People can't even hang themselves anymore without the press jumping in saying it might have been Auto-erotic asphyxiation. These are truly sad times.

Damn...I want a redo....General Welfare!!

Right...I know alcohol and tobacco are damaging as well (especially alcohol). I wish we could have prohibition on those too. They are simply a huge drag on society. I know, I know...I'm a "crazy loony wackjob" for thinking that. But that's just how I feel. Too many innocents have been hurt by all of these substances for me to want to accept them. I know that they are readily available. I believe in past posts I've addressed some ways to help with that. I've also given some suggestions on how our prisons can actually be used to save the state money. Nothing like labor at cost to save buck or two.

This is the thing that gets me...most of the people on this board seem intelligent. Yet many appear to do drugs or would do them if they were legal knowing the harmful effects. Many say, "I have this under control it could never happen to me". There have been plenty of people who have thought that as well. Then they end up killing a family while DUI. The tragedy is just too great. But you know it''s a waste and yet it's something sought after. What has caused this? Hollywood glorifying it? It's a decay on society, plan and simple.

Go out and shoot pool, learn guitar, go rock climbing (lots of fun there), there are plenty of things that you can have a good time at w/o running the chance of harming yourself or others.

No, you're a "crazy loony wackjob" for thinking it is your place to force others not to use that or another drug.Like who?Who is saying this? And many do have it "under control." Are you saying they don't?You don't own this society, and you certainly don't own everyone in it. If they want to destroy their lives, it is their choice, not your's.You can't harm yourself rock climbing? It's not the fall that gets you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom, eh?

It is government's job to protect us form others, NOT TO PROTECT US FROM OURSELVES.

How many people die a year DIRECTLY from illegal drugs?

How many people die a year in auto accidents?

What, you drive a car? Why would you endanger your life and other's lives like that?

You tell people to go rock climbing, but do you know how many people die a year from rock climbing? Think about all those families.

There were 212,708 people treated for outdoor recreational injuries per year between January 2004 and December 2005

Outdoor Recreational Injuries: New CDC Study First To Present National Estimates | Suite101.com

How about drownings? Do you know how many people drown each year? Should we make swimming pools illegal?

# In 2005, there were 3,582 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States, averaging ten deaths per day. An additional 710 people died, from drowning and other causes, in boating-related incidents.1, 2
# More than one in four fatal drowning victims are children 14 and younger.¹ For every child who dies from drowning, another four received emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.1

Water-Related Injuries Facts - NCIPC

There is danger everywhere. Do you even know how many people die a year from illegal drugs? How does that compare to the number of people who die per year from recreation? From automobile accidents?

There are several reasons alcohol prohibition failed. You simply can't stop people from using drugs, no matter what laws you make. In China they execute 100 people a year, or more, for drug trafficking, yet their drug problem continues to get worse.

If you made all illegal drugs disappear, what would happen? New ones would be developed and people would resort more to huffing to get high. Ever look into huffing? There are no official, national statistics on huffing, but if you look at the data that is available it is rather scary.

According to Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Medical Examiner data, inhalants were a factor in over 500 deaths in the United States from 1996 to 1999. Medical examiner data provided by DAWN cover only 40 metropolitan areas in the United States; thus, many inhalant-related deaths across the country are not reflected in DAWN data.

Intelligence Brief: Huffing--The Abuse of Inhalants

It has been estimated that as many as 30% of deaths from huffing are FIRST TIME USERS.

Scary huh?

You simply will never stop drugs. To imprison people for doing drugs is taking people with problems and turning them into bitter, hardened criminals. How does that make sense? Even if prisons didn't cost taxpayers a penny, you are still taking ordinary people with problems and turning them into hardened criminals.

There are all kinds of dangers in the world and it is not the government's job to protect us from ourselves. Considering the most dangerous thing you can do in the US is to get in an automobile and drive, how does it make sense to keep marijuana illegal?

Well said NR. I don't think FJ is ever going to see our side of this. FJ, I don't know if your a man of faith, but if you are, you may want to consider that Marijuana is just a weed that used to grow alongside nearly every road in the U.S. because that is how God intended it to be. Just like the Poppy, the Cocoa plant, Ephedra root, the Asper tree, and all the other medicinal plants and herbs on the planet. For thousands of years humans got along just fine without laws prohibiting them.
When the Stock Market crashed in 1929 alcohol was illegal. Less then 4 years later it's prohibition was repealed , for the most part, so they could regulate, thus Tax the booze flow they could not control.
Mark my words, it is a mathematical certainty that, as our current economic downturn worsens, Hemp prohibition will be repealed. And all will be as God intended once again.

By the way....I'm agnostic....The "god" stuff was just for affect.

Nice to see you're finally able to comprehend something...

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For those who have fought to defend it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know...



If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

Yeah he comprehends what he is dealing with all right.

As do I. If you don't have anything of value to add to the conversation, why don't you just go away?

You're hardly the arbiter of "value" so, no, I'll go nowhere.

And, if my participation here irks you, well, that's just icing on the cake...

__________________



For those who have fought to defend it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know...



If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

you two should rent a hotel room.

__________________
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

So, did you ever look up how many people die a year, directly from illegal drugs?

Looks to be 17,000 from what I can find in a short search.

-edit- An asston more if you count alcohol and tobacco. So I would assume we would do what we can to keep illegal drugs from becoming as widespread as those two.

__________________
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

You see....Posting on these forums is sharpening our debate skills and raising our levels of tolerance.

According to this report
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS THAT KILL: ANOTHER KIND OF DRUG PROBLEM

Adverse reactions to prescription drugs are killing about 106,000 Americans each year, roughly three times as many as are killed by automobiles. This makes prescription drugs the fourth leading killer in the U.S., after heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The report included only drugs that were given properly and under normal circumstances, excluding drugs that were administered in error or taken in attempted suicides ... The sale of prescription drugs has more than doubled in the U.S. during the past 8 years since the report.
So, prescription drugs kill more people then illegal drugs....way, way more. This is very interesting news humm FJ?

Yes 17,000, but we can only speculate how many of those deaths were caused from tainted drugs and the wide variance in purity, both of which are a result of the drug war.

Ever done a search on tainted heroin?

Here is just one single article.

AP-CHICAGO- A law enforcement raid on a drug ring believed linked to tainted heroin that has blamed for hundreds of deaths led to the arrests Wednesday of suspected gang members and a police officer, authorities said.

Raid targets Chicago gang members in tainted heroin trade

HUNDREDS OF DEATHS, just in one city, in a single year, from tainted heroin.

Now, how many people have died in drug related violence, all because of the war on drugs? How many lives have been ruined by unfair and unjust laws for hard drugs? How many people's lives have been destroyed in Mexico, in Colombia, in Peru, all because of the war on drugs?

For what? For an attempt to stop something which is IMPOSSIBLE to stop? In order to try to save 17,000 people from killing themselves, we allow many thousands of others to die and hundreds of thousands to have their lives destroyeed by an unjust, unfair policy?

Approx. 40,000 people die a year in auto accidents. Tobacco kills 435,000 and alcohol around 100,000.

Marijauna kills 0.

ZERO.

ZILCH.

NADA.

GOOSE EGG.

How does marijuana prohibition make sense?

haha, that little tidbit doesn't surprise me. I remember seeing a commercial where they did their little fast talking shpeel on the possible side effects. This one says "massive heart failure" lol. Yep, there are side-effects to those drugs. But they are regulated and handed out by prescription from doctors. Just imagine if they just put all those drugs on the counter and everyone could eat them like candy.

Let me ask you this question. Would you give marijuana or other drugs to your child or to a kid? Why not? They are harmless after all.

-edit- @ post 553

__________________
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw