Not "maybe." The USA should legalize most, if not all, drugs.



Maybe we should legalize drugs
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Posted: 04/05/2009 12:01:00 AM CDT

Maybe we should legalize drugs.

I come neither eagerly nor easily to that maybe. Rather, I come by way of spiraling drug violence in Mexico that recently forced Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge the role America's insatiable appetite for narcotics plays in the carnage. I come by way of watching Olympian Michael Phelps do the usual public relations song and dance after being outed smoking weed, and knowing the whole thing was a ritualized farce. Most of all, I come by way of personal antipathy: I don't like and have never used illegal drugs.

But yeah, I'm thinking maybe we should legalize them. Or at the very least, begin the discussion.

I find myself in august — and unexpected — company. Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, George Schultz, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and the late conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. have all said much the same thing.

And then, there is Jack A. Cole, who spent 26 years with the New Jersey State Police, 12 of them as an undercover narcotics officer. In 2002, he founded LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc), which now claims 12,000 members — FBI, DEA, cops, prosecutors and judges united in the belief that the War on Drugs has failed and that the solution to the drug problem is legalization, regulation and taxation.

Definitely. I am absolutely amazed at how little this country learned from Prohibition.

I can't make up my mind on this issue. I understand the "legalize it" argument and it does make some sense. On the other hand what are all the drug dealers, gangs, cartels, crack whores, etc, going to do to support themselves? This would be devastating to the black market economy. I am highly skeptical that the druggies are in business as a means of political statement. I believe that they are criminals and will have to find other ways to victimize society. I wonder what those options would be?

I'm used to drugs being illegal, and fucking up people who are important to me. So, it's real hard to think of making drugs legal. But the legal system does NOTHING to prevent people from taking drugs. They all know drugs are shit, they just decide to make up their own minds.

I guess it would never occur to ME to base my decision on whether to use drugs on what the legislature thought about it, so maybe we should just stop using the police and legal system.

It would open up a lot of resources which might be used to encourage folks to not use drugs simply because they don't want to fuck themselves up. People have to make other health and lifestyle decisions, without police help, I guess.

Outlawing drugs is sort of like outlawing obesity. I'm kind of coming around to the legalization idea, I guess.

I'm of two minds about legalization. I've seen up close what drugs (and no, I'm not talking about the effects of prohibition here) do to people, both personally and in 17 years as a volunteer EMT/paramedic. That part of me says that legalization is a bad idea, because it tells people that we now think drugs are acceptable. OTOH, there's a direct parallel between prohibiting drugs and prohibiting guns: neither works well, and both trample people's rights.

That leaves me, reluctantly, supporting legalization, but I'm not at all happy about it.

+1 With the exception: I have never been a paramedic.

My experience tells me that there are some people who simply insist on being fucked up by something. They will use whatever they can get their hands on, legal or not, and sometimes outright poisonous. Have you seen someone drink rubbing alcohol? I have. They are not kidding about "severe gastric distress".

At one point Russia had it's own mini-prohibition, a massive anti-alcohol campaign, complete with army tanks crushing vineyards. That went well - I remember walking in a park where lawns were white from cologne boxes.

Those people dear to you that are fucking themselves up? You can't save them unless they come to their senses and decide they want out.

The best we can do is minimize the effects on everyone else. To that end, I would like everything to be legal, but only within the confines of one's home or some establishment dedicated to the purpose.

Legalize all drugs. Make them pharmaceutical grade in the highest potency available. Make them dirt cheap. Do it now.

It will all work out in the end. It might not work out "well" as defined by some of the light-hearted of us, but it will work out.

That cracked me up. How'd he know if he has never tried?



I disagree, rather strongly. We simply need to de-regulate. Shooting heroin should be like playing Russian roulette. Gov't. regulation historically has never made anything cheaper. We need to totally deregulate, strike the laws from the books . . . they don't serve their intended purposes lead to life loss and gov't. intrusions on law abiding folks, they empower gangs and promote petty crime. Just strike them, don't replace them, eliminate them. If some people OD, cool. If moving this direction gives us an excuse to cut Law Enforcement budgets, reduce jail populations, fire a few city attorneys . . . well, bloody RIGHT ON! That is all tax money I'd like back in my pocket. I have NOT been getting my tax money's worth.

But more than all that. I can brew my own beer in my home. I can make my own wine. In this day and age I SHOULD be able to distill my own whiskey. Yeah, I "get" that there was a time when people went blind from drinking a bad batch . . . but that was a day and age when refrigeration, quality control, and any number of things were not remotely as developed as they are now. I believe people could distill quite safely given modern materials and equipment. . . ahrrgh! I am getting all . ... well, it is an emotional issue for me.

Carl and Earl Shelton were kin.

I am a recovering addict and alcoholic, with that said I vote yes on legalization. I got sober before I was of legal drinking age so my drugs of choice weren't alcoholic. Getting an adult to buy me booze was tough getting anything available on the black market was easy and available from both kids and adults. The drug war is an expensive and destructive failure, it doesn't limit supply or demand but has damaged Americans opinion of police and government.

+100

I think it would be great if addicts could get drugs legally in a setting that might also offer support (when requested) to kick the habit.

I don't think they should be available everywhere like alcohol, although that's how it was in the early days of this country if I remember my history.

And then there begs the question: What would become of all the jack booted door kickers?

-We make power-generating plates, and they get to provide our "Green Power"?
-We retrain them to be football kickers?
-We retrain them to be the "community cop, walking the beat" around their homes?

I don't think we are going to see ALL drugs legalized any time soon...not in our lifetimes at least. But at some point, something has got to give. The numbers have proved time and time again that the drug war is not really doing any good. It may be well intentioned...but the approach needs to be reconsidered.

At the very least, I think marijuana should be decriminalized....and I truly believe that may become reality at some point. The push that we have been seeing in recent years for medicinal use has had some various levels of success, depending on where you are at in the country....so that's a start. And anybody who has any experience with drugs can tell you that marijuana does not even come close in comparison with 'hard' drugs like cocaine, meth, or heroine (i.e. drugs that can actually kill you). Heck...alcohol can kill you, and that's legal.

Furthermore, if you take the time to research why marijuana is illegal in the first place (thanks to Mr. Hearst and Mr. DuPont), I think a lot of the pro-drug war people out there might reconsider their stance on marijuana legalization.

People are going to smoke weed, whether it's illegal or not. Apparently, it's California's #1 cash crop. Might as well get in on it and gain the tax benefits.