imported post
I am against illegal drugs but the government has taken too much power.
See, the problem with this is you seem to be against them simply because they're illegal. We've already established that not all laws make sense. Lots of illegal drugs are far less damaging than alcohol or tobacco and for that reason and many others, should not be illegal. It's a war on personal freedom, not a war on drugs. We don't need a nanny government telling us what we can and can't do to our own bodies, this is the fundamental problem I have with this.
If it comes down to money as the issue, then they need to get rid of alcohol and tobacco, because those two substances likely cost us more (In healthcare, accidents, lost jobs, etc.) than every other drug combined.
Again, I think they need to stop thinking that they can bust down your door and kill you for having a plant in a bag. That is insane and completely ridiculous. Marijuana is not a powerful drug and it doesn't cause the judgment problems and belligerence that alcohol so easily creates. My understanding of it is that Marijuana was outlawed pretty much entirely for racist reasons to begin with anyway.
Take a moment to think about the fact that Methamphetamine (Aka - "Meth") is a legally prescribed drug, often prescribed to children, called Desoxyn. That throws a lot of propaganda right out the window there. Like that commercial that talked about the "ingredients" in "Meth." It listed things that were used when manufacturing it, but are not contained in any dangerous levels in the final product. Yet the commercial stated that all of these ingredients are in the final product (It never mentioned that they're used to manufacture it, it just said "this is what's in meth."). Of course, they are in the final product on an incredibly slight scale (Probably measured in parts per million), but that is the case with absolutely everything including OTC medication and tap water. The way the commercial portrayed it, Desoxyn should never be given to anyone because it's apparently got things like sulphuric acid in it (In large quantity, [sizzle], as the commercial says). The way the government treats it when you're caught with it (As a drug with no known medicinal value) seems to ignore the fact that it does, in fact, have medicinal value. Note that I don't advocate it's use, and I think that it's one of the more damaging drugs around, but that doesn't mean our government needs to waste all of these tax dollars being somebody's mommy.
Note the drug diacetylmorphine, aka - Heroin, a derivative of morphine. This drug has plenty of known medicinal value. Heroin was the trademarked name for the drug, introduced by Bayer if I'm not mistaken. It's no different than morphine or oxycodone in it's effects really. The only difference is how quickly it reaches the brain. Note that we prescribe hydromorphone, aka - Dilaudid, which gets to the brain even faster than diacetylmorphine when injected and provides a very similar (Subjectively better according to many users) experience. The ampuoles that are prescribed to patients (I know someone who got them for a minor toothache, seriously), can be dissolved and readily injected safely. These are legally prescribed opiates/opioids, yet if you take this one particular opioid, that still breaks down into morphine in the body like pretty much all of the other morphine derivatives, all of a sudden you've "gone too far" and "need to be punished severely."
It's all a game of propaganda, on one hand we prescribe these drugs and get people addicted to them legally. Then they're taken away from the patient abruptly and this can result in the patient then going to the street to curb their withdrawal and cravings for opiates. Not all brains are the same and some people get extremely addicted to opiates rather easily. Then when caught with street opiates, they're going to be punished similarly to a violent criminal and will be locked in a box with those people. Rather than get them help, they're often just put in prison and have a felony on their record, which can easily prevent them from ever working again. I am not a fan of this method of punishing the sick at all.
But anyway, something like marijuana being considered a justifiable reason to bust down a door with guns drawn is sick. This is not too far from busting down the door of a home because there's a case of liquor bottles inside (In fact, it makes
less sense than that to me). Marijuana isn't even a "hard drug," it's much less dangerous than alcohol, and the consumption of it doesn't tend to turn the person into a belligerent idiot. Note that saying "one time I saw somebody on marijuana do x, y or z" isn't going to convince me otherwise. I've seen so many people on alcohol beat their wifes daily and I've seen more fights than I can count that never would have happened without alcohol that it's ridiculous. I've seen plenty of car wrecks and stupid decisions from alcohol and I've yet to see anyone do these things with marijuana. I used to know a whole lot of people that smoked it on a daily basis too. I've never seen marijuana make someone belligerent or totally trashed like a large dose of alcohol will. Now I have seen people who were first introduced to marijuana pretend to be extremely "high" and exaggerate the effects of the drug (Often poorly) to be cool, but those people are idiots. Even then, I never saw anyone do anything like a drunk person would do.
Of course, this doesn't mean everyone in here will act belligerent when they're drunk, but alcohol is much more likely cause this type of behavior regularly. It can turn someone into a totally different person when they're under it's effects. Also, a dosage of two to three times the dose that gets someone drunk can kill them, where smoked marijuana is impossible to overdose on. The only conceivable way to overdose on it would be to concentrate a massive amount into something that could be taken orally. Even then it would take thousands of dollars worth and tons of effort.
In general, it shouldn't be a crime to put whatever you want into your own body IMO. If they're going to regulate this, they should regulate the drugs that are physically addictive (ie - alcohol, one of the few drugs that can even be fatal to withdraw from), cause brain damage (ie - alcohol) and destroy judgement and motor skills (ie - alcohol), not the drugs that are essentially harmless when used sparingly in moderation. It should be your decision to use these substances, provided you aren't truly insane. I don't like people controlling what I do or don't do to my body or what anyone else does or doesn't do to theirs, I think there's something fundamentally wrong with that. Now, I don't think you should be able to do something to someone elses body, but what you do to yourself shouldn't be anyone's business.
The effects of marijuana on driving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3zou4F00Ic
