If drugs were legalized tommorrow, would anyone go out and start smoking crack or shooting heroin????

Question

I'm curious because anytime anyone argues that the war on drugs should be ended, for some reason people assume that means that everyone will use drugs. If you wouldn't become a crackhead just because it was legal why would everyone else? Drugs are easier to get when they are illegal, does prohibition really prevent anyone who wants to from using drugs. Why is it then whenever anyone proposes ending prohibition all you hear about it how horrible drugs are? Of course they are horrible that is exactly why we need to control these substances, get them out of our schools and kids hands. Set up maintenence clinics for addicts, get them out of our prisons and stop them from robbing and stealing from us to pay hugh sums of money to violent dealers who kill each other and us because they have no legal means to resolve business diputes. Ignorance is deadly.

Answer 1

Very good...although, I wouldn't agree that drugs are always easier to get when they're illegal.

The argument I see most often is drugs are no worse than alcohol or alcoholic beverages kill more people than drugs. Those are people who desperately need to do more research. One fact by itself, in 2001 a study done among high school students showed 31,000 admitted to having automobile accidents as a result of marijuana use. With this in mind, yes cigarettes are legal and creat a health hazard but they don't alter your thinking process while driving down the road with other drivers!

It's not just a matter of the users health....it's a matter of those around you when you're under the influence of the illegal drugs or alcohol!

No matter how one slices it, alcohol and cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, heroin, and a myriad of other drugs are dangerous. There are just as many marijuana smokers who would swear there's nothing wrong with its' use as those who would state otherwise.

I'm more apt to listen to professional doctors who know the effects of illegal drugs on my body, than the local dope dealer or drug abuser!

I've been in this profession over thirty years and have seen more than my share of what drugs do to the individual, the family, the community, and society itself! It's sad when you have to tell a parent their child died from an overdose or when their family member swallowed the evidence so they wouldn't go to jail.

There's also the medical issues associated with accidental overdoses and treatment. The taxpayer bears a large amount of the costs associated with illegal drugs. So by making drugs legal, there will be those who try a drug because it's no longer illegal. Granted the smart ones will still abstain! But, this will add to the devestation that results often in the drug culture.

Also, people don't understand it's not just OUR government that makes these drugs illegal, their illegality is based upon research by the World Health Organization, International Treaties, and our own laws!

It really isn't a "war on drugs" ... it's more like a "cancer on society!" Sadly, the ignorant want to prevail but society as a whole will lose!

Best wishes!

Answer 2

I think the current problem with the drug war is all about supply and demand and education about the true danger of the harder drugs (ie not- marijuanna). The drug war decreases supply which increases the price of drugs and availability. The gov't can never make all drugs legal in a free for all (like say the laws surrounding hamburgers) or else it really won't solve most of the problems, there will still be many of the same problems but they should actually legalize certain drugs in a manner closer to alcohol. Which although legal, is still tightly controlled.
My ex-roomate was dutch and although marijuana is legal it is only legal to possess as a licensed shop dealer. There is still illegal distribution which is prosecuted. Also, all of the other harder drugs are still just as illegal as they are here in the US so they have their own drug war against the harder drugs.
However unless they make some new kind of heroin, meth or crack that is not addictive there will still be a certain level of violence, theft etc because the hard core addicts will do anything to get their fix and it will still be hard for someone to kick the habit. I work in a major city and it is not hard to find treatment programs but drugs are still addictive which doesn't make it any easier for someone to kick the habit.

The education is lacking in that people still don't realize that crack, heroin, meth, or acid can do permanent damage from using them just a few times and can be addictive from the first times someone uses them. Plus, the fact that is some ways drug addiction causes or at least contributes to so much of society's problems is still lost on many people.

Answer 3

It makes me wonder how many of the people who have volunteered their opinions have actually tried using Crack or Heroin. Their opinions seem to be simply a mish-mash of the usual stories that appear in the mainstream media. Remember that the Government is fighting a "war" on drugs therefore you are reading/watching/listening to propaganda - and I have to tell you... sometimes propaganda 'ain't necessarily true. Shocking I know.

truthspeaker10 says s/he has used weed, so s/he has an opinion based on personal experience - a good way to be able to form a balanced opinion.

KCV is involved in fighting the "war" on drugs and that makes me question the motives for his/her answer. Certainly some of the points s/he makes do not stand up to scrutiny. However there isn't enough space in these answer's to refute those points at length.

Of all the contributers Lizzy's answer is by far the most rational and insightful.

Before I give you my answer to your question I shall add the following:

- you cannot uninvent drugs no mater how much money you throw at the "war" on drugs. They exist, they will always exist and there will always be a demand.

- legal, controlled manufacture of drugs would ensure users knew the purity/potency of the drug they were using. Many (most?) deaths are caused because users injet drugs of unknown strength or containing "cut" that is harmful.

- by making all those drugs illegal then the Government simply gives criminals (organised or otherwise) a vast money making opportunity

- allowing the debate to be lead by near hysterical media campaigns means there cannot be a much-needed sensible debate about the problem of drugs & drug-addiction

- The US spent over 19 billion dollars in 2003 on the "war" on drugs. The budgets increase year-on-year. This aproach is NOT working. A different solution needs to be adopted.

So, would I try Crack and Heroin if they were legalized? Well, I have tried both already. Heroin I would not try again - I really did not like it the first time. Crack I would use again, but it is too expensive to be anything other than an occasional recreational drug.

Please note: I am not advising anyone to do anything illegal. Unless they really want to :-)

Answer 4

Drugs shouldn't be legal, but the US gov't shouldn't enforce anti drug laws as harshly as they do now. Legalisation is not an issue of whether people will do it or not. It also won't keep it out of schools, after all aren't alchohol and tobacco in schools but illegal under 18/21. And not all drug dealers are violent evil gangmembers especially not marijuana dealers. I do think, however, that drugs w/ medical purposes should be able to be researched and used in labs. LSD was proven to be very effective in curing alchoholism, and helping to rehabilitate criminals, while Marijuana can help cancer patients (if eaten or injested by some other means than smoking since smoking of any substance makes cancer worse). Another Bullshite hypocricy is the fact that hemp(a fabric made from marijuana) is illegal but cannot be used to grow more marijuana or be smoked, while Poppy seeds are on billions of bagels and muffins across america and can be used to grow the poppy plant which is used to make the much worse drugs of opium and heroin.

Answer 5

Here's an interesting fact about the war on drugs. The U.S. government spends about sixty billion a year combating drugs. That figure includes the cost of jailing a person found guilty of drug crimes, even petty ones. The citizens of the U.S. spend about sixty billion a year on the purchase of illegal drugs. In other words, we are funding both sides of the war on drugs.
And, no, I don't think if drugs were legalized that people would go out and start shooting up or smoking crack. There is enough anti-drug education in place. Remember, cigarettes are legal, despite the overwhelming evidence of the health dangers.

Answer 6

y would i go out & start smoking crack or shooting heroin if it wz legalized? those are the two most well maybe notmost deadly drugs but they are dangerous & stupid. jus bcuz drugs become legal doesnt mean jump on the first train to go get them. thats the stupidest thing ever. i think if u choose to do drugs then go ahead do them but dont include them in peoples lifes that dont want anything to do with them. yes drugs are easier to get when they are illegal so when they become legal they might be used for certain purposes like the government isnt going to jus let anybody walts up and jus get them. jus keep the drugs away from the little ones & keep that **** to yourself. if someone wants to do it then go ahead but dont make that **** public ahve common sense....

Answer 7

to be honest, when u tell somebody(esp a teenager) not to do something---or that they cant do something whats the 1st thing theyre going to do?? theyre going to do exactly what u told them not to. i think legalizing drugs would lessen their impact. by telling somebody that they cant do it, they just want to prove u wrong. im sure that a while aftr u legalized drugs, everybody would do it, but aftr a while, it would just get old.

whether its legal or not, people are still going to do it. all we're doing by making it illegal is filling our courtrooms & jails.

Answer 8

What??? Making them legal wouldn't change the effect of what drugs do to your body. I have never done drugs and I never will.

Answer 9

Yes, I think that those who use drugs on a recreational basis now will have cart blanche to use what they want, and soon, we would have a nation full of addicts.

Answer 10

No,


Just like when the assault weapons ban ended, we all dident pick up an ak and destroy a mall.