have as people attempt to obtain money to
buy it. The only way to stop this is to stop people using it
in the first place, and that means in part stopping the supply.
The other half is to cut down on demand but I don't care how much
money they pump into drug treatment, I have seen too many
people on methadone one day and smack the next. The
problem in many areas is that people simply won't admit
they have a drug problem, because everyone around them
uses drugs. If you can't get them to admit they have a problem,
you can't treat them.
So logically the finite resources of the police and Customs
should be focused on the most damaging drugs, and the only
way to do that is to legalise those drugs which don't do
the damage.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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