7 ms·

Your opinion is very uninformed. You can't think of anything positive that would result? What about: - ending our massively expensive "war on drugs" - ending

by hpvic03 14y ago

Your opinion is very uninformed. You can't think of anything positive that would result? What about: - ending our massively expensive "war on drugs" - ending massive spending on incarceration - decreasing the U.S. incarceration rate, which is the highest in the world - stop penalizing citizens who are using a drug which is scientifically proven to be harmless (and is also much less dangerous than alcohol) - raise U.S. tax revenue from drug sales, instead of sending the money to Mexican drug lords - spend some of this new tax revenue on actually rehabilitating drug users, instead of sending them to prisons, where they often come out worse than they went in. I could go on. Drug legalization was tried in Portugal, which had a massive drug problem, and it solved most of their problems. See: http://www.economist.com/node/14309861 http://www.economist.com/node/14309861 .

paulhauggis 14y ago
"decreasing the U.S. incarceration rate, which is the highest in the world" I suppose that is one way to reduce incarceration rates: reduce the number of laws. I seriously doubt the majority of incarcerations involve a regular person just smoking a few joints. Most are hardcore drug users that committed other crimes or dealers (which will still be illegal). "raise U.S. tax revenue from drug sales, instead of sending the money to Mexican drug lords" If drug users really cared about the violence in Mexico, they would boycott any drugs grown in Mexico. I haven't even seen this as a suggestion. Why? "spend some of this new tax revenue on actually rehabilitating drug users, instead of sending them to prisons, where they often come out worse than they went in." I thought drugs were okay? Why do we need to spend the money we get from drug revenue to rehabilitate addicts? There are plenty of other things that could use that money..like paying down the national debt. "I could go on. Drug legalization was tried in Portugal, which had a massive drug problem, and it solved most of their problems." I would really like to see some pros and cons. The problem is that all of the pro-drug users only want to talk about the great things (and deny any of the bad ones). Until we can have an open and honest discussion, there won't be any progress.
- hpvic03 14y ago
  "I suppose that is one way to reduce incarceration rates: reduce the number of laws." Yes, and legalizing drugs would be one way of doing that. "I thought drugs were okay?" Marijuana was found to be non-harmful by medical researchers. Certainly other drugs are not. "If drug users really cared about the violence in Mexico, they would boycott any drugs grown in Mexico. I haven't even seen this as a suggestion. Why?" The point I'm making is legalization would raise revenues here and have a positive side effect on Mexico. How would it be a bad thing to help Mexico return to normalcy? "Why do we need to spend the money we get from drug revenue to rehabilitate addicts? There are plenty of other things that could use that money..like paying down the national debt." Regardless of what we do with the funds, it's additional revenue. Whether or not we spend it on rehabilitating drug addicts or not is a different discussion. "I would really like to see some pros and cons. The problem is that all of the pro-drug users only want to talk about the great things (and deny any of the bad ones)." Pros: - increased revenue - less spending on enforcement - lower incarceration rate, less spending on prisons Cons: - greater access, though access isn't difficult right now. - may result in more drug users (Decriminalization in Portugal did not result in more drug users, but full legalization could have a different effect.) Criminalizing popular drugs like Marijuana is no different than alcohol prohibiton in the 20's, and we all know how that turned out. I am not an illegal drug user myself. Read some more on the topic and you will likely be swayed to the side of legalization, which I and many others believe to be the side of reason. I think many people have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of decriminalizing or legalizing drugs. It sounds bad on its face, but the actual results are the opposite of what you'd expect.

by hpvic03 14y ago

paulhauggis 14y ago

"decreasing the U.S. incarceration rate, which is the highest in the world" I suppose that is one way to reduce incarceration rates: reduce the number of laws. I seriously doubt the majority of incarcerations involve a regular person just smoking a few joints. Most are hardcore drug users that committed other crimes or dealers (which will still be illegal). "raise U.S. tax revenue from drug sales, instead of sending the money to Mexican drug lords" If drug users really cared about the violence in Mexico, they would boycott any drugs grown in Mexico. I haven't even seen this as a suggestion. Why? "spend some of this new tax revenue on actually rehabilitating drug users, instead of sending them to prisons, where they often come out worse than they went in." I thought drugs were okay? Why do we need to spend the money we get from drug revenue to rehabilitate addicts? There are plenty of other things that could use that money..like paying down the national debt. "I could go on. Drug legalization was tried in Portugal, which had a massive drug problem, and it solved most of their problems." I would really like to see some pros and cons. The problem is that all of the pro-drug users only want to talk about the great things (and deny any of the bad ones). Until we can have an open and honest discussion, there won't be any progress.

hpvic03 14y ago
"I suppose that is one way to reduce incarceration rates: reduce the number of laws." Yes, and legalizing drugs would be one way of doing that. "I thought drugs were okay?" Marijuana was found to be non-harmful by medical researchers. Certainly other drugs are not. "If drug users really cared about the violence in Mexico, they would boycott any drugs grown in Mexico. I haven't even seen this as a suggestion. Why?" The point I'm making is legalization would raise revenues here and have a positive side effect on Mexico. How would it be a bad thing to help Mexico return to normalcy? "Why do we need to spend the money we get from drug revenue to rehabilitate addicts? There are plenty of other things that could use that money..like paying down the national debt." Regardless of what we do with the funds, it's additional revenue. Whether or not we spend it on rehabilitating drug addicts or not is a different discussion. "I would really like to see some pros and cons. The problem is that all of the pro-drug users only want to talk about the great things (and deny any of the bad ones)." Pros: - increased revenue - less spending on enforcement - lower incarceration rate, less spending on prisons Cons: - greater access, though access isn't difficult right now. - may result in more drug users (Decriminalization in Portugal did not result in more drug users, but full legalization could have a different effect.) Criminalizing popular drugs like Marijuana is no different than alcohol prohibiton in the 20's, and we all know how that turned out. I am not an illegal drug user myself. Read some more on the topic and you will likely be swayed to the side of legalization, which I and many others believe to be the side of reason. I think many people have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of decriminalizing or legalizing drugs. It sounds bad on its face, but the actual results are the opposite of what you'd expect.