Why is there this "War on Drugs?" What exactly is it, and who is involved in this 'war?' Now, I am not promoting the use of public drug use or anything, I promise. But the author of the opinion piece I chose had some very strong and agreeable points.
I was lured to this topic because I have dealt with the pain of close loved ones abusing alcohol. I have always wondered why it is so available when it is basically poison and has no positive effects on the body. This also goes for Tobacco. Infact, the top three leading causes of death in the United States last year were: 1) Tobacco 2) Poor diet and inactivity and 3) Alcohol. Lung cancer and DUI's have become so common that it doesn't even surprise anyone anymore.
Marijuana, for example, has never been the cause of any disease or illness. I have never heard of anyone being killed from it. It is actually used for medical purposes perscribed by doctors themselves. So why are we at war with it??
Addiction is all relative anyway. People are addicted to coffee, gum, gambling, chocolate, sex, food...and the list goes on. So why aren't any of these things "illegal?" The primary reason that people die from illicit drugs is because they use too much of it, and abuse it. Oh yeah, isn't that the exact same story of tobacco and alchohol? Hmmm.
I will also mention that it is costing our country billions of dollars trying to keep illegal drugs out of the public's hands. But for some reason after your twenty-first birthday, in which you suddenly become mature, you can go purchase some of your very own posion all for yourself...no quesions asked.
So what is harmful and what is not? Legislation has yet to successfully explain this even. But they still make substances illiegal without any scientific or medical proof. Drugs are shunned by everyone simply because they are illegal. If you really took a good look at all drugs/substances, and compared their chemistry...what would you consider illegal?
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First of all, I would like to see your sources for all this information you claim. Marijuana does cause death, just not in the form of an overdose. Marijuana contains 7x more tar than cigarettes and most people I know who smoke pot also smoke cigarettes so that would skew any research about how weed has never killed anyone. Pot is prescribed to patience to dull pain because it is less addictive than pain killers. Marijuana has been cultivated to produce more thc over the years too. In 1974 the average thc content was 1 percent. Today that number can be as high as 24. Pot is a gateway drug that leads to other drug use which has been said many times before and I have witnessed this. Marijuana also lowers your ability to retain information. Also the top leading causes of death are 1.Heart Disease 2.Cancer 3.Strokes While you may argue these things are caused by tobacco, alcohol, and inactivity, there are many other factors including prior drug use which can add to this.Addiction is not relative. Addictions are split into two groups, psychological and physical.Many of the addictions you named are psychological. While weed is a psychological addiction, the drugs it leads to, or if you dispute that than many other drugs are physical. These include very painful withdrawls. Sometimes inorder to make it through the withdrawls, they give a similar drug to help step them down. Alcohol has been banned before, however alcohol, along with tobacco has dug it's claws deep into our society. Not to say other illegal drugs haven't, but it would be nearly impossible to irradicate tobacco and alcohol. Drugs however can bring down society and cause much more severe problems than alcohol and tobacco. There comes a point however when you have to ask, where do we stop? Do we force people to do every thing healthy? or do we let them destroy themselves. Drugs also bring organized crime which has always been and even if you legalize it it would stay the same. Let's look at a nation strung out on pot. would you want your kid driven to school by a high bus driver? While there is a possibility of this now, it would be greatly increased by the legalazation of pot. Also billions to keep whatever drugs they catch out are worth it when you could argue that we spend trillions on a war that has no direct connection to us. What drugs are not known to be harmful? I would love to see the list of drugs without study that have been made illegal. Down below are links to earlier statements and a link to a site that gives a list of drugs and harmful effects. I did not care to look every drug up, but if you do your own research you can find the harmful effects and the poor lifestyle that comes with drug use.
ReplyDeletehttp://hubpages.com/hub/Common_Drugs_and_Its_Harmful_Effects
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005110.html
http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm
I appreciate your response and your links. Still, however, I am not seeing any reported deaths from smoking marijuana alone. While the effects of long-term use of pot can harm the body, it just doesn't match up to the damage that tobacco and alcohol can do.
ReplyDeleteSince tobacco and alcohol are so embellished in our society, we pretty much expect it to always be around despite the awful consequences. But why? Because its a business. That is it. People fought for their alcohol long ago, and they were granted their wish.
Both tobacco and alcohol are gateway drugs. They are poisonous and both contain addictive chemicals. The point I want to get across is that tobacco and alcohol are just as harmful as any other drug. Legislation is not being consistent with their policies! What's new?
I am not condoning that it is okay for everyone to be legally high on pot. I am just merely presenting the argument that the policies concerning drugs (all of them) are not sensible and there should be a change.
Here are some links that back-up my statements that I found helpful:
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20030918/marijuana-smoking-doesnt-kill
http://www.physorg.com/news157280425.html
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ReplyDeleteI said in my last post how any research of the effects of tobacco vs. alcohol would be skewed because of consistent use of tobacco in marijuana users. Marijuana has carcinogens just like tobacco does, but how can you prove one is caused from one but not the other? You can't. Pro-drug users use this against science to claim the safety of marijuana when the fact is, a subject without disqualifying variables would be rare and to far apart, making the study almost impossible. What is possible is to show what inside marijuana is known to cause cancer or heart disease. I have found a better source than my previous links to show this here (http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html) it is a govt. website and should give you more info on how dangerous marijuana actually is. Also I looked at those studies and found major flaws. First, the study consisted of users 15-49 and tested to see if they died before non-users after 10 years. This proves nothing! Many people live past 60 in fact the natinal life expectancy is in the 70's! The second study went further down by testing people 18-20 and ended 15 years later. I don't know how many people who die at 35 but it seems like it might be common in sweeden since they test subjects this young. What the study does not include is the general health of non-users vs. users. In fact they tell you right off, "Although the use of [marijuana] is not harmless" This should let you know that it does affect your health and if it affects your health, then it probobly worsens it. Also the second link really doesn't tell anything new. Alcohol abuse is worse on devoloping teens than marijuana. However, teen development is where it ends. Alcohol doesn't affect an adult's brain the way a it would a teen's. Also, this is not to say one is good. If I drown someone rather than burning them to death because it is less painful it is still a horrible crime. The same goes with your body, just because one damages it less at that time does not mean you aren't doing damage to your body. Also you have to know when to draw the line. I personally think tobacco and alcohol should be outlawed to lower chronic disease in this country and significantly reduce health care costs, but the people do not want it. This is sad but we can not give every junkie what they want. America is falling behind in the world in education and if we would egalize drugs, who knows how much further behind we would become. So what is not sensible about protecting the public and America's image? Also, the war on drugs may spend alot of money, but it creates employment. So you let drugs become legalized and the DEA is out of business.I could not find exact numbers but I am sure that is thousands of employees. Also take a good look at succesful people and besides liberal arts careers which ones got to where they are addicted to drugs. Most didn't because it is hard to establish yourself when you have an addiction on your back. Though most probably do drugs now. While I have deviated off from marijuana, if you don't draw the line and stay put, then they will keep pushing the line back until they have everything they want. God help us if that ever happens because I would fear for America's survival.
ReplyDeletePeople argue that a solution to "war on drugs" would be the legalization of drugs. by removing criminals involved with drug sales, possession and usage, and devote more enforcement on other crimes other then drugs such as murder, rap and assualt so legalizing durgs could create a revenue enhancement for the fedreal or just cause absolute caious. war with drugs is interesing expecially the topic of marijuana, but marijuana is simply a drug. marijuanais addictive and has "a high potential for abuse." and it becomes dominate in their lives. This unquestionably happens in some cases. But it also happens in the case of alcohol too but then alcohol is perfectly legal which is a different story that i dont understand myself. To argue that marijuana has no medical use, legalization advocates need to highlight the effects it has had on the lives of people who have used the drug for medical reasons. One other reason that it has been kept illegal is that there is no effective way to test for it at an exact moment such as with a brethalizer for alcohol which means that if a person is driving impaired which the “slow reaction time, paranoia, social anxiety, and temporary memory loss” means they are they cannot safely drive a vehicle, and from what I understand is a major roadblock in the legalization. But every evidence that anyone might find to legalize any drug i hope would never come into serious consideration, cause i would have to agrea that we as a america would live in a life a fear.
ReplyDeleteEnter prescription drugs...
ReplyDeleteThere are a few drugs that are "prescribed" to people that contain the same chemicals as hard drugs. Example: Adderall (contains amphetamime salts which are in meth) or Oxycontin (an opiate derived from codein which is in the same family as heroin). Both highly addictive, and killing thousands every year from overdose.
According to a study conducted in Florida in 2007, it was found that "three times as many people were killed by legal drugs than by cocoain, heroin and all methamphetamines put together."
Facts and figures found in this test:
(Florida, 2007)
Cocaine: 843 deaths
Heroin: 121 deaths
Methamphatmines: 25 deaths
Marijuana: None
Total: 989
Compared to these prescription drugs:
Opiod painkillers (Oxycontin, Vicodin): 2,328 deaths
Benzodiazepine (Valium, Xanax): 743 deaths
Total: 3,071
This information was found from: http://www.medhealthinsurance.com/blog/prescription-vs-illegal-drugs-insurance/
It's happening, its just now we can go to the pharmacy at the grocery store and pay money for them. Hey, but we need our medications right!? :/
Does this make you feel fear for our country?
This is a healthy discussion about a complex issue, and I have enjoyed reading your ideas. I would like to suggest that some of you choose legalization and drug issues as a topic for your Classical Argument paper. In the meantime, I hope to see more of the class enter this conversation.
ReplyDeleteYes we do need medications. In fact, both of those medications you listed greatly help people when used as prescribed. When overdosed they can be devastating, just like anything else. I can by tylenol that will get me high if I take enough. Enough robotussin and I could get high. Adderall may contain a salt of an amphetemine, but it is not addictive. Also while opiate painkillers are the most effective, there are lots of alternatives. However, opiates are the best combatant against severe pain. What does cocaine do that helps people? What does heroin do? The only argument you can make is for marijuana but our health costs are already high enough with alcohol and tobacco, but add in marijuana and you will speed up the damage tobacco does. (See link in previous post)What truly makes me fear for our country are people who want to take the criminals we are chasing now, and give them free reign on the country. Looking at the current state of Mexico, which is scary to see, you can get a glimpse of how powerful these drug lords are. The military has to step in because the police are not well armed and protected. If this is the lifestyle you want, go to Mexico. I would like to keep these people away from here for one, and I would love to see them erradicated there as well. Gangs and cartels are built on drugs, and do you really think they will hang up that lifestyle to put a dress shirt and tie on so we can commercialize drugs? I don't think so. They want the money they are making now, and they would not give up their profits so readily.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think that the legalization of Marijuana is an idea that for some may sound good on paper, but in reality would fail. Communism sounds like a great idea on paper as well. I think that if Marijuana became legalized you would see the same results that you see with cigarettes and alcohol that Kylee was talking about. We probably haven't seen enough examples because it's not as widely available. (obviously it is available to almost anyone looking for it.) But if it were legal it would be even easier for people to get their hands on. Can you imagine selling weed in stores?! Where would we find that in Walmart? In the home and garden section?
ReplyDeleteFrom my personal experience between family and friends, Marijuana does have terrible side-effects. Looking at the difference between friends and family that have smoked pot, their lives are dramatically worse/less productive than those who haven't.
Also, in response to what the former police chief of 35 years and the former chair of cardiothoracic surgery in San Francisco saying that they would put labeled concentration of the product to avoid over-doses. Are there not labels on any other drug? That would not stop anyone from using too much.
I don't know, maybe I am not well informed with the statistics or about the topic, but my common sense tells me the idea is ludicrous.
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/demand/speakout/index.html here is another govt. website that gives a list of reasons why legalization fo drugs is a bad idea. Look at no. 7 for proof of my drug crime connection
ReplyDeleteI don't think that I am contradicting myself. I think that like prescription drugs, hard drugs should be considered a medical issue rather than a criminal issue.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting that you said, "Drug use only causes health problems and will lower our standing in the world."
We have a terrible standing in the world as far as drug use goes!
Of course everyone thinks that legalizing drugs is ludicrous. But are we even educated enough to make a decision? It is simply a theory...a theory that hasn't been tested. So how can people throw it in the backseat so quickly?
Portugal decided to try this theory five years ago, and it is STILL working. In 2001, Portuguese government made the decision to decriminalize the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. Their main goal was to focus on treatment and prevention rather than jailing users. They hoped that this would decrease the the number of deaths and infections.
"Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank"
---source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization#comments
However, there are still serious penalties for trafficking and dealing drugs, which has never changed under Portuguese law. People are still jailed and fined according to their crimes. And if a person is caught abusing a drug, they a brought before what is called a "Dissuasion Commission." It is a three person commission which consists of a lawyer, a judge, and a health care professional. Together they decide what action to take. Whether it be a fine, treatment, or no sanction.
I recommend you read the entire article which I posted above. But in a nutshell Portugal achieved their goal by reducing the health consequences of drug use.
So why can't we try new approaches, see what works and move forward?
The end of the article was my favorite.
When asked to comment, all the United States departments of drug policy spokespeople DECLINED. hhmmm.
I would decline to speak as well. When you campare different cultures and populations you are putting too any variables into the experiment that you can not take the results of one and bring them to another. You act as if Portugal was inside the U.S., in fact it's across an ocean. A previous link I gave told how when marijuana was legalized in Alaska and another European country, the amount of addicted teens went up 50%, that doesn't sound like a victory to me. What if I took Provo and made smoking weed legal and the amount who smoked only increased by 5%, does that mean if I did the same thing in New York it would only go up by 5%. All you are showing are pipe dreams. Just like the U.K. health plan would not work for the U.S., smaller countries drug policies would probobly not work. This is not to say we should not try something new, but we need to make our own model, because other countries models will not work for us. Also, I was referring to our stance as a whole in the world, which would e diminished with a nation full of junkies. Also who is our drug use bad compared to? Maybe other developed countries, but look at asia and it's out of control drug market. And as far as I see it, the FDA is not uneducated, the DEA is not uneducated. I feel concerned for your lack of faith in the govt. But I feel that they have heard this long before, and do not see any logical reason to change. This debate is getting dry though why not start a new one to keep my interest.
ReplyDelete:) Wow you took a little extra time on that one, I was looking forward to your response!
ReplyDeleteI am burnt out about debating about this too, especially since I did my paper on it. Now it's on my mind all the time. Hah.
We should discuss how ridiculously high towing fees are. Seriously I just had a recent experience with one and it made me so sad.
lol yeah but I'm pretty sure we bot agree on that one, so maybe something we could butt heads about, I'm sure there are plenty of things
ReplyDeleteMan, you two have been going at it hard! :) I think it's awesome. However, i think I'm going to side more with kylee on this one. Why would the government outlaw things like marijuana, but not cigarettes and alcohol? Alcohol makes people rude and stupid. Cigarettes are built to be addictive. Marijuana just makes you loopy and clueless. When you smoke it, you're too dazed to do much of anything (no, i'm not speaking from experience. I have a couple friends with a past). How many times do you hear of people driving under the influence of marijuana? A few, maybe. What about driving under the influence of alcohol? Like you said before, it's so common, that nobody's surprised, anymore. So why is alcohol legal, whereas marijuana is not? Marijuana can even be used for medicinal purposes. But we're not tapping into it, because......why? It makes no sense.
ReplyDeletei don't think alcohol should be illegal, nor marijuana be legalized. I never ever hear But of someone getting into an accident and killing someone because they are high? i know what the effects of marijuana are and have seen people drive when they are high. and can handle it perfectly fine like nothing.
ReplyDeleteDrinking on another hand, sure if you are a moderate drinker, you know when to stop so it's not so bad. But there are hundreds of accidents onvolving drunk drivers, because there are a LOT of stupid people that think they are good enough to drive, when clearly alcohol is the totaly opposite from marijuana