Valhalla Legends Archive

Yes, we know how good people are at moderation.  

*thinks back to the number of alcoholics he's seen while working at the vendor, and pictures that many extra potheads*

Pot can make you a dumbass in minutes; it takes a hell of a lot more booze.

Quote from: hismajesty on December 06, 2003, 02:11 AM

Quote from: EcsTasY on December 06, 2003, 01:33 AM
who else would agree?

Idiots perhaps?

I think the government isn't trying hard enough.

Governments are stupid. They should legalise these comparatively harmless drugs and make money by taxing them, as well as adding legal requirements that they be pure and not full of other crap (that hurts people more than the drug). Why spend billions on stopping people doing what they want when they could make millions by using the situation to their advantage?

At the end of the day, I think it's pretty stupid to make laws about what people do to their own bodies. Apart from being absurd, it's futile and expensive. America, especially, has an anti-drug obsession that I find very strange.

It's the fact that they say they're antidrug, but actually it's not enforced at all.

A conspectus of my philosophy on how to live life: Do whatever the hell you want as long as it doesn't infringe on the happiness of others.  Weed isn't hurting anyone else -- all of these "funding terrorism" messages being pushed by the US government are bullshit.

Actually, I think they are. Similar to how alcohol financed crime in days long past. That's a problem of drugs being illegal though - if drugs were legal and cheaply produced by the government, crime and terrorism couldn't benefit from the huge profit margins involved.

Drugs certainly fund crime, terrorism is perhaps fanciful.

I used to be against decriminalization of illicit drugs, including marijuana.  That is, until my college debate class where I was required to argue in favor of it.  I did about twenty hours of research preparing for the debate.  The United States Department of Justice publishes crime statistics every year, including breakdowns by population segments, distribution, and the money spent fighting these crimes.  I also used books on police crime fighting, crime and punishment theory in the United States, and legal cases indicating then-precedents.  Also interviewed a few people convicted of possession, and one police officer.  Finally I took a survey of a small (<50) sample size getting their opinions on the subject.

What I found convinced me that decriminalization is the best way to go overall.  It is inherently "less evil" than criminalization, and healthier for the society, economy, and individuals.

Yes, some people will try drugs that never would have otherwise, and some will get hooked and die or kill other people.  But the total amount of crime would go down drastically.

Most arguments against decriminalization go something like "people on drugs hurt other people".  Well so do people who aren't on drugs, and so do people who say, breath an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere.  The things you're arguing about are and still would be illegal.  Hurting other people wouldn't become decriminalized because of the change.  It would only become less prevalent.  Most drug-related crime isn't caused by usage, it's caused by the crime necessary to acquire the money to buy drugs.  Make drugs cheap, make them available, and most of the crime, indeed most of the allure, will diminish.

That's a tiny summary of my position.

So you're saying we should get rid of our oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere?


But seriously, I think the biggest problem is laziness.  People who smoke pot, I've noticed, end up being perfectly happy with what they have, and they make no effort to improve themselves.  VERY few people I went to highschool with who smoked weed (in fact, I can't think of any) went to university.  

It's very much like the book called "Brave New World" where everybody in the world takes a drug that makes them happy all the time.  As a result, they do nothing.  Technology doesn't advance, nothing gets done, but all the people sit there happily.

So this is the question: does utilitarianism (maximise happiness/reduce sadness overall, basically wut what said) really work?  When all's said and done, if everybody takes this drug and happily does nothing, everybody IS happier.  But in the long run, it will lead to less happiness.

So they could just keep taking the drug? Honestly, I don't care whether the legalize or don't legalize weed. It's not like you can't smoke it freely in most places.

Quote from: warz on December 07, 2003, 04:53 PM
So they could just keep taking the drug? Honestly, I don't care whether the legalize or don't legalize weed. It's not like you can't smoke it freely in most places.

I should have noted that the government doesnt take the drug, they only use it as a means of control.  This way, they can get people to do whatever they want by threatening to take it away.

But for thepurposes of argument, say the drug grows wild all over the place, like grass.

It does in my basement

Quote from: MrRaza on December 07, 2003, 05:57 PM
It does in my basement

I never liked to smoke it but I always loved to grow it.

QuoteI used to be against decriminalization of illicit drugs, including marijuana.  That is, until my college debate class where I was required to argue in favor of it.

I did an argument, on my high school debate team, in favor of legalizing heroin.  Because of the audacity of the proposal and our opponents inability to produce evidence to the contrary, we won every time.