People are addicted to taboo, remove the taboo and people will lose their interest.
I get the concept behind the fact that because it's taboo, then it's more interesting. But that isn't the main draw. Users wanna get high, not make a statement. I get how prohibition was a dumb move by the government, crime got worse, prices of alcohol went up and as a result crime bosses raked in the cash. However, legalizing everything from marijuana to methamphetamine is a dangerous decision in my opinion.
i can totally see where youre coming from with that. id be concerned about people more openly abusing the stuff and more people getting hooked on it. at the same time though, it would basically eliminate drug trafficking and make a big impact on drug related gang violence. it would also cut down on the number of people in prison and people who repeatedly go back to prison for those things. prison reform would be a hell of a lot easier once you get the people out of there who keep going back because of dealing.
im looking at it like this: cigarettes and alcohol have terrible effects on people, yet theyre legal. shit, even a lot of perscription medication is addictive with ridiculous side effects. so whats the deal with drugs like cocaine? what is fundamentally different between alcohol and cocaine that makes one legal and the other not?
on top of that, do the benefits of legalizing everything outweigh the risks of making it more readily available?
Answering your question: I honestly do not think so. I just don't see the strategy in eliminating crime and surplus jail populations by.... making illegal things legal. You could also eliminate the problem of murder by making murder illegal. A hyperbole of a theory, but a parallel stream of logic.
If we stopped giving prison time to people who commit small time drug crimes, our prison rates would be severely lowered. It's estimated that the majority of people in the U.S. prison system are in there for possession of one illegal substance or another. Prison is for the violent and dangerous, not for the guys with drug problems. But the corporate interests don't see it that way so our penal system remains as archaic as ever. For God's sake, we only made sodomy laws unconstitutional 10 years ago.
Is that for real, what's going on with this administration? After Obamacare another burden for us. According to the Associated Press, some families that are unable to afford the family healthcare plans offered by their employers will be excluded from receiving public assistance to help them pay for a policy from a private insurance carrier. They will therefore then have to pay the same penalty as those who have decided to opt out of the federal healthcare program.
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