Re: OT: 'Legalize drugs - all of them'


"Mrs. LHE" <43082190@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1133811349$683544@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> On Dec 5 2005 2:15 PM, O-PGManager wrote:
>
>> I like it.
>
> Me too. I don't even know where to begin on this, and this post is going
> to be
> a bit of a ramble, so please bear with me, but this is one topic I find
> very,
> very irritating.
>
> I think it's ridiculous that so many people are taking up space (and
> costing
> taxpayers money) in prison because of the "war on drugs." I've seen
> cigarettes
> and/or alcohol do a hell of a lot more damage to people's lives than pot
> and
> cocaine combined. Anything is harmful in excess -- even eating. Why
> don't they
> put restrictions on that too?

You make a good point, but read on.

>
> It's up to adults to decide what they want to do, provided they're not
> hurting
> anyone else.

One cannot discount the one reason why seat belt use is
mandatory.....insurance costs. Personally, I think insurance is leagalized
fraud that drives up the cost of the services that we are supposed to be
insuring against. However, according to our society right now, the way a
habitual drug user drives up insurance costs for other users is reason
enough to make those drugs illegal. However, read on.

> The most ridiculous thing, though, is that legal drugs -- tobacco
> and alcohol -- DO hurt other people. Secondhand smoke is harmful, and
> alcohol
> can indirectly hurt someone else if a drunk gets into a car and drives.
> Don't
> even get me started on prescription drug abuse.

Here you go. We have a double standard in place.

First of all, alcohol is a drug where using equipment or partaking in
activities where other people could become harmed are illegal while under
the influence. There are laws in place to protect against that, and there
are tests in place to easily detect whether or not someone is violating
those laws. I was a heavy drinker for about ten years. I didn't quit
because I viewed myself to be an alcoholic. I quit becuase 1) I stopped
enjoying it and 2) I saw a couple of my friends completely destroy their
lives because of alcohol abuse. I abused alcohol when I was a drinker. I
was all about beer bongs and shots. Then, one of my best friends died of
alcohol poisoning at age 21. That changed my life.

When it comes to cigarette smoke, I believe our society is slowly realizing
the damage that second hand smoke does. The best anti-smoking commercial on
TV is the one about the lady who contacted a smokers' tumor and has never
smoked a cigarette in her life. Believe it or not, there are people who
work at Denny's, or who work in a bar that really have no choice about what
they do for a living. I have known many of them throughout the course of my
life. Most of these people are either single parents who have no education
but are willing to work hard for a living or people who have had a falling
out in life and are putting the pieces back together. It is unfair to them
to expose them to hazardous second hand smoke as a course of their job, and
our laws are slowly starting to reflect that. I smoked for sixteen years.
I was a one-pack-a-day guy unless I was traveling. If I was in a car, I
chain smoked. It's now been one year and three weeks since I kicked the
habit (hopefully for good). I was always a responsible smoker, though. I
never littered my butts, I always asked passengers in my car if they minded
if I lit up, and I never, ever, ever smoked inside our office on those
freezing cold windy days during the winter. I become irate when a co-worker
lights up in the office if only to take a puff or two before stepping
outside because the wind will blow out their matches. It drives me even
more crazy to see the assholes who stand by an open door and blow smoke
outside. In the past, I could cite company policy (even as a smoker, I did
this) to get them to stop. As of last year, I can now cite the law. It
still happens, though, and let me be the first to say that the temptation
that it creates inside of me to bum a smoke after smelling that first whiff
of freshly burnt nicotine is almost impossible to resist. I will forever be
addicted to nicotine, and when someone lights a cigarette in front of me,
that person is putting my life in danger. I have 0 tolerance when it comes
to smokers' rights. The right of a smoker ceases at the point where I can
smell his/her cigarette smoke, and insurance costs aren't the only reason.

Prescription drugs are the most severe problem, though. I think our country
has a severe problem when it comes to prescription drugs and the dependance
that some have formed upon them. These prescriptions are directly and
indirectly affecting our insurance companies bottom line, and it isn't only
my mother who is addicted. Last year, my employer reworked our health
insurance coverage so that prescription medication had a limit. One of my
co-workers went into a frenzy. She takes six different prescriptions, and
her ten year old son also takes six different prescriptions. We got into a
heated discussion recently about how she now has to pay out of pocket for
about 50% of her prescription drug coverage when before she was getting it
all for free. It seems obvious to me why our insurance company decided to
take such a drastic step, but I think I took an improper route when I told
her she was turning her son into a junky. Of course, the end result of all
of this is that the people who really need these prescription drugs,
primarily the elderly, can't afford them because the junkies like my mother
and my co-worker drive up the price.

Ugh.

> I say let adults make up their own minds. Set up "red light" districts so
> children aren't exposed to it. Isn't that what they do in Amsterdam? As
> it
> stands now, it's in the schools and on the street corners, so wouldn't it
> actually be BETTER for districts to be set up specifically for drug use,
> drinking, and the like.

A funny little anecdote.

I smoked a little (okay, a lot) of pot in my time. I didn't start until
after high school, but for years after high school, I actually went to the
high school to find a bag. One day, a good friend of mine was pulled over
pulling out of the high school parking lot for failing to use his turn
signal. He didn't have enough sense to at least put the baggie he had just
bought under the seat, so it was in plain view when the cop came up to his
window. Obviously, he was busted for possession and the charge was
escalated about ten times for being within 1,000 feet of school district
property.

Before appearing in court, he made a plea bargain with the DA. The DA
wanted to go full hilt on him, but my buddy had a little secret. The pot he
had purchased was from the DA's son. So, when time came for the lawyers to
talk, the defense attorney told the DA that his client wasn't at the high
school to peddle drugs. He was at the high school to buy them. Apparently,
the DA was aware of his son's antics, so the sentence was immediately
reduced to simply possession without a moment's thought. My buddy didn't
even have to give a name (I'd like to believe that he wouldn't have even
though he knew that the drug dealer was the DA's son). A possible four year
prison sentence was reduced to a $200 fine.

On to more serious topics, I don't think a "red light" district is
necessarily the answer. Hell...we have bars and offsale available now, and
I view alcohol to be a much more dangerous substance than marijuana. Sell
reefer in bars and liquor stores. Make age requirements (21 will suffice)
to enter.



> (I feel the same way about prostitution.) That way,
> those that want to partake can do so and those who don't like it can sit
> their
> asses at home and bitch about it.

Legal and regulated is a whole helluva lot safer than illegal and
unregulated. I seriously do not know anyone who has not at least tried
marijuana at least once in his or her life with the exception of my father.
His first exposure to marijuana was in Vietnam, where people who got stoned
got blown to pieces.


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