Should Drugs Be Legalized?

[Lucidx]

I know alot of people think that the reason drugs arent legal is because the government thinks they contain cures for diseases or something but thats not what this is about.

 

This is about, if the government intends to protect your health by making potentially dangerous recreational drugs such as, Cocain, Canabis, Amphetamines, Opiates, Certain Dissociatives -- illegal than why dont they ban or schedule or AT LEAST partially restrict the sales of household substances like, WhiteOut, SuperGlue, Canned Air, Whipped Topping, Model Glue, Paint Thinner, Petrol, Certain Shaving Creams, etc.

 

My question is, why do they allow MINORS AND ADULTS to buy some of the most dangerous substances (super glue, etc.) that one can use to get high on BUT PROHIBIT THE SALE OF SAFER DRUGS like Canabis or Kratom.

 

there would be less deaths from inhalant abuse if they legalized drugs like Canabis, so if they want us safe, why do they only ban certain drugs?

[Vagrant0]

My question is, why do they allow MINORS AND ADULTS to buy some of the most dangerous substances (super glue, etc.) that one can use to get high on BUT PROHIBIT THE SALE OF SAFER DRUGS like Canabis or Kratom.

Well, even among those who use drugs, sniffing glue is usually associated with morons who are just too afraid to score real drugs at school. It's allowed because natural selection requires things like this. Using this as an example as to why other drugs should be allowed is just plain silly. Last I checked, getting high was not one of the main reasons why people buy super glue, or many of the other products which could get a person high. Likewise, the only thing you can use the seeds (buds) of the cannabis plant, is for smoking. Hemp contains almost no THC, and is starting to become legalized in many places as a cheaper alternative to other kinds of fibers.

 

Anyone who claims that smoking pot is safe must be high themselves. Although it can have medicinal properties, it still causes death of braincells, slowed reactions, and inhibited short term memory creation. The other controlled substances you mention come with even more significant health issues and loss of brain function. To suggest that there is some similarity between a substance which can only get you high, and a substance which is designed for cleaning, fastening, painting, is just plain silly. Furthermore, unlike household chemicals, those substances are all addictive, and can lead to a chemical dependency. I would find it very hard to believe that someone would be able to develop a chemical dependency on sniffing paint that wouldn't be entirely psychological.

[dezdimona]

users are losers, nuff said!

[Monolithic0117]

Yeah, I'm with Vagrant on this one. Drugs are too easy to get nowadays, there's no reason to resort to household substances like superglue. Besides, restricting said substances would be inane, considering their usefulness. I also doubt that most people buy such substances primarily for the purpose of recreational use. Why do so when drugs like crack and weed are so readily available?

[TheCalliton]

yes they should b elegalied QUALITY CONTROLL no laced stuf that can kill a man at twenty paces

[Chaosblade02]

I think at the very least, marijuana should be legal. Science proves it is less harmful than tobacco, or alcohol, which both are legal. Despite what some people say, marijuana is not addictive, I know this from personal experience with the drug. As far as other drugs go, I think people should have the right to put whatever they want into their own bodies, but they themselves will have to suffer the consequences of their actions. If you get high as a kite and wreck and kill someone, you get a murder charge. But if you get high as a kite, as long as it isn't at someone else's expense, I don't see a problem. Basically treat drug users like drunks, if your high and disruptive in public you get taken in, if your bothering nobody else, you get left alone. Nobody should have the right in a free country to tell someone what they can and cannot consume in their own bodies. I don't look at things from a point of seeing it as being better for society as a whole, that logic trumps individual rights, which are paramount in a true free country and a democracy, which America is obviously not.

[Vagrant0]

I think at the very least, marijuana should be legal. Science proves it is less harmful than tobacco, or alcohol, which both are legal. Despite what some people say, marijuana is not addictive, I know this from personal experience with the drug. As far as other drugs go, I think people should have the right to put whatever they want into their own bodies, but they themselves will have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

I disagree, simply because all the facts aren't known, and what is known is highly politicized. Tobacco, before it has been soaked in poisons, and when used in moderation is actually rather beneficial, it lowers stress, blood pressure, and increases circulation. Alcohol, also when used in moderation has a number of health benefits. Although weed also has some negligible advantages, it is more often than not used to excess. Also, since many smoke weed as an escape, it become habitual, like a crutch, and therefore addictive, just like smoking, just like drinking, but comes with loss of brain function, both short term, and long term. You can tell a person who was getting baked every day after school for a few years from someone who hasn't, even if neither has smoked in the last 6 or 7. Once a pothead, always a pothead. Even when they quit, they still aren't there mentally.

 

If it should be legalized, it should be done so simply because legalizing it will open it up for more exhaustive study, regulation, and taxing. By legalizing it, you also disrupt illegal trade and sale, which in itself solves many problems. By studying it, the health costs and benefits can be weighted empirically, without political bias. By regulating it, you prevent anyone under the age of 21 (25) from buying it or possessing it legally. You lessen the burden of the prison system, which deals with more than 50,000 people arrested for possession annually. You create treatment and detoxification programs for minors who are caught with it (instead of prison). By taxing it, you generate funds for states for something that people are already buying in significant quantities. Legalizing it also suggests a coming end to even more legislation which was drafted up due to racism and bigotry.

 

Would I use it, even if it was legal? Almost certainly not. I have seen too many people turned into blithering idiots because of their use of the drug. Even after they stop, they are still idiots. I respect myself enough to not cause that kind of harm to myself.

[Lucidx]

Well, the active chemical in weed, THC actually has been studied as a cancer inhibitor, it can theoretically prevent (to some extent) the spread of cancer.

Weed also improves your eyesight and is used medically to combat Glaucoma.

Weed has also been shown to increase the ability to remember certain tasks while done under the influcence of it (you study high, take the test high, you get high scores)

Not to mention the psychological benifits of use of weed, whilst not being actually beneficial to one mentally, most people would prefer to be stupid and happy than smart and depressed.

 

Tree Tobacco (a kind of tobacco made illegal by the USA for no reason) contains no nicotine and has a chemical that kills the nicotine receptors in your brain. This Tree Tobacco was obvoisely outlawed because the Tobacco industry is vital to the economy of the USA and if people were able to quit so easily, america would go into the second depression lol (sad but true)

[Chaosblade02]

I think at the very least, marijuana should be legal. Science proves it is less harmful than tobacco, or alcohol, which both are legal. Despite what some people say, marijuana is not addictive, I know this from personal experience with the drug. As far as other drugs go, I think people should have the right to put whatever they want into their own bodies, but they themselves will have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

I disagree, simply because all the facts aren't known, and what is known is highly politicized. Tobacco, before it has been soaked in poisons, and when used in moderation is actually rather beneficial, it lowers stress, blood pressure, and increases circulation. Alcohol, also when used in moderation has a number of health benefits. Although weed also has some negligible advantages, it is more often than not used to excess. Also, since many smoke weed as an escape, it become habitual, like a crutch, and therefore addictive, just like smoking, just like drinking, but comes with loss of brain function, both short term, and long term. You can tell a person who was getting baked every day after school for a few years from someone who hasn't, even if neither has smoked in the last 6 or 7. Once a pothead, always a pothead. Even when they quit, they still aren't there mentally.

 

If it should be legalized, it should be done so simply because legalizing it will open it up for more exhaustive study, regulation, and taxing. By legalizing it, you also disrupt illegal trade and sale, which in itself solves many problems. By studying it, the health costs and benefits can be weighted empirically, without political bias. By regulating it, you prevent anyone under the age of 21 (25) from buying it or possessing it legally. You lessen the burden of the prison system, which deals with more than 50,000 people arrested for possession annually. You create treatment and detoxification programs for minors who are caught with it (instead of prison). By taxing it, you generate funds for states for something that people are already buying in significant quantities. Legalizing it also suggests a coming end to even more legislation which was drafted up due to racism and bigotry.

 

Would I use it, even if it was legal? Almost certainly not. I have seen too many people turned into blithering idiots because of their use of the drug. Even after they stop, they are still idiots. I respect myself enough to not cause that kind of harm to myself.

 

I wont argue the fact that there are some stupid people who smoke marijuana, but that doesn't make everyone who smokes or has smoked an idiot. I think your generalizing a little too much and I would have to disagree with you on that. Actually smoking tobacco gives you HIGHER blood pressure, and gives you withdraw symptoms which cause anxiety, insomnia, depression, anger and frustration. Alcohol withdraws are similar in nature, but to a lesser extent. Marijuana calms your nerves, and helps you relax, and overall puts you in a better, more cheerful mood after a long stressful, hectic day. It also has many promising medical applications. I believe there are studies being conducted now about its possible uses to treat certain types of mental illness. You sound like another person who has never even experimented with the drug that is just trying to generalize people who use it, being informed only by studies and teachings that have an obvious bias towards it for a political or social reasons. If they don't want people smoking pot walking on the street, fine, give them something of a comparable fine to a parking ticket and ask them to put it out. Not to mention the number of entrepreneurs this would create as a result of the legalization of marijuana, some people who may have been taking advantage of the social welfare system, may find themselves motivated to go and actually provide something useful into the economy.

[wasder]

I'm with Chaosblade on this. Although most drugs should be banned, I don't believe that cannabis should be. The drug itself is not addictive, although I suppose the high may become addictive to some people. I wouldn't think it to be anywhere near as addictive as tobacco, and possibly alcohol, both of which are legal.

 

I think Vagrant's arguments don't quite work, people find it incredibly difficult to recover from alcoholism as well, my uncle was an example (note the past tense). No, I'm not saying alcohol should be illeagal to, I think that we should be allowed to make our own choices over it.

 

Around here at least, many people who smoke cannabis smoke it about once every two weeks or so, but I think that may be due to the difficulties of getting it. However, I do sense that people wouldn't have a green day even if they could. People know that overuse of anything isn't good, and for those that don't, well, that's natural selection.

 

So yes, I think marijuana should be legal, but keep very tight regulations on it, as Vagrant suggested.