Drugs: Our Misunderstood Friend
I am going to propose a radical idea and I know that it probably won't fly with many people, but I will ask you to bare with me and give the idea some serious thought. Let's just jump right to the idea and I can spend the rest of my time explaining my reasoning. The idea is this, all illegal narcotics should become legal. Marijuana, Heroin, Cocaine, LSD, every illegal mind and sometimes physique altering substance should be legal.
I feel that maybe I have already lost some of you, but for those that haven't completely closed their minds let me explain. Let's start with why these drugs are not legal.
They are harmful.
So are cigarettes, beer(in excess), hamburgers, and indirectly television. But yet these are all perfectly legal. Also, in some cases, Marijuana for instance, there is not one documented case of someone having died, directly, from smoking too much marijuana. In fact as levels of health, marijuana is probably less harmful than a pizza, chili dog, or taco. So obviously our obligation as a culture is not to protect citizens from themselves otherwise cigarettes, fast food, and other legal harmful substances would be made illegal and marijuana would be made legal for being virtually harmless, not totally, but in comparison to the above it is virtually harmless.
They are addictive.
Okay, why don't we just get this all out of the way. I can address this question almost exactly as I answered the one above. Yes most of them are addictive, but not all. Cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, and television are addictive too, but yet they are legal.
Who wants people in our society "high" while they drive, work, or take care of our children.
completely correct, of course I don't want anyone drunk while they drive, work, or take care of my children. That is why that is illegal, "driving under the influence", a law that actually governs not only alcohol, but also medications, prescription and over the counter. You could be arrested for driving under the influence if you have taken benadryl.
We would be empowering the criminals.
No one can actually say with 100% percent certainity but in all likelihood the opposite would happen. By legalizing these products that grow easily, are cultivated easily, and would employ more people than the porn industry the market value of these items would probably decrease. So, for starters there would be no value in selling something that could be purchased for a lower price at your 7-11. That is if they were sold there, maybe there would be specific business to sell these special items or maybe we would sell them at pharmacies.
They are just morally wrong.
That may be, but as I keep reminding people, we are not to legislate morality. If you have a moral objection to these drugs, you would have the freedom to not buy and use them. You would have the right to no longer shop at any store that decided to sell them. You would even have the freedom to protest said store. Those are your rights to offenses to your morality. You do not have the right to tell another person how they can live their life, you can tell them how they should if you feel you must, but you should not be able to force that on them.
They would take this country in the wrong direction.
I don't have any actual figures in front of me, but let's for a moment think about this. There are a large number of criminals in jail for drug possession or distrubution. It costs money to house these people, but if their crimes were no longer crimes we possibly wouldn't be housing these people. Now some, maybe even most of them, are bad people and would find ways to break the law and go to jail. I am by no means saying that a society without drugs would have no criminals, but I believe it would have less. Oh yes there would still be drug crimes, driving under the influence, drug induced crimes such as battery, theft, and rape (all of which can be found as by products of legalized alcohol and over the counter narcotics). But there would be fewer drug crimes, that are victimless crimes. If Beauragard wants to smoke a little weed at his house at night, or snort a line of coke, he is the only victim here, not me, not you, not even your kids. The money that would be saved by this reduction in prisoners and their costs could possibly raise our education standards back up to where they once were.
Also, along the same topic. There is a large amount of money that flows out of this country into the foreign countries where our drugs come from, we could keep that money and crush the druglords and the corrupt governments that overlook them. I am not saying it would actually help foreign countries, in fact it would devastate their economies for some time, but then maybe they could find their way to more constructive means of survival. On this same thought line, think of the jobs that would be created by this, farmers, gathers, and chemists. People that didn't have a moral objection to this would thrive. If America did this other countries would likely follow suit, but we would have been the first and would have a leg up. We would start exporting to these countries and every man, woman, and child in this country would flourish from the increased income.
How can all this be considered the wrong direction for our country? You still have the right to not like it, but you could reap the benefits from it. Like taxes on liquor, cigarettes, and porn, that pay for education and medical care.
Let me set the record straight on one thing though, I am not advocating drug use. If all these drugs were made legal tomorrow I would touch one of them, I have no desire or interest in having my head screwed up. In fact I think, other than creativity, these drugs are bad. But I do not pronounce myself morally superior and think that my moral judgments should be the law of the land. I have always felt that these drugs were not legal because they were uncontrollable. A person of a mind can grow and smoke marijuana they raised for themselves. That means the only way our government can make money from them is to make them illegal and fine people for using them. I don't think that would happen, for starters Americans are lazy and most people won't have house plants because they forget to water them and they die, people will pay to not do the work themselves and they are already used to paying high prices for them, so the government could tax the hell out of drugs and people would still be happy. They could also force business that want to sell them to pay a high fee for the right to sell them.
The public moral objection is valid, I don't mean to make light of that, but when you look at the facts it is hypocritical. Where do we draw the line, we outlaw drugs because of a moral objection, why not porn, why not rock-n-roll, why not alcohol. We either have to let people be free to make their own moral judgments or not. I understand that people would fear their children doing these drugs, I would myself, but children do not make up the entire population of this country, and adults should have rights to enjoy what they want too. If you are going to take away adult entertainment I demand that we shut down Disney, I have a moral objection to that crap they put out, over-charge for, and call entertainment. But even if drugs were legal they would be guarded just like alcohol, porn, and cigarettes. Would that stop kids, no not all the time, they would still get their hands on the drugs and try them, but I got bad news for you, they will anyway, I could and did in some cases. It is the job of parents to educate their kids, give them all the information so they can make an informed decision, let them know why you are against it, your moral objection, but in the end they will have to make their own decision, their own choice. Everyone though should have the right to make a choice about something that only concerns them.
I am sure many of you are unconvinced, of course I am sure that many could not be convinced no matter what argument they were presented. I totally understand that, really I do. Drugs are bad, I am not going to deny that. But like I have tried to state so are many other perfectly legal substances. People don't want to make bad things legal. I am sure that if cigarettes, alcohol, and pornography were not already legal, they wouldn't have a hope in hell of becoming legal. I think that is evident in the many new laws that are passed limiting them. Some towns in the United States have become completely smoke free where the only places you are allowed to smoke is in your own home. I have a lot to say about that kind of stuff too and maybe we will examine it later, but all I am trying to say is that we are a compassionate people. We want nothing more than to protect people, even from themselves. I think that is admirable, but I also think that goes against everything that makes America great. People should be free to choose. If they want to destroy their bodies with cigarettes, alcohol, pork ribs, or heroin, that should be their choice. Sure there would be some people would not behave responsibly, just like now. But most people would do this themselves and leave everyone else alone and behave like adults. That makes it no business of ours. What one does behind closed doors is no business of ours and if they leave it there then there is no reason it should ever be.
I am going to propose a radical idea and I know that it probably won't fly with many people, but I will ask you to bare with me and give the idea some serious thought. Let's just jump right to the idea and I can spend the rest of my time explaining my reasoning. The idea is this, all illegal narcotics should become legal. Marijuana, Heroin, Cocaine, LSD, every illegal mind and sometimes physique altering substance should be legal.
I feel that maybe I have already lost some of you, but for those that haven't completely closed their minds let me explain. Let's start with why these drugs are not legal.
They are harmful.
So are cigarettes, beer(in excess), hamburgers, and indirectly television. But yet these are all perfectly legal. Also, in some cases, Marijuana for instance, there is not one documented case of someone having died, directly, from smoking too much marijuana. In fact as levels of health, marijuana is probably less harmful than a pizza, chili dog, or taco. So obviously our obligation as a culture is not to protect citizens from themselves otherwise cigarettes, fast food, and other legal harmful substances would be made illegal and marijuana would be made legal for being virtually harmless, not totally, but in comparison to the above it is virtually harmless.
They are addictive.
Okay, why don't we just get this all out of the way. I can address this question almost exactly as I answered the one above. Yes most of them are addictive, but not all. Cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, and television are addictive too, but yet they are legal.
Who wants people in our society "high" while they drive, work, or take care of our children.
completely correct, of course I don't want anyone drunk while they drive, work, or take care of my children. That is why that is illegal, "driving under the influence", a law that actually governs not only alcohol, but also medications, prescription and over the counter. You could be arrested for driving under the influence if you have taken benadryl.
We would be empowering the criminals.
No one can actually say with 100% percent certainity but in all likelihood the opposite would happen. By legalizing these products that grow easily, are cultivated easily, and would employ more people than the porn industry the market value of these items would probably decrease. So, for starters there would be no value in selling something that could be purchased for a lower price at your 7-11. That is if they were sold there, maybe there would be specific business to sell these special items or maybe we would sell them at pharmacies.
They are just morally wrong.
That may be, but as I keep reminding people, we are not to legislate morality. If you have a moral objection to these drugs, you would have the freedom to not buy and use them. You would have the right to no longer shop at any store that decided to sell them. You would even have the freedom to protest said store. Those are your rights to offenses to your morality. You do not have the right to tell another person how they can live their life, you can tell them how they should if you feel you must, but you should not be able to force that on them.
They would take this country in the wrong direction.
I don't have any actual figures in front of me, but let's for a moment think about this. There are a large number of criminals in jail for drug possession or distrubution. It costs money to house these people, but if their crimes were no longer crimes we possibly wouldn't be housing these people. Now some, maybe even most of them, are bad people and would find ways to break the law and go to jail. I am by no means saying that a society without drugs would have no criminals, but I believe it would have less. Oh yes there would still be drug crimes, driving under the influence, drug induced crimes such as battery, theft, and rape (all of which can be found as by products of legalized alcohol and over the counter narcotics). But there would be fewer drug crimes, that are victimless crimes. If Beauragard wants to smoke a little weed at his house at night, or snort a line of coke, he is the only victim here, not me, not you, not even your kids. The money that would be saved by this reduction in prisoners and their costs could possibly raise our education standards back up to where they once were.
Also, along the same topic. There is a large amount of money that flows out of this country into the foreign countries where our drugs come from, we could keep that money and crush the druglords and the corrupt governments that overlook them. I am not saying it would actually help foreign countries, in fact it would devastate their economies for some time, but then maybe they could find their way to more constructive means of survival. On this same thought line, think of the jobs that would be created by this, farmers, gathers, and chemists. People that didn't have a moral objection to this would thrive. If America did this other countries would likely follow suit, but we would have been the first and would have a leg up. We would start exporting to these countries and every man, woman, and child in this country would flourish from the increased income.
How can all this be considered the wrong direction for our country? You still have the right to not like it, but you could reap the benefits from it. Like taxes on liquor, cigarettes, and porn, that pay for education and medical care.
Let me set the record straight on one thing though, I am not advocating drug use. If all these drugs were made legal tomorrow I would touch one of them, I have no desire or interest in having my head screwed up. In fact I think, other than creativity, these drugs are bad. But I do not pronounce myself morally superior and think that my moral judgments should be the law of the land. I have always felt that these drugs were not legal because they were uncontrollable. A person of a mind can grow and smoke marijuana they raised for themselves. That means the only way our government can make money from them is to make them illegal and fine people for using them. I don't think that would happen, for starters Americans are lazy and most people won't have house plants because they forget to water them and they die, people will pay to not do the work themselves and they are already used to paying high prices for them, so the government could tax the hell out of drugs and people would still be happy. They could also force business that want to sell them to pay a high fee for the right to sell them.
The public moral objection is valid, I don't mean to make light of that, but when you look at the facts it is hypocritical. Where do we draw the line, we outlaw drugs because of a moral objection, why not porn, why not rock-n-roll, why not alcohol. We either have to let people be free to make their own moral judgments or not. I understand that people would fear their children doing these drugs, I would myself, but children do not make up the entire population of this country, and adults should have rights to enjoy what they want too. If you are going to take away adult entertainment I demand that we shut down Disney, I have a moral objection to that crap they put out, over-charge for, and call entertainment. But even if drugs were legal they would be guarded just like alcohol, porn, and cigarettes. Would that stop kids, no not all the time, they would still get their hands on the drugs and try them, but I got bad news for you, they will anyway, I could and did in some cases. It is the job of parents to educate their kids, give them all the information so they can make an informed decision, let them know why you are against it, your moral objection, but in the end they will have to make their own decision, their own choice. Everyone though should have the right to make a choice about something that only concerns them.
I am sure many of you are unconvinced, of course I am sure that many could not be convinced no matter what argument they were presented. I totally understand that, really I do. Drugs are bad, I am not going to deny that. But like I have tried to state so are many other perfectly legal substances. People don't want to make bad things legal. I am sure that if cigarettes, alcohol, and pornography were not already legal, they wouldn't have a hope in hell of becoming legal. I think that is evident in the many new laws that are passed limiting them. Some towns in the United States have become completely smoke free where the only places you are allowed to smoke is in your own home. I have a lot to say about that kind of stuff too and maybe we will examine it later, but all I am trying to say is that we are a compassionate people. We want nothing more than to protect people, even from themselves. I think that is admirable, but I also think that goes against everything that makes America great. People should be free to choose. If they want to destroy their bodies with cigarettes, alcohol, pork ribs, or heroin, that should be their choice. Sure there would be some people would not behave responsibly, just like now. But most people would do this themselves and leave everyone else alone and behave like adults. That makes it no business of ours. What one does behind closed doors is no business of ours and if they leave it there then there is no reason it should ever be.
posted by Brandon Michael Collinsworth at 11:55 AM
6 Comments:
I know kids that try a little drugs, say beer first and than ciggs and maybe some pot, well if i can understand you logic I hope that one of your beautiful children's first drug to try is not "crack" that they bought at the Texaco for $5.00.
"One example of side effects: CRACK overstimulates that part of the nervous system that controls heart and breathing functions. This is, in a normal heart, about 60 beats per minute, with freebase cocaine circulating, the beat may jump to 120 or above, the heart can also go into ventricular tachycardia causing a sharp decrease in the amount of blood being pumped to the other organs and tissues. The heart can also go into fibrillation where it just quivers and won't beat with a sustained rhythm. Finally, the heart might just freeze..stop."
There seems to be a greater risk of death on the first hit.
Just a thought, but I am sure there are deeper and more medical reasons why certain drugs are not legal. That would be a good study.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
jesszion wrote, "well if i can understand your logic I hope that one of your beautiful children's first drug to try is not 'crack' that they bought at the Texaco for $5.00."
I think the Cynical Optimist addressed this in his article. He writes, "But even if drugs were legal they would be guarded just like alcohol, porn, and cigarettes." If drugs were legal, The Cynical Optimist's "beautiful children" would not be able to go into the Texaco and legally buy crack.
As for the health risks of crack, I think you make a good point, jesszion. Under his heading entitled "They are Harmful," The Cynical Optimist writes, "So are cigarettes, beer(in excess), hamburgers, and indirectly television." The cases where people eat a hamburger and die immediately are few and far between. :)
If it came up for a vote, I'd probably vote against it. The superhero in me wants to stamp out all evil. If some of these things were sold up the street, that would be one more temptation for me to struggle with. I would hate to see my kids end up addicted to drugs (whether they be legal or illegal), so the harder they are to get, the better our (my family) lives will be. I would vote against the legalization of drugs for the sake of those who I care about who are close to me. I know the effect that drugs have on the brain and on one's life, and I would do everything in my power to protect myself and family from these consequences. One of the reasons that my mom moved us to the country when we were in the 8th grade was because she said that she wanted to remove us from the heavy influence of drugs. Drugs would have been easier to get if we lived in the big city. So we moved to a place where the people in the sticks said that we were the ones who lived in the sticks. There was a point in my life where I would have got all that I could get--but I simply couldn't get hold to a significant amount of drugs. But I know, this is not the case for everyone. Some who live in the country can get as many drugs as they want. But my point is that my mom made a decision based on the welfare of her family. I think it was a good one. But what would have happened if we stayed in the city? I can only speculate.
I'd probably vote to outlaw porn too if it ever came up for a vote. I'd much rather do what I could to protect my son and those I care about from pornography's gross misrepresentation of sex than vote in favor of the rights of people I don't know. I guess I care more about me and my own than certain rights that people feel they are entitled to by their reading of the Constitution. I may be a little selfish, but, it's a democracy, and I guess we'll all vote how we feel about things. I just know that it would break my heart if my kids ended up addicted to heroin when they got older. If it stays illegal, I think the odds are better that they won't.
I want to make sure this is abundantly clear, I don't want my children to use drugs of any kind. I will do everything in my power to make my children aware of the dangers of drugs and how they can do nothing good for them. I will make them understand that drugs will ruin their lives if it doesn't kill them before that.
This is what I will teach my kids. But what I don't think should be done is have my hopes, dreams, desires, and fears about my children's future legislated.
I am sorry but I really can't understand this line of thinking. How can an individual in this society expected the rest of society to behave as they see fit? I understand that to a family man/woman their family seems like the world, but everyone has to understand that there is an entire world outside of their family, and much of it does not believe like they do.
I tried to stay away from this in my post, but I guess I will say it now. All of the laws governing these vices, or sins if you prefer, seemed to be geared toward protecting children. Children do not make up all of our society and adults have rights to. If a person at their house wants to have liquor they put it out of reach of a child, or they put there bleach in a lock cabinet, why can't a society that wants drugs and pornography just keep it out of reach of children. Not to mention it is one thing for a married man with three children like me to not be able to partake in drugs, booze, porn, or such. But it is quite another for a young single individual, at that point we are just looking them in the face and saying, "You don't matter, sit down, shut up,watch Nickelodeon, and be happy."
I think the job of protecting my children fall to me, not to society. It is my job to make sure they don't fall into satan's lap, not Congress, The President, or the Supreme Court. And I accept my responsibilty without asking society to sacrifice for me. Without asking all the bachelors out there to stop being drug-addled, alcoholic, perverts.
Jesszion and jason hughes said, As for the health risks of crack, I think you make a good point, jesszion. Under his heading entitled "They are Harmful," The Cynical Optimist writes, "So are cigarettes, beer(in excess), hamburgers, and indirectly television." The cases where people eat a hamburger and die immediately are few and far between. :)
And you are precisely right the only other thing I can think of that is responsible for instantly killing children who decide to experiment with them is guns, which also are perfectly legal and responsible for killing alot more children then crack. Things like hamburgers just gradually clogs arteries and causes increasing obesity that can lead to the sudden death of a heart attack. Not to be too cynical here but death is death. If you die instantly from crack or drunk driving or slowly from hamburgers, or smoking you are still dead and your vice was responsible for killing you. Some might see degrees of seperation in that, but I don't know how. Dead is dead.
"I am sorry but I really can't understand this line of thinking. How can an individual in this society expected the rest of society to behave as they see fit? I understand that to a family man/woman their family seems like the world, but everyone has to understand that there is an entire world outside of their family, and much of it does not believe like they do."
As individuals in a society, we make voting decisions based on the way we, as individuals, feel about an issue. I don't make decisions based on someone elses desires for their life; I make decisions based on MY immediate circumstances.
My children will grow up one day and they will no longer be children. I think their lives will be better without having such a negative influence within arms reach. Drugs are not my friend in any context.
All of us make decisions based on our morality. Even though this word has been hijacked by the conservatives, it still is a basis for many of our voting decisions.
For instance, some people would vote in favor of raising taxes for the rich. Shouldn't the rich have the right to keep the money they make instead of having to pay more of a percentage of their own money to the government? Based on moral decisions as to where they think that these people's money should go (helping the poor), some would vote to raise their taxes. Is it right to spend other people's money? Or maybe we should all simply worry about where our own money goes.
Shouldn't people have the right to own whatever kind of gun they want as long as they don't kill people? I mean, hey, we have laws that make killing people illegal. That should be enough. Who are we to try and make decisions to limit gunowner's right to bear arms--regardless of what kind of arms they decide to bear?
Some would vote to make factories reduce their greenhouse emissions and make smokers reduce their second hand smoke emissions. Here we go again--voters trying to make decisions to limit the freedom of others based on their individual choice about how our society should be operated.
Some would vote to limit the amount of money that businesses and special interests are allowed to give to politicians. Who are they to decide how businesses and special interests should spend their own money?
As individuals in this society, none of us are amoral. You believe that it is immoral (wrong) for the government to limit the freedom (however harmful this freedom could be) of its citizens. Why would you dare to try to legislate your morality? It's what we do. We vote how we feel in a society that encourages us to do this. We vote based on what we believe is in the best interests of ourselves and others. In a perfect world, our collective views based on these interests would determine the laws. The basis for our morality may be different, but we each have a morality that often dictates our voting decisions.
Should your morality or my morality dictate domestic policy? Let's vote and see!
As for your own views on this drug isse, I think you've explained yourself well. Your views are not as "radical" as you may think. Many people feel the same way about this as you. Although I disagree with many of your conclusions, I think you've done a good job with this article. You've stimulated a cool debate, and I think that's sweet. Keep writing, man. I think you should work on doing some more research and getting some of the "actual figures" for some of this stuff and submit your article to the CURRENT SAUCE. I would love to hear the responses!!! Rock on!!
I understand what you are trying to say, but I do want to make a difference here. Some of the issues you bring up affects people directly and some indirectly. And that is precisely my point. Getting a factory to lower its greenhouse emissions or higher taxes on the rich are decisions that affect everyone regardless of how you feel about them. If a factory pollutes your environment it affects you, if we cut taxes and can no longer afford healthcare or pell grants it affects you. If I go home tonight and smoke a joint, which I won't be, it doesn't affect you. If a person you never met before dies tonight from a heroin overdose, it doesn't affect you, not directly or indirectly, other than some strange butterfly effect. There is a difference between taxes and porn, or pollution and drugs.
I understand a person's right, hell obligation, to vote their heart. That is something that makes this country great and I wouldn't see it lost.
And thanks for the compliment on the article and this has been a fun debate.
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