Legalize Drugs - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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Crime and prevention thereof. Loopholes, grey areas and the letter of the law.
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By Agent Steel
#14828167
The idea of having drug use in itself be a crime at all, much less a FELONY in most cases, in my opinion, boils down to an extremely abusive example of human injustice.

First, it's important to understand a key preliminary point when dealing with this issue. That is, we need to understand the fundamental purpose behind what law is and ought to be. Now, I am not a lawyer, but I'll be damned if I'm not allowed to have an opinion about human justice. I am a free man, and I can legally vote. That alone makes me qualified to speak about the law.

What is the purpose of law, in my opinion? To me, the purpose of law is twofold: First, laws need to exist to protect good people from people who would do them harm. Second, laws need to exist to make sure that every individual is treated with justice.

The prohibition of drugs fufills neither of these two purposes. Drug users are not bad people, and the vast majority of users are completely harmless, functional, otherwise law abiding citizens. Secondly, the drug laws fail catastrophically at ensuring that every free indivdual is treated with human dignity and justice. Try to see it from the perspective of the drug user. Imagine how you would feel if you were forcibly taken and locked inside a prison cell for doing nothing except for freely choosing to ingest a substance. Think of how unjust and abusive this is. If you are a compassionate human being who genuinely cares about the welfare and safety of other people, I don't see how you could possibly support such an idea.

Interesting last night I watched an intelligence squared debate in which the motion was to legalize drugs (this took place just one week prior to the debate in which Lawrence Krauss and Michael Shermer completely trounced religion by the way) . My side won the majority of the audience! I was so relieved when at the end the numbers showed that the people supported this position. Public opinion on this issue is changing. People are gaining sense, rationality, and compassion. It's time to end this abusive, costly, and unjust war on drugs once and for all. For the sake of human dignity, please have a heart and legalize drugs.
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By anarchist23
#14828216
Imagine how you would feel if you were forcibly taken and locked inside a prison cell for doing nothing except for freely choosing to ingest a substance.


I don't have to imagine this and speaking from experience.
It's not just being incarcerated for possession of drugs that is an injustice but also the effect on the prisoners family.
For example you've got a situation where cannabis is scientifically proven to be safer than alcohol and tobacco yet these drugs are legal and cannabis is not. This has been known fifty years ago.This is a perverse situation which hasn't been rectified. Why? That's the million dollar question.
See the drug discussion thread of nearly 10,000 posts.

viewtopic.php?p=1791006#p1791006






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Last edited by anarchist23 on 29 Jul 2017 19:50, edited 3 times in total.
By mikema63
#14828217
Why?


Nixon ignored the evidence to criminalize it and use that law as a tool against antiwar protestors and hippies. Couldn't arrest them for protesting but he could for smoking weed. Bonus points for fear mongering weed and delegitimizing protestors with it.
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By anarchist23
#14828219
mikema63 wrote:Nixon ignored the evidence to criminalize it and use that law as a tool against antiwar protestors and hippies. Couldn't arrest them for protesting but he could for smoking weed. Bonus points for fear mongering weed and delegitimizing protestors with it.



The illegality of cannabis occurs in nearly every western country and not just in the US.
By mikema63
#14828224
All largely for the same reasons in the west, or because of pressure from the US on countries like Mexico and south America.
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By One Degree
#14828227
mikema63 wrote:Nixon ignored the evidence to criminalize it and use that law as a tool against antiwar protestors and hippies. Couldn't arrest them for protesting but he could for smoking weed. Bonus points for fear mongering weed and delegitimizing protestors with it.


There might be some truth to this, but you have to realize how close this was to Prohibition. Cultural norms simply did not approve at that time.
By mikema63
#14828229
Which is why it was possible for him to do it and why the public was receptive to the propaganda put out on it.
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By Stormsmith
#14828233
It was brought to the attention of Canadians in the early 1920s, and became a criminal practise in the mid 30s (after prohition. I take it drugs like opium were more the driving force). There were international conferences, but who pressured whom, I could not say
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By One Degree
#14828234
@mikema63
That seems a reasonable assessment. I don't know how many people may have been alienated like I was. When I returned from college, all my friends were smoking marijuana. I said no thanks, I'll just have a beer. That was the end of all my old friendships. The fact it was illegal probably caused this division into do's and don'ts, but I was against legalization due to this experience and being forced into the opposition camp. I had no objections to others smoking but they had no tolerance for those who did not.
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