One of my kids suddenly quit seeing his best friend Matt a few months ago. On Sunday he told me why. Matt went on a three month cocaine binge.
Another of his friends dropped out of CSU after a semester long marijuana binge. His aunt is awaiting a liver transplant because of hepatitis-C from her lifelong drug addiction.
The ready availability of drugs in Colorado is ruining people’s lives.
Its just like illegal immigration it could be stopped
That is unfortunate Steve. I have been exposed to a lot of this sort of thing through my life. It it is always sad, and so is a car accident.
But fortunately, we have safe drugs: http://faultydrugs.com/fda_drug_advisory/propoxyphene-worst-drug-in-history
You know when drug use stops? When first the user actually begins to value life and then comes to the realization that they are not as immortal as they think they are. No laws can do that!
“You know when beer use stops?….”
What ?? You mean people actually stop drinking beer ??? What is the reason ? Do they run out ? 🙂
In the case of beer, do you know why beer came about? Do you know what it was (and still is today) used for? Do you have any idea of the history of beer? I suggest you do a little studying, it is a truly fascinating history which began centuries ago.
Yo squid , I think beer was probably an accidental discovery and today has been refined to a superior product . I enjoy beer whenever I drink it and like almost everything it should be enjoyed in moderation . Does everyone practice moderation ? No , there are always those who abuse the use of things . Does that mean the rest of us should suffer for the idiocy of the abusers ?
The lack of opportunity/jobs is ruining peoples lives Drugs are a symptom of that lack of opportunity. Everyone I’ve met with a drug problem uses drugs as a crutch for some other problem.
EXACTLY!
You will never solve the drug problem until you resolve the cause!
How is the multi-decade, multi-trillion dollar drug war working out so far?
Additionally, take a look at the incarceration rates and problems we have right now. Did you know the US incarcerates the highest percentage of their population, by a landslide, with the majority of those being minor drug offenses. Once incarcerated, those offenders become an only 100% repeat, and usually progressively worse offenses. This starts a very bad downward spiral. Meanwhile, we release murderers, rapists, child molesters, all in the name of the “war on drugs”. This system is completely insane!
I agree with your analysis , squid . I also recall that the supposed war on drugs has created an industry that doesn’t want the so called war on drugs to stop . I also recall that the war on drugs has been utilized by corrupt government officials and high up law enforcement to obtain vast sums of money through their involvement in the importation and distribution of illegal drugs . I say that we should return to the policy of drugs being legal and spending one tenth of the wasted resources on rehab and education and we would see much improvement in society . If you recall history , drug use was an individual choice in earlier centuries and like individual choice everywhere some people make poor choices . If we punished the drug users who made individual bad choices instead of telling everyone in society what they can and can’t do we would be far along in improving society .
VERY well put John! .. thank you!
Exactly ! By making it illegal. You create a/the problem.
Steve, you’re in Hell. After puritans banned hippie shamanism, the spiritually awakened latched onto the oppressed group bonding doomsday religion of global warming.
I’m with John McGuire and Squid2112 here. Legalise the lot of it and take the crime out of it. Produce the stuff ourselves and make it available through prescription from doctors to those who need it or want to try it. Put the drug barons all the way to the pushers out of business. I reckon after a while with no one pushing the stuff it will fall out of fashion.
Exactly
The problem with legalization is that no one thinks they are going to get hooked. Then they do and their lives are essentially ruined. I am as libertarian as anyone, but these drugs are highly insidious.
The most addictive drugs in the world are sold over the counter!
I agree that drugs can be highly addictive . i also see where average people could improve the quality of their lives through medicinal use of various narcotically based drugs . i am something of an example as I can legally use narcotic painkillers due to a crippleing injury I suffered while working at a gold mine . I could be a drug addict , yet I refuse to surrender my free will and dignity to drug abuse . But the narcotics help me to retain the ability to do the things I enjoy doing by deadening the pain to an acceptable level . Without the drugs my life would be much more tedious and far less productive . I do not feel as though I am very exceptional in my behavior as I know many others who would be as or more successful in the same situation . I understand the limitations required in order to operate equipment and retain the ability to make proper decisions and I act aqccordingly. Why should I be regulated when I don’t require direction in order to maintain proper conduct ? I have found also that the older I get the more pain I am able to tolerate and often can go many days without the use of the drugs , yet in order to gather my winter wood supply or when tilling the several gardens I grow etc. etc. I am very glad to have the asistance of the narcotic so that the jobs are not done in pain . My apolagies for such a long reply but I want to clearly state some of the reasons I think average people should have the ability to make their own decisions . Some people would be better off through the use of stimulants to help them to function in a happier frame of mind , and those stimulants could indeed be highly addictive and some would be weak and require help from others in their decisions . Yet many people contiue to suffer unhappy , even miserable lives because the drugs are denied by the government making the decision that they should be illegal .
Today, Aussie “Greenie Watch” blogger John Ray chimes in on his Food & Health Skeptic site:
“Once again a foolish minority can apparently reduce otherwise good options for the responsible majority. The regulatory attack on painkillers is very vigorous because some people overuse them. And that often leaves available alternatives — such as paracetamol — that are quite unsafe if recommended doses are exceeded.
APC’s (“Bex” etc.) were banned to prevent a few cases of kidney disease but their preferred replacemnent — paracetamol — causes thousands of destroyed livers. My own preferred remedy for post-operative pain — Di-Gesic (Dextropropoxyphene plus a bit of paracetamol) — has now been banned because some addicts were using it.”
I am speaking from personal experience. I likewise have back problems (stenosis). In the late 1990’s, I was prescribed Oxycontin. At the time, the propaganda from the drug manufacturer was that there was only a very small chance of getting addicted. I had never had a substance abuse problem and thought I would be the last one to get hooked. A month or so later, I tried to stop taking it, but soon realized that I was hooked. Felt very sick everytime I tried to get off. Even tapering off slowly was very, very difficult.
I’m all for more irrational pot heads that will continue to vote the parasites into power, so they can run our lives.
Meanwhile, I, a staunch liberaltarian have seen cannabis used responsibly to the personal benefit and increase in productivity of many good people. I agree that its use should be prohibited for them whose brains have not finished forming: minors, card-carrying Repugnicrats, and about 45% of the Colorado voting public.
End this senseless bigotry against a plant. Fear of cannabis is right up there with the belief in AGW. Both are a demonstration of ignorance and of behavior not borne out by science.
Carl Sagan was a big marijuana smoker and he started the whole AGW mess.
Carl Sagan was working for them who would hold all of our leashes. He chose to become intoxicated with cannabis. Most real users don’t want “musical chords standing out like a steel ribbon just before my eyes,” as Dr Sagan once put it. Many, many of your neighbors use it therapeutically, not to get high. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
Yeah and beer took my dad’s legs.
Beer almost got me killed (squid wishes) when I was 9. My cousins got into a knife fight and nearly stabbed me in the head when I was sleeping. I’ve seen some of the worst effects of drinking.
What is worse: (some) people who get hooked and ruin their lives, or mafia-like drug lords taking over the world. Capitalism is a funny thing. It is amoral fundamentally. Give someone an opportunity to make a profit from a “desirable” illegal, immoral substance, and watch the money roll in. Then guess what kind of investments can be made with that “profit”. I think we should bear the mental and personal pain of individual failures rather than suffer the monsters otherwise.
No one can argue that “prohibition” has ever succeeded.
I’ve seen drug abuse go from a small scale problem here in Aus in the 60s to a much larger problem today – tough laws have made the problems worse not better.
The large profits available plus the risk made the more dangerous drugs more attractive commercially – you could make more money out of a suitcase of hard drugs than a truckload of marijuana and it is obvious which is easier to hide.
I don’t have any answers other than prohibition has made the problem more profitable – read worse – and switched the drugs of choice from the less harmful and addictive to the more harmful and addictive.
While there’s big money in drugs the problem will only escalate.
A passed acquaintance of mine, noted that he had quit Class A drugs, but couldn’t quit smoking.
What a dumb comment