"A war on drugs is a war on people"

[Jannabear]

I'm quoting a song from corporate avenger.
I'm personally a socialist in terms of economics, and a libertarian in terms of social issues.
I think if someone wants to use a drug they have every right, and not only that, statistically speaking making drugs legal doesn't make people any more likely to do them after they've been legal for a while.
And if they're regulated and taxed then the government benefits, and the drugs are safer, and a black market wont control it.

[Baruch]

You are correct.  The government always makes war on its own people.  In a democracy, there wouldn't be so many irrational restrictions.  Tough driving intoxicated on cigarettes or weed should be just as illegal as driving under the influence of alcohol.  It is simply irresponsible.  Also employers can choose to make their workplaces drug free, for employees or customers.  Just keep it at home, and only leave when you are sober.

[Fickle]

It is strange that the people who wish to be elected to government consider us to be responsible and intelligent adults during their election campaign. However once elected they invoke draconian laws which consider everyone to be somehow stupid, incapable of acting responsibly and that every action must be monitored and controlled for our own well being.
Which raises the question, if I was supposedly a responsible adult capable of making intelligent decisions such as voting before the election then why not after?.

If we are truly responsible adults then we should be free to make our own choices so long as it does not adverly effect or bring harm to others. Smoking a joint in your own home every now and then should not be illegal in my opinion and I find it offensive that anyone would suggest it should be. There seems to be a lot of religious fanatics out there who claim to believe in personal freedom so long as it is their personal flavor of freedom, which isn't freedom at all.

[Baruch]

Politicians are pathological liars ... even Washington and Lincoln.  The trick is, are their lies working for you or against you.

So no, the candidates don't consider you responsible adults during an election campaign ... they think you are cattle, before, during and after the campaign.  Mit Romney's open mike is typical ... except he wasn't that extreme ... to the country club class, 99% are takers, are cattle, are disobedient slaves (if they bother to employ you).

People are allowed certain drugs and not others ... because some drugs are profitable to the 1%, and some degree of intoxication on our part, works out better for them.

[TomFoolery]

It is strange that the people who wish to be elected to government consider us to be responsible and intelligent adults during their election campaign.

I disagree. Campaign ads are obvious to the point of banality, and anyone who was actually a responsible and intelligent adult would know you shouldn't vote for a person just because they have F-18s in their TV ads. Individuals may be smart, but people collectively are dumb. Politicians are counting on people to be dumb and vote emotionally. I mean, these people are registered voters...

I can guarantee you that even Donald Trump thinks they're irresponsible and emotional. Maybe especially Donald Trump.

If we are truly responsible adults then we should be free to make our own choices so long as it does not adverly effect or bring harm to others. Smoking a joint in your own home every now and then should not be illegal in my opinion and I find it offensive that anyone would suggest it should be.

Smoking a joint is one thing, but that's just it. Marijuana is a drug that doesn't give people who are on it violent tendencies. Meth does that to most people, and even alcohol, a totally legal drug does too. Despite massive public information campaigns, nearly one third of all traffic-related fatalities involve alcohol. A lot of people who drive drunk aren't bad people or even generally irresponsible people, they just made one bad choice, or maybe they have an addiction they can't control. There are of course people who can drink and just sit at home and control themselves, or even people who can shoot up heroin in their basements and still live productive lives. But there are many who can't. We spend so much money trying to ensure people can never access drugs and learn how bad drugs are, but almost none on treating drug addicts and most insurance companies won't pay for rehab. If we spent just a fraction of what we spend on drug enforcement programs on social programs instead, I imagine we'd make a much bigger dent in the ruin addiction is causing those within our population.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Get it through your heads once and for all. The WOD is and always was and always will be a money making scheme  designed to turn profit. It has absolutely nothing to do with public health or any of the other bullshit excuses touted by politicians. It's about controlling a segment of the market.
There is evidence that marijuana was outlawed because the people who owned the abundant timberland didn't want to have to compete with simple farmers who grew hemp. The timber barons supplied not only timber for house and ship building, but also paper production and a whole slew of industries .
It's all about the economics and protecting the investments of the land owners.. Once the timber industry went south and steel took over they simply found new money making opportunities such as for profit prisons and the free or almost free labor provided by inmates not to mention people like Bob Barker of TEEVEE fame who is the nation's largest supplier of personal items to inmates sold at rates nobody except inmates would ever pay and they pay those rates because it's a total monopoly. 

[gentle_dissident]

I know that once many meth heads are detoxed, they are ashamed of what they became. It's so stupid to punish someone for being lured by a chemical. I'm not so fond of the people who cook it. However, those are like most other criminals who long for the thug/1% life. Power is generally a horrible thing, no matter what side of the law the wielder is on.

Nazis on meth feel no pain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Nazi_Germany#Stimulants

[Fickle]

As a critical thinker I never could quite trust the capitalist because always the motive was pure profit. As well I could never trust the socialist because always the motive was also pure profit only in this case it was latent within the system. However somewhere in between the two was something, something quite different, which was neither.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The WOD isn't all that much different than religion. It's a means of controlling people. Even opiate pain killers aren't the demon that the powers that be would have you believe. If any doctor can approve them for you and you can buy useless over the counter pain relief and you can buy alcohol till your liver shrivels up that alone ought to tell you that it's simply a means of control and nothing more. They control the laws to control who can and cannot buy then have the ability to set the price. Oh, if a doctor says it's ok then you should have to pay more.
It's a con game. Currently there's a big broohaha about opiate pain killers because people overdose on them and before white kids decided to start croking left and right it was just criminals using heroin, but now suddenly it's a public health crisis and to get opiates prescribed you're going to have to enter into a pain specialist contract. What a load of bullshit.. It's not a war on anything unless you think someone is waging war on your bank account.
Hey! Bingo!  Follow the money.

[AllRight]

The drug companies would hate to see cannabis oil legalized which from my understanding would be a beneficial treatment for a multitude of illnesses.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The drug companies would hate to see cannabis oil legalized which from my understanding would be a beneficial treatment for a multitude of illnesses.

Who cares about cannabis? For some reason it's as if cannabis is some holy grail, 3rd rail that will cure everything on the spot and correct any economy overnight if only it were legal everywhere.  It was outlawed at the whims of the timber barons back when timber was king . It has it's uses, sure, but it's hardly the holy grail of what cures all. It's the media darling and lots of people get sucked into believing that if only thuh guverment would legalize it all would be good everywhere all the time. I'm not arguing against legalization. I believe all drugs, harmful or not should be decriminalized. But the YEY WEED crowd just never seems to be able to see the forest through the trees.

[Mermaid]

The drug companies would hate to see cannabis oil legalized which from my understanding would be a beneficial treatment for a multitude of illnesses.

Why would the drug companies hate to see it legalized?

[GreatLife]

Who cares about cannabis? For some reason it's as if cannabis is some holy grail, 3rd rail that will cure everything on the spot and correct any economy overnight if only it were legal everywhere.  It was outlawed at the whims of the timber barons back when timber was king . It has it's uses, sure, but it's hardly the holy grail of what cures all. It's the media darling and lots of people get sucked into believing that if only thuh guverment would legalize it all would be good everywhere all the time. I'm not arguing against legalization. I believe all drugs, harmful or not should be decriminalized. But the YEY WEED crowd just never seems to be able to see the forest through the trees.

I care about cannabis - Why is a better question to answer though.

Cannabis is important for several reasons.  First, it is a drug that produces no known negative effects like other drugs do.  So if you want to legalize drugs, you are going to concentrate on those that are least harmful first.  Due to cannabis being the least harmful of known drugs - it is in the spotlight right now.

Cannabis also has undisputed medical uses.  The government was the only entity in the US which could study cannabis using research protocols that work.  As a result of this study, the government patented the medical use of CBD (a chemical compound found within cannabis which is a product of the breakdown of THC).  CBD is going to be an important chemical in the treatment of several different brain disorders such as epilepsy.  No one who has studied this field disagrees with this.  THC is the chemical labelled as an hallucinogenic compound - but even it seems to have use for people with schizophrenia.  You see, we co-evolved with marijuana as your brain has receptors designed specifically for those chemicals - and if you believe in evolution the only way that happens is for the two species (marijuana and people) to co-evolve together.  So it seems that we have made something illegal which we depend on for happiness.  Here is an article that you may find interesting:  http://headsup.scholastic.com/students/endocannabinoid.

When they made marijuana illegal - they also had to make hemp illegal because few could tell the difference.  But there is a world of difference between these two.  Hemp can be used as a direct replacement for corn in ethanol production - and there are parts of the country (Kentucky) where they can double crop hemp.  So allowing hemp production will take a substantial load off the food stuffs that we are currently using.  If you want better food security with cheaper prices, allowing hemp production goes a long way.

Hemp is also a direct replacement for textiles derived from oil.  This includes nylon, raylon, EPS, and a bunch of others.  There is no doubt that using hemp, rather than oil, to produce textiles is a beneficial activity - it actually will help to reduce our carbon foot print, rather than increasing it like oil use does.

There are other reasons, but I will stop here.  Cannabis is important because it is safe and medically relevant, and can be used as a direct replacement for oil.  If you were going to pick a drug to concentrate on - it would be cannabis first.

[Fickle]

Mermaid

Why would the drug companies hate to see it legalized?

Do the math, you plant a single seed in the ground and you can grow enough weed for the year. Pain relief, headaches, stress relief and the list goes on and on and it costs next to nothing. These common ailments are a trillion dollar industry. Any fool can plant a seed and grow a plant right in their backyard and all those exec's at the drug companies have a vested interest in seeing this never happens. Why?, because their psychotic self-serving assholes that's why.

[widdershins]

I'm quoting a song from corporate avenger.
I'm personally a socialist in terms of economics, and a libertarian in terms of social issues.
I think if someone wants to use a drug they have every right, and not only that, statistically speaking making drugs legal doesn't make people any more likely to do them after they've been legal for a while.
And if they're regulated and taxed then the government benefits, and the drugs are safer, and a black market wont control it.

I agree with that completely, and would take it one step further to say that ANYTHING someone wants to do to their own body is their own business.  Whether it be who they sleep with, what drugs they take, choosing to end their own lives, having sex for money without a condom...whatever I want to do to my own body, so long as I personally accept the risks and responsibilities, should be just fine.