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Drug Use Should Be Legal in America
Next year, America will have undergone two changes that seem to run counter to each other. Absinthe will be legal, while the hallucinogen salvia is currently in the process of becoming illegal in the states. While absinthe has long been maligned as a hideous threat to life and society, salvia is known to be rather harmless unless smoked or chewed in very high doses. However, the potential for harm with any drugs does not conern me. What does is their legal status. I think that all drugs (including cigarettes, alcohol and even meth) should be made legal for anybody 18 years or older. Drug legalization will not cause the downfall of society, it could easily save some lives and it would cerainly put more money in government coffers, allowing more funding for things like road improvement, technology research and education.
First things first. Alcohol was once abhorred to the point of being banned in America, on the grounds that it would cause irreparable damage to the structure of society. As we all learn in school, Prohibition didn't last all that long. Since alcohol was re-legalized, it has clearly not destroyed the U.S. Alcohol use is generally not allowed at most workplaces, and such would be the case with any other drug. Also prominent is the fact that many drugs which are prohibited in America are not in the Netherlands. Dutch society is not some hellish, broken world and Holland is a thriving first world country. I am skeptical (to say the least) that letting people eat magic mushrooms will kill America.
This is probably a good time to address methamphetamine. My opinion is that if someone is stupid enough to cook up things like cough syrup, ammonia and lithium, then smoke the product, those people might not be the most valuable members of society anyway. They can go right ahead and mess up their lives.
Drug legalization would, on the other hand, be able to save many other lives. Just like with cigarettes and alcohol, the government could regulate production and prices of any drugs. Varying potencies and warnings could be established. If drug strength and content were regulated and drugs legalized, manufacturers who make drugs in unhealthy ways would become obsolete and drug use might easily become much safer.
Legal drugs would also allow the government to collect more taxes. More government funds can spell more money being spent on improvements in fields such as education, transportation and technology research.
Drug use should be legal in America. It would benefit the government and not harm the populace.
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This article has 72 comments.
I think a quote from Terence Mckenna, while he was a nut job some of the time he also had some well thought out opinions, sums this up perfectly.
"If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own conciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp its written on."
If people want to profess this country as the 'land of the free' then we need to start showing it through our actions.
Pardon me if I come accross as rude, I simply have done a lot of research on the subject, including watching 15 documentaries, reading multiple research papers, read facts on erowid, and other very reputable sources, and am thusly aggrivated when people contradict what should be concieved as a fact.
To Fluffy2772: Not true, prohibition obviously was not a good move, but alcohol use can be controlled. If prohibition were used as an example it doesn't show why all the other laws keeping drugs illegal are working. Honestly, legallizing this stuff only lets gangs and dealers and everyone else come out from under their covers and sell the stuff out in the open, turning America into a real h#ll hole.
A saying to be used:
"Lowering the need to enforce standards in society won't keep society istelf from needing enforced."
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