Dude... Because outlawing murder has gone swimmingly well. You got to be kidding me. First of all quit reading articles that are pushing their own agenda and quit thinking back to your college days. If you want to see what drug use has done to this country go work with a local police dept. Go work as a reserve or do ride alongs as a citizen. Don't ride once and think you have everything figured out, ride for a year or two. Make drugs legal. Got to be the most craziest thing I've heard on here. Because dopers don't do stupid stuff or kill people lol
Do you always spend this much time assuming things about people?
I have never in my life used MJ of any variety, though I did consider it and then discarded the idea due to concerns over being randomly tested at exactly the wrong time.
Why would I need to go to the police department? I worked in the emergency department at 2 hospitals. Taken care of people who OD'd on a variety of drugs and those who were shot, beaten, stabbed, killed, and so forth related to the illegal drug trade.
When you can't do business in the open legally you can't settle disputes in court like a decent human being. How to solve disputes then? Oh, beat, stab, shoot, and kill people.
I have family members that do drugs. They did stupid things before drugs, but yeah, the drugs sure didn't help matters. Not that I claimed they did.
In your opinion maybe so. It may be hard to believe but people don't want dope to be legal. The people that it affects, that have had family members murdered, property stolen, etc don't care that someone wrote an article stating that dope should be legal. Of all the break ins and burglary that happens in our community 90% is drug related. Violent crimes, drug related. Has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the fact that dope isn't legal. He threw a blanket statement out there I threw another one. He implied why have laws if people ignore or they aren't stopping the opiod crisis. I took it a step further and asked why have laws for murder if people ignore or they arent stopping murder. Because as a functional society you have to have laws. Just because people ignore them or don't stop doesn't mean you do away with the law. If we used that theory we would do away with all laws.
For those that don't know people are given multiple breaks in court. Drug and dui's offenders are given court ordered referral programs to help them get clean and sober. Multiple chances. Sentenced to drug and alcohol rehab. Not to say that all are, those are the minor offense related cases.
Who in here has actually rode with a police dept?
Some people do want it to be legal and that number is growing because everyone - including you - can see what an abject failure the war on drugs has been.
You actually think that violent drug related crimes have nothing to do with drugs being illegal? My friend, please open your eyes. The illegality of it is exactly what causes the violence. Disputes cannot be settled lawfully in an illegal trade so violence is the only way to do that.
For example, what street gangs are currently killing each other over the distribution of alcohol? None. Because it is legal. But when it was illegal...Ever heard of Al Capone and all the other gangsters running alcohol in the era? If you are not more than passingly familiar with the issues that occurred then then please familiarize yourself. The gangs lost their power when alcohol was legal again and those crimes declined rapidly and greatly. The same would happen in the drug trade.
Again, I have worked emergency. I see many of the things they have seen. Not all, but then I've dealt with a lot of aftermath as well. I also have family who abuse drugs. IOW, I don't need to ride along.
Many of us are fine with doing away with any and all laws that penalize people for 'crimes' where there is no victim. Murders involved victims, some dude smoking a doobie does not.
We need a government that protects our liberties, not one that arbitrarily decides where our liberties exist and where they do not.
Why are victimless crimes crimes to begin with? Because someone wants to save someone else from themselves. Sorry, if you've ever worked with people who are actually addicted you know you can't help someone until they want to help themself and by driving the trade underground you are ensuring that there is no consistency in the quality of drugs on the market.
Let me say this:
People die from drugs BECAUSE they are illegal, NOT IN SPITE of them being illegal.
Were they legal then people could better assure the quality and purity of what they buy.
Because people die when there is a sudden change in potency or when other drugs like fentanyl are mixed in without the user's knowledge or in an amount not known to the user.
These people for the most part aren't looking to try to kill themselves. But we make it so that they have no other choice at times - at least any realistic choice. And reality is they aren't going to stop until they are ready.
Some laws are made to keep people from getting hurt. Speed limits for example. You're given a speeding ticket. Not because there was a victim but because society realizes that speed kills.
And speed can kill a person besides the speeding driver. That is key.
A guy is driving crazy, passing school buses while they are loading kids, he has a mason jar full of weed, and has a five year old child in the front passenger seat with no restraint. He didn't hurt anyone so he shouldn't be arrested or given citations?
No relation to the discussion at all, but kids can't consent to being put in danger so...
A lady is driving on the wrong side of a 4 lane hwy going the wrong way. Highly intoxicated. Didn't kill anyone, no victim. Don't arrest or cite? Just let her go?
Driving under intoxicated puts others at risk.
I don't want to come across as attacking anyone. I just have seen, first hand, the effects of drug use on communities. I do think that a guy who has a small amount of weed should be given a citation instead of arrested. But someone who has a large amount should be arrested.
I also have seen the effects of drugs.
Worse, I have seen the effects of making them illegal. Drug related violence, all the overdose deaths, the encroachments on civil liberties, all the people killed from innocent bystanders to cops to young kids too stupid to realize what they were doing wasn't worth dying over.
It's not JUST drugs that kill people.
The ILLEGALITY of drugs kills every bit as much.
Make them legal and people will buy them in the open. They will be able to go around the corner if the first guy is selling bad dope. Any disputes can be settled in court instead of with a gun. Loved one dies? Sue the seller and put him out of business. Good luck doing that now.
Dude, I get it. I really do.
The first time I heard someone talk about legalization I thought the very same things as you. Every last thing. Right down to assuming the person with that opinion just didn't want to have to risk arrest to get their high.
I recalled all the indoctrination that was fostered on/in me in my formative years. Just say NO! Drugs are bad. Drugs kill. Don't be a dope. So on and so forth.
But my mom recently agreed with me on this issue and she is a Total T-Totaler. She thinks drinking one drink of alcohol will send you straight to hell - do not pass go do not collect the grace of Jesus.
Now if my 76yo mother can reconsider her many years of believing otherwise, i expect other people can also.
Want to reduce drug overdose deaths?
Legalize drugs.
Want to reduce drug related violence?
Legalize drugs.
Want to reduce police deaths related to drugs?
Legalize drugs.
Want to reduce conflicts between police and minorities?
Legalize drugs. (not because stereotyping minorities but because police patrol more in minority neighborhoods for drugs even though whites use drugs at similar rates).
Want to reduce all the billions spent on prisons for people who were only ever put there because of a nonviolent victimless "crime" and have sentences longer than real and actuall murderers and rapists?
Legalize drugs.
Want to increase tax revenues and decrease spending at the same time?
Yup. Legalize drugs and use that money for treatment programs instead.
Want to stop the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C (and B)?
You guessed it. Legalize drugs.
How many people with those diseases have you seen and treated? I've seen and treated quite a few. Darn shame. Lot's of them good people. I used to think they were just sorry worthless druggies and probably said so on here (thereby disqualifying me from federal judgeships). But most are good people. Most want to stop. Most know they are hurting themselves and sometimes others directly or indirectly. They don't deserve to die. But there they go and it's not just them killing themselves. We are helping kill them.