Whatever happened to the War on Drugs?

[Veranda]

If pot were legalized:

x-it could be regulated
x-it could make a lot of money for a lot of people, legally
x-it would uncrowd jails and prisons of people charged with possession who don't deserve to be there, leaving more room for violent offenders
x-people are going to smoke it regarless of whether it is legal or not. What's the big deal?


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U2- The Unforgettable Fire still burns!

 

[Zooman91]

If they had just followed thru with that War on Poverty, then maybe a big chunk of the war on drugs would have been won. Oh well.

 

[sv]

There are 430,700 smoking-related deaths/year (American Lung Association) in the U.S. Most of these (350,000) are from lung cancer. Given than 1/6 lung cancer deaths are in nonsmokers exposed to passive cigarette smoke by family members, that would be something like 60,000 deaths/year in nonsmokers. Which in itself by far exceeds the total number of deaths due to illegal drugs.

In 1992, the National Institute of Drug Abuse cites 132,000 drug/alcohol related deaths, of which 107,000 were due to alchol and 25,000 due to illegal drugs.

In 2000, 40% of the 41,000 MVA deaths (the leading cause of death in 16-44 year old age group in the U.S., until AIDS passed it recently I think) were due to drunk driving (i.e. legally drunk) (National Highway Patrol data), and most studies indicate that around 70-80% of MVA deaths are alcohol-related (i.e. lower than legal limit).

The demographic of illegal drug-related deaths is certainly younger than that of tobacco deaths, and there's no question illegal drugs are a problem in the U.S. But there are at least 20 other major societal problems that are much more worthy of a "War On".

 

[baker6621]

Hey melon, before you diss a country, spell it fucking right. It's Colombia, buddy.

 

[baker6621]

Also, if your dissing Colombia I hope you know the concept of supply and demand. If there's no demand, supply would shift to the left (drop down). The U.S. demands so many drugs that obviously Colombia is going to keep producing them.

I also believe that the U.S. Gov't wants to keep pot illegal, as it has paid off a lot of debts they've owned.

 

[gvox]

Since most of the intelligent argument for legalization has been said already, allow me to quote the late Peter Tosh:

Legalize it
Don't criticize it
Legalize it
yea-ah yea-ah
And I will advertise it...

Yeah, well, unfortunately if weed were legalized I'd be out of busin....oops...JOKE!!

No, really, I don't think it should be legalized. If so the government will tax it to death and probably the quality will go down.

I'm more for the de-criminalization of simple possession of pot up to a certain limit. Why incarcerate a law-abiding father of two (like me) just because I happen to enjoy a weekend joint? Stupid, and besides, alcohol has far more damaging effects on your health and society in general.

Gabriel

"..well I'm not an expert on the subject (yyyyeahh ok Bono...lol) but it seems sensible enough to me.."

Bono, on whether weed should be legalized