Re: Matthew Stokes charged re drugs
rickyvaughn99 said:
Legalising drugs would send the community into the depth of decay. Recreational drugs are illegal for a reason, they do irrepairable damage to the body and also destroy peoples ability to function on a normal mental and emotional level, not to mention that they are extremely dangerous and highly addictive.
Clearly there would still be the crime if drugs were legalised because all that would happen is that drug users habits and intakes would increase and the need for fast money would outweigh the need for rational thinking or reason. Highly addictive substances evoke irrational and unpredictable behaviour so you can legalise it all you want, all that will happen is that people tolerance will grow and the ability to fuel their habit will diminish.
If you can honestly say that society would be a better place if drugs were freely and easily accessible, you are not looking at the big picture.
Your thesis is not quite correct. Drugs like marijuana were made illegal because Du pont didn't want competitors for it's nylon fibres, thereby demonising hemp.
Our grand parents probably took more narcotics than our kids as cocaine was a staple in cough and other medicines as late as the fifties.
Drugs such as hreoin as actually non toxic and do much less damage to your body than alchohol and cigarettes.
Drug use and more particularly destructive or addictive drug use is a symptom not a cause of society's ills. I'm sitll however waiting for some sensible argument to a parent who has a drug addicted child who needs help that demonising them and jailing them is the answer. If that's the answer then its our society that needs help. Other societies of course solve the drug problem (not) by killing the drug user, or more accurately randomly prosecuting the odd user for PR purposes while allowing an underground drug culture to be sustained and fostered by corruption.
I agree to the extent that children should be protected until such an age when they can make a considered decision. The age limit would be arbitrary but 18 or 21 seems reasonable to me.
Overseas evidence sees no evidence of increase in addiction rates when drugs are more freely available. It appeaar the addiction rate driver is the personality not the drug.
Legalising drugs would basically eliminate bikie crime gangs and most other organised crime on the one hand and drastically reduce the incidence of home invasions and the associated attacks on vulnerable people.
And like I said drug funds (in whole or in part through taxes) would go to the government who could use it for drug education or remedial or preventative care, rather than crims.
California is toying with the idea of legalising and taxing dope. Will be an interesting experiment!
Then again I might be wrong!