Philosophy Now Forum

Is it time to legalize pot and reduce the death rate of tobacco and alcohol?

Tobacco kills more people than all other psychotropic drugs combined, excluding alcohol.

Our government policy should be to legalize the more forgiving drugs and make the less forgiving drugs illegal.

Addiction research and government reports for the last 100 years have exonerated pot and cleared it’s reputation as the safest and most forgiving alternative for psychotropic drug use.

The last vote in California for or against the legalization of pot was defeated because of funding by the tobacco and alcohol lobby. In real terms, they were buying permission to kill the maximum number of humans with government collusion.

How much money per human life did alcohol and tobacco pay our government officials?

Is it time to do the moral thing and save the lives we can by making the less harmful psychotropic drugs legal?

Regards
DL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_mD6_oF ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMpnywjj ... re=related

It is improper for the government to control or restrict the sale of any product that does not impose a risk to others.

So we should control alcohol then? As drunks are a risk to others.

Drinking is not a risk to others, and alcohol should not be controlled.

I agree that Pot should be legal, but I don't see why you think there is a connect with Tobacco and Alcohol.
Making Pot legal will not reduce the use of these other substances, and I would think that making Pot legal would actually increase the use of tobacco as most people use Hashish which is nearly always smoked with tobacco.

One thing is for sure. When I gave up tobacco, my consumption of Pot plummeted. At times of no drugs, my tobacco and alcohol use remained the same.

In general terms the prohibition of drugs has been an unmitigated failure. Far from reducing drug use it seem to have had to opposite effect by giving drugs a certain cache amongst the youth who think it is cool to break the law.
But the worst consequence of making addictive drugs illegal is that it makes cheap substances ridiculously expensive and attracts the criminal classes who distribute dangerously cut drugs contaminated with harmful substances.
Moreover the expense makes it impossible to fund their habit. As a result a large proportion of violent theft crimes are committed by junkies to fund their addiction.

To think that 100 years ago you could pop down to the local Opium Den and relax into a nice trip. When you got up on Monday Morning you could take a quick shot of cocaine to start your week off with a bang. In those days you could be sure that the opium was pure and the cocaine was of a precisely measured 5% solution as provided and recommended by the local pharmacist. Neither vice would break the bank either, and so there was no need to go and bash next door's grannie on the head to steal her meagre pension.

Maybe we should introduce prohibition of alcohol and tobacco and release it on other drugs.

I agree that Pot should be legal, but I don't see why you think there is a connect with Tobacco and Alcohol.
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We are on the same page.

My connect is that if we and the next generation learn to use intelligent use of freedom of choice from a larger menu of drugs, we and our children, when they come of age, will likely make the more intelligent choice of the least harmful drug and that will have a negative effect on alcohol and tobacco sales.

That is why the tobacco and alcohol lobbies bought the last vote on pot in California.

Regards
DL

I like booze. My GF likes pot. This used to make visits to Holland extremely pleasant.
I recently heard a story that tobacco-smoking in coffee bars in Amsterdam is going to be permitted. That will be a great relief to the local fuzz, who were (for a while, it seems) in the daft position of having to arrest people for having tobacco in their spliffs!

PS This may be relevant.

Quite telling.
Thanks.

Regards
DL

It should have never been illegal in the first place.

It will reduce crime associated with the black market, prices will come down, more people that want to use it for medicinal purposes will have access.

Who the hell is anybody to tell me what I can or cannot do with my body, anyway. I'll be the fool in the pine box, if that's the way it is, but that's just not the case.

Telling someone what they can or cannot do with their body is like telling them you know the complete secret of the universe, it's just not possible today!

+ 1

Regards
DL

color=#0000FF]I disagree, the government could make money with marijuana. Sure some would grow it, but I believe the percentage would be low. For instance, I'm the only gardener of food in my neighborhood, a couple women are serious flower gardeners, but the majority do neither. It's work, people don't have the time! It'd be much easier/convenient picking up a carton at the local supermarket, and there you have your pick, i.e., with or without a filter, Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, Hawaiian Red Bud, Afghani, Indica, Thai Stick and then there's all the designer names. No I'm sure that convenience and variety would win out such that governments would make a mint. Crap I'd probably be one of the first to create a mom & pop fast smoke drive through. [/color]


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Yes they could make it legal , but will they , if it's legal to grow ,
then thats what I would do , I'm not a keen gardener ,
this year I grew tomatoes and chives , but I certainly would grow my own ,
I still have a pile of seeds from previous years ,
the question is will it ever be free and legal to grow your own ,
or will the government want it's share of the take , and control the ,
growing and supply of dope to us and make it as expensive as alcohol ,
do you dis-agree that there is a loby group trying to keep it illegal ,
and that they will be the alcohol industry , the tobacco industry,
and I'm picking government , as they don't want a bunch of hippies ,
sitting round getting stonned all day , instead of slaving in the factories,
I stand by my statement ,
they do not want the poor to have something that makes them happy ,
for free , that just undermines the whole concept of capitalism ,
we are supposed to strive for all the latest everything ,
and pay a fortune for the experience , getting stonned , can't be bothered ,
like the rat in the seratonen experiment ,
it just stayed pushing the hit me button until it died ,
pots not that bad , but similar in that we need for less , if we can ,
always get stonned to calm ourselves and ignore the pressure ,
of capitalism and all that we are supposed to be chasing ,,