Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

I guess someone should take the anti-drug position here. While I think that pot should be legalized, I'm not in favor of legalizing Cocaine or Heroin.

Cocaine and Heroin are extremely dangerous drugs that kill hundreds or thousands of people a year. People who get addicted to these drugs are huge burdens on society. The effect of increasing the cost of these drugs is a social good because the artifically higher cost deters people from using them. While everyone won't become junkies when heroin becomes legal, more people will and we have to stop that. We should fight these drugs with every tool we have: both treatment and criminalization.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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5)Drug war radically drives up the cost of drugs, which for many people eats up a huge chunk of their money for no reason.


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And considering that cocaine costs less today than it did 20 years ago (despite billions spend 'fighting' it), with the price of everything else in the world increasing 100%-400% over that same period (with no war agaist them), it is really absurd to even suggest prohibitioin is the way to go.

Mabye if we spend 100 gazillion dollars fighting it, it will cost a few pennies...lol

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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Your alcohol comment is dead on, but pot is far from harmless. While it is a fact that the chronic is non-toxic, it is a mistake to consider pot harmless. It's a myth.

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The only thing I've heard with regards to possible harm from pot is that it can inhibit brain cell development in people under 18. I have no idea whether that's true or not and I don't have the study on hand. But other than that, the drug is just not toxic. It's safe.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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The chart claims that pot is more dangerous than ecstacy. I stopped taking it seriously after I saw that.


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Thats why that chart is BS. It doesn't take much into consideration. Yeah if you do them both once a month pot is more dangerous, but no one ever dies from pot and extacy kills at a decent rate due to dehydration, depression, and over hydration. This isn't even considering the effects of the drugs extacy is commonly cut with or long term effects of abuse.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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Cocaine and Heroin are extremely dangerous drugs that kill hundreds or thousands of people a year.


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Heroin is very safe to the human body.

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The effect of increasing the cost of these drugs is a social good because the artifically higher cost deters people from using them.



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Cocaine is cheaper today than it was 20 years ago. Everything else under the sun rose in price 100% or more, cocaine despite the drug war , is cheaper .

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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People who get addicted to these drugs are huge burdens on society. The effect of increasing the cost of these drugs is a social good because the artifically higher cost deters people from using them.

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There's a problem with this reasoning. Think about why a heroin addict is a burden on society. You can immediately rule out the intoxicating effects of heroin, because no heroin addict is going to shoot up and then go beat his wife or get into a fight. People who are high on heroin are bedridden and docile, and those withdrawing are just sickly; someone using heroin simply does not create a social threat.

So why are heroin addicts linked with violent crime (theft, extortion, prostitution if you count that)? Because of the artificially high costs of junk. Heroin is [censored] expensive and it is entirely because of the drug war, and people must go to great lengths to support their addiction. Legalize and make it cheaper, and the junkies will be able to afford it without having to resort to antisocial activity. The high cost of heroin creates the crime.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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The only thing I've heard with regards to possible harm from pot is that it can inhibit brain cell development in people under 18. I have no idea whether that's true or not and I don't have the study on hand. But other than that, the drug is just not toxic. It's safe.

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I guess if you've never heard of it, then it can't possibly be true?

Last 10 or so years have provided some pretty hefty advances in nuclear imaging technology. More about the effects of drugs on the brain has been learned in that time than in all of previous medical history. Psychotropics (including pot) can have a permanent negative effect on brain chemistry. The catch is like with all else, everyone is different. It is not known how much pot it takes to damage my brain as opposed to damaging yours.

There is no "safe" drug.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

Doesnt smoking pot give you cancer? Or at least it would if you were smoking it in a joint with some tabacco.

I think the point of E being rated so low is that around half a million people in britain take E on the weekend. It isnt so much E that kills, its the stuff its cut with, or the user not being knowledgable enough to know what to do whils on it (so they dehydrate etc).

E also has no chemical adictive properties (unlike heroin, cocaine and coffee).

It is quite likely there is little research into the long term effects, in comparison to weed anyway.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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I think the point of E being rated so low is that around half a million people in britain take E on the weekend. It isnt so much E that kills, its the stuff its cut with, or the user not being knowledgable enough to know what to do whils on it (so they dehydrate etc).

E also has no chemical adictive properties (unlike heroin, cocaine and coffee).

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I know of people who died because they drank too much water and E slows the body's ability to absorb water down.

E doesn't have a addictive chemical such as caffeine but it releases seratonin which makes you feel pleasure releases dopamine and depletes seratonin making you depressed. This makes it extremely addictive if done often. I am not trying to preach against E just saying don't do it all the time.

Re: Legalize street drugs???
 

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The only thing I've heard with regards to possible harm from pot is that it can inhibit brain cell development in people under 18. I have no idea whether that's true or not and I don't have the study on hand. But other than that, the drug is just not toxic. It's safe.

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I guess if you've never heard of it, then it can't possibly be true?

Last 10 or so years have provided some pretty hefty advances in nuclear imaging technology. More about the effects of drugs on the brain has been learned in that time than in all of previous medical history. Psychotropics (including pot) can have a permanent negative effect on brain chemistry. The catch is like with all else, everyone is different. It is not known how much pot it takes to damage my brain as opposed to damaging yours.

There is no "safe" drug.

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Is there a 'safe' car?
What about a 'safe' place to live?
What about a 'safe' place to swim, or boat?
what about a 'safe' cheese?
A 'safe' relationship?
A 'safe' mountain to climb, or bike path to travel?

Life is risk. We do not need silly people in washington d.c. to micro manage our lives and choices. And we certainly don't need to pay them to do it.