What do you think about the United States' "War on drugs"?
490745
There cannot be a victory for the U.S. "War on Drugs" until there is intelligent and comprehensive changes to the laws.  But more than that a change of attitudes moving drug use to a medical issue rather than leaving it a legal issue.  Now we criminalize drug use, filling up jails with addicts.  Social costs are extremely high.  If we instituted needle exchange programs, prescriptions for drugs including heroin to addicts who must register, and provided counseling and other support services to users on a multiagency level, then we would see crime organizations go bankrupt because customer base for illegal drugs would diminish, users could pursue a more normal existance, public health costs would go down, and it would steer users away from prison and crime.  check out the "Merceyside Model".
736029
I don't think it's fair at all! Even though I don't use either substance, I agree with you 100%. I think at the moment it's a control issue for the Government. If they legalized it right now, they still couldn't keep up with it all because so much is being grown nation wide and there is so much is on the streets. I think they should open up the market for everything. The recreational user will still be the recreational user and the addicts will still be addicts. What does the Government have to loose? Nothing the way I see it, because they will see a new tax base and there will also be plenty of new experimenters turned recreational users. We don't need Uncle Sam telling us what to do and what not to do....especially in the privacy of our own homes!
387318
Well of course, by criminalizing the drug trade you force it to organize along certain guidlines, even if you legalize the drug trade it would then still be organized by the government. Im an American and the government is the biggest drug dealer i have ever seen.
1094192
Yeah.  They should legalize it, tax the hell out of it, and try to pay back some of the money wasted on the war on drugs...... help us get out of debt a little.  But the government would have to admit they were wrong in some instances, and they'd actually be held responsible for tax dollars gone askew.  Not going to happen.\n\n**Oh, I totally agree with how much safer pot is than alcohol and especially cigarrettes.  Alcohol, the only drug whose withdrawls can kill you- and cigarettes, which contain nicotine, the most addictive drug on the planet, are both available 24-7. \n\nLook at social issues.  You don't hear about a man coming home stoned and beating his wife.\n\nI don't see how legalizing pot would make people more apt to leaving it out in the open for small children to get a hold of.  It would hold the same accessibility as cigarettes and alcohol.  If I had no other choice, I'd rather my kid be smoking pot than cigarettes, especially after learning what chemicals they have been putting in them- sharing some components with crack.
25766
The war on drugs is nowhere near over.  I was watching on the news a while back that after the tougher laws passed in Iowa reguarding the sales of certain ingredients in meth, that meth lab siezures had gone down a dramatic amount.  However, I still see people using every bit as much as before.  In my opinion, the law enforcement officials have not been working hard enough, and therefore cite the new law for less busts being made.
144051
you cant win a war on drugs when there isnt one.the goverment supplies the drugs so there is no war
158959
well, that depends on the drug and your view of it... for example, PCP...  I think that PCP is an acceptable target... however, for the most part the WAR on drugs is far worse than the drugs themselves...\n\nScenario:  55year old man, smokes weed, otherwise a model citizen, gets arrested over a stupid drug charge... from that day foreward, his life is RUINED...  why?\n\nWell, for one Dupont has a financial stake in keeping marijuana illegal because it could cut into their proffit margin in the areas of Synthetic fibers, Pharmacuticles, and Petrochemicals...  And surprise surprise, Bush owns stock in Dupont and the Oil industry...\n\nAs far as other drugs go... check out this question I asked...\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuwI91iO.Ta5BWoyCzncra_sy6IX?qid=1006022410912\nthen check out a website dedicated to the TRUTH about Drugs, and all aspects of them...\nhttp://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/
38848
I agree wholeheartedly, but for some reason, many people, especially people in legislatures, think that drugs are the worst thing ever. I think it's absolutely absurd that someone who actually killed someone could theoretically get less time than most people do for dealing drugs.
603280
This is perhaps the most profound question that I have read since being involved with ANSWERS! \n\nThe war on drugs has been a complete failure for the last 50 plus years and will continue to be, because people insist on using this stuff.\n\nI am not my brothers keeper when it comes to him wanting to destroy his life.  If he wants to live, he will finally make his way to rehab, but not before he decides that he's had enough!\n\nThe people who want to use this stuff, are already using it, and will use it no matter how many laws they have to break, in order to get it. \n\nThis is a product that should be treated the same way alcohol is treated, in our society.  If you are 21 or older, you have the right to indulge.  If you are driving, you don't have the right to indulge.  Neither do you have the right to indulge if you are going to work, or are in a physically uncontrollable state.  You cannot offer this substance to anyone under 21 years of age.  You cannot carry a weapon while under the influence. etc. etc.\n\nIt is my belief that those people who do not indulge in drugs, will not, even if it becomes legal.  That the number of users will not dramatically rise as a result of drugs becoming legal. \n\nWhat will occur from the legalization of drugs is a hugh deflation in the cost of trying to control illegal drugs. A hugh reduction in the number of deaths due to turf wars and tainted product out on the streets.\n\nI visualize a tax and revenue producing industry,due to the legal sale of drugs from certified pharmacies.\n\nDrugs and alcohol have been a scurge of our society as well as most societies around the globe, and will continue to be whether drugs are legal or illegal.\n\nWe have tried it the conservative way for generations, and it hasn't worked!  Perhaps it is time to try another method.  Hell, we could always reverse this decision if we see that we are wrong.  But if we're not wrong, think of all the money that will be saved, all the lives not lost, and perhaps even, the reduction in users because the challenge is gone.
724410
What makes you think its not also happening elsewhere, like almost everywhere that weak people think they need prohibition? Between drug war funding and corruption ("Operation Lively Green") there's too much money available [locally, $300,000 to let one load across the border] to agenda driven police, drunk with political power and feeling invulnerable. In the zone near the Mexican Border with Arizona, it only sounds like a joke when we say we can trust the banditos and smugglers more than Border Patrol, to behave as expected. The criminals are no threat to citizens, but the criminal behaviors and abuse of ranchers and citizens by 'authorities' have done more to inspire us to call this zone the "Gunbelt". We have tried to clean up corruption, but both the smugglers and the corrupted are protected by the cowards we trusted to protect us. Its a fearful situation now being repeated in communities across America, as the "police" did nothing for years to stop the illegal invasion of millions across the border. Now the "bite" 'morditas' is on everyone. We are honest, but go nowhere unarmed;We joined a posse, and got deputized in a citizens police oversight team authorized to do whats needed, up to and including the use of deadly force. We surround the corrupt cops, not the other way around. Truth and dignity, if not justice, will prevail.
652718
well.. i dont know to be honest.. but i think it should be.. the government should control it and price it and the world in my opinion would be a better place... no one has ever overdosed on pot..
269421
whoa, folks theses are people too. they did they made one unwise decision &are paying dearly for it.they need help. i am so disgusted with the way our nation is handling the war on drugs i `ve got to the point that i feel it should be legalized. people`s gonna do it anyway. what did prohibition show us? alcohol is the WORST drug their is! my father died an old crippled man at52 of course i want the same rights from the police that we have from people drinking.THINK of all the money that could be used in rehabilatation. real education, protecting kids. my stars we`ve got people in the streets. help them, many many people abuse drugs because of mental health - it`s the only way they know to cope with life.we need to help them to get real help.this is what is destroying our country.i also feel that alcohol should be treated with as much seriosness as any other drug.
333323
The War on Drugs is Bul&&&&t, alls its doing is putting more Mo&&&&ther&&&kers in jail, thats all its doing.  Why, because people want to get high, there's people on this ANSWERS.Yahoo that are looking at their wathches, wondering when they can get way to take a hit.\n\nYou can take away all the blow, all the joints, all the ice, all the 8-ball, guys will still want to get high.  They'll become scientists and go behind their houses, "hey check this out dude, you take a baby's bottle, fill it with a little gasoline and dead lima beans, suck this you'll be f&&&cked up"\n\njust kidding, i never touch the sh&&T.
825233
I would much rather see the murders caught then seeing a drug bust for marijuana.\n\nI think for harder drugs they should provide more help for possession then incarceration.  These people are addicted--not criminals.\n\nFor the dealers I believe in incarceration, counseling, education, and rehab for these people.  They should know about the lives they have ruined--by dealing to a child who OD and died.  They should deal with the consequences of their actions.\n\nI feel the system is not working well.  To many times do these addicts and dealers get out to do the same things again.
218397
When we legalize them and make them available to everyone at cheap prices, just like coffee, cigarettes and alcohol. The only reason they are a problem now is that they are illegal, driving the prices to astronomical heights, precipitating horrendous street crime, and making criminals rich. If we legalized them, regulated them, taxed them and used the tax revenues to build treatment centers and fund education programs, we would begin to deal with the problem from a realistic perspective instead of the spastic knee-jerk reaction we currently misidentify as a "War on Drugs".
236411
I think pot usage was wider spread back then before the government dug in with all the anti-drug campaigning and subsidies to law enforcement.  The taboo of it has been softened too.  Coke was off the hook back then, really just getting started...but I don't think it's any worse than today, considering how strong the growing darker forces of the Columbian Drug Cartel have become.  So, all-in-all, the same...basing that on information from the media and the occasional creepy book or two covering the subject from Barnes & Noble....
929635
well a cop once told me they needed drug laws so they can hasve reasonable excuse to bust in \nseems like with terror legislation nowwe can afford to relax on those choosing to self medicate with a plant the war has made equal to the price of gold ,a weed that costs nothing to grow yourself\na politition told me once that paper money is made from hemp fibre ,so the law  is so people cant make thier own money ,i just had to laugh but he was serious ,but we have plastic money and they dont make that plastic from hermp but petrol ,time to ban petro chemical? yea right\na lawyer once told me 20 out of 12 plead guilty and apparently dopers keep the prison ers quiete so that wioont change ,we have legal aid here the average volenteer lawyer on duty makes 300 ,per guilty plea on a good day of comunity service he makes 6000 ,the govt makes 18,000 ,so what those 2/3 rds of lawyers going to do for money ,lawyers wont help ,drug laws all they know ,\ndrug law works by precident ,ie a higher court ruled it thus its now law ,the preceedents have been made on all grounds of apeal a long time ago ,that deems a plant a drug ,despite it clearly beingf a compound of chemicals 1600 plus a single drug thc ,\nthe precedent has deemed a plant ,ie legally a fungable despite clearly being whilst attatched to the ground thus part of the land ie a fixture , thus only allowed to be made a fungable by the tennents permission\nthe farce goes on and on the injustice rolls on we had a drug war to demonise drug use brought aboput because petro chemical users wanted to bankrupt and take over the hemp fibre and oil marketts ,it used the fbi and hoover ,via the hurst chain to make dupoint brothers rich enough to make the nuclear bomd ,to allow the murder of our planit ans eventuall sponser and paymasyer of those oil rich shieks who buy our weopons of mutual destraction\nso good luck ,it will never happen.