Time To End The War On Drugs

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1740060' date='Dec 31 2008, 05:21 PM']Putting people in jail for using drugs is a waste of time and money, since they can get the drugs in jail, but have to pay for them in evil ways. People need to be sentenced to Community Rehab Centers, so they can still take care of their families.[/quote]

100% agreed!

[Roamin'Catholic]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1740027' date='Dec 31 2008, 07:55 PM']Most illegal drugs however, are considered to be far more addictive. I've heard from some police officers that my parents know that with certain drugs... I think it was crystal meth, you can become 100% addicted trying it [i]only once.[/i][/quote]

This is another problem with our drug policy, which is the blatant use of pseudo-science to scare people. I about fell over laughing in my chair when you wrote, " I've heard from some police officers that my parents know that with certain drugs... I think it was crystal meth, you can become 100% addicted trying it [i]only once." or how about the part where you wrote, "Most illegal drugs however, are considered to be far more addictive." Says who?!? You can't argue that crack cocaine or crystal meth or whatever is anymore addicting than cigarettes, especially if you are going to cite some police officers that your parents know as evidence for this. I would be willing to bet that all of these drugs are very addicting, regardless of their legal status. Do you really think that's how this country came to legalizing alcohol and tobacco and keeping all other drugs illegal, by only picking and choosing those drugs which are least addictive??? If that was the case, marijuana would have been legal a long time ago.

Those statements aren't facts; they are conjecture, they are heresay but they certainly aren't factual. You can't throw those kind of statements out there and expect to be taken seriously!

[Roamin'Catholic]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1740027' date='Dec 31 2008, 07:55 PM']If some currently illegal drugs were legalized, would they still remain as expensive as they are now? Or at least close?
The fact remains that many drug addicts are dirt poor so that they can fuel their addiction. That's something that needs to end, in any way possible. If making those drugs illegal lessens the problem, then the drugs should be illegal.
If there legal, I have a suspicion that we'd see more people (who normally wouldn't consider buying drugs, since it was against the law) becoming addicted to something like heroin, and spending every cent on it, to the extremely detriment of themselves, their families, etc.


Edit:

Of course we all recognize that alcohol and tobacco and nicotine, and even perscription painkillers are addictive as well. Most illegal drugs however, are considered to be far more addictive. I've heard from some police officers that my parents know that with certain drugs... I think it was crystal meth, you can become 100% addicted trying it [i]only once.[/i][/quote]

Oh yeah, Nihil, I noticed your avatar of St Maximilian Kolbe. He was truly a holy man who died a martyr's death. He is now the patron saint of drug addicts which is very appropriate for this thread. God bless!

Edited January 2, 2009 by Roamin'Catholic

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Roamin'Catholic' post='1741345' date='Jan 2 2009, 08:12 AM']This is another problem with our drug policy, which is the blatant use of pseudo-science to scare people. I about fell over laughing in my chair when you wrote, " I've heard from some police officers that my parents know that with certain drugs... I think it was crystal meth, you can become 100% addicted trying it [i]only once." or how about the part where you wrote, "Most illegal drugs however, are considered to be far more addictive." Says who?!? You can't argue that crack cocaine or crystal meth or whatever is anymore addicting than cigarettes, especially if you are going to cite some police officers that your parents know as evidence for this. I would be willing to bet that all of these drugs are very addicting, regardless of their legal status. Do you really think that's how this country came to legalizing alcohol and tobacco and keeping all other drugs illegal, by only picking and choosing those drugs which are least addictive??? If that was the case, marijuana would have been legal a long time ago.

Those statements aren't facts; they are conjecture, they are heresay but they certainly aren't factual. You can't throw those kind of statements out there and expect to be taken seriously![/quote]
I'm a little bit confused with what you're saying.
I'd be willing to bet money that many illegal drugs... in particular 'hard drugs' are far more addictive that cigarettes. No, I don't have any scientific sources to back that up, but on the other hand, generally people don't need to be sent to the hospital because they're in withdrawl from nicotine... Sure, it's bad (I hear), and I'm not trivializing what people go through when they quit, but from everything I've heard, it's far worse for harder drugs, which implies to me that they're that much more addictive.
Of course some perscription drugs are fairly addictive... I don't know how much, but on the other hand, they're in theory controlled. How well they're controlled is another debate entirely.
I don't think it's entirely fair that you dismiss what we were told by very knowledgeable and experienced police officers. No, they aren't scientists, but they see the effects first hand every day.
I suggest that if that's what this debate comes down to, that we look up this up from as many sources as we can find. Personally, I'm fairly confident that illegal drugs by and large are more addictive than perscription drugs, which in turn are generally more addictive than legal drugs.