QUOTE egg beast, i see your point but the arguments you are using to surport your point is at best weak >.< you cant really argue your case with the ridiculous laws as you've pointed out. perhaps licking a frog is illegal because one its just plain gross and two the frogs maybe poisionous and can harm humans (or third, the frog's skin produces a drug like effect and the gov. is trying to stop people from going high on licking frogs [eww])
Those crazy laws were really just for fun.
I realize that they don't directly relate to the issue of drugs. But while I'm a big fan of following the law, I don't take is as an absolute in my life. The people who made those laws were people just like us, so we shouldn't give some some kind of god-like status. That's all I was saying.
QUOTE So drugs are bad for individuals (health problems, addiction), it's bad for society (health problem, crimes caused by addiction).
Except because of some libertarian fantasy, why should we allow drugs ? What advantages for the society ?
I prefer to think of it as a libertarian possibility, rather than a fantasy
, but I'll not get nit-picky about it. Beyond the libertarian aspect of it, there would be the monetary benefits. At least here in America, we're spending billions upon billions of dollars catching drug-lords and keeping loads upon loads of criminals in jail strictly for drug usage/distribution. The theoretical cost of legalizing drugs (like medical fees, rehabilitation fees, etc.) all pale in comparison to what we're spending now. I'm not hearing any good arguments otherwise. The only other issue that leaves is how much of a social-impact/ethical issue legalizing drugs would present. I'm a big fan of the social contract ideology, that humans are born with every right to do anything they want, but when they form a government, they forgo some of those rights in order to maintain the best interests of everyone. I know that's one of the major ideologies that America's "founding fathers" had in mind when they developed the groundwork for our legal system. Most laws fall into that category of maintaining mutual interests, but methinks drugs may not. In the social contract ideology, individuals have every right to harm themselves, because they're not doing anything to infringe upon the rights of others. The only issue that drugs bring in are the fact that hard-core drug users can go completely crazy from their drug-ness, and by doing so, infringe upon the rights of others. This is true, it happens even now that drugs
are illegal, and even if drugs
were legal, these actions would
still be illegal. So the only issue against legalizing drugs would be if a substantially greater portion of people would start going very hardcore into drug usage, and inevitably perform actions which would impede upon the rights of others (DUI, drug-related violence).
And I personally don't see any valid arguments saying that the world would turn into a immoral, disgusting, drug-ridden world if we stop jailing everyone who want's to "blow their minds".
My example of Prohibition may not be a perfect fit to this issue, but it definitely supports my view. If drug-usage and crime rates
had gone down after alcohol was banned, then my arguments would pretty much be destroyed, no? The argument may not be definite, but it's by no means worthless.
*sigh* it seems like most people here have a very negative outlook on humanity. Where's poonk when you need her?
QUOTE once something is legalised, the government is saying that 'we surport this and as citizens of this country we believe that you will surport this as well.' So with this in mind, wouldnt more people believe that drug consumption is acceptable? Once something is widly accepted useage will go up for sure.
Now that's true. A government permitting something doesn't say "we support this action", but "we support your
right to do this. There is a very important difference there. I've used thsi quote tons of times in this forum, but here we go again, I'm quoting a revolutionary war hero.
QUOTE I despise what it is you do, but I'll
die for your right to do it!