I've decided my opinion on this, legalize the base forms of all recreational drugs. If a drug takes a chemistry set of processing to create it remains illegal. As a long removed pot head I always saw most pro drug legalization debates being mostly a bunch of hippy pot heads wanting to smoke their pot without having their buzz be harshed by THE MAN. As it seems the nations appetite for harsh marijuana laws is waning, I wonder why the line? I agree that things like crack, coke, heroin, meth, etc are a danger to those addicted to them and those around the addicts. But consider, I would contend most addicts of those concentrated psychotropics would probably seek legal alternatives if they were presented as a LEGAL, and available way to sate their craving. So keep cocaine and crack illegal but allow the sale of coca leaf pinch between the cheek and gum type chew like how the S American natives use it. Keep the heroin illegal, but opium at certain potency levels should sate all but the most desperate junkie, and without any strong evidence either way I think both those drugs in that application are safer than either booze and tobacco.
When drugs like opium and cocaine were legal, things got totally out of control. There are too many people who will destroy themselves if given easy legal access to these drugs.
I am okay with legalizing the controlled and taxed sales and use of pot, but not other drugs like heroin or even cocaine.
Whereas the anti-legalization guys are mostly a bunch of hypocritical paternalists who are uncomfortable with any lifestyle that doesn't resemble their own. They also cling to the belief that legalizing marijuana would somehow strengthen cartels. /offtopic The problem with this is that you can really only substitute a drug for a drug of the same type. I've heard heroin and meth can be substituted for one another to some extent, for instance, but you couldn't substitute cannabis for any of these. I'm open to ideas, but as far as I can tell, there's no cost-effective way to fight the nasty drugs that are actually dangerous to society.
I think we are strictly speaking with just pot mostly. Pot is no worse than alcohol, and doesn't harm you as much as a cigarette. It has valuable psychological and medicinal properties, not to mention we could simultaneously save money on the war on drugs, make money off taxing it legally, and watch most of the drug cartels vanish into oblivion. 99% of the drug cartels make more than 80% of their money off of smuggling pot. And to be so naive as to think it isn't already pretty readily available is pretty ignorant. If you don't like the drug, simply don't do it and have no part in it.
First I never suggested cocaine be legalized (only coca leaf chew), and second I suggested opium only at certain potency levels (as done with beer and alcohol content). Not that I disagree with your point, but we have plenty of folks already destroying their lives with those "active ingredients" anyway so it would give them a way to do it safer, legally, and less desperately. Not to mention there are plenty messing up theirs and others lives with booze, pills, tobacco, on and on with legal methods of mind altering. Drugs overall are a health problem not a criminal one... I would think most junkies would get by on their cravings through legal 7-11 offered weaker versions of their poison rather than risk arrest.
There's a lot more chaos now... P.S. the chaos that was going on in the '20s was because of alcohol prohibition, not drug legalization
Meth is a weird one.... it is hyper strong methamphedimine take 50 sudafed (spelling) and don't blow up your trailer and boom you got something you could probably barter for anything you wanted for christmas all the way up to a car, as long as you're not picky about title. I honestly have no clue as to the NATURAL occurring high that one is synthesized from... but whatever it is I am for its legalization. Coke however is an addiction to the compound found in the coca leaf, and while not the high that cocaine addicts describe, sticking a handful of those leaves in your mouth will get you a buzz. Is the notion of making that legal going to entirely stop everyone on coke or crack from doing it, not at all. But, it would greatly reduce the market. Heroin is hard stuff, but it comes from a root of opium, as do codine, oxycontin, vicadine... pretty much anything you can think of legal or otherwise that ends in INE, except mescaline (trippy hallucinogen). Again is every hard core junky gonna break cause he can get a little cube of opium from phillip morris, no, but enough will stop or severely cut down their consumption to have an impact on the black market. Illegal drugs would become legallistically MOONSHINE.... yes alcohol is legal, but moonshine is unlicensed REALLY strong version of alcohol. While there would be some demand for harder stuff than the legal it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the issue it is now.
My opinion of drug legalization pops up every 2 weeks to a month? Darn I thought I quite smoking pot 15 years ago.
