Make all drugs legal; stop the myths~

Because that is what happens in most cases. It is a studied phenomena in human behavior.

An initial increase followed by a decrease. Just as it happened when abortion was made legal in the US and after the alcohol prohibition was lifted.

Are you actually asking why it would be a good thing to have less theft?

Quite frequently non criminal, non gang members are harmed or killed in inter-gang conflicts. If there was never collateral damage/harm/death, then I would agree with you

 

Violence does not have to be physical to be violence.

 

These are the questions that make me.think that you have not yet finished primary (pre-college/university) education. Due to the illegal nature of banned drugs, there is a high profit margin associated with them, as well as a high cost in getting them to the user. If the drug was no longer illegal, then legitimate businesses would be able to make the drugs cheaper and for less overhead and risk, quickly putting the street dealers out of business and making it not worth the time and effort for the criminal element to sell the drugs.

In the case of the users, it's not the profit, but the loss of the status of "forbidden fruit" that will cause the drop in use.

The parallel is valid.

No. People with addictions to that which costs a lot will rob other people in order to get the money to feed their addictions. I have to seriously wonder about the Aussie education system if you were not aware of that.

Of course not. Anything that can turn a high relatively easy profit would do the same. It was alcohol during the prohibition era. Yes there are gangs out there who are not into any black market items, and they would not be affected, but the fact that the ones who were would soon die out would still reduce overall gang violence.

 

How does the harm increase for the theft victim simply because the stolen property has changed hands?

 

Sure it does. Just look at the definition of the damn word. Your definition leads to the insane idea that SPEECH is violence!

 

I smoked pot when I was a teen.

When I was in the 5th grade, gang members threatened to kill me and my family. I had to cut through back yards on my way home from school. I was robbed at gunpoint twice before I was 15.

These gangs strengthen their numbers through illegal immigration and exploit our drug laws for steady income.

A friend of mine is a police officer working in a gang unit. He agrees that drug laws cause more harm than good. If someone wants to smoke crack, sniff glue, etc, they should be left alone as long as they are not hurting anyone. The money we save on incarceration drug users can be used to secure our border and provide treatment for those that want it.

 

Good point. When I smoked pot in the 80s, I paid $30 for an eighth of dirt weed. Now, for the same $30., I can get the best delivered by a guy wearing a man-bun!

 

1) These drugs which are now inflated in price by a factor of 1000-1 because of these idiotic drug laws will be available for what they are really worth instead of being sold for prices as high or higher than gold. This will take the huge profits away from criminal gangs who use that money to buy weapons and power to terrorize neighborhoods, kill each other over turf an kill innocent bystander in the process.

2) Many users are lured into drug involvement at a young age because of the huge illegal profits that are available. Abusers of drugs find then widely available today and those that want to abuse them will always be able to find them. However rather than spending hundreds of billions of dollars paying drug cops, prosecutors, free defense lawyers, prison guards, judges, and court employees to snoop on, arrest, put through the expensive court system we could us those resources to educate children about the dangers of drugs from an early age and to help rehabilitate abusive users.

3) Alcohol is a drug and is one of the most destructive drugs. When it was made illegal, the price went way up and there were criminal gangs killing each other in the streets and fighting over turf just like the drug gangs are doing now. After alcohol, a dangerous drug was legalized all the huge profits and criminal activities related to alcohol disappeared.

4) No, drugs are not the only thing that drives gang violence. But they are the main source of profit and violence in street gangs throughout America because of draconian drug laws. Before these drug laws were passed, you could by heroin from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog, Coca Cola was laced with cocaine. you could grow and smoke cannabis and psychoactive drugs like peyote, psylicybin, LSD and other naturally occurring substances were legal. Before law enforcement got hysterically involved there were very few drug problems here in the US.

 

What part of LA did you grow up in?

 

Van Nuys

 

I grew up in San Fernando, Sylmar and Granada Hills in the 1960s 70s. There were a few gangs in Fernando back then, mostly low riders. I knew a lot of these guys from baseball, football and boxing so I didn’t get bothered much. When I was first married in 1976, we lived in an apartment on Lennox Ave between Van Owen and Sherman way. I played fast pitch softball at little Van Nuys park across the street from Dales market there. It was pretty tame back then and we felt safe living there. I guess it got pretty rough there in the late ‘80s after we moved to West Hills. Now, it seems pretty tame over that way again. LAPD and LASD have done a really good job of locking up a lot of these punks. Also football great Jim Brown has done a good job of interacting with these gangs and trying to create non criminal activities and opportunities for these people. There are also a lot of people volunteering to help homeless people get their lives together and the LAPD Police Athletic League is still training and coaching underprivileged kids in Boxing, Baseball and other sports. LA in general has a lot of problems regarding homeless, street violence, alcohol and drug abuse like any major city but we also have tens of thousands of great people out there donating their time and resources to help solve these problems. Also both the LAPD and LASO have both reformed into excellent law enforcement agencies over the past few decades. I love my home town and especially the people here.

 

Ah! You lived by the YMCA! Good memories! I was only in the second grade in 76. I do appreciate the good work from law enforcement and those that donated their time. It did make a difference.

I lived close by, near the police station. We had BVN terrorizing the neighborhood and then I was bused to a school controlled by 18 th street.

I visited my old stomping grounds recently and I am sad to report that things have gotten worse. We used to ride bikes near Sepulveda Dam, and now its a big homeless encampment.

 

I agree about the homeless taking over Sepulveda Dam area which used to be a great wonderland for kids on bikes or just hanging out. All areas around the freeways are infested with homeless people and unsafe for kids now. However on the positive side there is a huge push to take back these areas and make them safe again happening right now in LA.

Woolley park which was an open air drug dealing haven for years has been cleaned up and patrolled and I just went to a big reunion of a bunch of high school friends there this summer. Cricket games were being played, bbqs were everywhere and kids were playing soccer and football.

The gangsters and criminals who controlled MacArthur Park have been cleared out and the great historic park has been shut down for renovations and will be re opened next spring with night and day security to provide a safe place for residents to recreate.

My ex wife works at Tarzana medical center and the area has become infested with diseased dangerous mentally ill people that she has ended up having to deal with. She said finally police and social service agencies along with non profit charity organizations are sending lots of resources to clear up the homeless encampments which have developed along the 101. Both the local and state governments are involved in this massive undertaking. Hopefully funds for the Federal infrastructure bill will also be allocated to eradicate these cesspools.

I hope that from this point on we start using our resources more wisely instead of pissing away trillions on bullshit drug wars and bullshit shooting wars abroad. If we force the politicians to work together and create positive legislation to upgrade our country, we can accomplish amazing things. The bi partisan plan passed yesterday was a step in the right direction.

 

I appreciate the positive outlook.

 

Would the black market guns not become cheaper? And what do you mean "buy power?"

You're talking about drug DEALING, right?

Because currently there is no education?

So are you claiming that if illicit drugs became legal, ALL criminals activity related to illicit drugs would completely disappear?

And they likely still will be if they became legal. Where will people get their insanely dangerous, potentially lethal drugs from?

Was drug USE not much of a problem before it became illegal?

 

Is part of your friend's job enforcing drug sniffing? Or did you just pop that in there to trivialise things?

 

Never heard of Google?

 

People 'indulged' in abortion? Surely you can't be serious!

 

What so called 'legitimate businesses' would manufacture highly dangerous and potentially lethal drugs which destroy lives and communities? That would be GREAT PR!

This "forbidden fruit' factor of yours seems to be a total fantasy. Do you have any evidence at all to support the claim that the loss of "forbidden fruit" status will cause the drop in use?

An addiction which they will still have if drugs were legal.

They couldn't just move onto guns?

 

According to what definition? Not the one below, that's for sure!

 

No. I thought that @jack4freedom was talking about stealing the drugs.

 

How does the harm increase for the theft victim simply because the stolen property has changed hands?

 

Yes, but why would violent crime associated with drug laws come your way?

Due to the loss of "forbidden fruit" status?

 

According to some, alcohol and tobacco companies already do this, and now in several areas marijuana manufacturing is happening. And actually when you think about it, pharmaceutical companies also already do this. Decriminalized doesn't automatically mean no regulations. Alcohol and tobacco have regulations.

I already provided examples of where this has occurred.if you want more look it up yourself. Ever hear of Google?

True enough. But the drugs would also be so much more affordable. As one person pointed out already, how many alcoholics actually steal in order to feed their addictions?

Since guns are already out there, that is already a factor, this it would not be a trade off.

 

Is there any increase in harm if two people kill you instead of one?