Newsgroups: seattle.general,pnw.general,alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
From: [d--b] at [splinter.coe.northeastern.edu] (Stephen Humble)
Subject: Re: "Hard" Drug Legalization (was Re: Eskimo North Users Meeting & Iniative Measure 595)
Date: Wed, 12 May 1993 20:54:28 GMT

[t--d] at [ssc.com] (Tad Cook) sez:
> This is EXACTLY my point.  Right now our biggest drug problem is
> with alcohol.  If we legalize a bigger variety of drugs, isn't it
> possible that our net drug problems will be greater?

If we legalize a bigger variety of drugs, it's also possible that the
sun will go nova the next day, but I won't hold my breath waiting for
it to happen.

Do you really think it's likely that drug legalization will increase
drug problems?  If so, why?  Assuming reasonable (even minimal)
quality control, pot, opiates, and LSD are *all* less likely to harm
the user than alcohol simply because alcohol is so toxic compared to
other drugs.  Morphine was once used to treat alcoholism because
opiate addiction is *safer* than alcohol addiction.  (See
_The_Case_for_Legalizing_Drugs_ for a cite.)

The quality control I mentioned above isn't feasible now for illegal
drugs since the workings of the black market prevent it.  There is
only one way to eliminate the black market in drugs - legalization.

When a junkie gets Parkinson's disease bacause (s)he bought MPTP
thinking it was meperidine, isn't that a drug problem?

When a junkie dies of overdose because the local black-market drug
dealer can't manage to sell drugs with consistent potency, isn't that
a drug problem?

When children inhale solvents because safer drugs are unavailable or
too expensive, then suffer liver and/or kidney damage, isn't that a
drug problem?

When pot smokers destroy their lungs by smoking pot that their own
government intentionally contaminated with paraquat, isn't that a
drug problem?

When people who are addicted to opiates want to stop, but don't seek
treatment because they're afraid of being prosecuted, or because
funding for treatment was cut in favor of more guns, isn't that a
drug problem?

When the Bill of Rights is only worth printing on toilet paper, when
property is seized with no more than hearsay evidence, when
trigger-happy drug warriors kill innocent people because civil rights
interfere with the Holy War against DRUGZ, isn't that a drug problem?

This list goes on and on, injuries that Americans suffer because a
puritanical government is more interested in futile attempts to
enforce morality than in the well-being of its citizens.  Isn't that a
drug problem too?

Now tell me please, exactly *what* horrible consequences do you
expect if drugs are legalized?

Stephen