If pot and coke are illegal so should cigarettes and alcohol be. Lung cancer is now the number one cause of death in women. Alcohol screws up more people and families than you can shake a stick at. Much of the world's troubles would be settled if they legalized pot, hash and cocaine. the US taxing it would rock. global trade would florish - more poor people could feed their families. and, besides, those who wish to imbibe do it anyway. those who do not wish to won't regardless of the legality of it. to
I guess this is an issue it's easy to agree on. There are many and various ways to blow one's mind - using drugs and other means, and the current discrimmination against some drugs and the support of others are just laughable. Nicotine has the same, albeit milder, effects of heroin. I once had a dry cough lasting for some months, and got some cough syrup containing morphine. One gulp and a hellish nightmare of a night after that I stopped coughing by pure willpower - refusing to cough. Scary stuff, probably because of the high stress work at that time.
Personally, I think the whole issue of which drugs should be legalized should be taken out of the hands of the government by the privitization of the whole process. Any controlled substance must be used by adults who have the financial stability to control any undesired outcomes. How? Insurance. Anybody who wants to use legal coke must belong to an insurance pool that would provide for them should they need rehab, hospitalization, or if they should injure others while on the drug. This way, society doesn't have to support the druggies like it does in scandinavia.
Only problem is, the insurance rates for this type of pool would be so incredibly high, that it would have the same effect as criminalization, and create another black market. Why pay $1000/month for druggy insurance, when you can simply buy it illegally, and not report it, thus dodging the insurance payments? peace axeman
you include alcohol in the same policy, thus necessitating large-scale participation. it also removes the blackball effect of having your name on a less socially acceptable list. this way, only the users bear the societal costs. and taxpayers don't have to pay to fight bullshit drug wars, and terorrists, i.e. the taliban poppy farmers association, have little incentive to grow crops. my plan also includes border security to keep non-US cultivated narcotics out of the country.
Sounds like a good idea only if the insurance premiums are reasonable. Otherwise, you will send alcohol underground as well. Then again.... the VAST amount of money saved by the government could be used to help pay for the premiums, keeping them affordable. peace axeman
Im only refering to real hard drugs ( Crack, cocaine, herion )... the prices of these drugs would drop drastically making users more likely to overdose and or croak ( because they would be able to buy more )....would these extra costs outweigh the taxation of these drugs???
I think It would actually SAVE us money by allowing Darwin to take care of these self destructive types. peace axeman
it saves taxpayers b/c they are not paying for bullshit, expensive war with the drug dealers. taxpayers throw some of this savings at insurance. this insurance pool also saves the govt money in state hospitals, since the insurance company is now obligated to cover those costs. (most decent private insurance covers the first 7-30 days of drug treatment, anyway, so the supplementary insurance shouldn't be needed by that many people anyway, or could take over for any other coverage...doesn't matter exactly...but the liability insurance component is key, with a mandatory education class drug users must take, creating a whole driver's ed like industry..) privatization (with govt SCRUTINY at the insurance companies, since i think the whole health insurance system in the US needs to be overhauled first anyway, but continue to be privatized) should force a bigger, more competitive business for both the insurance companies and the hospitals (although i'm not sure the latter is such a good idea...never good when hospitals cut corners...).. fuck the government.