by joe_rogers_11155 on Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:50 pm
Jesus fucking Christ......this is an enormous, multi-layered topic.
I have not watched the video yet, but my initial opinion of the decriminalization of drugs (at least from the standpoint of a US discussion) is that is would be a good idea for the federal government to decriminalize most drugs and then defer drug regulation to the states. Like most other government-run projects, the War on Drugs has outlived its usefulness, and has not only been a failure, but has become corrupted by big government and corporation meddling. I don't think the states would not be much better at dealing with the regulation of drugs, but I think that over time, the states would be able to come up with solutions that are tailor-made for that particular state. It would certainly free up some tens of millions of federal dollars to defer to the states.
With all that said, we have to think about how and why the US War on Drugs began, and then analyze how it changed to become corrupt. Before Richard Nixon ever had anything to say about it, the regulation of narcotics really began in the 1800's, when opium addiction was making its way through the global population. As it entered the US (mainly the west coast, through Chinese immigrants) it caused a societal crisis because people literally stopped going to work or caring for themselves. Back then there was no regulation at all (you could literally buy cocaine and a syringe from the shopping catalogs for $1.50 (thanks Wikipedia!!)). People were getting doped up to the N'th degree. Something had to be done to keep the local economies alive. An act was produced that would tax anything opium-related, thus making it much more expensive to deal in opium. At the same time, it was determined that in order to head off any future drug-related problems, all narcotics should be internatinoally regulated. They were genuinely trying to protect the people and the economy from the dangers of addiction and lethargy.
Without going into great detail here (which would take forever), suffice it to say that...over the course of many years and into the present era, further regulation has stacked up on top of existing regulation to overcriminalize the shit out of most drugs. In addition, businesses got into the mix to develop "legal" drugs that could infiltrate safer realms of medical care and treatment, and basically turned people into doped up, bleating sheep with fat wallets for the shearing. I also think of the compulsion to fill prison space, which allows governments a rationale to raise taxes in support of building more prisons...tricking and scaring the public into thinking that they are paying the government for a "safer community".
To shift gears, I want to stress that I think addiction is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. Addiction destroys not only the person suffering from it, but also the family and friends. It can literally turn brother against brother. The addicted will eventually sacrifice their humanity and their moral code by wildly debasing themselves to get "one more fix". Certain drugs (heroin, cocaine, barbituates) are so chemically addictive (or deadly in overdose) that not regulating their consumption would be very irresponsible from a societal standpoint (in that sense, one might compare the criminalization of certain drugs to the criminalization of suicide), which is exactly the mindset that started the regulation of certain narcotics in the 1800's.
There are also plenty of drugs that, while they are not so addicting, they are still very dangerous to the user and to the people around them. I am speaking more toward drugs like LSD, ecstasy, and amphetamines. These drugs can cause people's emotions to explode, or cause life-threatening physiological problems like dehydration, loss of mental facilities, etc etc etc that can endanger everybody (Don't forget about the "bath salt zombie" incidents.). Those kinds of drugs must also be regulated to some degree, out of similar interest to societal safety.
(I wish I had more time but I feel like all of this typing will amount to naught anyways so I'll just wrap it up.) There is a deep dark side to drug abuse, but not to simply drug use. Experimentation is fine, and is the human way...but addiction is extremely serious, and can sneak up on you. For that reason, most drugs deserve some kind of regulation.
One more thing I want to say...fuck anybody who thinks cannibis should be illegal. Cigarettes and alcohol kill several orders of magnitude MORE than cannibis use. I'm extremely happy to see the states fighting the good fight and getting cannibis legalized.
"Day breaks, but decay soon follows." - Ava WinonaCurrently developing in radio silence... 99 BoltsHere's another project of mine... Assault on OverwatchAre you new to Source SDK? VDC