petdave
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quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyEllen
Alcohol abuse is the most widespread in terms of drug abuse, because alcohol is so freely available, and also as a result of this has a serious nationwide impact on life quality, health costs and crime. The possible consequence of legalising other drugs added to this, could easily be the total breakdown of the nation.
The solution really is the most difficult - how to resolve the stress in life, without the need for the nation to self medicate itself to oblivion. Given this difficulty, it might seem more simple to enable self medication with a wider choice of acceptable substances, so that however shit life is, it will seem OK. A Brave New World scenario - but then we have that already. Soma, served by the glass.
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The question really is, can we make life suck less for all, or is it socially more beneficial to enable self medication such that however life sucks, it is made less so through chemical alteration of its impression?
Not every drug is used for a numbing escape, like alcohol or opiates. Cocaine and amphetamines create more of an edge, hallucinogenics can be abused for escapism, but some people do use them in hopes of reaching some sort of enlightenment. i don't know that we'd have such a big problem with meth in this country if other types of amphetamines were available for casual use- more traditional compounds that create the rush without the obsessiveness.
But, that brings us back to a different issue... the reason meth has become such a problem is because it can be synthesized fairly easily. Other than that, it's not a very nice drug. But it's beating prohibition, just like alcohol did when clever country boys started putting their excess corn to good use. Marijuana can be grown quite easily in many areas of the country, as thousands of casual users have learned... which makes collecting taxes difficult if somebody's consumption can be accomodated by a few square yards of plants in his yard. They could make heroin legal to buy over the counter again, and it would be a generic commodity, like aspirin, long long past its patent expiration... where's the money in that, compared to flashy, proprietary stuff like Percocet? You're cutting out the doctors, the AMA, the hospitals, the health insurance industry, the malpractice insurance industry; the pharamaceutical companies and farmers will be making just about squat... disasterous!
But prohibition does other things. It gets people accustomed to being told what they can do with their bodies. Very basic foundation of creating a climate of obedience. It creates a bogeyman, an enemy, a cause. We've been in a "War on Drugs" for decades! A war, people! And in a war, liberty is a small price to pay for safety. The helpless, law-abiding citizens need protection from the enemy, and the only way to do that is with more surveillance, curfews, random searches without suspicion, checkpoints, laws on money transfers (gee, cuts down on tax cheats too, how 'bout that?), city police departments with helicopters and armored cars. Potentially dangerous weapons have to be consolidated in the hands of the government, lest they be used by the enemy (there's a reason that the image associated with the Mafia during Prohibition was the Thompson submachinegun- they were cheap Army surplus from WWI, available for anyone to purchase. But with Prohibition came organized crime, came public outrage, came the Gun Control Act of 1935. Couldn't buy grenades anymore, either  ). Some areas get so dangerous that even curfews sound good.
But i'm ranting. i don't think life sucks for everyone. Richard Branson, for example. Jay Leno. Paris Hilton. There's really nothing for them to escape to. Then some people find that drugs really just bring them further down, and they'd get more out of a good nap. Some people can't be dragged away from Everquest long enough to wash their clothes, much less go all the way out to Walmart for another ounce of bud. While a bar is a classic meeting place for all sorts of demographics, and a weed or X bar would probably do even better for casual hookups, you probably won't get the same kind of social atmosphere at an opium den, much less the boisterous conversation.
And for every person who abuses alcohol to the point where they can no longer function in society, there are literally hundreds who use it in moderation or not at all, supporting them. There's an assumption that other intoxicants have some magical power that will turn that equation on its head, but i don't buy it. i think there is a segment of society that basically can't handle the truth, and no matter what you do, they'll find some way to destroy themselves- booze, meth, reality TV. For everyone else the occasional escape is enough, because the pleasures that reality can give, amidst all of its pain, have too much substance to give up on. At least until we come up with better drugs, and/or better virtual reality.
Here's to science!
...dave
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RE: Legalize Street Drugs? - 
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