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

DBryan

DBryan

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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

There are now more Americans in jail -- 6 million -- than there were in Stalin's Gulag, reports Fareed Zakaria, in a column called "Incarceration Nation." And it's not just a relative population thing.

The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.

How does that compare to other countries?

It's 7X-10X as high:

  • Japan has 63 per 100,000,
  • Germany has 90 per 100,000
  • France has 96 per 100,000
  • South Korea has 97 per 100,000
  • *Britain has 153 per 100,000
And it's also a relatively new phenomenon: In 1980, the U.S. only had 150 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.

What's to blame?

The "War on Drugs."

More than half of America's 6 million prisoners are in jail for drug convictions, with 80% of those in jail for "possession."

By the way, has the "war on drugs" worked?

Um, no.

There are still drugs everywhere.

So, maybe it's time we stopped throwing people in the slammer for possessing them.
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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?

Methamphetamine has been used worldwide for decades, devastating the communities where it is found. So why is it relatively unknown in the UK?

A little over five years since its protagonists first set out into the New Mexico desert to cook crystal meth in a battered recreation vehicle, the final episodes of TV drama Breaking Bad are about to be aired.

Telling the story of troubled chemistry teacher Walter White and his former student Jesse Pinkman's transformation into industrial-scale drug producers, it reflects a well-documented US problem.

According to the UN, methamphetamine - a term which includes the drug as a powder and its stronger and more addictive crystal form - was used by one million people in the US in 2011, down from 1.8 million in 2006.

The US is not alone in its experiences. In the Czech Republic, where it is known as Pervitin, it's a more serious problem than heroin, while in Greece a cheap and dangerous variant called sisa reportedly sells for two euros a hit. In New Zealand and Australia the UN estimates that it is used by about 1% of the population.

In the UK it's a different story - watching a Breaking Bad box set while slumped on the sofa is the closest most people are likely to get to the drug it features.

"On the West Coast of America it's a drug of deprivation but in London it seems to be a drug of affluent gay men ” says Owen Bowden-Jones, psychiatrist.

New figures from the Home Office estimate that in the past year about 17,000 people aged 16-59 in England and Wales took methamphetamine - fewer than for any other drug recorded. About 27,000 people had used heroin, 47,000 crack cocaine, 120,000 ketamine and two million cannabis.

"The prevalence has been pretty much confined to the male gay scene and even within that what you might call the heavy-end party scene of injecting crystal meth and promiscuous sexual activity," says Harry Shapiro of the charity Drugscope.

In the UK the drug is often used at sex parties and combined with others like Viagra and GBL, says Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, consultant psychiatrist at the Club Drug Clinic in central London.

Most of its 300 or so referrals for using crystal meth are from London, but some are starting to come from other cities like Manchester. A small number are from the straight clubbing community, but they remain the exception, says Bowden-Jones.

"On the West Coast of America it's a drug of deprivation, in London it seems to be a drug of affluent gay men and in Eastern Europe it's associated with prostitution."

One of the reasons for its unpopularity may be that British drug users have plenty of other stimulants available to them.

One of the report's authors, Thomas Pietschmann, suggests that crystal meth has simply never been in fashion in the UK. "You had pop stars taking cocaine, you didn't have pop stars taking methamphetamine."
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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.
 
CConn said:
I'm pretty sure this would save/earn the US government at minimum of 100 billion dollars a year.
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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.
 
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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.
 
Hemi'Cuda said:
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.
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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 said:
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.
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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.
 
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
 
DarkSentinel said:
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.
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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
 
DarkSentinel said:
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.
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We already tried that and it was a miserable fail.

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