Discussion: The War On Drugs, Legalization of Marijuana, The Opioid Crisis, and Other Drug Issues

At the risk of being rather simplistic, I agree the the so-called "War on Drugs" as it is currently implemented. does more harm than good. At this point (well, always has been, really) it is nothing more than a gimmick that politicians use as PR in their (re)election campaigns to garner votes, with no actual well thought out strategies or genuine attempts to actually stem the tide.

 

Short answer to your question: yes.

There are more black men in prison today than there were slaves before the Civil War. Aside from that new Jim Crow phenomenon, the surge in America's prison population over the last few decades has largely been to them locking up non-violent drug offenders.

Criminalizing drug use was never going to stop people from using drugs. It's a quixotic quest, one that has gone on far too long. The War on Drugs began the process of militarization of police forces that went to a whole new level with the War on Terror.

 

Yes. It is doing more harm...our prisons are already flooded with people being locked up for some of the dumbest offenses. If someone TAKES drugs, they should get fined heavily and put into public service for a little bit. Now, if you SELL drugs...then you get prison time.

Our country is so screwed up...we dont' want to do anything about anything...we just want to throw people in prison and call it good. Now we have people sleeping on the floors in cells because there isn't enough room in a cell for all the people they have jammed into it.

Speaking of...how is it there are no human rights people attacking prisons for the inhumaine and unsanitary conditions of our prisons?

 

Why does America always have to wage war on stuff. lol

The ironic thing about having a war on drugs is it probably peaks interest of rebellious teenagers wondering what the fuse is

 

There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's gulag archipelago

Not a big fan of Fareed Zakaria, but at least he recognizes this.

 

The govt's war on the people is what it is.
Just another brick in the wall between US and THEM.
It's the ruling elite vs the drones who think they are in control

 

Why doesn't the UK have a crystal meth problem?

 

Switzerland used to have a huge problem with heroin and heroin addicts. Crime was up, people were upset, the government was at it's wits end. The people demanded a solution so the government came up with one. They would give pure (in the sense that it wasn't cut with anything else) heroin to addicts and provide safe injection sites for them. There were rules for the addicts (like that they have to prove they were trying to get hobbies and/or jobs, that sort of thing), and what ended up happening was that crime rates went down. People weren't scared of getting mugged by an addict looking for money for a fix. The addicts themselves improved their lives and their health.

I'm not saying the US should implement the above idea, but I am saying that what they're doing now doesn't work. But, then again, I have a feeling that the government isn't actually concerned about drugs. This "war" is making someone a hell of a lot of money (kickbacks from cartels perhaps?). I know it cost a lot of money to continue the war, but it keeps the DEA, prison guards, wardens, cops, border patrol, etc all employed. There is a lot of money to be made in the War on Drugs.

 

Personally, I think we should legalize all major drugs, only leaving it illegal to utilize them in public, then tax the living hell out of their sales.

I'm pretty sure this would save/earn the US government at minimum of 100 billion dollars a year.

 

Don't forget all the jobs it would create. Personally I would keep weed out of the hands of big business and make laws any one person/business can only grow 50-100 plants at any given time, so you could have a bunch of small weed farmers who intern sell to small business. Jobs Jobs Jobs all around(and don't forget the taxes)

Beyond that allow for industrial hemp(another industry that can be a huge growth industry in the US). I honestly beleive if the public opened up to hemp and weed, we would have a hemp revolution(in the sense we had a few industrial revolutions that moved the country forward)

I don't think this is possible though till all the people that bought into the farce that was the War on Drugs under the time of Reagan die.

 

I agree. This solution has worked in more than just Sweden though. The U.S. will never implement it though because it is a lot more fun to wage war, like mentioned before. It is frustrating because prisons are getting worse and they just keep throwing more people in for less of a crime than others who seem to get off.

 

The war on drugs is really a war on freedom. Regardless of the health ramifications of certain drugs, prohibition has always been an utter failure in the end.

 

It is(or shall I say was) nothing more then an easy target to go after to make it seem like you doing something productive. The war on Drugs since the 1930s was nothing more then a campaign of fearing people in order to drive a political agenda either to make your job seem important or fear a group of people into voting for you.

 

So..here's how I would do things if I could.

I think if someone is caught with drugs they should be fined a large sum of money. That's it. The only people that should be arrested are those that have been discovered/proven to be actual dealers. Arresting people who are smoking weed or sniffing does no one any good. They'll be in jail/prison and out probably doing the same thing again. But get the dealers and the supply chain slows, sometimes even stops in certain areas. This gives police more free time to go after real criminals and costs the people less money a year in over-crowded prisons.

 

CConn, I love you! Taxing it would be okay (as I only believe in an indirect taxes like sales tax). I don't believe in direct taxes like income tax or property taxes.

 

I'm all for legalizing, taxing and regulating cannabis. But that's it. If I had it my way I'd make alcohol illegal, as that stuff is just out-and-out destructive. That's just me though.

 

Remember clerics were burning witches
Remember healers that helped people for free
Remember the charlatans selling crap potions for fortunes
Remember charlatans make it illegal to heal for free
Remember opium by the pound just like sugar
Remember opium prohibition to target the chinese
Remember charlatans took morphine from opium and "made it medical"
Remember BAYER heroin
Remember COCA-cola
Remember...

War on "drugs": ensuring justification for the elite to control the rest.
"Self inflicted crimes" LOL then they emprison you "for your own good". They turn good to bad and vice verse with a switch.

 

should just legalize it and kill the black market

 

I agree this drug war is not going any where. Thanks for voicing your 2 cents on this topic here at http://www.superherohype.com

 

Okay. The American government has made it legal for doctors to prescribe oxycontin, which is basically legal heroin. America should just legalize and regulate ALL drugs. spend money that they would be spending to combat drugs on treatment centers for addicts.

There should be a strict no high driving laws, and laws against child endangerment while on drugs, but drugs done in the privacy of ones home should be a personal choice as long as it isn't endangering others

 

If you did that you'd create such a massive black market, and itd necessitate the need for a mafia again. Terrible idea, look at how that worked out 100 years ago

 

The only thing America can do is legalize everything. Drugs will never go away, people are always going to do them. It's so foolish to try to fight something thats so big

 

We already tried that and it was a miserable fail.

The illegalization of any drugs only leads to an increase in black markets.