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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
 Posted - 03/26/2006 : 18:46:00
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I imagine most people here are for legalization of drugs, so starting this topic will probably just end up being an instance of preaching to the choir.
Today my local Humanist group had an excellent speaker from LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), retired Captain Peter Christ. He gave a very energetic, concise, and rock-solid argument as to why the drug war has been a big fat waste.
The website had a nice short video promoting their cause and speakers. If anyone here had a local freethought group that is always looking for speakers for meetings, I suggest checking this website out. http://www.leap.cc/
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Edited by - marfknox on 03/26/2006 19:09:35
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 03:41:32 [Permalink]
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I don't think it should be legal to peddle dangerous substances that cause addiction and dependency, but the ways this issue is handled by the countries of the world are obviously not working.
Citizens with a drug addiction, need drugs. They should be able to get those drugs in a safe, legal and low cost way. Today they are thrown into the clutches of the dealers, fences, pimps & other ruthless people.
My view is that it should still be illegal to sell/buy/possess/use narcotics, unless you are a diagnosed drug addict in which case you are allowed to use the drug in question under supervision.
In this way addicts can be part of society, get medical care and supervision, reduce risk of overdoses and impure drugs and they do not have to commit crimes to keep teir habit. The illegal market would lose money as demand and prices would drop.
Maybe not a perfect solution, but I'm pretty sure that there is no such thing.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 05:50:39 [Permalink]
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"Legalize everything and in 10 years, the problem will have taken care of itself, one way or another."
Or so I've heard it said.
The cops I know have something of a love/hate relationship with the drug laws. On the one hand, it is scarcely worth their while to bust someone for blowing a joint or some other, minor infraction, due to processing and court appearances, and all the rest. On the other, drug possession can give them probable cause to do a search or add on a charge to a real scumbag.
And on the gripping hand, each nonsense drug law means more trivial work for them and time taken away from more important matters, to the ultimate detriment to society.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Fripp
SFN Regular
USA
727 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 09:56:35 [Permalink]
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Several years ago, there was an article written in either Skeptic Magazine or the Skeptical Inquirer outlining the current War On Drugs as a battle between two extremes: Hawks vs Doves. The article positied a third, middle, position - Owl - which, to me, seemed logical, rational, and thus, completely lacking any chance of being adopted.
Interested people may want to visit a former War on Drugs judge who sentenced hundred of cases for the Drug War and has since concluded (surprise surprise) that the Drug War is a colossal failure: www.judgejimgray.com |
"What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought my Dark Lord of the Sith could protect a small thermal exhaust port that's only 2-meters wide! That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! You have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?!?!"
"What? Oh, oh, 'just rebuild it'? Oh, real [bleep]ing original. And who's gonna give me a loan, jackhole? You? You got an ATM on that torso LiteBrite?" |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 10:17:41 [Permalink]
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In response to Starman, if you check out the LEAP website, what they are advocating is the elimination of "Schedule One" or banned drugs. The next up, "Schedule Two" are heavily regulated drugs, and these are not available on the market for recreational use. The speaker we had talked about how the "gray market" is a much preferrable alternative to the "black market". The grey market is when legal drugs that are not legally used for recreational use are slipped into an illegal market and sold for that use. The thing that makes the gray market better is that 1.) The drugs are less dangerous quality because the process by which they are made is heavily regulated 2.) There is a paper trail of the missing drugs up until they disappear into the illegal market. With black market drugs, law enforcement has to work backwords, usually leading to dead ends. 3.) The crimes committed wouldn't be severe and so not as many lives are ruined and not as much tax money is thrown away putting consenting adults in prison.
LEAP also takes no stance on how drugs should be regulated because they want to focus on the issue of eliminating prohibition in the first place. Our speaker also made it clear that eliminating prohibition is not a way to solve society's drug problem. Regulation and control is the way to do that. Eliminating prohibition is a way to deal with our crime and violence problem. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 11:51:24 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by marfknox
Regulation and control is the way to do that. Eliminating prohibition is a way to deal with our crime and violence problem.
And the incarceration problem - Canada and the US have some of the highest rates on incarceration in the world. This would reduce overcrowding in prisons and reduce the recruit pool for gangs. |
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 13:40:14 [Permalink]
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quote:
And the incarceration problem - Canada and the US have some of the highest rates on incarceration in the world. This would reduce overcrowding in prisons and reduce the recruit pool for gangs.
Not to mention their source of income.
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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