NoCowLevel

http://i.imgur.com/EAMkZ9V.gif

I would like to get your opinion on drug policy and what you think we should do for all currently-illicit recreational drugs, especially hard(er) drugs like heroin, meth, and crack.

• I am optimistic that cannabis will be legalized soon, maybe even starting in Colorado 2012. While cannabis makes up a large number of prison, the people whom current drug policy especially hurts are addicts of harder drugs, like heroin, meth, crack, and alcohol. What do you think should happen to alleviate these problems?

• Keeping in mind that current drug policy fails to achieve any of its enacted goals, should we switch to a harm-reduction drug policy that focuses on education and rehabilitation instead of incarceration? If you do support incarceration and/or continued prohibition, are you also in favor of government control/criminalization of excessive food intake to combat the public health issue of obesity?

Not to take anything from your message, but why stop at just marijuana? Why not drug policy as a whole? Drug prohibition is a failure, not just cannabis prohibition.

Decriminalizing substances that, across the board, by all scientific standards, are harmful for you, IMO, is a bad decision.

Is it any more dangerous than keeping them criminalized/illegal? Do the remarkable increase in STD rates, property crime rates/larceny, organized criminal enterprises worth not letting people take responsibility for themselves? Do you support having government control caloric intake because of an obesity epidemic? Do you support government criminalizing excessive caloric intake because it's a public health issue?

Your entire response revolves around contingency and hypothetical situations, both of which are not supported by scientific evidence for altering drug policy globally. Prohibition does not work; why are the drugs that actually cause the most damage exempt from this? Ending cannabis prohibition is stupefyingly obvious; the real societal damage from illicit drugs are from prohibition, and prohibition is the sole reason for that.

Furthermore, all drugs, illegal or not, has the potential to be dangerous. 10 tylenol in one sitting will cause significant kidney and liver damage. Diacetylmorphine, methamphetamine, crack, etc are all SAFE drugs at the PROPER DOSES, information that is NOT disseminated by the government. Most, if not ALL damage from ANY drug can be negated through responsible use and moderation. You cannot be in favor of banning something because it might happen.

Do you enjoy Ferrero Rocher chocolates?