in a nut shell here are some basic reasons to legalize drugs that I will explain
1- Its not Governments place to make them illegal in the first place.
2- Lower Crime rates
3- help develop the third world
4- Save Money and Make Money
As a quick disclaimer let me state that I personally think that using drugs is about the dumbest thing you could do, I would never use drugs, but I'm not thinking about me I'm thinking about Human beings and their unalienable rights.
1- It's not Governments place to make them illegal in the first place.
the roll of government is this "to protect Person A from taking the freedoms and rights away from person B" not however " to protect Person A from being a moron and ruining their life"
that being said its easy to see that we don't have the right to tell people what to do with their bodies, if someone wants to get a ugly hair cut, wear stupid clothes, eat too much fast food and get obese, shoot up on crystal meth. who are we to stop them? we need to give people the rope to hang themselves if thats what they choose to do (this is under the assumptions that we no longer offered food stamps seeing as its unfair for people to be addicts and then look for a mandatory hand out at the tax payers expense)
2- Lower Crime rates
This is fairly easy to see how making drugs illegal only forces a billion dollar market from the hands of responsible business men and into the hands of low life crooks. Prohibition of alcohol provided the need and demand for modern Organized crime that still plagues us today as they have in turn inherited the drug business. were drugs legal then for one the cost of drugs would go down substantial seeing as they could be produced and transported on large scales without the need of smugglers (smuggling is expensive , not easy to find people who will swallow bags of cocaine to take over the border in a plane)
thus drug users would have to steal less to feed and afford their addiction.
3- help develop the third world.
many countries in the world that produce illegal substances do this because of the high value of drugs, were drugs legal then the price would go down and growing drugs would be no more appealing then growing Wheat and other food staples to help the third world.
4- save money and make money
we spend millions each year on fighting drugs by paying people to hunt them down and track them, and we spend millions more incarcerating the people who are using them now take all that money we would save were drugs legal and ADD all the money we would make on taxing a Billion dollar market? the net gain to taxation would be a nice chunk of change to make the deal just that much sweeter
at the end of the day , there are lots of reasons to make drugs legal. people have freedom, if they want to use drugs and ruin their life, or maybe they can take drugs and hold their lives together. then all the better.
let freedom ring America, write your state legislator.
I somewhat agree with you, except that I HATE the call that 'legalizing drugs will reduce crime."
Cigs are legal, but there is still a big problem with smuggling. Why? Taxes. Same with Alcohol.
reducing crime by making the act legal is illogical.
We could reduce the number of rapists who go to jail to 0 by making rape legal... doesn't mean it is a rational way to cut crime.
If you wanted to reduce crime with regard to drugs, then one has to take drugs seriously enough to fight them. Not just passing laws that aren't enforced, but actually going after the dealers in a way that makes them NOT want to deal.
To offset the desire for the reward, one must increase the risk.
I can see the argument that banning drugs is not the responsibility of the federal government, but I think it can safely be banned by state governments. At the very least, highly regulated as to who can use them, where they can be used and under what conditions.
this blog is congruent to my blog, "Drugs, the durges of society." where is the support there? bias? do i detect? yes. do i care? no. only enough to point it out.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
I am making a point of, specifically, not responding to you in any way, including visiting your blog any longer.
I have determined that you are only here to stroke your own ego, not having received sufficient 'readership' on your former blog.
Being the evil one that I am, I will not give you what you crave: Further Attention.
here's some reasons why it would reduce crime.
1- less smugglers and thus less dealers that are shady instead we have professionals take care of it
2- cost would go down, yes there are some forms of Cigars and Alcohol that are smuggled but were we to make those legal then we wouldn't have smugglers for those either. if my cost goes from 1000 dollars to 100 dollars, I'll steal 90% less then what I did before, and who knows maybe I wont steal at all because I can afford it.
3-people would be able to use drugs in safer ways, and we would just make more strong DUI and the like consequences to make them keep it safe, if you want to drink thats your call, if you want to drink and drive I think thats equal to attempted murder and manslaughter even if you dont hit a thing.
4- when you take the fangs out of drug lords what else do they have? sure there will still be prostitution (which I would legalize anyways, why not sell your body if you consent to that line of profession) and the like, but it would be a big hit to the market of orginized crime.
and of course regulation would be a part of legalizing them, we would tax drug companies heavily and use that money for anti drug education, and we would make sure that Minors would not be allowed to use drugs. that'd be hard, but we cant even keep drugs out of our prisons and schools let alone the nation.
We can reduce the number of smugglers and dealers by increasing the risk.
Remember, until the Mob got into the drug business, Las Vegas was actually a drug free city.
Making something legal for the sake of saving money on the product and on enforcement isn't a good reason to make something legal (see my rape reference)
They are currently illegal and people still use them. Why do you think that these people would follow DUI laws when they don't even follow use or possession laws? That's like the amazement that people who shoot up shopping centers didn't heed the "No Guns Allowed" signs.
So, your goal in making drugs legal is to hurt the suppliers of the drugs, so that they are, instead, legally selling what they previously illegally sold. You're not hurting them, you're making their business legit. They now don't have to worry about security or paying people ungodly amounts of money to move their crap. You don't remove crime, you streamline it.
You want to remove the drug lord's fangs? Get rid of the drug lords.
So, he who also calls for the removal of government to make life easier and wants to get rid of public schools wants to heavily tax something so that the government can spend it on education. Are you sure you're as anti-big government as you say you are? Or do you just want legal drugs so that you don't have to pay your dealer so much for them?
You REALLY think that legalizing but heavily taxing won't continue the black market for drugs? Be realistic. That we can't even keep drugs out of schools and prisons when they are ILLEGAL should stand as evidence that we won't be able to regulate it when they are legal.
You want to get rid of drugs, you have to have the drive to get rid of those who bring them here.
Remember, until the Mob got into the drug business, Las Vegas was actually a drug free city.
well in the beginning Las vegas was a LDS colony so I guess things really just fell apart there maybe.
Making something legal for the sake of saving money on the product and on enforcement isn't a good reason to make something legal (see my rape reference)
rape is nothing like using drugs, rape is Person 1 violating person 2 were as drugs are person 1 violating person 1. that is a big theme in all my blogs.
there is nothing wrong with letting people "stream line" as you put it drugs, people are going to get them regardless of what we do, so why make the cost so high?
I don't do drugs, I think that would be a waste of my life, but I do believe in personal freedom, and as far as the thing about taxes, I believe in fair taxation, I'm not an Anarchist by any means I'm a Libertarian , like Jefferson minus the 100+ slaves.
No, it really wasn't. The mormon fort was abandoned in the mid 1800's, and Vegas wasn't organized until the early 1900's, and didn't take off until the Dams were being built and they provided a place for the workers to drink alcohol and gamble.
Once the mob got into the gambling business, they cracked down on crime (oddly enough) and drugs. In fact, the mob was so concerned about image that if you were homeless, they'd escort you out of the city.
My point is not to compare the two as the same crime, but to suggest that legalizing something for the sake of reducing crime is poor thinking.
Why are you so concerned about bringing down the price of drugs? Your plan would streamline the drug lord's businesses, and reduce their risk (as they can now operate legally). . . so your desire can't be to stop the drug lords. Why then, unless you use drugs and hate having to pay so much, are you worried about their price?
"Fair" taxation? We've fought 2 wars over taxation that someone viewed as fair.
by your logic drugs are illegal because they are bad for health. in which case we should make fast food illegal because we have many americans die of heart problems, we should make cars illegal since trains and planes are many times safer forms of travel. we should make a lot of things illegal.
Drugs are something people chose to do, if they are cheap then people can use them and not be forced into stealing and if they are legal then no smugglers, whats the difference between a drug lord and the CEO of budwiser? nothing
its the crime caused by the need for drugs not the crime of doing drugs themselves that will be lowered that is a benefit.
Heh.
That is why the US Government made them illegal, I don't know where MY logic comes into play. I support drugs being illegal because they are a bane on humanity. They exist only to destroy the body and brain and while a person ought to have the ability to do as they wish, there is no suicide pact in which we are required to allow our society to destroy itself.
Last time I checked, the BigMac was not addictive. Watch someone going through heroin detox and tell me that you can compare it to fast food.
While airplanes are safer, trains are VERY unsafe. I had a relative who worked for a chemical company in the safety department and he had to deal with railroads. He refused to travel on trains due to how UNsafe they are.
Drugs, with VERY few exceptions are horridly addicting. Your assumption that people who use illegal drugs are FORCED into stealing only highlights the addictive nature of drugs. Making them legal would not change their addictive nature. Also, why do you assume that someone who steals would STOP stealing because drugs are cheaper? They'll continue to steal and mug. You want to stop muggers? Arm yourself, get a concealed carry permit and when mugged, defend yourself.
As for a difference between a drug lord and the CEO of Budwiser? The CEO isn't engaging in an illegal trade. Don't demonize businessmen for the sake of trying to make drugs seem legit.
your logic is flawed. Give criminals 1 million dollars and they'll blow through all their money and then go back to stealing.
Make drugs cheaper and they'll continue to steal so they can afford even MORE drugs.
you are assuming that people that dont do drugs dont do drugs because they are illegal, which I dont think is true, I'm convinced that 90% of people who dont do drugs dont do drugs because they dont want to, I could go and obtain drugs within 72 hours if I wanted even tho I have never done drugs and dont know much about the market right, I could find a friend of a friend and bam I'm in.
so your theory that society will destroy itself does not carry any water, because people who dont do drugs dont do them because they dont want to
and your theory about letting people destroy themselves, yes if they choose that we let them. back home we call that thinning the herd , you should pick up on that.
trains are statistically much safer then cars, I'm sorry if your uncle is scarred of choo choo's
I've noticed a misconception here- you keep referring to the idea that only thugs sell drugs. You've mentioned several times that by making drugs legal, the business end would be left to the "professionals". Have you ever considered that most drug dealers who are actually a threat aren't the morons you see running corners, they're educated people that are smart enough to partake in illegal activity, spend the money, and hide the fact that they're doing something illegal?
F*** Religion. Read more here:
http://www.progressiveu.org/020528-f-religion