Operation Sudden Fall: Inside the SDSU Drug Sting

[Smull]

Originally Posted by AmericanDrugWar

Yet the problem gets worse and worse. Do we just keep going?

No we shouldn't, but I fear you just preaching to the choir here man. There isn't anyone who's taken a really strong stance against it. The only two were JaJae

Originally Posted by JaJae

I am not saying the War on Drugs significantly reduces usage. Quite frankly I do not know the number, as I said when I first made the statement. But to pretend it has absolutely no effect at all is once again absurd and really shows the insane information that floats around the internet regarding the war on drugs in a relatively futile effort to make it legal to get high.

which he preceded with this

Originally Posted by JaJae

Personally, I could be accepting of the idea of limiting or ending the War on Drugs.

and 7960

Originally Posted by 7960

I'm on the fence, leaning toward illegal.

Unless someone really wants to get up and debate that marijuana should be illegal, or someone wants to argue that harder drugs or all drugs should be legal (I position I sorta kinda support, but don't really want to debate right now) I don't see this going anywhere, as nearly everyone is on your side save for one whose on the fence

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by AmericanDrugWar

85% of all the drug offenders in prison are in there for marijuana related offenses.

I don't know where this number came from, but I believe it is false.
Persons Arrested - Crime in the United States 2006

Marijuana should not be put in the same class as many other drugs, let alone a "Schedule 1" substance, the most dangerous there is. When it comes to the other drugs and decriminalization/regulation, the argument shouldn't necessarily be about whether they're dangerous or not, we have to look at how the policies affect society as a whole.

Schedule 1 substances don't really have much to do with "dangerousness." It has to do with prescriptive abilities. It basically means that it has no medical purpose and has potential for abuse. It is obvious from our current culture that it does have potential for abuse. However, that in and of itself isn't enough for me to say it shouldn't be able to be prescribed by doctors.

In Amsterdam, decriminalization radically dropped both the drug use rates and the general crime levels. Obviously our current system is on a path to nowhere when year after year there are more drugs out there, more people using them, more people selling them, more people going to jail... and more people getting killed. A lot of illegal (and legal!) money's being made off of all this that could be going to taxes to fix our economy. Yet the problem gets worse and worse. Do we just keep going?

The US is not Amsterdam or Europe. The rate of drug use is much higher in Amsterdam than the statistics show. A better comparison to America for decriminalization of marijuana would be Canada.

And again, do I think someone caught with a few ounces of marijuana should be in jail? Absolutely not. Do I feel sorry for them if they get caught? Absolutely not.

The drug war is expensive, cumbersome and quite overwhelming. Is it a detriment to our society? Yes it is, in some ways. It is beneficial to our society? Yes it is, in some ways. The biggest problem I have with the Drug War though isn't necessarily the laws or the "victims," but the misinformation that floats around regarding this issue on both sides. And to be quite honest, the pro-drug legalization followers are the ones that are more off base in my opinion.