America's War on Drugs

[kılıç_mehmet]

Legalize that shit. Anecdotally I can tell you right now I'd rather deal with 30 stoners than 3 drunkards.

I'd deal with none, if I had the chance. I can tell you here and now, that most drunkards, and most stoners, and other types of junkies are people of low education, low life standards, and people who have faced serious problems in their past.

Life, and drugs subsequently, are what you make of them.

I agree. However I do not really concern myself with what YOU do of them. Therefore I am not opposed to the legalisation of drugs for people who wish to use them. This is a matter that concerns the people who use them.
But allowing legal sales and production of illicit drugs is something that concerns the whole lot of society, even those who do not participate in drug use, because that is bound to allow for an increase of drug users, from all ages.
And since you propose that it should be taxed, you're practically suggesting that the government should disregard social order and stability for simple monetary gain which will in turn, be used to probably clean after the mess of what these drugs, after becoming legal, have done to society.

This isn't a "drug" problem - it's a self-esteem and ignorance problem.

In whole, that doesn't concern anyone. It's not me who is going to tell people how to get over their psychological issues. They can use marijuana or any other drug if they wish to do so.

I've yet to hear any health risks from marijuana though.

This isn't about health risks. I know that marijuana, not being something that you do on a regular basis if you are someone who can't afford it, or can't afford it due to other factors that keep you from spending time on getting stoned, will not cause your death.
It won't even cause half of the diseases that cigarettes do, for a person can smoke many cigarettes a day, some smoke 40, some 20 some less, or some even more.
My uncle used to smoke up to 60 cigarettes a day, which would amount to 2.5 cigarettes an hour. Tell me, how many joints can smoke in one day? How many bongs?
You just cannot really smoke enough to have a serious ill effect that could put your life in serious risk by just smoking marijuana.

However, marijuana, like all drugs, cause you to focus on yourself alone. You just sit there, in thoughts, laughing to yourself, or dreaming about something for how long the drug takes it. If you have a steady supply, who's going to stop you?
If these things were to be legalized for sale and production, I'm sure the popularity of illicit drugs would match those of cigarettes and alcohol.
It's like gambling. Gambling doesn't cause your death by any physical means. Nor does gamling intend to impoverish people, or cause social collapse.
But in my country, gambling is now forbidden by law, and casinos have been closed to stop the ever growing numbers of gamblers, people who have been blinded by the promise of "easy money", but instead end up losing, but never giving up hope...
Same with illicit drugs, including marijuana, and also alcohol. They offer things to people, especially the impoverished, and rather lower class citizens of a country. And it is there where they take hold, while swelling the ranks of the lower classes by causing the downfall of people from the middle class.
This is why illicit drugs should never be made legal for sale and production, especially in places like the US.

Now to alcohol is a drug or not issue.

Yes, many have quoted things from different websites. I'm already familiar with this. In the same way, coffee, can also be classified as a "drug" perhaps, it does not have the same effect as alcohol, but it certainly soothes you, and is quite addictive, and I ought to admit that I'm a caffeine addict.
However, I'm not sure what kind of an influence my caffeine addiction has on my life, or the people that live around me.

On the other hand, alcohol does not share the same public acceptance as alcohol, and never did.
And it was not used by the people under the same context, either.
It being classified as a "drug" doesn't mean it's the same as ilicit drugs.

If you would have compared it to cigarettes, I'd said, yeah, okay.
It does share the same social aspects to a degree, and is harmful to society as a whole, while providing no benefits.