Is it time to legalize pot and reduce the death rate of tobacco and alcohol?

[Rokcet Scientist]

Is it time to legalize pot and reduce the death rate of tobacco and alcohol?

Tobacco kills more people than all other psychotropic drugs combined, excluding alcohol.

Our government policy should be to legalize the more forgiving drugs and make the less forgiving drugs illegal.

Please, and just switch demons? If you make something illegal you criminalize it. And then the whole merry-go-round starts up again. First the traficantes, then the cops to chase 'm, then the judiciary to try them, then the prison system to jail them. And you end up with exactly the same Kafkaesque situation: "the land of the free" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> (Wikipedia).



And the US taxpayer footing the bill for it all.

So don't make any drug illegal (you'd have to seriously consider banning cafeine, sugar, chocolate, and fats then too...). Instead educate people on their proper uses, effects, and dangers. Just like you teach your kids how to cross the street and generally negotiate traffic. After a couple years they'll do it unsupervised anyway. So they had better bloody well know how to deal with that. You can't be around forever to watch out for them.
Same with people and drugs. All drugs!

Oh, do control minors' access to drugs! Just like we do with alcohol now. But a little more effectively please.
But once they turn 18 they're on their own. Like with alcohol, sex, and credit cards now. So they had better be prepared to deal with it.

Addiction research and government reports for the last 100 years have exonerated pot and cleared it’s reputation as the safest and most forgiving alternative for psychotropic drug use.

The last vote in California for or against the legalization of pot was defeated because of funding by the tobacco and alcohol lobby. In real terms, they were buying permission to kill the maximum number of humans with government collusion.

How much money per human life did alcohol and tobacco pay our government officials?

Is it time to do the moral thing and save the lives we can by making the less harmful psychotropic drugs legal?

What is "less harmful"? There you go slippin' and slidin' again. And who's to decide what is what?

A century ago cocaine was freely sold at druggists to fight tooth aches! Your own great-grandparents probably used it! All 8 of them!
In the twenties all that stuff was criminalized. Including alcohol. Prohibition.
Organised crime has been with us ever since.

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And now I light my blunt again!

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

I have advocated the legalisation of ALL illegal drugs for over 40 years.

I will be happy to outline my reasons (again) .My arguments are based on the notion of the greater good. I have not considered alcohol consumption,which I consider irrelevant due to lack of credible supporting evidence.



Also worth remembering that the criminalisation of marijuana,opium,/heroin ,cocaine and various hallucinogens is a modern invention, less than 100 years old.

[Greatest I am]

[
And now I light my blunt again!

Enjoy my friend.

We are basically on the same page.

Two small things.

Who would decide on what drug if any is to be used.
That would be decided between a person and their doctor. All drugs would be sold by prescription.

With my "make the less forgiving drugs illegal."

Instead of less forgiving I should have used a word like deadly.
I was pointing to the single or drug combinations that might kill us.

Regards
DL

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I have advocated the legalisation of ALL illegal drugs for over 40 years.

I will be happy to outline my reasons (again) .My arguments are based on the notion of the greater good. I have not considered alcohol consumption,which I consider irrelevant due to lack of credible supporting evidence.



Also worth remembering that the criminalisation of marijuana,opium,/heroin ,cocaine and various hallucinogens is a modern invention, less than 100 years old.

I do not disagree with your stance but do with your not including alcohol. Any policy would have to do so as it is a major player.

Regards
DL

[picto90]

I have advocated the legalisation of ALL illegal drugs for over 40 years.

I will be happy to outline my reasons (again) .My arguments are based on the notion of the greater good. I have not considered alcohol consumption,which I consider irrelevant due to lack of credible supporting evidence.



Also worth remembering that the criminalisation of marijuana,opium,/heroin ,cocaine and various hallucinogens is a modern invention, less than 100 years old.

I do not disagree with your stance but do with your not including alcohol. Any policy would have to do so as it is a major player.

Regards
DL

Agreed. I feel it would have to be all or nothing. When it's somewhere in between (as it stands at the moment), it leaves too big a grey area.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Who would decide on what drug if any is to be used.

The over 18 user.

That would be decided between a person and their doctor. All drugs would be sold by prescription.

No. You don't get a prescription for a six pack either, do you? Why should doctors make money off our daily activities? You don't give him commission when you go to the movies either, do you?

With my "make the less forgiving drugs illegal."

Instead of less forgiving I should have used a word like deadly.
I was pointing to the single or drug combinations that might kill us.

Well, a single president or a combination of presidents might kill us too.
Yet we get them without a prescription!

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Who would decide on what drug if any is to be used.

As now; the user.

That would be decided between a person and their doctor. All drugs would be sold by prescription.

NO. Currently illegal recreational drugs would be made and sold under licence, just like alcohol and tobacco.

The role of government is not to protect individuals from their own self destructive behavior regardless, but to act in the common good. This approach is called harm minimalisation ,and is based on utilitarianism.


I exclude alcohol because I'm unaware of any credible evidence on what effect the legalisation of drugs would have on the consumption of alcohol,if any.

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Peripheral: Soley because of its drug laws, the US has the highest per capita prison population IN THE WORLD.

The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world (743 per 100,000 population),

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarcerati...ted_States

[Greatest I am]

Who would decide on what drug if any is to be used.

The over 18 user.

That would be decided between a person and their doctor. All drugs would be sold by prescription.

No. You don't get a prescription for a six pack either, do you? Why should doctors make money off our daily activities? You don't give him commission when you go to the movies either, do you?

With my "make the less forgiving drugs illegal."

Instead of less forgiving I should have used a word like deadly.
I was pointing to the single or drug combinations that might kill us.

Well, a single president or a combination of presidents might kill us too.
Yet we get them without a prescription!

You worry about your doctor making a buck while your pay a good piece of your tax dollars to a drug war that you fight against yourself and cannot win.

Regards
DL