To Get High, or Not to Get High
Read an article posted over at “Free Market Anti-Capitalism” that was written by a former Seattle Police Chief, Norm Stamper.
Here is what he says he advocates:
“I don’t favor [drug] decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and LSD. Decriminalization, as my colleagues in the drug reform movement hasten to inform me, takes the crime out of using drugs but continues to classify possession and use as a public offense, punishable by fines.”
It’s actually quote amazing how rational his argument is. He goes on to say that what the drug problem is in America is ‘medical’ not ‘legal’, and I agree with him. If you break it down to the root of what it is, you will see that is a basic supply and demand issue. Americans demand drugs, so somewhere, somebody is going to supply them. There will never be a stop to the “War on Drugs”. It’s absolutely ridiculous to think so.
People will always have addictions, it’s just part of human nature. I am in no way advocating the use of any type of drug, but I am pointing out how backward it is to try and fight it from the supply side. Prohibition was an absolute disaster and gave organized crime its first real foot-hold in America, which it has never really given up.
I’m willing to make the leap of faith that the legalization of drugs in this country would not only reduce crime by half, reduce prison populations by half, and actually REDUCE the number of people who suffer from drug addiction. Aside from the first claims (which are obvious), you might be wondering how I might have come to believe the last claim about a reduction in drug addiction.
Let’s look at it this way: examine how legal drugs are dealt with in this country, everything from beer, liquor, and cigarettes to prescription drugs. It’s all regulated. Illegal drug dealers would be out of business in seconds, because their customers would be able to get safer and cheaper drugs from a regulated outlet. Take teenagers for example. It is a fact (and I know from experience) that it is easier to buy marijuana and other drugs as a teenager than it is to buy beer or liquor. Why do you think? It’s because there are no “dealers” for alcohol, because the demand isn’t there. Sure, some people may drink moonshine, but the vast majority of people want to get their alcohol from a trusted source and for a low or affordable cost.
Now, what about the “moral degradation” that drugs bring along with them? Simple, it’s already here! An enterprise regulated by the government is a lot easier to keep in check than one that is outlawed outright. The biggest kicker, I believe, is that drug offenses are up there with crimes that do violent harm to other people. What kind of comparison is that? Someone who grows marijuana on a farm is likely to get more jail time than some thug who beat and raped a woman.
Yes, drugs ruin individual’s and family’s lives everyday. But I believe that it’s a medical problem, not a legal one. With legalization and regulation of drugs, educating and informing the public about the dangers of drugs would be much easier. Treatment options would be wide-spread, and actually sought after.
I know this will never happen, because the perception of drugs is one where the users are put at a level below normal society. And admitting that drug-use is far more prevelant than the population wants to admit is something they will pay billions of tax-dollars a year for.
[tags]drugs, commentary, rant, society, law, culture[/tags]
Good post. It is time to end the war on drugs and look at other options such as harm reduction.
We have been slowly trying to make that shift in Canada but our proximaty to the U.S. and subsequent pressure from American governments towards our liberal policies have stopped our politicians from outright legalization of pot.
Suppose drugs are the treatment for the problem not the cause of it?
Suppose the drug war is just about protecting the drug, alcohol, and tobacco markets?
BTW tobacco is an anti-depressant.
So is pot.
m.simon,
Pot is not necessarily an anti-depressant. Scientists have found that different forms of Cannabinoids have contradictory affects - some have anti-depressant characteristics, others cause stimulant-like results.
Tobacco is NOT an anti-depressant. Nicotine is a stimulant. It goes straight to the brain, and nicotine immediately INCREASES heart rate and blood pressure.
Many people believe tobacco is an anti-depressant because they say smoking makes them feel relaxed. True - but it’s because a physical craving has just been fed. Plus, nicotine increases the release of dopanine in the brain - the feel good stuff.
But take their heart rates and blood pressures before and then after smoking. The nicotine in tobacco is very much a stimulant.
The drug market is what fuels the amarican economy 90 % of all money coming into america is from drugs. By making them legal you acutally decrease the market and lower the cost there by hurting the ecomomy. The people seeling drugs and buying them create a reversable income that continues to generate profit and more revenues in many other legitimate areas. Also by legalizing drungs you are making more people lose jobs prisons for instance that has become a mulitbillion corporation since they are now privitized. Sorry strated to ramble their, but all sides need to be represented. I dont care either way.
Great remarks. I think I’ll address Crazy Dan first:
The claim about 90% of the economy being driven by the drug trade is false. While drugs account for billions of dollars of transactions per year in the US, so do diapers. The legal prescription drug business probably does WAY more business than the illegal type.
And stopping the sale of illegal drugs would not damage the economy. You see, we mainly IMPORT drugs from other countries. That money doesn’t stay in the US. Legal drugs could be made cheaper and the profits and revenues would stay INSIDE the US, actually boosting the economy.
I know, a weird argument for the legalization of drugs, but true nonetheless.
I really don’t know how I feel on legalizing some drugs. I’ve heard to argument that legalizing drugs would help control the problem, but I don’t necessarily agree. Alcohol is legal, but does that stop addiction? How many people die every single year because of drunk drivers? My best friend in high school was hit by a drunk driver and left to bleed to death. I don’t think that making alcohol illegal will stop addiction or anything like that, I’m just saying that I don’t think legalizing drugs will help the problem either. Until people can responsibly use drugs, I don’t think it matters if its legal or not.
Trista: first let me say I’m sorry for your loss. I know I would find it difficult to support the use of alcohol in any form if I had lost someone to its effects.
That being said, I don’t think I would say legalization would necessarily reduce the rate of addiction at all. But I do believe that those that are addicted would be better off if its use was legal, and treatment was more widespread.
I may be wrong, but I think it’s backwards to try and attack the drug problem from the supply side, when the problem wouldn’t even exist if people in this country didn’t have such a high demand for it.
Making the demand legal would get rid of all the ‘black market’ factors like the violence that goes along with all illegal activities. If companies were competing to produce drugs cheaply, then there wouldn’t be an organized criminal element trying to sell it for as much as possible.
I’m not saying legalizing drugs would eliminate the hell that addiction puts families through, but it would stop a lot of other problems associated with it so our society could cope with the real reason that its an issue at all: people take drugs to deal or solve their problems.
I looked up the stats on Amsterdam where marijuana is legal.
The US State Department’s website says violent crime and traffic accidents are both relatively low there compared to other Eurpoean cities.
To be honest, I use an assortment of illegal drugs almost every day. Yet somehow I manage to raise a family, keep my wife satisfied and run a one man fund development office.
The problem is not the drugs, it’s the people using them who can’t handle it; and these people are usually found in the lower classes of society.
I don’t want it to look like I’m advocating some form of genocide here, but if we ‘removed’ these people somehow from our society, then the rest of us (good white-collar folk) would be able to nurse our habits without shame and fear of our bosses finding us doing lines off the toliet seat in the executive washroom.
Okay maybe I am advocating genocide, but is that so wrong?
You’re right Burns… the problem really is the people using the drugs, not the drugs themselves.
Although that “solution” you mention sounds kind of promising, who would clean the toilet seats that we snort coke off of?
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