Curious_Soul wrote:

Greetings..

i am not from the U.S, but i guess its the same all round the world..i am from ireland...

Hi Curious, are drugs illegal in Ireland as well? What are the penalties for a small quantity of marijuana? Large quantities of marijuana? Coke, crack and other obnoxious drugs?

Curious_Soul wrote:

There is alot of positives in legalizing marijuana and even go further to say all drugs...but of course there is also negatives which we must keep in mind

The positives outweigh the negatives for all the reasons you listed below....Legalizing drugs would take them off the black market. Revenues lost by forfeiture and seizures of property  could  be  replaced  by  taxation and  regulation.  Then  we  can  reduce  the stigma  of  addiction  and  help  them... Getting the gangs, drug lords and organized mafia of all nationalities would be enormously beneficial as well.  Our prison population would probably be reduced as well, freeing up the jails for the truly VIOLENT offenders who are a great danger to our society.

Curious_Soul wrote:

positives
as you said we can tax it...and hopefully put the money into poverty....and as another poster said people are going to do drugs regardless...so by making them legal, we can hopefully cut out gangs for the most part and thus alot of gang violence killings etc..with regard to 'class a' drugs we can most likely insure that the drugs are cleaner, and thus cut out some more deaths hopefully...and with a more open attitude toward drugs..addicts and users will be more open to talking about problems, instead maybe they feel like victims whom society has no place for, they feel trapped in a cycle of drug abuse.

Curious_Soul wrote:

how much money and time is spent by police chasing drug dealers?? detectives..police...drug squads...etc ....and who is it helping? ..yeah they stop some drugs arriving at their destination...but do you think that hurts south american drug barons.....sure it hurts the ones who get caught and puts some fear into those who consider getting inot that business but its not going to stop it.......here in ireland recently they made one of their biggest ever seizures and they might think they are making a difference...but later i was reading comments from former drug baron Howard Marks who knows the game and believed there would be a new shipment within the week, that is really doesnt hurt the major players all that much they just move on to the next deal......so ok the seizure slows things down, which probably puts the street prices up because of supply and demand....so then maybe crime goes up because the drug addict need more money to pay for the extra price...

I live in a border state. A trip to Mexico, across the border you might say, is practically a rite of passage... :) Or, it was anyway. Now a trip across the border is rife with danger..... Drug wars on both sides of the border, so many headless bodies are being found in the desert; a tragic result of infighting among the drug cartels and the embattled forces of law in Mexico. With corruption being rampant in Mexico, it's very difficult to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys.... The bad guys benefit from ILLEGAL drugs. They wouldn't benefit from LEGAL drugs as much as they do... who knows, were drugs made legal and taxed here in the States, it may even help our southern neighbors.

Who is Howard Marks, what is he into, he's able to speak openly about his business without reprisal? Another benefit to legalizing drugs would be replacing the "forbidden fruit" as you said with an aura of legality. Then it loses what glamor it holds for the rebels without a cause and  non-conformists who seek out the forbidden just  BECAUSE  it's  forbidden.

Curious_Soul wrote:

so i just dont see who it helps? i would like to discuss these things further if anyone wishes...

as i said people are going to do drugs, maybe even more so because they are illegal...its the whole rebellious attitude...i can nearly imagine that if everything was legal people probably wouldnt be as attracted to them...its the whole forbidden fruits thing??
so since people are going to do drugs anyway, why not tax them, make them cleaner, create an open attitude so drugs addicts may feel more free discussing there problems...and then spend all the money wasted on 'the war on drugs' and lets help people who ACTUALLY WANT HELP...ie lets start 'a war on poverty'

Yes, people are going to drink alcohol. In the states, we learned that prohibition doesn't work. I don't understand why we haven't learned our lesson from that but I think the government and law enforcement uses the "War on Drugs" to justify more power for the state. That's just wrong and completely antithetical to the principles our country was founded upon. You know, all that about protecting citizens not only from other citizens, but protecting citizens from GOVERNMENT.

People are going to do a lot of things that may not be in their best interest. As long as their interests cause no harm to another, then they should be free to make their choices however ill-advised. But..... a crackhead, gang member, anyone who commits armed robbery to support his/her habit should be punished when their habit causes harm to another human being.

I do think legalizing, regulation, taxing drugs would finance counseling and freedom from addiction for those that need it. Unfortunately, here in the States, the social conservative law and order types see drug addiction as a moral wrong that should not be condoned by legal status. It's a shame the law and order types don't "GET"  that advocating legalization doesn't mean you condone it's use. It just means you recognize the humanity within those who struggle with it.