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Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

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Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#31

Post by User23 »

vmception wrote: post #17
__s wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person. You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work. In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug. Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleas…

I just wish currently illicit/scheduled drugs simply had the same list of disclaimers that FDA-approved drugs had. The side effects aren't different enough to be rebuttals to support their prohibition.

A lot of it is a quality control issue. The cocaine your ophthalmologist might use is just as safe as any other FDA-approved drug, because it is one. On the other hand the stuff you might get third-hand from the cartels was possibly of questionable quality to begin with and has been adulterated several times by various intermediaries.

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#32

Post by wcoenen »

__s wrote: post #15
gotoeleven wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried cocaine??? It's great!

Exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person. You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work. In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug. Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleas…

> Exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which...

Context: this is quoting Sigmund Freud, who mistakenly believed the drug to be non-addictive.

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#33

Post by zdragnar »

downrightmike wrote: post #11
gravypod wrote: post #4

Could this be a situation where politicians have faulty data and use that to guide how they act? I would have assumed that a majority of these states - and my home state of NJ - would be very anti-drug but these votes with >60% in favor of legalization show that significant portions of America think drug-related activities are not "immoral" or "wrong" and should not be criminalized. If you had asked me a few years ag…

The war on drugs was started as a way to target people of color by Nixon. Before then, MJ was around and used, it is a plant and good pain killer that you can grow yourself. And Nixon stated that is why he was doing it in the White House tapes. For 50 years the WoD was used to justify invading other countries and setting up coups and all that has lead to our current issue with powerful militarized Narco gangs and all…

> The war on drugs was started as a way to target people of color by Nixon

So was Planned Parenthood.

Instead of endlessly prosecuting the past, which can never change, let's look at today and tomorrow instead.

Or, if you prefer, we could look at the exact opposite approach- the Opium wars were fought to force China to allow the sale and consumption of opium, the extensive use of which was practically epidemic.

As such, it could also be argued that legalizing drugs is an attack in minorities who are disproportionately poor and thus prone to consumption- a return to the days when inner cities were ravaged by crack.

Things are way more complex than just pointing at simplified versions of history and banging on the race drum.

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#34

Post by zests »

ericmay wrote: post #29
hedora wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could already access hard drugs. The law provides a lot of additional funding to mental health and substance abuse programs, which could actually help people in those situations. Decriminalization has worked extremely well elsewhere (it dramatically reduced substance abuse problems); hopefully it will in the US as well.

Yea but you can also say criminalization has worked extremely well. Singapore for example. What I worry about here is another instance of treating symptoms instead of causes. Why do people feel like they need to use drugs like heroin? > The law provides a lot of additional funding to mental health and substance abuse programs, which could actually help people in those situations. So if I want healthcare I should get…

How has criminalization worked in the United States?

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#35

Post by sidpatil »

monktastic1 wrote: post #21
__s wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person. You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work. In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug. Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleas…

Given your (dangerously wrong) last sentence, I don't know what to make of the rest of this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015876

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#36

Post by sidpatil »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #22
__s wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person. You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work. In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug. Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleas…

Get help.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25015876

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#37

Post by BurningFrog »

ericmay wrote: post #23

I've mentioned this elsewhere, and I say this believing that substance abuse is a public health problem and not a criminal one, but: I'm not sure it's the best idea to give a bunch of people stuck living a lonely life in the suburbs, addicted to social media, and have to pay for their own healthcare, an easier path to hard drugs like heroin. There is no doubt in my mind that decriminalization will make these types of…

Most heroin deaths come from using illegal heroin with unknown strength and unknown contaminants.

The typical death is from getting a new supply that's more concentrated than the old one, and accidentally dying from an overdose.

The other two disasters that happen is that (1) the drug costs huge amounts of money, so you have to become a prostitute and/or burglar or (2) the legal system puts you in jail for 20 years.

I'm not going to pretend that being heroin addict is a good life, but if you can get a clean drug with known strength from CVS for $2/day, it's a vastly better shitty life.

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#38

Post by supernova87a »

I'm not sure why people aren't being just a little more cautious about ballot measures like in Oregon where even heroin and such hard drugs are now decriminalized.

This deserves a little more consideration about the unintended side effects of this policy, don't you think?

I look at the massive illegal drug manufacturing interests (countries, cartels) who spend vast sums on getting illegal drugs to our shores. It cannot just be a pure good thing that we make this ok now, can it?

I think we will be finding out the negative unintended consequences of these policies in the years to come.

edit: yeah, real courteous and open-minded, to be downvoting an otherwise legitimate opinion for discussion, isn't it?

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#39

Post by NeutronStar »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #19
bjt2n3904 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one thing to acknowledge that alcohol has an affect on stress. But that isn't what this is happening. It would be another thing entirely to REBRAND alcohol as a "therapy tool". FFS.

> that isn't what this is happening Of course it is. You have never seen an ad selling some drink as a tool for unwinding after a stressful day? Anything psychologically active can be sold for therapeutic and recreational uses. And anything used for the latter can be abused.

I agree. Anything recreational could also be meant as therapeutic. Anything. Not just drugs.

Re: Voters rejecting the war on drugs is a win for public health

#40

Post by [deleted] »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #5
gravypod wrote: post #4

Could this be a situation where politicians have faulty data and use that to guide how they act? I would have assumed that a majority of these states - and my home state of NJ - would be very anti-drug but these votes with >60% in favor of legalization show that significant portions of America think drug-related activities are not "immoral" or "wrong" and should not be criminalized. If you had asked me a few years ag…

> Maybe now that politicians see that people are very against drug laws we'll see some of them renege on their hard anti-drug stances. The purpose of existing drug laws, especially marijuana, is to give police a reason to harass and discriminate against certain populations.

[deleted]
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