Lol well I mean there’s a slew of other negatives to being chemically addicted to something beyond an instant death, but I get what you’re saying.
That being said, I think making all drugs legal would inevitably lead to insanely increased usage, which results in a higher addict rate of your population (which obviously has it’s downfalls as well).
Look at the usage rates of weed in the states that legalized it. And a high from weed is fuckin nothing compared to the stronger stuff
Agreed, but I don’t think that’s a bell that can be unrung. Capitalism and greed will always prevail
Well even if you are right what do you care? If your neighbor wants to take a bunch of oxy’s everyday and he doesn’t bother you and has his own means of supporting the habit what does it matter?
I think you are making some basic assumptions that may or may not be right. So I’d like to drill down on it a little more.
So, being healthy, un-addicted, good diet is generally better for you right? You’re assuming the rest of your life isn’t shit.
There was a guy in California, went out to the store, in the time it took him to come back from the store, the Carr Fire killed his whole family. Everybody. I mean everybody. He’s it and he’s older.
Do you think he gives a shit if something is bad for him if it makes him feel better for a little while? And then a little while more and a little while more?
So he won’t live as long. He probably doesn’t really want to be alive anymore anyway. Why shouldn’t he be able to drown his sorrows in some drugs?
My thoughts on this have evolved. I used to be more like you “Okay legalize pot but nothing else.” Then I realized how thin the line between illegal and legal chemicals are. Half the commercials on TV are about drugs. Hell, it seems the only prerequisite for a drug becoming legal is it cannot make anyone feel good. As long as that side effect is under control, you can bring it to market.
You would end the drug war which has only made things worse. You reduce drug related violence so people in those communities most affected can actually have a better chance to lead productive lives. This means less welfare and other entitlements. You save money by having a smaller prison population.The courts, by having fewer cases will be more efficient and more genuinely bad people will be behind bars and not given short and meaningless sentences because of prison overcrowding. The money the government makes from legal drug sales could be used to fund rehab and drug education. The money the government saves from not having to jail people and subsidize the existence of whole communities can be invested into turning those communities around.
Because chemical addictions make people do irrational things when they NEED more drugs yet can’t afford it. A guy was gunned down in my metro down the street from my sisters apt last week after robbing a dollar general. He also stabbed and killed a civilian man who tried to intervene on the stores behalf.
It doesn’t jive to me to say ‘if you’re using it legally there’s nothing to worry about’ when the very nature of addictive drugs directly leads people to act irrationally.
You then have society being forced to financially support addicts, take care of them when they legally OD, etcetc. Tbh I’d probably just start carrying a gun and put up security cameras and motion sensors in my driveway so I can start killing people that inevitably try to steal from me.
What is this backed up by? If we start selling cocaine and bath salts at Walmart we somehow expect violence to go DOWN?
You mean less welfare to the people who are spending the money on drugs that they could instead be spending on bills and food?
So society is now expected to pay more for drug education to benefit people who want to do drugs? Legalizing it is one thing, asking me to pay for addicts to get better even more than I already do seems silly.
I think you under estimate the current drug ‘problem’. A lot more people are doing them than you think. Even ones you would consider perfectly rational ones.
Believe it or not most addicts don’t go around acting like maniacs.
Even if we had more users I don’t think you would have more maniacs.
Most addicts are job holding, family having folk who have a side gig.
There is no way to explain away the tonnage of illegal drugs in the country with the few that actually admit to using them.
Either the few use an astonishing amount drugs or a lot more people use than admit it.
What will gangs be fighting over? Who can dance better?
No I don’t. I mean less money to the people who live under siege. The people who spend money on drugs get it from stealing, enablers, and prostitution.
The only way this logically holds up is if drugs are not correlated at all to people acting like maniacs.
Kinda have to call fact check here. I’m happy to agree to disagree here, but I definitely don’t buy this as fact at face value. I’m more than happy to be proven wrong though.
That doesn’t inherently mean the average user is an upstanding citizens.
Legalizing drugs doesn’t eliminate the drug trade. It just lessens it. You’re now lowering demand with similar supply, which either lowers prices or consolidates the gangs (gangs consolidate via violence).
Well, again I think you are making false assumption about how drugs affect people. I honestly cannot tell you how I know what I know in this sphere. I have confidences in my hand I cannot violate.
I have a face that people tell shit to for some reason. And given long enough, people tell me about things they normally don’t tell others. And I don’t understand why, I guess I give off a friendly vibe. People tell me all kinds of shit I didn’t want to know about themselves…
But I have heard enough of these type stories of people functioning under the influence of all kinds of things under all kinds of circumstances. Not all of it chemical, but to similar affect.
I can tell you that people are a lot more surprising than they appear to be on the surface. Most people are actors and ‘all the world’s a stage’ as the saying goes. When you get to the person most people don’t see, that’s the one that functions on vapors and is hanging on by a thread.
Anyway, this is one of those things that I have changed my mind about over time. Because I see the line between what is legal and what is not is so fine and gray as to not even exist. And I don’t care what other people do to themselves so long as they don’t hurt others.
I would venture to say that most people take drugs. Some are legal drugs and others are illegal drugs, but drugs are consumed.
I said I don’t hold the popular view and I don’t expect a lot of people on my side of this particular fence.
Which then begs another question when does something go from a ‘nutrient’ or a ‘supplement’ to a drug? I guess effect is the difference. Stuff that doesn’t work that well is a ‘supplement’, stuff that works really good are drugs. We as lifters should be familiar as hell with this phenomenon. It permeates everything we do…
I don’t think the ability of chemically addictive drugs to make people addicted is a false assumption. My cousin is currently serving time for cocaine, aunt is a recovering cocaine addict, sister does shrooms acid & Molly, etcetc.
I understand that SOME people can become chemically addicted and not let it ruin their lives. That doesn’t inherently translate to ‘most’ or ‘many’ or any other such verbiage without supporting information.
I honestly wouldn’t mind legalizing all drugs, as long as the context is such that we don’t force the non drug consuming community to take care of them (or at least any more than we already do). We already saw the effects of letting people eat themselves to death and what it does to everyone else’s HC premiums.
I am not saying ‘force society to take care of the addicts’. Most of them can take care of themselves or have people who can help them should they need it anyway.
I cannot picture the government safety net being far in front of death.
But you told an interesting story. Your cousin is in the can for coke. Would you have even known your cousin was tootin’ blow if he\ she didn’t get caught and put in the hootchie?
Is your aunt off the coke because she wants to be, or because somebody or entity has threatened her with taking everything from her and chucking another soul in the slammer?