The original drug prohibitions had a moral rationale rather than a practical one. It began with the American prohibition of opium, which was primarily motivated by a moral objection to white people smoking in Chinese-run opium dens. This began a prohibition movement in the United States. In 1913, marijuana — which was used almost exclusively by Mexican and Indian immigrants — was prohibited for the first time by the state of California.
Today, when new drugs are added to the long list of illegal substances, it is because they are judged to be “addictive”, not because they are harmful. The United States’ Controlled Substances Act calls for a drug to be prohibited if it has “a high potential for abuse” and if it “may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence”.
The drug does not have to be harmful in any other sense. According to US government statistics, paracetamol (acetaminophen) is involved in nearly five times as many emergency room visits as MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, often referred to as “ecstasy”), and it remains available in supermarkets around the world.
So the main reason that drugs like alcohol and caffeine are legal, but cocaine and MDMA are not, is that the latter are judged to be “addictive”. (Suspend for a moment the true belief that alcohol and caffeine are addictive.)
Addiction does harm the addict, to be sure. But self-harm cannot provide grounds for prohibiting a substance. As philosopher John Stuart Mill famously put it, the sole legitimate reason for interfering with a person’s liberty is when he risks harming others.
Yea, verily.
The Police, like the Pentagon, will find “reasons” to have this “war” or that “war” against whatever – only to PERPETUATE AND INCREASE THEIR FUNDING !!! We are the FOOLS WHO KEEP FALLING FOR IT !!! Time for a “War on War” and get the U.S.
I will call your nurse so she gets you into your room. Recreation time is over.
The Police, like the Pentagon, will find “reasons” to have this “war” or that “war” against whatever – only to PERPETUATE AND INCREASE THEIR FUNDING !!! We are the FOOLS WHO KEEP FALLING FOR IT !!! Time for a “War on War” and get the U.S. OUT OF THE WAR “BUSINESS” !!! (Sorry for the mis-fire !)
Third one’s the charm. If you write the same thing one more time, I’ll believe it.
To me the government should have no say in what I put into my body. It should be as simple as that.
If someone gets sick from it. Heal them. This could mean malnutrition from stimulant binges, overdoses and addiction. There doesn’t need to be a blaming game.
How many know there is an antidote for acetaminophen? Not many. But so many lives could be saved if they just include it with every package of it.
There are so many drugs out there and a majority of them are legal. This includes molecules and ethnobotanicals (plants that induce feelings). For the smart user laws and regulations have no effect in stopping them. 100 substances can be banned tomorrow with no concern because 200 new analogues are made every day. This last year the “bath salts” going around usually consisted of safer alternatives to street cut junk. And simply because it was pure but for other reasons too such as less neurotoxic.
Yes there were screw ups and people were injured from them but that’s with anything. Turn on the TV or look at your local news site. How many stories are about DUI’s, car accidents and gun violence? Some people are just stupid and do stupid things. It’s not the drug causing the stupidity, it’s the person using the drug.
So instead of putting our fingers in our ears and stomping around like a bunch of little girls who just don’t want to hear it we need to research them. Tell everyone everything there is to know about them. The more that is known and available for everyone the safer everyone will be. Most people are scared and think even looking at a drug will make you instantly go to the gutter and start doing sexual favors for just a taste. Sorry that’s simply not the case. The ones usually in those places started in those places.
I think I need to stop for now but to whoever read this look up these books and this person.
Alexander Shulgin. His books PiHKAL and TiHKAL have changed the world and could make it a warm welcoming place if we all just opened our minds.
“To me the government should have no say in what I put into my body. It should be as simple as that.”
Then when your addiction becomes an issues to your health, wealth and the loved ones in your life and public safety; please don’t ask the government for any help with medical or legal measures.
Thanks.
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Good point Cursor_, on the one hand we want our “freedom” but on the other hand we want someone to pay when our freedom gets us in trouble.
Why do you think that using immediately leads to all those things?
What you’re shown on TV on how drug users look like and act is far from the truth.
The most addictive substances are the ones that are currently legal. Caffeine, alcohol and tobacco and most users of these aren’t the drain on society you think drug users are.
So again your logic of addiction being the worst thing for you is flawed. Everything is addicting, it’s just how you perceive it. Whether you want to enjoy it or not.
If you enjoy it your brain releases dopamine and makes you feel really good. This is the feeling you get when you listen to your favorite song, drink a cup of coffee, take ecstasy or meth.
Much like pavlov’s dog we are merely controlled by our own dopamine bell.
You THINK that your desires will have no affect on others but it will.
No man is an island.
When you do drugs it affects your body and over time that means more doctor visits than you would IF you had abstained from using them as toys.
Your pocket also suffer, which means less money to pay your bills on time or take your stunning wife and great kids out on a vacation.
And outside of caffeine, save if you over do it, all of them affect motor skills and impairs judgment. Which puts you as a danger to the public on the streets.
So when you are low on dough, up for reckless endangerment, get a divorce and never allowed around your kids because of your pleasures and wind up in the health care system more than you should by age 60; PLEASE don’t ask the government nor us to help you out.
I do not like having to pay for all you self-medicating monkeys now. I would hate to see my bill when the per capita rate goes to the civil war levels. I won’t be able to afford all you selfish beasts.
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Another idiot that thinks other people’s facts come from TV so he can feel better.
Let us know when you have stolen things from your family to maintain your addiction or when you hurt one of them for nor giving you money or not let you do drugs.
So a base jumper, stock car driver, lion tamer, snake fancier, unicyclist or other persons that pursue a hobby that has an element of risk should also be denied public access to health services?
“The United States’ Controlled Substances Act calls for a drug to be prohibited if it has “a high potential for abuse” and if it “may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence”.
So why is marijuana illegal again?
Ahh, hypocrisy.
Cannabis is still illegal because of the war on drugs.
For them to unschedule anything would make other think about the reality of it. As in “We were told for years how dangerous and deadly weed is and now it’s the new general well being plant. If that’s the case with marijuana than what about everything else the war on drugs is fighting? And is the war on drugs and the DEA worth my tax money?”
While now we see many more voicing up about it; the government is simply ignoring it. Just look at how the states are taking action on the new research chemicals hitting the market while the Fed side is pretending it’s not happening.
They don’t want to be wrong and the drive today is based on morality not science. Under the schedules cannabis is still a schedule 1 while meth is a schedule 2. Which one destroys more lives? And no matter how much we point that out the facts are simply being ignored because “think of the children!” mentality.
Ok fine I’ll think of the children. My thoughts on them are this. My science are the stupid. Oh but it’s never their fault according to the parents so my science are parents stupid!
Most of them have tried some recreational drug in their life time. Last I checked they were still alive and had the capabilities to produce off spring so why can’t they teach their children responsibility?
I’ve done more than my share and I’m not exactly old but I was taught that just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s safe. (talking about “bath salts” aka research chemicals) And those who do push it to the next level and take their use too far usually have some other underlying mental disorder about them. Whether it be anxiety issues, depression or manic depression they are crying for help or worse, are trying to die but haven’t reached the tipping point so are self destructing.
Those colors, thoughts and euphoric feeling is not somehow embedded in the molecule. No, it is in all of us. In our minds. In our subconscious which we silence more and more through our evolution. All it does is unlock what we have been conditioned to bury in our society.
“I want to avoid reality and no one can force me to face reality”
Keep crying, little brat.
Tobacco is insidiously addictive. Alcohol is the most dangerous drug. We need to stop calling weed a “narcotic,” for starters.
Just a tokey a day
keeps Alzheimer at bay
Come on this is all about MONEY and has nothing to do with “a high potential for abuse”.
The only reason marijuana is illegal is because the alcohol industry, the drug companies and the prison industry are scared sh_tless that people will grow there own and cut them out of the profits.
As for the police…. if they didn’t have all those easy marijuana arrests to make, they would have to do real police work like preventing and solving crimes.
A good friend of mine has a brother in the state police; they love the drug war, full employment for cops!
“What is it about the War on Some Drugs that makes so many people lose their ability to reason???”
Because many of the people that want the stuff are weak and irresponsible.
You know drugs have no redeeming value or positive effect for the general population.
“You know drugs have no redeeming value or positive effect for the general population.”
I suppose the same can be said of most hobbies or watching TV or overeating or just sitting around doing nothing…….
These cops are holding it as “drug money” because the law says that police department gets to directly keep 90% of any found drug money.
In other words, the cops literally just stole that money for themselves.
Civil forfeiture is the euphemism the justice system uses for looting and pillaging.
Bwahahaha…
Don’t you <b<see what’s happening here?
The PTB (PowersThanBe) are legislating how you can have fun.
That may not be how medicinal cannabis would be used, (I have MS so I’m interested because pain could/should/would be used for treatment,) but since you can have fun with it, basically, you’re fucked.
I have no pain, but I’m loosing sensation below the neck so I am an exception. (jab me with a needle in my arm and I may not be aware of it. [Makes checking myself for bruises every morning a necessary evil, {and I often do find some.}])
The PTB don’t care if I am writing in agony.
Why should they? I’ll die at some point.
The PTB will still be in power and their rules don’t apply to themselves because they know that rules without enforcement aren’t rules, they aren’t even suggestions.
John Stuart Mills be damned, 1%ers all seem to feel that they’re:
1) immortal (unbelievable hubris,)
2) above any law (including the ones against murder.)
Pederasty rules don’t apply to them either.
They could chow down on your first born for sex, for lunch or to use him for extracting stem steels.
WE don’t matter worth a damn to these psychopaths.
This is so hilarious!!!
Yes, the war on drugs is an utter failure, but the irony to see the #1 reason for it to fail discussing how unfair and “immoral” this war is is a riot!
Is like watching little kids bitching at their parent because they don’t let them eat candies. “How hypocritical, my dad is fat for all the meat he eat and he tell me I’m not getting more chocolate because I’m fat”.
“There are more death for drinking water than for smoking pot”. This is really unseen, an addict looking for reasons why his addiction rulez.
You’re such spoiled brats that I’m sure you don’t even know who you are. The #1 reason for the war on drugs to be a failure is you: the consumers. You feed the despicable drug dealers. So have a nice peek in the mirror the next time you want to blame someone for the failure of the war on drugs
So…your summation is that the war on drugs is caused by people wanting drugs. Deep, mate, very deep.
Also, the vast majority of people that do take illegal drugs, and legal ones for that matter, are not addicted. They just like taking them and do no harm.
Do you have a Cartman-like irrational hatred of hippies or something?
Ha, ha–honeyman, you’ve nailed Pedro. Course, everyone does who lowers themselves to his level==but still, it has to be done from time to time.
Rare for Pedro to put his full stupidity on display like that. So many words. I’ll bet he’s taking a nap right now. Not a MJ overdosed on Doritos nap mind you. Just that nooner before going back to work at the sweat shop.
Did you finish installing that Chandelier at home, DUmbbo?
You know, there was a guy that wrote a piece about what could be behind a bogus trend whose final end is to sell more computers. In it, this person saw a connection regarding people that supposedly use more computers yet their economies are failing and vice versa. Is a very valid connection but he stopped short on the implications.
You know how a patient with an illness is treated? You make a diagnosis, prescribe a treatment, follow the treatment and if the diagnosis is correct & the patient follows the treatment, he gets cured. This is the norm. There could be variations that can go worse or better but this is the general trend how you cure people.
Now, lets see a lung cancer patient. He is diagnosed, a treatment is prescribed but the patient keeps on smoking. Not only that, he thinks smoking and some new age chanting is the real treatment. What do you think will happen.
This is the case with the war on drugs. For as much you want to pretend drug use is a victimless crime you are dead wrong. Not only third parties are being victimized by drug users for a different number of reasons, but so are their friends and most specially their families.
Why the war on drugs failed? Let’s keep the same medicine simile. You got a patient that got diagnosed, decided not to followed the treatment and kept doing whatever was making him ill. To make matters worse, you got a new Doctor with a bunch of due bills, with no scruples whatsoever realizing there’s a patient he can milk as long as he wants (the spoiled brat type is the best for this). And that’s the current state of the war on drugs.
Now, to the story this guy wrote about the digital divide. The US (and other western countries) have raised at least 2 generations of very spoiled brats, that seek only instant gratification looking for a neverending escapism and that’s one of then reasons why their economies are crumbling; exactly the conclusion the guy had about the bogus digital divide. Buying toys and lying to themselves that those are computers and they’re doing real productive things on them, not to mention always seeking reaffirmation that they’re cool because they have THE toy.This is all that matters. Oh, and get rich fast.
I say stop the war on drugs, the US society seem to have reached the goal of raising a bunch of nanny-state-loving brats that live only to scape reality. The harm’s already done.
You cant win with some people. Take their drugs away and you are applauded. Take their Krispy Creme doughnuts away and you hate freedom.
Because they’re soooooo the same. People die from water overdose, you know?
But as I said, keep at it. It is really hilarious to see the warped logic you use to defend your illness.
BTW, like all lefty conundrums I would like to see drugs legalized just to see them in the same cognitive dissonance they are with tobacco, where you are free to kill yourself smoking it yet afterwards you want to sue the companies that make tobacco because they killed you. Fatso Moore is an expert creating these dissonances.
Looking at the size of many Americans (and Australians), I’d say the doughnuts were doing more harm.
Yes kiddo, go and ask mom for a slice of keepmethere.
Maybe one should listen to a guy who knows what he is talking about. The professor was fired by the British government from a drugs advisory body for telling uncomfortable truths that the government did not want to hear.
http://profdavidnutt.wordpress.com/
“Taken together we estimate that alcohol is at least twice as harmful to users than cannabis and 5 times more harmful to society. The obvious conclusion is that the current legislation criminalising cannabis users is illogical as well as inhumane and may be causing much more harm than it does good.”
The science is in!!!!!!!
Is that professor also keen on doing pro global warming work?
I am for ending the war on drugs, if only because of collateral damage to non-druggies and non-cops.
Regulate drugs—cutting out criminals—and you suddenly flatten all sorts of crimes, jails, police specialists and expensive tax-paid regulatory activities.
But will all that energy suddenly show up in other criminal guises? We might see a dramatic upturn in bicycle thefts, hit-men for hire, prostitution, embezzlement, income tax cheating, speeding in school zones and the like.
That evil energy has to go somewhere, after all.