Opinions - What would legalising drugs mean?

[Metalcore322]

I didn't know where to put this thread so I figured 'Some For All' made sense.

Mr. Angry was pondering this for awhile.

If drugs were legal, would their still be drug-related crime? And if everyone did drugs, would wars and senseless fights cease to exist? How can stoners be the criminals when 95% of the stoners Mr. Angry knows are the most peaceful, motivated, open-minded people he knows?

He was just wondering if anyone else thought the same way.
The main question is kind of would things like pointless hatred exist in a world on drugs?

[rxbandit]

I agree it would solve quite a few problems, however I dont believe it would be a panacea for the worlds problems.

if you look at history, way back before their were such laws governing drug use and such. There were still quarrels and wars. Their were some peaceful drug using tribes and their still are however you will always have those who want to rule and derive their self worth from putting themselves above. Plus their might be wars breaking out between different sects of drug users... The Methy's might invade herion land.

[enquirewithin]

Drugs should certainly be regulated. We already have a good percentage of the population smoking, so it can't do much harm, but I'm not sure I would want to see meth and coke for sale in the local store. But then maybe?

[Purest]

If everything were legal everywhere it'd initially cause a lot of problems such as drugged up people in the streets etc, however if the process was done gradually and drugs were regulated effectively it would probably allow drug users to be a lot safer than they are now.
If weed were sold on a similar way to tobacco with restrictions similar to alcohol (don't smoke and drive etc) then it could exist alongside the other two without too much difficulty in theory.
Drugs such as Coke, Meth, Heroin etc would probably only be sold in chemists rather than supermarkets, this probably wouldn't be too much of a bad thing though, if you were able to buy over the counter it'd mean that you'd be garuanteed the drug you wanted, rather than getting a bag of coke mixed with flour.
The only real problem with legalisation is the underage abuse of substances, lets face it, kids will get hold of drugs through whatever means if they're available in shops (in fact I personally know many stores that "forget" to check for ID when it comes to tobacco and alcohol) meaning potentially there would be more underage drug related deaths which would fuel the arguments for all the people that would object to drugs being legalised in the first place.
A lot of crime would decrease however especially seeing as a lot of gang wars tend to be based around selling drugs or at least financed by them, however it wouldn't completely irradicate them unfortunately.

[Sky Walker]

Originally Posted by Metalcore322

If drugs were legal, would their still be drug-related crime?

Yes, as there is an illegal black market for pretty much everything (e.g. tobacco) and every crime commited by someone under the influence of drugs would be marked up as a "drug related crime". Some, rather than getting jobs would still steal to support their habbits.

Originally Posted by Metalcore322

And if everyone did drugs, would wars and senseless fights cease to exist?

Nope but any fights/wars that did arise could possibly be a lot more sensible/just.

Originally Posted by Metalcore322

How can stoners be the criminals when 95% of the stoners Mr. Angry knows are the most peaceful, motivated, open-minded people he knows?

What about the other 5%? Anyway it's not the stoners that are a worry for violence. Tweakers and boozers are ones to watch out for.

Originally Posted by Metalcore322

The main question is kind of would things like pointless hatred exist in a world on drugs?

Yep, they sure still would, maybe not on such a large scale though.

Originally Posted by Purest

The only real problem with legalisation is the underage abuse of substances,

Legalizing and regulating drugs would actually help reduce the problem of substance abuse among children. Currently it is much harder for kids to get the regulated alcohol than it is for them to get a hold of illegal drugs, forget about "forgetting" - dealers never check for ID.

[Nature Boy]

SWIM was crossing the road the other day and had a thought as he saw a line-up of impatient drivers waiting at this one particularly slow traffic light. What if one of them decided "fuck it" in a moment of madness, drove on and mushed SWIM into oblivion with their four-wheel drive vehicle? The same goes for guns, the same goes for drugs. Attaching stigmas to things from a very young age generally gives people the wrong impression.

Would we think guns are evil if we only knew them as hunting weapons and not weapons of crime and war for example? Would we think drugs are evil if we didn't associate them with junkies and villains? We don't see cars as killers though they probably kill as many people as the other two do.

I'm not even sure if this falls in line with this topic. I just wanted to throw it out there.

[OccularFantasm]

Plus their might be wars breaking out between different sects of drug users... The Methy's might invade herion land.

Thats a pretty plausible idea. Back in the day China was all about opium, as I'm sure you all recall the Opium Wars. Well anyway, if any of you don't, a whole country of drunken Europeans decided to invade a peaceful opium smoking country of China. It didn't help that the Chinese were at the end of their reign of power, but it also didn't help that so many of them practiced nonviolence and were addicted to poppies. The addiction wouldn't have really been a bad factor if Europe didn't disrupt their supply. Anyway, my point was that legalization wouldn't make a difference with war. Wars are almost always carried out on a flase pretext, and dictated by the elite without consideration of the majority.

As far as rules against smoking and driving, c'mon. It is not illegal to smoke a cigarette and drive a car; and if you are not a regular smoker you'll get fucked up from the nicotine. Marijuana is the same way. There should be a warning states you should be familiar with the effects before operating machinery. In fact, even though people tend to drive inebriated by marijuana, they drive more safely, so I do not see the downside. Some inexperienced users may get lost once in a while, but thats hardly the end of the world. Also, the mosre you smoke and the mre stoned you get, the more the paranoia presents itself. If your driving a car and paranoid, theres a 95% chance its about either crashing or getting pulled over. These are two wonderful things to become paranoid about as far as safe driving is concerned. I would go so far as to say people should be encouraged to smoke and drive if they want, and especially if they have a lot of road rage, which most Americans anyway do have. (Probably everywhere, but I can't speak for where I do not see.)

Skywalker also brings up a very good point. Stoners are a very peaceful, tired, and perhaps hungry race of people. (And yes, if the jews can consider themselves a race so can the stoners) Crack, meth, and booze are definatly drugs that would bring out aggressive states in people, and that, especially when coupled with hallucinations or paranoia, is a very bad thing.

Also what NB said is very very true. Everyone is taught the drugs are bad mmkay thing. I would say religious wackos are the most dangerous with this type of mentality. They have already 'accepted' their insignificance and believe it is best to blindly follow what they are told. This is a propaganda organs true dream. The other thing that would benefit the propagandist's would be the fact that religious people like to pawn off their beliefs on others for some unexplainable reason. All the people left, I'll dub them reasonable people, would not ever think badly of most drugs. Also, its usually not until people start to mess around with 'refined' drugs that they geet out of control. What I mean by this is a it is much easier to exceed drug use by level of active chemicals by doing lines of coke than chewing on coca leaves. Then again beating out coke with crack. The same thing goes with opium and heroine. Many times these refined products are what is available because of the prohibition on drugs. This is because these are usually most profitable, easy to make, and usually easy to cut. Hell, in my area opium is pretty much never around, maybe once a year, and you'd never see anyone selling cocoa leaves; whereas oxys, heroin, and coke are always available and always in large amounts. I would argue to say that many people would step back down the the less concentrated natural forms of their drugs if given the opportunity; and this opportunity would only occur with a lift of prohibition. Besides if people really wanted to get that fucked up, they'd just go to pills anyway, their more effective for that. But like I have probably said before in places, this is no cause for alarm. No matter the circumstances, some people will still make bad decision after bad decision. If we let these people weed themselves out, our society will become better and wiser. And before I'm misunderstood, I don't mean take away peoples chance to goto rehab or whatever they fancy, as that would be a wise decision to help reverse the damage done by bad ones, I'm saying it should never ever be mandated. Whatever the original question was, I hope I answered it, though I don't remember what it was, but I gotta run to class.