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Today's Poll: Should heroin and cocaine be legalized?

By Howard B. Owens
Phil Ricci

I don't understand this line of thought. Alcohol is OK, but yet there are thousands of deaths yearly, millions in treatment etc. Why criminalize drugs at all? If you legalized everything tomorrow would the average person suddenly become a heroin user? This logic is so flawed.

Jan 17, 2012, 10:59am Permalink
terry paine

Another good place to become reeducated on the subject of drug laws is Leap.cc.
15000 criminal justice professionals (cops,judges,correction officers)realized what a waste of life,money and freedom the war on drugs is.
When you prohibit anything all that happens is you change who sells it.

LEAP (Law enforcement against prohibition)
http://www.leap.cc/

Jan 17, 2012, 12:19pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

Terry, there's a perfect example. Alcohol prohibition created the exact same environment that we're experiencing with narcotics prohibition. It created the the perfect atmosphere for illicit, violent, organized crime.

Take some time and read about what happened in this country during prohibition. What does anyone think Al Capone was all about? He was the modern day Pablo Escobar.

The reality is that street drugs are far more "dangerous" than regulated, pharmaceutical grade drugs. Street drugs have too many variables in purity which makes them dangerous on multiple levels.

Let the pot heads grow all they want and there won't be a market to deal it. Let addicts get their opiates from the pharmacy. They're already set up to be a drug dispensary and they dispense "clean" drugs with known potency. Let the boozers get their booze as they do now, from just about any store in the country.

For those of you who say there would be more addicts and drug problems by legalizing, ask yourself a few questions. If you don't drink now, you've already made that choice, right? If you don't do drugs now, have you also already made the same choice? People who do drugs do not care what the laws are. They just want their drugs and they hope they don't get caught. Not because they're necessarily afraid of being arrested, but because it will interrupt their drug using activity.

Addicts who are arrested are forced to go through withdrawals, and for what? When they get back out, they just start using again. It's what they do, whether you want them to or not and whether you think they should or not. Money could be better spent on treatment for addiction and supplying druggies with "safer" drugs than the insanity of making them all into criminals.

Man, I keep lamenting the same thing over and over. I'm just going to copy this and save it so I can just paste it into and related news posts later on.

Jan 17, 2012, 3:36pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

One of my favorites comes to mind from this poll:

The gem from George Carlin: "Selling is legal, F*cking is legal, So why isn't selling f*cking legal? In the military they give you a medal for spraying napalm on people and in the civilian life they send you to jail for giving someone an orgasm"

I miss new material from that man....

Edit: BTW, George Carlin was a boozer and drug user and still ended up being creative and self supportive. His life wasn't perfect and he had his regrets pertaining to his marriage and raising his kids which he openly commented on, but who has a perfect life and who doesn't have regrets. My point is..oh heck..there is no point. I'm just tossing this out there as a little factoid.

Jan 17, 2012, 7:47pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

The difference in the results of the last days polls prove that logic is not the fundamental criteria in voting. If it were, the results would be much closer.

Jan 17, 2012, 4:50pm Permalink
John Woodworth JR

Heroin
What are the street names/slang terms?
Big H, Blacktar, Brown sugar, Dope, Horse, Junk, Muc, Skag, Smac

What is Heroin?
Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained from the opium poppy. It is a “downer” or depressant that affects the brain’s pleasure systems and interferes with the brain’s ability to perceive pain.
What does it look like?
White to dark brown powder or tar-like substance.
How is it used?
Heroin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on user
preference and the purity of the drug. Heroin can be injected into a vein (“mainlining”), injected into a muscle, smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as “chasing the dragon,” snorted as powder via the nose.
What are its short-term effects?
The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of eroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria (“rush”) accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes “on the nod,” an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system. Other effects included slowed and slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, constipation.
What are its long-term effects?
Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin’s depressing effects on respiration. In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect.
As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), kicking movements (“kicking the habit”), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last does and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health can be fatal.
What is its federal classification?
Schedule I
Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
Additional Photos

Marijuana
What are the street names/slang terms?
Aunt Mary, Boom, Chronic (Marijuana alone or with crack), Dope, Gangster, Ganja, Grass, Hash, Herb, Kif, Mary Jane, Pot, Reefer, Sinsemilla, Skunk, Weed

What is Marijuana?
Marijuana, the most often used illegal drug in this country, is a product of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana, also present in other forms of cannabis, is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Of the roughly 400 chemicals found in the cannabis plant, THC affects the brain the most.
What does it look like?
Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa).
How is it used?
Most users roll loose marijuana into a cigarette called a “joint”. Weed can be smoked in a water pipe, called a “bong”, or mixed into food or brewed as tea. It has also appeared in cigars called “blunts”.
What are its short-term effects?
Short-term effects of marijuana include problems with memory and learning, distorted perception (sights, sounds, time, touch), trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of motor coordination, increased heart rate, and anxiety. These effects are even greater when other drugs are mixed with weed. A user may also experience dry mouth and throat.
What are its long-term effects?
Marijuana smoke contains some of the same cancer-causing compounds as tobacco, sometimes in higher concentrations. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day.
What is its federal classification?
Schedule I
Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Cocaine/Crack
What are the street names/slang terms?
Big C, Blow, Coke, Flake, Freebase, Lady, Nose Candy, Rock, Snow, Snowbirds, White Crack

What is Cocaine?
Cocaine is a drug extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. It is a potent brain stimulant and one of the most powerfully addictive drugs.
What does it look like?
Cocaine is distributed on the street in two main forms: cocaine hydrochloride is a white crystalline powder and “crack” is cocaine hydrochloride that has been processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water into a freebase cocaine — chips, chunks or rocks.
How is it used?
Cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crack can be smoked.
What are its short-term effects?
Short-term effects of cocaine/crack include constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, increased temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, insomnia, loss of appetite, feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. Duration of cocaine’s immediate euphoric effects, which include energy, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity, depends on how it is used. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. However, the faster the absorption, the shorter the high lasts. The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking crack cocaine may last 5 to 10 minutes. Cocaine’s effects are short lived, and once the drug leaves the brain, the user experiences a “coke crash” that includes depression, irritability, and fatigue.
What are its long-term effects?
High doses of cocaine and/or prolonged use can trigger paranoia. Smoking crack cocaine can produce a particularly aggressive paranoid behavior in users. When addicted individuals stop using cocaine, they often become depressed. Prolonged cocaine snorting can result in ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose.
What is its federal classification?
Schedule II
Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Jan 17, 2012, 5:44pm Permalink
John Woodworth JR

Legalizing extremely addictive drugs is not about wasteful governmental spend, additional user and/or addicts. It is about making an addictive drug more available and easier to purchase. Who knows if, more people will take it or not. The fact is that controling access to a dangerous drugs is better than having it available to whomever and whenever. Chemically enhance drugs are made with the intentions of making them addictive and to influence returning customers. Bottomline is why encourage the use of an addictive drug. Yeah, I have heard it before, people are responsible for their actions. However, addictive drugs are used for an excuse on why someone does bad things. Time and time again in court, "Well your Honor, my client was not in control!" My client was under the influence of _______ (you fill in the blank, it does not matter.) Cannot remember the last time I heard someone say, He saved my daughter's life because, he was under the influence of drugs.

Jan 17, 2012, 5:59pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

The topic is whether they should be legalized or not. Any person with an ounce of logic realizes that putting people into jails/prisons simply for possessing/using drugs goes against the grain of....well...logic. Drug addiction isn't good and I think everyone realizes that. There are better ways to deal with it than tossing people into jail.

Jan 17, 2012, 6:58pm Permalink
John Woodworth JR

"The topic is whether they should be legalized or not. Any person with an ounce of logic realizes that putting people into jails/prisons simply for possessing/using drugs goes against the grain of....well...logic." Heck Doug, one with that logic would think putting a person in prison for viewing child porn was waste of time too! After all they are not hurting anyone.

Logical? Hmmm, one would think logic would start with; Oh yeah this drug is addictive, dangerous to my health, could cause me to suffer from paranoia, etc..... One would think, if one cannot use logic to stay away, then one does not know or care about logic.

One would think logic also starts with knowing there is a law against possession/using of illegal drugs, yet they ignore it. Your logic explanations are not sound logic. In fact they are like everything else "opinions!"

Found it very hilarious that negative votes were place on my posting of drugs and their affects. I see truth hurts!

Jan 18, 2012, 9:24am Permalink
Phil Ricci

Found it very hilarious that negative votes were place on my posting of drugs and their affects. I see truth hurts!

Truth had nothing to do with it. It had nothing to do with the topic. The question wasn't "are cocaine and heroin bad for you?", so your incredibly thorough disertation into the make up and effects of all of those drugs is what earned you the collective disapproval.

I think the problem that people have with this is the inability to associate wrong with immoral. This is proven by your association of a person who enjoys pedifilia with someone who does drugs. It shows where your personal mindset is and how you link the concept of what drug use is. I understand that, because for years that is what has been taught. Yet it hasn't produced any effective answers to the question or solved the problem.

I will always come back to alcohol. Have you ever gotten drunk, John? If so, that doesn't show good logic on your part does it? I mean why would you do something that you know is going to lower your inhibitions, and potentially make you sick?

My point is that you did something stupid, but yet you were not put in jail for it, were you? No one is suggesting that DWI laws are reversed, or any law that protects people for that matter, but jailing people for harming themselves is foolish.

Jan 18, 2012, 11:24am Permalink
John Woodworth JR

“Jailing people for harming themselves is foolish."

Yes, every ST Patty's Day, I drink massive amount of Guinness and get drunk but, never been put in jail. I arranged a designated driver, I do not drink so much that I am unaware of my surroundings; I enjoy celebrating ST Patty's Day with my Irish brothers. So, I do not put myself in a position where I will get arrested.

There is your key phrase from your comment "Jailing (a.k.a. arrested). If, one is getting arrested for possession/using drugs, then one should conclude the following. If, you are getting arrested for illegal drugs you are more than likely in the public eye. Look at today Police Blotter where an individual was DWAI-Drugs at 16:11 hours, yesterday. Did his action only put him at risk or did it also put the public at risk? Most anyone who is arrested for drugs is in the public eye; therefore they are not just harm to themselves. They put people at risk because, of unknown actions that occur. That is why drinking and driving is outlawed because, you are endangering others. Same thing goes for drugs.
Now before you talk about drug dealers’ home being raided. They are a menace to society; they absolutely do not care about anyone’s well-being. So, it is not harming them but, to say it is not harming anyone else is BS.
Alcohol is a type of drug. However, certain drugs have less devastating effects. When it comes to extremely addictive drugs there is no such thing as harming yourself. Families are tore apart; crimes are committed to support habits. It would not matter if, cocaine was legal or not, crimes would still be committed to help support their habits. Example: Tom has a job and pays for legal cocaine. After awhile his habit increases and he needs to buy more. Now say Tom has a wife and a child on the way. His wife has medical expenses, they have mortgage and car loan. Now because, Tom has all these other responsibilities, he finds himself strap for money and can't afford to go to the 7-11 to buy his daily fix. Drugs affect one’s rationality so, when Tom can’t think straight because, his body is telling him it needs a fix. Well things happen.
So saying that making Cocaine and/or Heroin legal makes perfect sense and will cause crime to go down is just plain arrogant. Would making cocaine legal cut wasteful spending? No, it would just be used somewhere else and more likely in the same fashion. More cops to patrol the streets, auditors to keep track of what is being sold and to whom it is sold to, regulators to ensure a safe product is being produced, additional counselors and rehab centers. The list can go on and on.
It really is just arrogant thinking that, drugs and alcohol only harm one’s self.

Jan 18, 2012, 3:23pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

John, more often than not, your rants are off topic and without point. You just toss a bunch of copied lines into a post then you elaborate without saying anything sensible.

That's just my observation and opinion.

Jan 19, 2012, 11:40am Permalink
John Woodworth JR

If your observation is like your logic then, oh well. My topic be off line? No! Not having a point well, that depends on the blindness of the reader.

You say you are logical on this poll's topic so, that must mean, 122 logical voters and 1,175 dumasses.

Say what you will, we can agree that, we disagree on this topic.

Jan 19, 2012, 4:42pm Permalink

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