Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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Prohibition actually caused an INCREASE in alcohol consumptions.

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I'm 99% certain that this is false.

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True:

Source: Clark Warburton, The Economic Results of Prohibition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 23-26, 72


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Two questions:

1) How did they measure this?

2) How high has the rate of alcohol consumption been since the repeal?

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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The above was not true when and where I went to high school. Illegal drugs were available, but were much harder to get than booze.

I'm willing to admit that I'm out of high school now and have no clue what goes in at high schools today so perhaps things are different.

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When I was in high school, it was far far easier to get weed than booze or beer. And no problem in getting shrooms or LSD.

AB

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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Two questions:

1) How did they measure this?

2) How high has the rate of alcohol consumption been since the repeal?

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They used a number of factors, one of which was cirrhosis death rate, which serves as a fairly accurate proxy for alcohol consumption per capita.


After repeal, the consumption rate was about that of the last years of prohibition. During WWII, the consumption rate increased.

Interestingly, one of the biggest declines began in 1981, in an area of education and treatment for alcohol users.


AB

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

I am in favor of legalizing all drugs. I am also in favor of harmful drug sellers to require health insurance purchased by the user in order to make the purchase. For example Phillip Morris should be required to pay for damages costumers of it's product incur. Because of this liability, PM would naturally require it's customers have health insurance that covers smoking related disease.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

Incidentally, I think it's funny that no one has yet mentioned the most deadly, horrible, despicable, damaging drug of them all: inhalants. Taking away everyone's booze, pot, shrooms and whatever else will not stop their desire to chemically alter their consciousness, and the huffing of paint thinner, gasoline, and glue are about the worst possible alternative; a short, mild high that is inseparable from brain damage and carries a high risk of organ damage and sudden death with repeated use. I'd rather my child snorted heroin than huffed paint thinner.

These "drugs" will always be around. There is no way to ban them. I can't think of any person who does them because he prefers them to other drugs; they are almost always a last resort due to limited options.

So legalize stuff. That way, we don't have to read about dumb things like this.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

Legalize marijuana.

We're on that track anyway, might as well get it over and done with. It would be great for the economy as well.