Your Honest Thoughts....

I whole heartily disagree.

In liberal Maine we have methadone clinics everywhere and yet we are being nailed with some serious meth labs and resulting deaths. I used to catch a van on the way to work and would watch dealers work the line up and down a methadone clinic as they waited at 5:30 AM for the doors to open. There was a line 100 people deep and 1/4 of them were buying other drugs from the white SUV that was far better then my ratty old Ford Focus.

And drugs are cheap, very cheap right now, that is what is killing people; both pill poppers and and heroine addicts.

The sad reality there is a drug rehab program that is 97% successful and that is Teen Challenge. It is a horrible name because they take adults too. Though I have never taken drugs I fully support them because they deal well with drug addicts by filling the void they are so desperately trying to fill. That void is Jesus, but because it is a religious organization only addicts can choose to go there, they can't be sent. Its sad because state run programs average a 3% success rate where as at Teen Challenge it is 97% successful.

The ironic thing is, at the end of every Presidents term this one group asks the out-going President what they feel America's biggest problem is. I was shocked when George Bush Jr said it was "the demise of the American family". When they asked Obama after his first 4 years, he said "Obese Children." ????????????????????But then again that is a guy that has his name unofficially on a health care act and he is a cigarette smoker!!

 

Wow, that is sad. Legal prescription drugs are probably as dangerous as illegal drugs. So, the legalization of illicit drugs issue kind of loses its appeal as a viable option.

 

Decriminalize it maybe, but I'm not sure legalizing is the answer...

 

As a long ago smoker of marijuana I have only a lowly response to the original question. It is my opinion that the good Lord put us and all things plant and animal on this world for a reason. Hemp as some my confuse with the smoking kind of weed has so many uses from paper to cloth to bio fuels while the THC of the smoking kinda weed some of you are talking about has many health benefits. It is a fine line we toe in the sand when we say we are all good when we have a couple of drinks or beers and then turn the key on a vehicle but then say that some guy that just smoked a hit of weed is going to go out on the road and kill every one in his way. It is a pretty convoluted issue in my mind but I think if handled right the softening of the simple pot laws would be beneficial to all. But then what do I know? Prohibition worked out all right for them back in the 20's and 30's didnt it? Only ones gettin rich was the bad guys as I understand. HMMM, funny how history repeats itself.
JMHO take it or leave it.

 

I used to be 100% against weed, I believed everything I was taught in D.A.R.E. about all drugs being terrible.

Then I moved in with roommates who smoked 2-3 times a day. I even tried it enough to decide it wasn't for me, but I no longer have a problem with anyone who does smoke. Marijuana is WAY safer than alcohol, when my roommates and I were drunk and "discussing" politics or 2 strokes vs 4 strokes or Harley's vs Jap bikes, it typically turned into us screaming at the top of our lungs pizzed off at each other. Those same discussions when high ended up with us laughing and going to find some ice cream or chips and then watching Fear and Loathing .

I've been in the car with drunk drivers and high drivers, not that I'm advocating either but an impaired driver on marijuana is a safer driver IMO.

So I say legalize it. Of course I'm all about personal freedoms, so I think that many drugs should be legalized. Take the money that currently goes into drug enforcement and fighting cartels and gangs, and instead put that towards addiction help. Our economy would be better off, our inner cities would be better off, and many families would be better off. Like Butcher said, we clearly didn't learn our lesson from Prohibition, all that did was make some people rich and killed a lot of others.

 

I understand your points (although I don't necessarily agree with them, which is no big deal), I do want to say I that I wouldn't agree with blaming drug related deaths on a drug prohibition. The deaths are related to people wanting illegal drugs (whether they should or shouldnt be) and committing crimes accordingly.

Its just like I wouldn't blame Ford for some kid going 100mph in a 55mph and killing someone with his Mustang because he was speeding.

Kind of a minor point I know.

 

I don't know if blaming Ford is a great analogy, this is more like blaming cops for getting involved in a high speed chase where the speeder crashes and dies. Sure, the guy shouldn't have been speeding and breaking the law to begin with. But at the same time I don't think it's responsible to continue to pursue once speeds reach a certain limit because at that point you put innocent lives in danger.

Drugs are the same way. I really couldn't care less about gang on gang killings in Chicago. But it's a tragedy when an innocent bystander gets killed, I just read last week about a mother being shot and killed while she was pushing her 6 month old in a stroller.

Legalization takes that underground power away from the gangs and in the end we end up with less violence. I believe that is the only way to clean up cities like Chicago and Detroit.

 

My analogy isnt a perfect one never!!!

Maybe my point is that I'm all about making people accountable for their actions. It's not a laws fault (unless it's an impossible law...like you can't breath except on Sundays) that people break it and problems result from it...it's the people breaking the law that create the problem.

 

Yeah, I see your point, it is kind of a chicken or the egg type thing. Regardless, it's a problem and the current "war on drugs" doesn't seem to have and end to it. I say it's time to try something different.

 

I'm confused...............I seemed to miss where and how the "cops" got involved in the above discussion, and how they are to blame. That being said, can you tell me what rationale was used to come up with the theory of an impaired pot smoker is a safer driver than an impaired alcohol abuser.

 

I have no scientific data, only personal experience from riding in cars with impaired drivers affected by both and riding dirt bikes with guys affected by both. From my observations drunk drivers make stupid decisions and drive much more aggressively and take more risks than they normally would sober. High drivers drive much more slowly and conservatively than they normally would sober. Reaction time may or may not be different between the 2, I have no idea. But the manner in which they drive is completely different.

 

Call me old fashioned, but I just can't come to grips with getting in a vehicle with someone operating, who is IMPAIRED on anything, including alcohol and/or drugs. I guess having spent too many years in the emergency services allowed me overly ample opportunity to see the results of fools, at all levels of impairment, on all kinds of substances, level their stupidity on them selves and other innocent victims................. Once you have to make that 3 or 4 a.m. notification to the next of kin, you tend to see the issue from a "un-impaired" point of view.............just sayin'

 

Oh I'm not saying that impaired driving using either substance should be legal. I'm just saying that I believe there is a difference between the 2.

 

....and I'm just saying if a person wants to drive, then drive. If you have a need to get "impaired on "something", then get impaired..................but don't mix the two...............

 

One of my best friends has been thru brain surgery 4 times and is in constant pain from it. What she has.....It's incurable they have found out. All the docs....and I mean all, prescribed her oxy, perc, and all the other crap that leads to being a needle junkie. She hated taking the drugs with a 2year old child in her care. She decided to try weed. It helped. Lots. More than the oxy.

Long story short, she smokes everyday. Illegally. She has went and spoke to the senate regarding the matter trying to get it legalized in hoosier country. Here's the video. Watch it and listen to all she has been thru.

So yea....I'm all for it. Until you see the good it can do, most think it's just for the recreational side. In her case it is needed 100 percent.

 

I think medical marijuana has a lot of merit. But I think if only medical marijuana is legalized we would run into the same problems of misuse as other pain killing prescribed drugs.

 

Right, all drugs are dangerous. Including coffee, alcohol, nicotene, etc. Our "wise leaders" have chosen to ban some that they do not like, require prescriptions for those made by the drug companies who pay them off, and allow some pretty dangerous ones that they favor (but tax them, cause that makes a "bad" thing OK). Nicotene and alcohol are beyond a reasonable doubt more harmful to "society" than MJ.

So a "recreational" MJ user gets castigated, but the recreational caffiene, nicotene, or alcohol user is generally accepted, as long as they are not harming other people. The MJ user is not offered that option, he must be put in a cage (jail)! Same for opiods, if there is a prescription, all is well, no cage for you. If you fail to get a prescription, you go to the cage.

Ludicrous, the whole thing.

 

Yes all drugs alter the chemical reaction in the brain so it makes for mood changes, but the consequences for those changes vary greatly. They cannot be lumped into the same argument.

For instance I have seizures and have for years but a prescription helps stop them. Obviously this is a VERY good thing to other drivers on the road, but should I partake in alcohol, that would indeed change how my Cerebellum functions; but in a far different way. Two different drugs, targeting the same part of the brain, but getting very different results.

I think Glen Frye of the Eagles said it best in regards to another aspect of this. He said after they had gotten done their first big record album, they just hung around and smoked dope. He said it was great "except that they never got anything done". These are his words not mine. The question I propose is; are passing these sort of laws going to create a generation of American's that do nothing? That is not what our ancestors did to make this nation great I know that.