5 ms·

Meth is definitely one of the drugs that becomes a public nuisance, since people do become erratic and violent while using. Meth users are the only people that

by ehnto 5y ago

Meth is definitely one of the drugs that becomes a public nuisance, since people do become erratic and violent while using. Meth users are the only people that worry me when walking through our city since it can make people who are already unstable become unpredictably violent. I wonder if other drugs were legal would people still do meth?

xyzzyz 5y ago
Other drugs already are legal. Alcohol is legal, and marijuana is effectively legal in Seattle, where people apparently do a lot of meth.
- ehnto 5y ago
  While true neither of those drugs would replace meth. Alcohol probably causes more social misconduct than meth anyway.
  - voakbasda 5y ago
    Possibly because it is legal.
chucksta 5y ago
Meth was legal until the 70s, society functioned. The current problem is another side effect of the war on drugs https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth
- xyzzyz 5y ago
  This is very much false, and completely contrary to the actual history. War on drugs only happened because of greatly increased social dysfunction due to drugs, not the other way around. It enjoyed wide social support at the time it was started, precisely because people saw how damaging the drugs are to their communities. The idea that drug-related social dysfunction is an effect of war on drugs is yet another of those "wet streets cause rain" ideas.
  - chucksta 5y ago
    How do you explain this quote then, surely the war would cause a decrease no? Odd usage spiked decades _after_ they banned it >Use of crystal meth in the United States exploded in the early 1990s. Between 1994 and 2004, methamphetamine use rose from just under two percent of the U.S. adult population to approximately five percent.
  - cleansingfire 5y ago
    No. The war on drugs was an acknowledged political act to disenfranchise black people and the anti (Vietnam) war movement. Lopez, German (March 22, 2016). "Nixon official: real reason for the drug war was to criminalize black people and hippies". Vox. Archived from the original on May 30, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
    - xyzzyz 5y ago
      Which is why when the War on Drugs started, the Congressional Black Caucus met with Nixon to urge him to stop it. …no, they didnt, in fact they urged him to do the opposite: to ramp it up as fast as possible, precisely to stop the damage the drugs were causing to black communities. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/16/212620886/the-shift-in-black-views-of-the-war-on-drugs https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/16/212620886... The linked material came out on NPR in 2013, before it was decided that the history needs to be revised. I recommend taking a look at it before it is also revised, to remove all references to what had actually happened, to how black leaders were main force behind the War on Drugs.
      - chucksta 5y ago
        Did you finish reading it? >The Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a longtime pastor in New York, once was addicted to heroin and served time. He's convinced that black leaders who embraced the drug war did serious harm to the community, but says a lot of African-Americans were desperate for ways to make their neighborhoods safe again. "If you're the victim, then you don't want to hear anything about treatment, just, 'Get this guy off the street.' " Makes sense to me
- AlotOfReading 5y ago
  According to period newspapers, it very much was a problem almost immediately after public introduction in the late 40s and early 50s. Here's an example from Australia, which banned it by 1955: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71874426?searchTerm=Dexedrine https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71874426?searchTe...
  - lend000 5y ago
    Reading today's newspapers, you'd think Southern California just survived the apocalypse after the half inch of rain last weekend.
- ehnto 5y ago
  Society functions while people have access to guns too, yet there are still consequences to that choice. I am pro legalization of most drugs, but meth does give me pause. No one smoking a joint or tripped out on opioids has ever attacked me while screaming at ghosts in the street, I don't know enough about the role of meth in those kinds of instabilities but anecdotally meth, and alcohol too, sure seem to cause a whole lot of trouble in my city.

by ehnto 5y ago

xyzzyz 5y ago

Other drugs already are legal. Alcohol is legal, and marijuana is effectively legal in Seattle, where people apparently do a lot of meth.

ehnto 5y ago
While true neither of those drugs would replace meth. Alcohol probably causes more social misconduct than meth anyway.
- voakbasda 5y ago
  Possibly because it is legal.

chucksta 5y ago

Meth was legal until the 70s, society functioned. The current problem is another side effect of the war on drugs https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth

xyzzyz 5y ago
This is very much false, and completely contrary to the actual history. War on drugs only happened because of greatly increased social dysfunction due to drugs, not the other way around. It enjoyed wide social support at the time it was started, precisely because people saw how damaging the drugs are to their communities. The idea that drug-related social dysfunction is an effect of war on drugs is yet another of those "wet streets cause rain" ideas.
- chucksta 5y ago
  How do you explain this quote then, surely the war would cause a decrease no? Odd usage spiked decades _after_ they banned it >Use of crystal meth in the United States exploded in the early 1990s. Between 1994 and 2004, methamphetamine use rose from just under two percent of the U.S. adult population to approximately five percent.
- cleansingfire 5y ago
  No. The war on drugs was an acknowledged political act to disenfranchise black people and the anti (Vietnam) war movement. Lopez, German (March 22, 2016). "Nixon official: real reason for the drug war was to criminalize black people and hippies". Vox. Archived from the original on May 30, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  - xyzzyz 5y ago
    Which is why when the War on Drugs started, the Congressional Black Caucus met with Nixon to urge him to stop it. …no, they didnt, in fact they urged him to do the opposite: to ramp it up as fast as possible, precisely to stop the damage the drugs were causing to black communities. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/16/212620886/the-shift-in-black-views-of-the-war-on-drugs https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/16/212620886... The linked material came out on NPR in 2013, before it was decided that the history needs to be revised. I recommend taking a look at it before it is also revised, to remove all references to what had actually happened, to how black leaders were main force behind the War on Drugs.
    - chucksta 5y ago
      Did you finish reading it? >The Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a longtime pastor in New York, once was addicted to heroin and served time. He's convinced that black leaders who embraced the drug war did serious harm to the community, but says a lot of African-Americans were desperate for ways to make their neighborhoods safe again. "If you're the victim, then you don't want to hear anything about treatment, just, 'Get this guy off the street.' " Makes sense to me
AlotOfReading 5y ago
According to period newspapers, it very much was a problem almost immediately after public introduction in the late 40s and early 50s. Here's an example from Australia, which banned it by 1955: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71874426?searchTerm=Dexedrine https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71874426?searchTe...
- lend000 5y ago
  Reading today's newspapers, you'd think Southern California just survived the apocalypse after the half inch of rain last weekend.
ehnto 5y ago
Society functions while people have access to guns too, yet there are still consequences to that choice. I am pro legalization of most drugs, but meth does give me pause. No one smoking a joint or tripped out on opioids has ever attacked me while screaming at ghosts in the street, I don't know enough about the role of meth in those kinds of instabilities but anecdotally meth, and alcohol too, sure seem to cause a whole lot of trouble in my city.