Should We Legalize Drugs

[Riverwind (imported)]

Breaking from Newsmax.com

Jimmy Carter: End the Global War on Drugs

Jimmy Carter is just saying no to the war on drugs.

The former president argues in an Op-Ed published Thursday in The New York Times that U.S. drug policy has backfired in a terrible way by helping to escalate violence in Latin America.

Fighting the war on drugs abroad has cost the U.S. millions of dollars, while at home, it has caused our prison populations to swell, Carter says.

He writes that he pushed to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, with an emphasis on treatment for the user.

The Reagan administration, however, “began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile attempts to control drug imports from foreign countries,” Carter writes.

As those countries try to eradicate marijuana, coca, poppy cultivation, they run up against the wrath of the drug gangs.

“One result has been a terrible escalation in drug-related violence, corruption and gross violations of human rights in a growing number of Latin American countries,” Carter says.

He cited a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which says its mission is to seek “humane and effective ways” to reduce the negative effects of drugs on society.

“The global war on drugs has failed,” the commission’s report says.

It says when the drug war began 40 years ago, policymakers believed attacking production and harshly punishing users was the way to go.

“In practice, the global scale of illegal drug markets – largely controlled by organized crime – has grown dramatically over this period,” the report says.

Carter concurs, and he’s also worried about the effect imprisonment of nonviolent, recreational users has on American society.

“About three-quarters of new admissions to state prisons are for nonviolent crimes. And the single greatest cause of prison population growth has been the war on drugs,” the former president writes.

“Not only has this excessive punishment destroyed the lives of millions of young people and their families (disproportionately minorities), but it is wreaking havoc on state and local budgets,” he says.

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[Riverwind (imported)]

The answer is YES, treat it like beer, tax it and sell it at the local 7/11.

River

[Dave (imported)]

As much as I despise the thought of legal drugs, I can't see any other solution to the crime the "war on drugs" creates.

[moi621 (imported)]

Sure, legalize them but be sure to make it a super crime to damage private property or hurt someone while under the influence or acute withdrawl.

Moi

[tugon (imported)]

We would have fewer drug related deaths if the drugs were manufactured to a certain potency. A dose of heroin one day can be an overdose the next. If it is legal needles would not need to be shared and less HIV transmitted.

Money earned could support rehab facilities if someone does find themselves addicted. Prisons could release prisoners who were arrested for recreational drug use. DEA agents could stop dieing. The war at the border between the US and Mexico would end.

In the mid 70's while in college we all thought pot was going to be legalized any day and enjoyed it as if it was. Now it is a crime again. You can drink yourself stupid but you are not allowed to get a little mellow. I have never witnessed two pot smokers get into a fight.

I think cocaine, pot and heroin should be legalized. Crystal Meth is just a poison and should never be legalized. We already have laws about operating motor vehicles under the influence and this would pertain to drugs. Workplaces have rules about not being under the influence. Each state has a way to sell and dispense of alcohol and they could sell the drugs in the same controlled manner.

It has been clear that we cannot win this war anymore than Prohibition kept people from drinking. Prohibition made many people rich as has the drug trade. Legalize, standardize, control and then treat if needed.

[moi621 (imported)]

Legalizing drugs should not involve the argument of

good drug, bad drug.

Crystal Meth might not be a drug of choice if given other choices that are economically competitive and public health messaged, safer.

I don't like white powders. I would like to chew a coca leaf someday.

Also I would like to be served opium because it is difficult without service (I understand) to maintain a proper fuming or smoldering while not melting or burning it. I am told.

I never understood cocaine. Nothing but a sore nose and feeling I was thirty seconds ahead in a discussion. Many claimed it was because I did not experience the good stuff, like theirs, try. Whoopie, numb front teeth too.

Yet people have destroyed their lives over a drug I would never choose to purchase.

Peyote Buttons, yum. Well the experience anyway. I would do them again given the opportunity.

LSD, maybe I never had real stuff but, what was suppose to be was, , ,?

Moi

[gareth19 (imported)]

Like alcohol, tax it, make it illegal to operate machinery while under the influence, and establish state stores to sell it at under the going street rate. The make it illegal to have drugs from any source but the state, and enforce stiff penalties for that. That practice will drive the drug pushers out of business, the drug cartels will lose their customers, the taliban will lose its financial backing, and maybe states can balance their budgets after the ripoff from the mortgage-backed securities scam from the other wing of organized crime.

[tugon (imported)]

Legalizing drugs should not involve the argument of

good drug, bad drug.

Crystal Meth might not be a drug of choice if given other choices that are economically competitive and public health messaged, safer.

I don't like white powders. I would like to chew a coca leaf someday.

Also I would like to be served opium because it is difficult without service (I understand) to maintain a proper fuming or smoldering while not melting or burning it. I am told.

I never understood cocaine. Nothing but a sore nose and feeling I was thirty seconds ahead in a discussion. Many claimed it was because I did not experience the good stuff, like theirs, try. Whoopie, numb front teeth too.

Yet people have destroyed their lives over a drug I would never choose to purchase.

Peyote Buttons, yum. Well the experience anyway. I would do them again given the opportunity.

LSD, maybe I never had real stuff but, what was suppose to be was, , ,?

Moi

Trust me Opium is not that hard to smoke. Check the recipe on crystal meth and you might change your mind. Unless of course you are a dentist and you would make a fortune restoring the teeth of crystal meth smokers. Yes if other drugs are legalized it may fall out of favor. Drugs will certainly be cheaper if not illegal since the risk would not exist in the transportation.

[transward (imported)]

Legalizing drugs should not involve the argument of

good drug, bad drug.

Crystal Meth might not be a drug of choice if given other choices that are economically competitive and public health messaged, safer.

I don't like white powders. I would like to chew a coca leaf someday.

Also I would like to be served opium because it is difficult without service (I understand) to maintain a proper fuming or smoldering while not melting or burning it. I am told.

I never understood cocaine. Nothing but a sore nose and feeling I was thirty seconds ahead in a discussion. Many claimed it was because I did not experience the good stuff, like theirs, try. Whoopie, numb front teeth too.

Yet people have destroyed their lives over a drug I would never choose to purchase.

Peyote Buttons, yum. Well the experience anyway. I would do them again given the opportunity.

LSD, maybe I never had real stuff but, what was suppose to be was, , ,?

Moi

Meth and Coke are both speedy drugs. I suspect that if cocaine were available at the local liquor store, few would seek out illegal drug dealers to get meth. Neither is good for the health but cocaine is much less harmful.

Peyote. Much as I enjoyed it, I would not describe it as yum. It is one of the foulest tasting stuff on earth. I did it many times (one year we strung peyote buttons around the house for Christmas decorations) and every time I ate it I ended up worshiping the porcelain god. (it was worth it)

The only psycheledic I do these days (when I can find it and that seldom,) is ketamine.

LOS ANGELES -- The long-used (and abused) sedative ketamine appears to lift depression's dark veil almost instantaneously by boosting the production of a protein that helps protect and maintain brain cells and regenerate them after injury, a new study says.

Ketamine makes children blithely unaware of pain during difficult medical procedures. But it has another remarkable quality: When given intravenously at a lower dose than is used for anesthesia, ketamine acts as a powerful and fast-acting antidepressant for adults.

This property, recognized in recent years by a growing number of researchers, offers an important addition to the current formulary of medications available for depression. Most of those can take weeks to attain their full effect, and even after trying several different antidepressants, as many as four in 10 patients don't see their depression lift.

But suicidal patients can't wait that long. For them, finding a speedy and effective treatment could make the difference between life and death.

Ketamine's not an ideal medication, even as a rescue drug for depression: It has to be given intravenously and sometimes causes short-term psychotic symptoms. But unlocking the mystery of how it works could help point the way to other drugs and alternative approaches to treating depression, stat.

Transward

[Slammr (imported)]

A child of the 60s, in college in the 60s and early 70s, I've tried most drugs:

Pot: I never liked it; mostly it made me feel tired, sleepy, and stupid.

LSD: I couldn't count the times I've done LSD. I might do it today, if I could get some. When I was doing LSD regularly, I developed an almost photographic memory. I could memorize a 30 digit alphanumeric serial number by just looking at it, without repeating any of the digits to myself. I was working for Boeing at the time and had to get the serial numbers off some of the electronic equipment after I tested it. When an inspector asked me for the serial number once I gave it to him without having written it down. Not believing I could remember it, he went to check the number; of course, it was right. After I quit doing LSD, that ability faded. I later graduated from UCSD with a 3.78 GPA, so I don't think it hurt my IQ any.

Mushrooms: Couple of times; Loved them.

Mescaline: in pill form. Good stuff.

Crystal Meth: snorted it a couple of times. The speed effects were OK, but coming down from it the next day sucked. Not something I would do again, even if I didn't know how bad it was for you.

Cocaine: Like Moi, I could never see what the big deal about this drug was. The high was pleasant enough, but I would have never paid - and never did pay - for the shit. To me, it was like speed, but not as intense.

Speed: I liked it well enough, but I liked drugs that heightened the senses rather than those that dulled the senses.

alcohol: I liked it in high school, until some friends and I rented a motel room and went on an all night binge. I drank a fifth of wine and a half pint of bourbon. Before the night was over, I was lying on the floor in my own puke, unable to move, crying over and over, "I wish I was dead."

I didn't drink again until I was in the Army. Other than sharing a social glass of wine, I don't drink, now.

Downers: I used to have a prescription for a sleeping pill that gave a good high, if I stayed awake instead. Been so long ago that I don't remember what it was, but they are probably not available now. I take Ambien, now, but all it does is what it should, make me sleepy: no high; and no sleep walking.

Prescription drugs: I've been prescribed Oxycontin and stuff for surgeries, but it didn't get me high, and it stopped up my ass so badly, that even if it were a good high, I wouldn't take it again. I threw away unused bottles of the shit.

Never did heroin or opium; never shot up anything.

Never did peyote, but I would.

I could have probably gone to prison for some of the drugs I did or possessed. What good would that have done anyone? I wasn't a dealer. I may have given some to my friends but only in small amounts, if I did.