Legalize drugs: Yes or no?

The phrasing here is a bit vague. He is comparing the difficulty of prohibiting alcohol to illicit drugs. Rephrasing the question concisely might go, "In time, won't illicit drugs become as hard to control as alcohol?", or, "Controlling alcohol is hard; isn't controlling anything else just as hard?". There weren't any real statistics posted to suggest so.

I'm not saying that is currently the case. What I meant was that over time government control of illicit drugs will decline, possibly to the point where alcohol was, and there are statistics that prove that is already happening. Of course it is happening much more rapidly with marijuana. And yes, I am putting my personal opinion here and I never claimed this to be a guarantee, but I suspect that since it happened to alcohol and it is very likely to happen with marijuana the chances of it happening with all other drugs is only a matter of time.

You can't just say there are statistics and not show them if you want to prove something. Alcohol was illegal for about ten years and was much more popular than marijuana at the time of its prohibition. Marijuana has been illegal for 80 years. If marijuana will become legal, it's happening at a glacial pace. Marijuana is also much easier to control than alcohol because all you need to make alcohol is to ferment food such as grapes, potatoes, wheat, etc. Cannabis plants only have one use and their growth can be restricted easily so it most comes from Canada and Mexico.

How many times have we seen people doing vandalism or even hurting & killing people because they were under the influence of drugs (like when driving for an example). Prohibiting the use of drugs IS to protect from the stupidity of others.

You must be living under a rock. I don't post statistics of the growing support of marijuana because it is such common knowledge.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/19/marijuana-legalization-public-support-growing_n_851238.html




Again, the person is still responsible. They had the knowledge that they would be influenced by the drug and chose to do it anyway. And again, it is just like guns in the sense that if someone chooses to shoot someone, they are responsible, not the gun. Look at it as if drugs were a tool. A tool that enhances and/or alters life. Just like any other tool you can use it responsibly. Just like any other tool if you use it to harm someone else, you get blamed, not the tool. You have to remember that liberty is having the freedom to believe and do things that are very controversial.


In reality I find these arguments to all be so irrelevant. The arguments most people make as to why drugs should be illegal may have some merit but they typically have nothing to do with why drugs really are illegal. Especially marijuana. But at least they give the government an excuse that sounds good.

We didn't argue whether the polls were in favor or legalization. We were arguing whether keeping drug prohibition could be enforced.

However I didn't see that the OP said "What's your opinion?". Since we're in SD I assumed it was a debate.

Anyway here is my opinion: Have marijuana use licensed, requiring users to not have it interfere with other's lives/cause harm or keep it illegal. All other hard drugs should be kept illegal. Since this is an opinion thread there is no need to debate so I'll end here.

Studies on successful drug policies have shown that treatment is the cure for drug addiction, not incarceration. Throwing people in jail for soft drugs only waste law enforcement manpower, time and money. It is cheaper to rehabilitate a drug addict than throw them in prison. By the time they leave prison, the felony on their record prevents them from getting jobs or really amounting to a whole lot in their lives because of the legal hurdles. The private prison industry promotes these policies to keep their beds full. It is a harmful policy to this country and should be abolished.

If we legalized drugs, we could regulate them and put an end to lacing of softer drugs with harder drugs. Currently, there is no regulation or consumer protection on drugs. We already know people will take drugs regardless of their legality. We saw the same thing happen during prohibition. When we review history we learn that prohibition is not the proper method to prevent usage.

Legalize, regulate, rehabilitate.



Wonderful job they are doing with that. Ever take a look at Mexico? Notice all the drug cartels that are as powerful as their government? That is directly related to the U.S drug policy. People want drugs, whether it's legal or not is only a minor deterrent like a high fence(i.e keep the honest people honest). The drug policy of incarceration only leads to a cycle of abuse, incarceration and further abuse. We should be rehabilitating these people not incarcerating them.

I don't know about you but, if meth was legalized tomorrow. I certainly wouldn't use it. I wouldn't use any of the harder drugs despite their legality. I highly doubt the majority of American's are abstaining from hard drug use because of enforcement policies. So hard drug use won't see an increase. Soft drugs will see an increase though the size of the increase can be debated. I say the increase will be minor because I believe the majority of those who would smoke marijuana already do.

If you're talking about cannabis as marijuana and hemp, it has a plethora of uses. If you're talking about it as only hemp, it has a plethora of uses. And if you're talking about it as only marijuana, it STILL has a plethora of medical uses. Where did you get "only one" from?

Cannabis DOES only come from Canada and Mexico, but both ways hurt the united states. Hemp comes from Canada, so money goes there, and Marijuana is smuggled from Mexico, so money goes there. At the very least, there are tariffs on imported hemp, but it would be a great improvement to just grow it here. And it would be an infinite improvement to grow marijuana here, since no benefit whatsoever is currently gained by importing it from Mexico.



You can give your opinion and you can debate. You don't need my permission... >_>

DONT DONT DONT DONT Weed is bad, Drugs in general are bad, they Kill you, they kill you not only physically but also mentally.

they fuck your life over and make you believe you are happy, but actually you become dependent on it. Eventually someone who is tainted by drugs, even "light" ones like marihuana, can destroy their lives and end up having a mediocre job, unable to fulfill their lives beyond the drug in question.

I have SEEN it, I have seen some pretty smart and respectable person end up in a telephone job, working only to fund his drugs. HE GODDAMN CHASED A WOMAN WITH AN AX AT A PARTY.... he wanted to enter medicine.

From a social standpoint, Drugs are awful. From a medical standpoint some drugs can kill you.

I'm not going to criticize someone for their opinions if that was the purpose of the thread.

The moment all drugs are legalized is the moment the country will begin to fall. It is already enough that mankind needs medical drugs to keep themselves stable, if not alive. But if the drugs that are more or less considered illegal are to become legal, everyone will get as much of them as possible and pleasure themselves to death from these drugs. And if not dead, then just become insanely addicted.

All drugs are legalized tomorrow. You going to run out and get some meth or crack? How about some opium or PCP? You gonna tie off your arm for some Heroine? Go hunting in a pasture for some shrooms? Hit the local shops for some LSD or X? Going to start taking some "Special K"? I didn't think so. Now, if you won't make a mad dash to the hard stuff to get high, why is everyone else supposed to?

Most likely, people will buy some pot, go to the store, buy some Mountain Dew and Cheetos (possibly Funions) and smoke with some friends then laugh at everything on T.V. Something I wish to note here, people who would smoke pot, already do and will continue to smoke pot regardless of it's legality.

I don't think all drugs should be legal but I think for possession they should be soft on people like a night in jail or confiscating it.

I would like weed to be legal any body that takes it I haven't seen any one been badly effected by it though obviously like any drug legal or other wise can be bad for you if over used. I want it mainly to be legal so I can buy it from the shops and not have to deal with people that put me on edge.

Other drugs I think are too dangerous I have a couple of family members that have been badly effected by these other drugs I'm not too sure exactly what kind but the injecting kind but I don't think they deserve jail time for what they are doing.

If they were made legal maybe having to have a licence to buy would help reduce people from abusing it and each person can only buy a maximum amount with in a certain time period and it's all recorded on some database.