Furburt said:
Theres a drug war in Mexico that has claimed 8000 lives in two years, and if you legalize drugs, then thats pretty much gone.
Crime
may decrease, but it would NOT end at all, and you know it. Criminals would find a way to make it cheaper. And they'll still be hiring young kids desperate to sell it even when the law has it in place that grown-ups can buy and sell legally. Kids will still be able to buy it in the back streets illegally just as often as now, just like now they find ways of getting hold of cigarettes underaged.
Meanwhile, whilst children are still just as effected as before, more adults are getting hooked on the stuff (explained next paragraph). More hooked on coke and heroine than that of cigarettes. More of society's money wasted on drugs as opposed to more important things in life.
I'll say it again as it appears my comment was overlooked previously, even if the government and doctors were to limit how much of these drugs we could take, certain people will always be wanting more. And if their doctors don't give it to them, they've find illegal ways of getting hold of it. So back comes the drugs crimes. Nothing would have changed, not unless you open the floodgate and allow everyone to take whatever they want, whenever. It's a lose/ lose situation.
Xzi said:
Now, children obtaining drugs will always be a concern, but the matter of fact is that some drug dealers target children specifically. If all drugs were legal, there would be more regulation concerning them, more tracking involved. Which of course means they wouldn't be nearly as accessible to people under 18 or 21. With the current system in place, do you really think anyone is safer? A seven year old could walk up to just about any dealer behind a 7/11 in the country and ask for LSD, and as long as he had the cash, he wouldn't be denied.
To answer your question; yes, children are safer. With drugs legalised, it'd be easier for children to get hold of them. An adult such as a parent or a friend of a friend could get their legal prescription then sell it to children. Harder to track. Harder to crack down on if it's the parent that openly lets them take them. Hence the problem would grow.
Xzi said:
I'll have to stop you right there, as the government (here, at least) doesn't give a shit if you're addicted to something, as long as it's legal. Prescription drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. Many of which can have negative effects worse than those of illegal drugs. But as long as one company or another is turning a profit, the system is working, and the status quo lives on.
That is true. But the irony being with it legalised the greedy corporations would make lots of money as would the government that you so loathe. I guess you could argue any money the government makes out of it would go back into society, but then again, that money would be invested on preventing new crimes that have sprung (explained in * paragraph).
Furburt said:
But theres still loads of addicts out there, and the only people profiting are the criminals.
I guess this is a matter of opinion, but in my eyes, whether it's criminals profiting or major companies, there will still be addicts, maybe even more so if legalised, so the end result is the same.
If everyone would just admit to themselves that drugs are a natural part of life which will eventually be encountered by all of us at one point or another, then we could get on with things, legalize, and have better programs for education and regulation.
I disagree. The drugs mentioned here are not natural in the slightest. They're manipulated drugs by man. There is nothing natural about smoking and inject them into your system. To expand on that, natural drugs are poisons. Their effects aren't there to make our lives naturally better.
*Secondly, drugs such as heroine leave people uncontrolable and vulnerable. Think of the other violent crimes such as rape that would rise due to the increase of people getting legally mass high then being open for easy attack? Or people taking high amounts of drugs before driving. Crimes in other sectors will also increase.
With the amount of crime deriving from alcohol intoxication, I'm sure you all know (especially you Furburt, coming from the UK) as well as I do that these kinds of drugs are not such a good idea if you allow people easy access to a high amount of it. And whilst I'm no expert, I understand restraining yourself from too much heroine and cocaine is a lot harder than too much alcohol.
To me, legalising drugs would be like the allies allowing the nazis to have taken over the world, sacraficing moralilty to avoid conflict.
I know it's not a perfect solution, but you have to realise that drugs will never go away, and if the serious drugs have got to stay, they might as well be in the hands of someone responsible.
I want to point out that I'm not a conservative and I'm not one of these people that thinks we should be owned and told what to do by our governments. I think that anyone who really wants to take drugs should be allowed to do it. Believe it or not, I would love to see drugs legalised exactly how you both suggest above.
But I find your ideas too flawed to be taken seriously. There's too much at risk. Fact remains the majority of humans in society aren't mature and law abiding enough for your system to work. You say 'the hands of someone responsible', but fact of the matter is your methods would only work if pretty much everyone in society were responsible, which most are not.
Criminals would not lose out of the drugs being legalised. They'd simply switch to another illegal profession. We'd either be back to square one or even taking steps backwards.
P.S. sorry for the essay. I tried condensing.