On 2004-03-16 09:06:00, Peter Moore wrote:
We need to sit back and study these things first. Think of the backlashes. I'm not saying there may not be benefits to legalizing cocaine, heroin, etc. But it might not be all good either. I don't pretend to have all the answers.
First, real kudos to you for having the sack to breach these difficult questions. As a local public office holder, that really does show some courage. :nworthy:
But re. anything stronger than marijuana being immediately legalized. Unlike alcohol, bad batches are rampant. The street shit is all over.
Sure, now! But when alcohol was illegal, bathtub gin was a real problem. People routinely went blind or even died from drinking hooch boosted w/ wood alcohol or just accidentally contaminated in the manufacturing process. That problem was solved when we reopened the market to legal manufactore and trade.
Same thing is going on with opiates and stimulants. No one ever gets a "bad" batch of Oxy or Addaral. Only the black market stuff hits the retail purchaser w/o proper dose and content labeling or contaminated w/ foreign matter.
Now, I'm not saying that opiates and stimulants, or even benzodiazepines and other drugs are as safe as marijuana. They're not. But I am saying that prohibition of them does nothing to make them either safer or less availaible. In fact, it goes a long way toward making them less safe and more available to those we most don't want to have them; children.
Your beer distributor will not sell beer to your child. The dope dealer will. In fact, it's less risky that way cause kids can't be prosecuted like adults so the law has less leverage to get information out of them.
There is no drug so dangerous that it can't be made more so through prohibition.
Age is mind over matter. If you don't mind...it doesn't matter!
-- Chuck Gauran