The Drug war, and a price too high to pay.
President Richard M. Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) into law in 1970. This statute calls for the regulation of certain drugs and substances.
From: https://www.history.com/topics/crime/the-war-on-drugs
The CSA outlines five “schedules” used to classify drugs based on their medical application and potential for abuse.
Schedule 1 drugs are considered the most dangerous, as they pose a very high risk for addiction with little evidence of medical benefits. Marijuana, LSD, heroin, MDMA (ecstasy) and other drugs are included on the list of Schedule 1 drugs.
The Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 was probably the start of the drug war (by proxy), in 1914 congress passed the Harrison Act which regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of cocaine and opiates. The prohibition of alcohol was passed in 1919 and was not overturned untill 1933. I think this may have been a classic bait and switch. Since soon after overturning prohibition, in 1937 the “marijuana tax act” was passed. Now remember the prohibition of alcohol created all sorts of problems for people all across the country. The tommy gun became a poular machine gun for the alcohol smugglers. Crime went up, as would be expected. Prior to 1919 people who would be criminals in 1920, were entrepreneurs in much the same way that modern drug dealers could be paying taxes and settling disputes in court in stead of on the streats. This is a truth that the 18th amendment revealed. Every time you ban, or regulate something you have negative consequences. The honest question is does the benifits out weigh the negatives?
So lets look at drugs honestly. A drug is anything that one injests either by smoke, pill, vapor, as a powder or intravenously that alters the state of consciousness. By this definition Nicotine, Alcohol and caffeine are all drugs.
The Chart to the above-left shows the most lethal of all the drugs at the bottom and the least lethal drugs at the top. Take note that alcohol is 7th from the bottom and 13th from the top. This shows that mushrooms, LSD, molly and marijuana are all less lethal than legal alcohol. As the chart on the right shows, tobacco and alcohol are more dangerouse and addictive than Ecstasy, LSD, Khat and of course marijuana. The Facts speak for themselves. Legal drugs are as bad if not worse for people than the illegal ones. What should the laws be?
What should the law be?
The short answer is nothing, just to be clear I speak about laws banning the use, sale and growth of drugs or anything relating to them. I used to only believe that marijuana should be legal but now thanks to Portugal I can point to a real world example of how legalizing all drugs has a massive positive impact on the people who live in that country. They saw a 30% reduction in reciprocity ( people who beat the addiction were less likley to relapse.) They also saw a drop in teen use and adult use. However I would be open to laws banning the refinement of plants into hard drugs. If that was done we would have to go after alcohol and tabocco companies (equal application of the law).
The law should only deal with criminals not people with medical and spiritual problems. That is exactly what drug users are. People who are hurting, they tend to be abused. Some suffer sexual abuse, some physical, others emotional and most lawmakers and voters never think about this or how their vote might impact these people. I don’t give drug users a pass but I do think people need to realize that we all do drugs even the illegal ones. DMT is a controlled substance but it makes you dream every night.
I think the use of drugs should be ignored, even when a crime has been commited. Think of a drunk driver getting charged with damages to property and has to pay to have whatever he/she broke fixed. If a addict steals, charge him/her for theft. It is a medical issue, and as far as punishment, we should just go back to the drunk tank rules. You stay untill your sober. Do we really want to worry more about individual drug use? Do you think crimes like rape, theft, murder and assault are more pressing. I would rather dangerous violent people be in jail, than the 30-40% of non-violent people sitting in jail right now. How about you?
Legalizing helps everyone.
The way it helps is simple. Users who want to quit can buy legal poppy and opium plants and chew the leaves for a nice high that abates their withdrawal symptoms. This makes quitting much easier and people can try the leaves without the much higher risk that comes with the refined product, namly addiction and overdose.
The Bottom line is that we need to quit pretending that addiction is a legal issue. As far as the law goes, they should only be accountable to get these people sober and beyond that, have no obligation (or should not) under the law to do anything to them including issuing a ticket. The police and judges have far worse criminals to worry about. Do we really want to be stopped and searched all the time just because police are looking for the money making drug tickets and charges. It also puts more stress on the over burdened justice system and puts police in harms way. Who want’s that? Please consider what I have to say and fact check me so you know that I am telling the truth. Be careful marijuana is a hard drug to find information on since the “big pharma” camp has put allot of money into this.
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