Make everything illegal Leave the way it is Just decriminalize marijuana Just legalize marijuana Decriminalize everything Legalize marijuana/decriminalize others Legalize everything except heroin/meth Legalize everything & decrim heroin/meth Legalize everything see voting resultssaving...
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80
5 votes
Jul 10, 2015

Marijuana should be made legal because it is less harmful than alcohol. Regulation should be similar to how tobacco and alcohol regulation works: high tax, detailed records, and ID checks.

Harder drugs such as like cocaine, heroin, and meth because of the extremely high health risks. These risks include the staggering addiction rates and likelihood of overdose. Additionally, many of the unfortunate souls who abuse these hard drugs make themselves burdens on society. Oftentimes, use of the drugs becomes expensive, destabilizes the users who are more likely to be fired from their jobs, and forces them to turn to government entitlements or to mooch off of family and friends.

However, the users of hard drugs should not be seen as criminals of a similar caliber of burglars or embezzlers. Those who become addicted to drugs are victims and sending them to jail for years would only serve to exacerbate the issue by forcing them to turn to crime, because who wants to hire a convict? Instead, treatment options should be open to the users, similar to how people convicted of assault may have to attend anger-management classes.

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100
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2 votes,
Jul 10, 2015

I agree and decriminalizing them or sen legalizing them and allowing doctors to prescribe them to wean patients off would be helpful, don't make these ppl criminals, make them patients

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100
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1 vote,
Jul 10, 2015

I agree with the thought that pot should be legalized. It is most certainly less harmful than booze. But while alcohol wears off within a few measurable hours, the effects of pot can last much longer and have long term effects on an individual's mind. It can turn a person in to a lazy bag of bones. I think the major fear of legalizing pot is that so many people will become useless because of it. For a while I smoked pot and it definitely had some long term effects that made me in to a lazy slob. I can't say for certain that these fear are even true, regardless of whether or not they would even play out in a legalization scenario, but pot does have more of a mental impact than alcohol.

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100
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1 vote,
Jul 10, 2015

"Harder drugs such as like cocaine, heroin, and meth because of the extremely high health risks."

But where do you draw the line?

"However, the users of hard drugs should not be seen as criminals of a similar caliber of burglars or embezzlers.Those who become addicted to drugs are victims and sending them to jail for years would only serve to exacerbate the issue by forcing them to turn to crime, because who wants to hire a convict?"

Agree that they should not be on that level of culpability, but because it is their own bodies they are damaging. You could also say, and criminal legal theory says that taking a drug is a free, informed choice, so anything that comes as a result remains the fault of the person taking it. (obviously in cases where it has been involuntarily taken, it is different.) I do agree that sending them to jail for years would only serve to exacerbate the issue, but I cannot see a valid solution to such a harmful problem which respects the individual freedom, yet stops the harm being caused.

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100
1 vote,
Jul 10, 2015

I'd draw the line by using evidence. What is the harm caused by these drugs? I'm talking about the pharmacology here, so what does this do physically and mentally to a range of users? By studying this we'd also need to consider the current climate, and wonder how much of this harm is due to criminalisation of the substances? Hypothetically speaking, would harm caused by heroin be on a par with alcohol if it were regulated the same was as alcohol? What is the cost to society of de-criminalising substances, and does this cost justify removing personal liberty? At a simple level, if x drug was highly-dissociative and led to violent episodes in all users, we'd have a pretty case for criminalising this. If incidences of violence were higher among users and the general population, but still a tiny minority, the case would be less clear. We don't ban alcohol, yet it's implicated in plenty of criminal and/or negligent actions. The main thing is to remove morals from the making of laws and policies.

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0 votes,
Jul 10, 2015

Yes legalize pot. No I.D. checks except for age. No higher taxes. That's the only reason they will legalize it. Again the Constitution is the issue. So it is legal, and this is a police state. Yep, we got 50 of them. Harder drugs should be a concern for mental and physical reasons. There has to be an answer "not jail", but I don't have it. Understanding that you can't fight addiction by dehumanizing people might help. Even though the the last three presidents mooched off us, and were self admitted users, we didn't judge them about drugs. We just judge people that are convenient. The last,' However', paragraph is a good start. Wish I could add to it, but as I said, It is above my knowledge of how or what would actually work.

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100
4 votes
Jul 10, 2015

I haven't researched it super-thoroughly -- but I've heard that Portugal has decriminalized all drugs and is now spending 1/4 on rehab what it had been spending on enforcement. That seems like the way to go to me. A friend told me that now the Netherlands is doing the same thing. I know it sounds pretty chancy, but I just sort of naturally like the idea. I think it's the way to go. I think this method would protect personal liberty the most, which is a big issue with me.

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100
2 votes
Jul 10, 2015

Drugs should not be illegal. They can be restricted and I believe should, but I consider making the use of drugs a crime a terrible decision. Such policies could be made where addicts are given controlled doses of their drug in a controlled environment and given access to free help to fight their addiction.

In fact, I recently saw an article on the economist which talks about how this does in fact work to reduce addiction rates.

Policies like this are much more effective than putting people who need help in prison, and we should adopt them as soon as possible.

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100
2 votes
Jul 10, 2015

The crucial question concerning drugs that no one seems to be answering consistently is "who owns your body?". The correct answer is that you own your body. If that is true then it should be your decision what drugs to use in your body. The state should only intervene when someone other than you is being harmed by your choices.

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100
User voted Legalize everything.
1 vote
Sep 10, 2015

legalize then tax it.

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0
User voted Legalize everything.
0 votes
Jul 18, 2015

Legalize everything - increase education.

Once the money is taken out of black market drugs (both for governments and "bad guys"), all the death, crime and destruction associated with drugs goes away.

Point in case - Portugal.

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0
User voted Decriminalize everything.
0 votes
Jul 20, 2015

Legalize marijuana, psyclobin mushrooms and lsd, decriminalize everything else with free rehab.

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