Poll: Poll: How would you feel about the legalisation of ALL drugs (with some restrictions)?

[SlaveNumber23]

No. Most of these drugs being illegal aren't the big evil government flexing its muscles but are illegal for a good reason. Sure, it might be ridiculous that cigarettes and alcohol are perfectly fine while weed is illegal, but harder drugs than weed? No, they are illegal for a good reason. I'm all for legalizing weed, even though I don't use it personally, but the more dangerous drugs are best left locked away. A recent example: all the zombie like cannibalism attacks occurring lately.

 

[Rednog]

I'm going to say no, just on the basis that people already can't handle their damn highs with things like alcohol, give them something even harder to control like coke or the various other hard drugs you might just have a bigger problem on your hands.
You cite money going in from the government control, but you fail to realize the time/money it would take to actually enforce control, it's one thing to deal with someone who is drunk and stumbling around then it is dealing with someone who is amped up on Ecstasy or cocaine. And the whole getting the info out there about each drug costs resources.
Even then how do you deal out drugs? Someone walks into a bar and orders some weed or heroin, how do you measure when someone has had enough it's hard enough with alcohol and now toss in people mixing stuff, how do you establish legal limits, etc.
It's one thing to say ok maybe we can handle legalizing something like weed, but to green light everything would be a nightmare.

Money is already going into enforcing it, it goes to the law officials that try to stop it. Being able to tax drugs however would actually bring in money -or at least considerably lower the current expense-(you'd have a lower level of law enforcement expense simply because you'd be able to out-price illegal drug dealers, simple rule of capitalism, you'd be able to offer a better, cheaper service)

And what do you think is better? Having people do drugs in a controlled environment where you can limit the damage they might do?

Or have them doing worse impure versions of the same drugs without any control, regulation or knowledge?

Right now the enforcement is "hey you're on something you're going to jail, and if we find some of the stuff on you, you're going to jail for a longer time."
You're going to have to spend money training officers to not only recognize the various highs people are on, like I said test will have to be created to check people on the field. That is going to cost a good chunk of change, you can't just drag everyone in for a blood test. And even then what do you do for a case where someone blows under the limit for alcohol and then does whatever test and they're under the limit for say marijuana, but the combination clearly has them severely intoxicated. The enforcement now wouldn't be enough/suitable for the new situation.

And what kind of controlled environment do you propose for a wide variety of drugs? I sure as shit would not want to be the owner of a bar who has a bunch of people hopped up on coke or a bunch of people freaking the fuck out on acid. Even then at least with some of the "lighter" drugs like alcohol or pot you can have a bit and still function and people can be on their merry way. But I don't think there is such a thing as a small hit of the harder drugs, what kind of facility can you provide for people who choose the harder drugs? Or do you trust them to do it in their homes and not be a menace?

Even then who says that any decent place will even take up the harder drugs, a normal bar might take up weed, but they probably won't tough the rest with a 10 foot pole. And this will probably mean that the places that take it up will be pretty scummy places that are more than happy to take the cash, distribute, and let the people out on the street.

 

[Hazy992]

The way I see it people who want to take drugs will do so whether they're legal or not, so you may as well regulate it so it's at the very least a little safer.

It reduces street crime as drugs would be cheaper as well as gang crime, addicts can get help easier without legal repercussions, it relieves congestion on the prison system by removing a bunch of victimless crimes and governments can raise significant amounts of revenue from a trade that would be happening regardless.

Plus you can significantly reduce funding to the Taliban which is definitely a bonus.

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

I still disagree with the usage of drugs at all: it doesn't sit well with me, the idea of influencing your body like that for the promise of a good feeling but then with addiction and side effects that kick in afterwards...

My mother was a psychiatric nurse who specialised in substance abusers and she saw drugs do terrible things to people and their minds and I've heard some very interesting stories (Including one story about a rabbit who lived its entire life under the influence of cannabis) and they all made me want to never even think about substance abuse. I've also seen my older sister have to be carried home after getting her drink spiked, thankfully her boyfriend brought her back safe and sound and I remembered that the first time my younger sister went out to a club.

So generally, I want to see narcotics and other various substances get wiped off the face of the earth but I just know that will probably never happen, unless we see some kind of Batman crop up in the system...

 

[VladG]

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Right now the enforcement is "hey you're on something you're going to jail, and if we find some of the stuff on you, you're going to jail for a longer time."
You're going to have to spend money training officers to not only recognize the various highs people are on, like I said test will have to be created to check people on the field. That is going to cost a good chunk of change, you can't just drag everyone in for a blood test. And even then what do you do for a case where someone blows under the limit for alcohol and then does whatever test and they're under the limit for say marijuana, but the combination clearly has them severely intoxicated. The enforcement now wouldn't be enough/suitable for the new situation.

And what kind of controlled environment do you propose for a wide variety of drugs? I sure as shit would not want to be the owner of a bar who has a bunch of people hopped up on coke or a bunch of people freaking the fuck out on acid. Even then at least with some of the "lighter" drugs like alcohol or pot you can have a bit and still function and people can be on their merry way. But I don't think there is such a thing as a small hit of the harder drugs, what kind of facility can you provide for people who choose the harder drugs? Or do you trust them to do it in their homes and not be a menace?

Even then who says that any decent place will even take up the harder drugs, a normal bar might take up weed, but they probably won't tough the rest with a 10 foot pole. And this will probably mean that the places that take it up will be pretty scummy places that are more than happy to take the cash, distribute, and let the people out on the street.

Guess you've never heard of drug enforcement special forces. You know, entire departments of police dedicate solely to attempting to reduce drug trafficking. Yeah, those are real good guys who do dangerous and demanding work for free, nobody is paying them squat. Huge chunks of budget isn't attributed to somewhat futile work. Yeah, right now the only level of enforcement is the average cop might smell a whiff of pot on you and check your pockets. That's exactly how you combat the drug traffic.

Officers ARE trained to spot intoxicated people, and cheap, fast and effective on the spot drug tests ARE already available. Just like alcohol tests (which by the way legally require a blood test if you are found to be severely intoxicated).

Light stuff can be sold in bars or other recreational environments and the hard stuff is available in specialized clinics. If you can honestly tell me that you can't think of ways to manage people, you seriously lack imagination.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

As long as they are natural drugs, they should be legal.

 

[Fiad]

While some drugs should be legalized, not all of them. I would rather them all be illegal. Even minor ones such as weed, than everything like meth to be legal. I would make that decision anyday.

 

[Rastien]

I think within reason, basically the deaths from the use of pills and MDMA generally come from what they have been cut with.

By making it legal and having companys behind the drugs having to state specifically what is in them or even selling them pure would save alot of lives and the general trouble asscociated with it.

Hard drugs such as herion and PCP based drugs, i'm not to sure how to proceede on really, whilst they are illegal currently people still use them. I would keep these illegal but then we get into the state with what is legal and why isn't this legal.

 

[Naeras]

Legalizing and regulating drug sales means more money to the state, less problems with crime, more jobs from both production and sales, quality control of the stuff(no nasty bi-products killing people) and more time for the police to do other things than waste time on minor drug offenses.
Oh, and according to statistics from Portugal, drug use in general has decreased after legalization, with the (obvious) exception of marijuana amongst students. And more people admit to having a drug problem and are willing to rehabilitate and get help.

Yeah, no, let's ban the stuff CUZ DRUGS R BAD GUSY.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

What happened to Venezuela that's so much worse than what's going on in Mexico right now?

To keep it simple and short, Hugo Chávez or Totalitarian Dictatorship, one of our candidates is like that guy.

Oh right. Yeah I've heard of him. I thought you were talking about something in Venezuela specifically drug related which I hadn't heard of.

Hey, do you know if it's true that Hugo Chavez has his own 1 hour slot of Venezuelan TV where he just talks about himself and how brilliant he is to camera. I heard a rumour...

 

[spartan231490]

There should always be exceptions. Cocaine and heroine come to mind. Did you know, that the amount of cocaine it takes to kill you decreases with prolonged use. Prolonged use, even of the exact same dose, will eventually kill you. If it doesn't, it causes symptoms that often result in a mis-diagnosis of manic depression.

Heroin is even worse, I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you that.

I am all for the legalization of pretty much all drugs, but some of them are so bad for you that there is no legitimate reason anyone has to use them.

 

[the darknees abyss]

they should Legalizing all drugs and just put high taxes on them

 

[Xanthious]

Speaking strictly about the American drug issue I fully support stopping this losing war on drugs. Prohibition simply doesn't work and it's been proven time and again. Hell, today you can find most any kind of drug you want with very little effort. This war on drugs is one that is already lost.

Look at the problems going on in Mexico now with people getting killed left and right. If America stopped their futile war on drugs and started treating drugs the same way they treat booze that would end virtually over night. The reason being because when you make something illegal like pot or cocaine or what have you all you do if force the selling of that product to be handled by criminal organizations which in turn raises the prices and then rival organizations start fighting over who gets to sell what and people start dying and you get what you have now in Mexico.

A perfect example of this is America's Prohibition Era. Gangs were literally at war with one another over who could sell booze to who. People were getting murdered as gangs fought to control the underground market on alcohol. As soon as that ended and it was legal to buy and sell booze again it was no longer profitable for these criminal organizations to be in the alcohol business. Today alcohol is regulated and people are killing each other over who gets to sell it.

We need to start treating drugs the same way we treat booze. It would have multiple benefits. First the amount of taxes the government would bring in added to the amount of money they would save by ending their losing crusade would be a massive amount. Secondly it would take the selling of these drugs out of the hands of the cartels and into more safe and reputable businesses or the government it's self. At the end of the day legalizing drugs would do far more good than most people would imagine.

 

[Hazy992]

As long as they are natural drugs, they should be legal.

Why are you even making a distinction? Why does it matter if they're natural or not. Drugs are drugs.

 

[Hazy992]

No because it will lead to the zombie apocalypse. You've seen the shit going on in Florida right? Now imagine that everywhere and more common.

Please tell me you're joking. These 'zombie attacks' are because of bath salts. Are you gonna outlaw those too? NVM I'm a complete idiot and didn't realise bath salts was a slang term

 

[itsthesheppy]

Legalize them, regulate them, tax them. People should be free to make their own choices about their own bodies. But there should be very, very strict enforcement to make sure that kids don't get their hands on them.

 

[SeeIn2D]

I think what would happen with all drugs being legalized is for about a year there would be a TREMENDOUS increase in drug use and drug abuse, and then after that it would normalize back down to a lower amount then we have now.