Drug Legalization; your view?

[Geezer]

In addition to weed do you think we should eliminate drug bans for heroin,coke and all the rest or do you favor some bans?
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I don't agree with a few things this guy says but I agree that we should legalize all of it. I don't agree that it should be treated as a health problem. He's right in that we'll add millions of druggies and I agree that we'll have to pay for that damage. However that cost should be minimized.We don't owe drug users the full gamut of bennies.
The implementation of such policies will be tricky. The first step would be to eliminate fedeal laws. I think states should then be allowed to decide what they will legalize. If there are no federal laws any state with drug laws will bear the full cost of enforcement and imprisonment. That would likely cause many states to drop all or most drug laws.
What is important is how drugs would be sold. First if people who can still work (entertainers for example) they should pay for their drugs with taxes used to pay towards the social costs. I'd say weed should be sold in shops ala California with a strict enforcement of tax laws on the products.
Harder drugs would likely have to be sold / given out under government control. Since most of these people likely wouldn't work a lot of it will be free (cost to the taxpayers)

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Heres a Q from this gentleman:

How do you (not just geezer, but you people in general) precieve an adult (i.e. 25 or older) that smokes pot?

[count2infinity]

I think it's a matter of "where do you draw the line?" All drugs have some bad effects with them, but to try to deny that some are more dangerous than others is just disingenuous. Note: this is not to say there are "safe" drugs out there... any drug, if abused, is dangerous. I personally think the line is drawn accurately as it is except for marijuana, but that's just my opinion (and it seems as though that's the opinion of a large number of Americans as well.

[columbia]

Heres a Q from this gentleman:

How do you (not just geezer, but you people in general) precieve an adult (i.e. 25 or older) that smokes pot?

There are many productive adults who smoke pot, but I choose not to.
Not because I think it's bad for you, but because I don't want to spend my time doing that; for example, my neighbor was smoking a joint in the backyard about an hour ago and I declined the offer to partake.
I have some things to take care of today and being stoned is not on my to do list.

[shmenguin]

Pot should be legal, obviously. I don't like the idea of things that get you stoned and you can die from being legal (coke, heroin). I've never done shrooms, but they're natural and I don't think you can OD on them, so they should probably be legal as well.

[mac5155]

Heres a Q from this gentleman:

How do you (not just geezer, but you people in general) precieve an adult (i.e. 25 or older) that smokes pot?

I have a friend who holds down a Job making more than me and smokes pot. He's fine. I also have an old friend that thinks he's a rapper and smokes pot. He's not, but I don't think stopping smoking pot would help.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

A further question (aplogizes to geezer if this is considered hijacking the thread)

Do you people think differently of people who smoke pot vs regular old cigarettes?

[Bioshock]

Some of the most successful people I've ever met smoke pot.

I'm totally for legalizing and taxing it.

[columbia]

As for legalizing the other drugs. Sure, I don't see a need for the government to tell you what you to do with your body.
How many people die every year from heart disease and diabetes, because of the long term effects of their diet? It's a significant number, but that's their choice.

[PghSkins]

I'm prettly libertarian but this is an issue I struggle on. Definitely for legalizing pot, harder stuff is pretty difficult.

Personally I have never smoked. I'd probably try it once but my company randomly tests. I have never been selected but would be my luck to get told to go when I did it. So not worth it obviously.

[count2infinity]

Pot should be legal, obviously. I don't like the idea of things that get you stoned and you can die from being legal (coke, heroin). I've never done shrooms, but they're natural and I don't think you can OD on them, so they should probably be legal as well.

there are plenty of natural things you can OD on. I don't think it being "natural" is necessarily a good baseline. That being said, I don't think you can OD on shrooms if ingesting a recreational amount of them.

[columbia]

Pot should be legal, obviously. I don't like the idea of things that get you stoned and you can die from being legal (coke, heroin). I've never done shrooms, but they're natural and I don't think you can OD on them, so they should probably be legal as well.

there are plenty of natural things you can OD on. I don't think it being "natural" is necessarily a good baseline. That being said, I don't think you can OD on shrooms if ingesting a recreational amount of them.

Sure, you can die from alcohol poisoning.

[Geezer]

Heres a Q from this gentleman:

How do you (not just geezer, but you people in general) precieve an adult (i.e. 25 or older) that smokes pot?

I'm guessing that the majority are casual users who smoke a joint once in a while like other people drink a couple beers or drink a glass of wine. A second broad group are stoners ,for lack of a better term,that smoke weed almost daily and may have damaged themselves.I don't know if many stoners can hold down a full time job.The rest I'd group people as drug abusers; get high off different drugs they come across;at the extreme including opiates.
It's a mixed bag IMO and I don't know if those 3 categories are an oversimplification.

[columbia]

There are a lot daily pot smokers, who hold down jobs.

[count2infinity]

My favorite (read: silliest) argument is "Do you want someone to get high and go to work?" Really? You can't get drunk and go to work, or if you do and someone finds out about it, you'll likely get fired. It would be the same way with getting high, would it not?

[columbia]

My favorite (read: silliest) argument is "Do you want someone to get high and go to work?" Really? You can't get drunk and go to work, or if you do and someone finds out about it, you'll likely get fired. It would be the same way with getting high, would it not?

I knew an attorney, who was a wake and baker and wore very expensive suits to work.
I gathered that he did quite well in his profession.

[Geezer]

A further question (aplogizes to geezer if this is considered hijacking the thread)

Do you people think differently of people who smoke pot vs regular old cigarettes?

I think of pot smoking more along the lines of beer drinking. Smoking cigarettes is a bad health habit that I wish I never started (quit a long time ago) but you don't do it to get a buzz. Ironically I've seen "experts" on TV that say one joint provides the same damage to your lungs as a pack of cigarettes.

[count2infinity]

I can see one joint doing more damage than one cigarette due to lack of a filter, but as much as an entire packet of cigarettes? I doubt it.

[MRandall25]

I don't think heroin or cocaine or meth should be legalized. I draw the line at pot.

No real reasoning behind it. I just feel that there's a clear distinction b/w pot and hard drugs like heroin and crack/cocaine and meth.

[Geezer]

There are a lot daily pot smokers, who hold down jobs.

My frame of reference with daily smokers was from 40+ years ago. These guys smoked quite a bit; some using joints laced with opium. They showed up every day but IMO their performance was adversely affected. That's an opinion; I'm unaware of pot smoking as far as any daily pot smokers that I may work with.

[canaan]

Legalize em all. If you're not smart enough to avoid obvious pitfalls, I hope you Wilhelm scream all the way down them.

[columbia]

Now if I ran a business and two people showed up, one high and one drunk, I would....

1.) warn both of them, that they would be fired if it ever happened again
2.) be more concerned about the person who was drunk and strongly recommend that they immediately seek one of the various kinds of alcohol treatment

(That's assuming that they weren't driving a vehicle or operating any type of machinery on the job, in which case they would immediately be fired.)

[Geezer]

Now if I ran a business and two people showed up, one high and one drunk, I would....

1.) warn both of them, that they would be fired if it ever happened again
2.) be more concerned about the person who was drunk and strongly recommend that they immediately seek one of the various kinds of alcohol treatment

(That's assuming that they weren't driving a vehicle or operating any type of machinery on the job, in which case they would immediately be fired.)

I understand 1 and 2. Would you fire both if they were driving or operating equipment?

[columbia]

Yes

[Idoit40fans]

I dont really care. Legalize them tax them, kill some government debt. Sounds good i guess.