"...the impossibility of winning the “war” against theft, burglary, robbery, and fraud has never been used as an argument that these categories of crime should be abandoned." (From Don't Legalize Drugs, http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_2_a1.html )
It has often been pointed out that taking prohibited drugs is a victimless crime. Your examples of theft, burglary, robbery and fraud are not.
And many of our jobs are in automation research and implementation.
Our work puts dozens, if not thousands of people out of work. When driverless vehicles are finalized, that work will put millions of people out of a job.
Is it a crime? No. But it sure very negatively impacts people. Why not illegalize implementation of automation?
I'm surprised they don't also cite the first war against drugs (actualy, a drug) - prohibition. Exactly the same scenario played out then as is, hopefully, coming to it's inevitable conclusion now in the 'western hemisphere'. If the same thing is starting up again in the East, it's going to be a bloody and chaotic few decades to come before the same lesson gets learned the third time over. Fortunately we do have a la…
> I'm surprised they don't also cite the first war > against drugs Being a British publication, presumably they'd consider the Opium Wars - where the Brits fought to be allowed to sell the Chinese junk - as the first drug war.
That was a war for drugs, rather than against them. It was also about fighting for another drug - tea. Tea and coffee also had quite a loud vocal support for prohibition against it in the UK.
I'm surprised they don't also cite the first war against drugs (actualy, a drug) - prohibition. Exactly the same scenario played out then as is, hopefully, coming to it's inevitable conclusion now in the 'western hemisphere'. If the same thing is starting up again in the East, it's going to be a bloody and chaotic few decades to come before the same lesson gets learned the third time over. Fortunately we do have a la…
'Fortunately we do have a largely successful, bloodless war on a drug to learn from.'
While I do not condone the use of mind altering substances, I believe that the externalities of the illegal drug trade are far worse than what the drugs do to the users (e.g., the number of murders is Mexico is currently unknown and is somewhere between 20k and 250k a year). A second argument in favor of regulation over an outright ban is personal liberty. Our social contract is about protecting ourselves from each o…
>>Our social contract is about protecting ourselves from each other, not from ourselves. Drug use that negatively impacts the lives of someone other than the user should be illegal I kind of agree with you there, but where do you factor in healthcare and other costs that need to paid by all due to addicition? How should they pay for their treatment?
If you take the $300 billion spent on drug enforcement that would do it...
The acts themselves aren't; introducing external, man-made chemicals to invoke those are usually unnatural though - as in, the body doesn't make them themselves in such quantities. You know what I mean. Recreational drugs shouldn't be a problem though, as long as the user is aware of its effects and doesn't go overboard. Heavier stuff like heroin should remain illegal though.
Heroin is one of the most harmful drugs to the user[1]. Its usage should not be encouraged by anybody, but heroin should absolutely be legal, heavily regulated, but legal. The VAST majority of heroin related deaths are just that, related to heroin but not caused by it. Heroin is actually a remarkably safe drug in a clinical context, it does almost no long term damage. The main problems with it are that it is highly a…
Despite Queensland being rather draconian when it comes to drug laws, they have recently introduced naloxone available to anyone who does a one hour usage course and pays $5, at the same centre where you can get any amount of needles for free (and micron filters for very cheap). They also offer opiate replacement therapy (and benzodiazepine replacement and amphetamine replacement, though those are not well publicised). That centre is the reason why despite being a heroin addict for six years since I was 16, I've been clean for three and have zero health issues due to it. Why reuse needles when you can take 100 home? Anyway, good comment.
There was an interesting talk on Radio 4's Fourthought recently by an ex-cop.
"Peter Bleksley, a former undercover policeman fighting drugs crime and an ex-drug addict, argues that the only answer in the so-called "war on drugs" is to legalise and license them."
However, he was against simply putting the supply into the hands of pharmaceutical companies instead of criminals. He was calling for an affordable, state controlled supply to remove the incentive to build a business based on pushing the crap.
Well given these are crimes against another person, rather than 'crimes' against oneself, that argument is a load of bollocks!
Drug usage goes hand in hand with theft. Once you're addicted to drugs, you have to steal to pay for that habit. It's hardly a victimless crime.
What do you base that on? Because I think you'd be very surprised to see the number of people who take drugs, and the fact that most of them do not resort to theft for their habit.
The acts themselves aren't; introducing external, man-made chemicals to invoke those are usually unnatural though - as in, the body doesn't make them themselves in such quantities. You know what I mean. Recreational drugs shouldn't be a problem though, as long as the user is aware of its effects and doesn't go overboard. Heavier stuff like heroin should remain illegal though.
Heroin is one of the most harmful drugs to the user[1]. Its usage should not be encouraged by anybody, but heroin should absolutely be legal, heavily regulated, but legal. The VAST majority of heroin related deaths are just that, related to heroin but not caused by it. Heroin is actually a remarkably safe drug in a clinical context, it does almost no long term damage. The main problems with it are that it is highly a…
Also: even though overdoses are so preventable, calling for help usually causes police to arrest you anyway.
Drug usage goes hand in hand with theft. Once you're addicted to drugs, you have to steal to pay for that habit. It's hardly a victimless crime.
> Once you're addicted to drugs, you have to steal to pay for that habit. Not at all. Of course, you could just get a job that pays enough to support your habit? Software Engineering works for me, for example, and has allowed me to maintain a twenty year heroin habit, almost.
I did the same for six years, though I'm clean now. The people I used to run with were all well paid, too, though that's more a function of how expensive heroin is in Australia.
There seems to be some sort of taboo on getting high for whatever reason. I have asked a few people opposed to drugs why they were opposed to drugs and their answers were mostly health related i.e. Cannabis gives you psychosis so you shouldn’t smoke it. I then ask if, hypothetically, there was a drug developed which produces intense happiness for one hour but had no side effects, caused no long term damage and was to…
> There seems to be some sort of taboo on getting high for whatever reason. My two problems with this is - 1) A number of people who recreationally use the substances keep telling me "You've gotta try this" - Its none of your business what I decide I want to take or not take. (Note this also applies to alcohol) The second issue is the real reason - There's not a problem with the majority of these drugs in their pure…
The second issue you bring up is %100 due to the legal status of the substances - in a world where they were legal, there'd be regulations on purity and safety and established/trusted brands. Note, though, there are a number of drugs that are fairly easy to safely cultivate indoors (mj, psylocibin) where it's pretty easy to know the person who grew/produced the product. At that point, any concern about the safety is a bit like worrying about the food safety of drinking your friend's homebrewed beer.
Also, the organization DanceSafe is doing some great work offering resources to test the purity of MDMA.