Arguments for the prohibition of drugs

[festive1]

Well you can OD and die from your first use though, so there's still danger. Can also happen with ecstasy (that was 2009 here in Australia - 17 year old Gemma Thoms). Unless I'm mistaken the 17 year old prostitute that died in Canberra OD'd on Heroin (that's not to say how many times she had used it though).


Gemma Thoms with her mum.

One can OD and die from aspirin, Tylenol, even OTC herbal medicines.
Ecstasy is showing promise for treating people with PTSD.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/03/health/ecstasy-ptsd-3
Basically, what I'm getting at, is many of our (US's) drug laws are rather arbitrary (heroin, bad, but morphine is a-okay, even though they are the same damn thing). Any drug, even OTC's, can be lethal in the right amount, therefore, a drug's lethality is not a good criteria for it's prohibition. Prohibiting drugs that can have positive effects for a certain patient population seems silly (ie. the ecstasy article I've linked). Prohibiting these drugs outright oftentimes prevents further research about their positive uses. I think education and access to substance abuse treatment would prove far more effective than prohibition.