Drugs! Drugs! Drugs!

[drone]

Not just alcohol either. For instance, several pints of ale, taken occasionally, should not be harmful to one's health, but one bottle of Bud Light has the potential to kill. Or should do, if one has any taste buds. The Prohibitionists had the right idea, but they were decades ahead of their time, and mistakenly applied the idea across the board instead of select makes of beer.

Actually, Bud Light is a direct consequence of Prohibition. Prior to Prohibition, the US had some of the best beer in the world. Prohibition killed off the small local brewers, and all we were left with were the national, corporate brews. If I'm not mistaken, the popularity and subsequent ban of the wacky weed was also Prohibition-related. Worst...Amendment...Ever.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I actually hate the 16th and 17th nearly as much, but the 18th really was a weiner.

[LittleGrizzly]

I thought the weed prohibition was more profit and immigrant related.. or did alcohol prohibition show 'it can work' so made it more likely.... (or are you on about some other drug altogether ?)

[drone]

There were a lot of reasons for the 1937 Tax Act. One of the theories is that a decent percentage of potential booze hounds switched to weed during prohibition, and didn't go back after the repeal. The recovering beverage industry wanted their customers back, and pushed for the ban. Alongside the anti-Mexican sentiment and the fear that pot would force hip black jazz musicians to violate white girls and kill their boyfriends.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

There were a lot of reasons for the 1937 Tax Act. One of the theories is that a decent percentage of potential booze hounds switched to weed during prohibition, and didn't go back after the repeal. The recovering beverage industry wanted their customers back, and pushed for the ban. Alongside the anti-Mexican sentiment and the fear that pot would force hip black jazz musicians to violate white girls and kill their boyfriends.

Sadly we did have a small percentage of loons who truly believed that last point -- and far more who were willing to use it as an excuse.

[Fixiwee]

See I think drugs have done good things for us, I really do.
And if you don't believe that drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor.
Go home tonight, take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your cds and burn them.
'Cause you know what, the musicians who made all that great music that has enhanced your lives throughout the years?
Real ******* high on drugs.

-Billy Hicks

[Scienter]

Another vote for legalize and tax.

My drugs of choice are coffee and wine. I've been down to one (large) cup of coffee a day for a few years now, but I'd die without it. I've been on Vicodin (made me nauseous) and Percoset (really ed up dreams) and hated both, I'd never take them for fun! I had IV Dilaudid when I had my appendix out and let me tell you, it was awesome. If that stuff came in pill form, I'd probably have a problem.

[Vuk]

I'm feeling very left out of the drug scene here in rural Wisconsin. One of my neighbors has chronic pain from a motorcycle accident, so he's always high on Oxycodone. Says his doctors help him "manage" his inevitable addiction, which sounds scary.

One of the daughters of my police neighbor comes crying to my house 'cause her mom's on drugs. Great. A high cop. Wonderful. I tell the daughter that everything's okay (lie), that her mommy loves her (truth), and that she can come visit whenever she likes (truth). Then I find out that another neighbor, the one who listens to nothing but Rush and who always has Fox News on (visible from the street due to giant TV and lack of curtains) is growing his own pot and smoking it in large quantities. So I guess he's a pothead tea partier. Dude.

And here I am, utterly left out. I barely drink anymore, gave up smokes seven years ago, never got into prescription drugs and never got into illegal drugs. Hell, if I quit coffee, I'd be clean as a Mormon, which is kinda sad.

What's the drug situation where you live? Are you on any long-term medication? Are you dealing with addiction?

And since it sure looks as though everybody who wants drugs is getting them, why don't we legalize and tax this sucker?

If you are sure, why don't you do your duty and report him? Then instead of winking at illegal activity and taxing it, we can stop it.

[Strike For The South]

If you are sure, why don't you do your duty and report him? Then instead of winking at illegal activity and taxing it, we can stop it.

He's smoking a bit of weed in his own home. Lets take it down a notch Johnny law

[Lemur]

If you are sure, why don't you do your duty and report him? Then instead of winking at illegal activity and taxing it, we can stop it.

I'm sorry, it's my "duty" to report a non-violent, victimless activity that transgresses a law with which I profoundly disagree? If you're looking for a totalitarian state where neighbors turn each other in for the love of the Great Leader, I think you meant to check out North Korea.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I'm sorry, it's my "duty" to report a non-violent, victimless activity that transgresses a law with which I profoundly disagree? If you're looking for a totalitarian state where neighbors turn each other in for the love of the Great Leader, I think you meant to check out North Korea.

And its never been easier! See here.

[Crazed Rabbit]

If you are sure, why don't you do your duty and report him? Then instead of winking at illegal activity and taxing it, we can stop it.

No, you can't. No one can.

And let only the people harmed by a crime report it.

CR

[Seamus Fermanagh]

No, you can't. No one can.

And let only the people harmed by a crime report it.

CR

The idea that crime should only be reported by those harmed thereby has a few flaws CR. At least in the case of violent crimes, even those not harmed are better served by reporting them and getting the miscreats dealt with.

I believe that a war on drugs is winnable -- but that the entity that could win such a war would not resemble the republic I love.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Yeah, the idea has flaws. Maybe something like, "Only report crimes where a person is harmed" would have less.

CR

[naut]

Drugs? Almost everywhere here, if you know where to look.

I thought the weed prohibition was more profit and immigrant related.. or did alcohol prohibition show 'it can work' so made it more likely.... (or are you on about some other drug altogether ?)

To cut a long story short it's to do with the timber industry at the turn of the 1900s. Hemp can be used for paper, but the timber industry obviously didn't want that to happen, and lobbied for the ban of all species of cannabis. So much for free market.

[Idaho]

Lots of coffee and tobbacco addicts on the thread. I can't tolerate the former (gives me the jitters) and I quit the latter after 15 years of tickling myself and scratching the same itch.

I have tried pretty much everything over the years. Opiates would suit me just fine if I was daft enough to take them again. Stimulants are always fun on the way up, and horrible on the way down. Cocaine is very similar to the nicotine tickle-and-scratch cycle. I don't do any of them any more.

Alcohol and cannabis are my vices. Never on a school night, only in moderation, and always of the highest quality. Drugs are important to us humans. They are part of who we are and what we like. But as we all know there are all kinds of issues and problems to do with dependance, side-effects, self-destructive behaviour. It's a shame we have to add criminalisation, high prices, and money-for-drugs crime to the mix.

Here in the UK the crappier tv channels have a lot of 'real life cop' programmes. Reportage of police going about their daily duties. What's telling about it is that 95% of their work is about drugs - and the majority being the side effects of alcohol (fights/people passed out/noise and disorder). The non-alcohol drug work they do is usually to do with arresting otherwise orderly (but often sad and hopeless) people for possession or low level dealing.

[Crazed Rabbit]

From News of the Weird:

More Texas Justice: In March, juries in Smith County and Matagorda County sentenced Henry Wooten and Melvin Johnson III to 35 years and 60 years in prison, respectively, for possessing small amounts of drugs (but enough under Texas law to allow jurors to infer an intent to distribute). Wooten, 54, had 4.6 ounces of marijuana (same penalty as for 5 pounds), and Johnson had 1.3 grams of crack cocaine (about half the weight of a U.S. dime). (Wooten's prosecutor actually had asked the jury for a sentence of 99 years.) [Tyler Morning News, 3-5-10] [Houston Press, 3-11-10]

Insanity.

CR

[Myrddraal]

An aside about cop shows: we get both the UK cop shows and the US "Wildest police chases" here in the UK when Channel five are running out of stuff to fill the schedule. The contrast is hilarious. In the US you film high speed pursuits down the wrong side of the motorway with tyres being shot out by machine guns. Each clip ends with some wise crack "This man thought running from the cops would be fun, now he'll learn the fun you can with two gunshot wounds and 15 years behind bars!" In the UK we get to watch PC Plod pull over Ryan (who he knows well) for driving without his licence again. Each clip ends wih an interview with the copper involved "We know Ryan well, this is the fith time we've stopped him for driving despite his ban. We keep warning him that if he keeps being a naughty boy he'll have to spend the night at the station, but he never learns"

[rory_20_uk]

But he has learnt - that laws are all but optional: odds of getting caught having nicked a car are relatively low, and getting caught means the downside of an uncomfortable bed. Hardly a massive deterrent, is it?

[Pannonian]

An aside about cop shows: we get both the UK cop shows and the US "Wildest police chases" here in the UK when Channel five are running out of stuff to fill the schedule. The contrast is hilarious. In the US you film high speed pursuits down the wrong side of the motorway with tyres being shot out by machine guns. Each clip ends with some wise crack "This man thought running from the cops would be fun, now he'll learn the fun you can with two gunshot wounds and 15 years behind bars!" In the UK we get to watch PC Plod pull over Ryan (who he knows well) for driving without his licence again. Each clip ends wih an interview with the copper involved "We know Ryan well, this is the fith time we've stopped him for driving despite his ban. We keep warning him that if he keeps being a naughty boy he'll have to spend the night at the station, but he never learns"

Don't laugh at routine policework just because it seems so homely. This is proof that trying to break up a domestic row can turn tragic. Warning: footage of civilians being shot by officers.

[Idaho]

But he has learnt - that laws are all but optional: odds of getting caught having nicked a car are relatively low, and getting caught means the downside of an uncomfortable bed. Hardly a massive deterrent, is it?

That's because the deterrent theory of punishment is nonsense on a number of levels, but appeals to home-counties curtain-twitchers.

[Myrddraal]

That's because the deterrent theory of punishment is nonsense on a number of levels, but appeals to home-counties curtain-twitchers.

I guess it depends on the severity of the crime. I don't know any studies on this, but I would theorise that for petty crimes it can be effective, but for anything remotely serious it fails to be a deterrent on the basis that in the psychology of the criminal they believe they won't be caught anyway, if they did they wouldn't go ahead. However for petty offenses like speeding, combine effective average speed checks on motorways with a hefty fine and I'm sure you'd see speeding disappear overnight.

[HoreTore]

The only drug I touch is Paracetamol, and I think I can count the number of times I've taken it on one hand.

I stay as far away as I can from anything coming out of the drug industry.

[LittleGrizzly]

Here in the UK the crappier tv channels have a lot of 'real life cop' programmes. Reportage of police going about their daily duties. What's telling about it is that 95% of their work is about drugs - and the majority being the side effects of alcohol (fights/people passed out/noise and disorder). The non-alcohol drug work they do is usually to do with arresting otherwise orderly (but often sad and hopeless) people for possession or low level dealing.

The difference is startling and obvious... or it should be... but still countless middle class parents are worried about these scary drug things but have had a drink a few times and thats just harmless fun that you have to be resposible with. I swear that it must require physical effort to remain so ignorant and unmovable in the face of all evidence to the contary...

I have heard that the man to blame is William Randolph Hurst... I was just wondering where prohibition fitted into it...

(Wooten's prosecutor actually had asked the jury for a sentence of 99 years.)

I don't like to wish people ill... but with any luck this mans life and family will be ravaged by alcohol...

(Wooten's prosecutor actually had asked the jury for a sentence of 99 years.)

[Idaho]

I guess it depends on the severity of the crime. I don't know any studies on this, but I would theorise that for petty crimes it can be effective, but for anything remotely serious it fails to be a deterrent on the basis that in the psychology of the criminal they believe they won't be caught anyway, if they did they wouldn't go ahead. However for petty offenses like speeding, combine effective average speed checks on motorways with a hefty fine and I'm sure you'd see speeding disappear overnight.

This is why the deterrant principle is fundamentally unjust. The forces of law and order can only arrest 5% of criminals, and successfully prosecute 2%. Therefore according to deterrant theory, the actual punishment must be more severe on those caught to 'compensate'. Ergo the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

[Megas Methuselah]

If you are sure, why don't you do your duty and report him? Then instead of winking at illegal activity and taxing it, we can stop it.

WOW, who is this guy? Lucky for me, NiQuil is sold over the counter; all the same, stay the hell away from me!

[Mooks]

The drug situation around here is better then I thought. Yesterday I got a ride home from someone that sells marijuana, after talking to him a while he said this funny quote...

"Ya, im tired of people talking **** all the time, then 10 minutes later having their parents call me up and I sell to them. You know how many times when I was handing them the bag and got the money that I wanted to tell them straight to their face 'Your sons a little bitch' ?"