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Thoughts on drug prohibition?

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I think you're making a false dichotomy there - there's definitely a middle point between locking up heroin users and having heroin on the shelves of corner shops.

An exaggeration obviously, but if a drug is legalised there's no doubt shops/companies will very swiftly be wanting to profit, I'd imagine it wouldn't take long before something like that is a reality

Reply 81

SocialistIC

Original post by bertstare

I don't know - i personally think there should be a strict licensing system to be able to sell the substances. There could even be the rule that to qualify for a license nothing else can be sold on the property just so the people there have a level of expertise. Legalisation definitely doesn't mean an end to restriction.

Reply 82

Tengo

Original post by pl,okmijn

its not the individual im bothered about, its the harm to others
some people may have long lasting trauma from seeing someone have a mental breakdown on lsd
families may be hurt by the financial implications of using these drugs. (not that families arent hurting from alcohol abuse)
Thats why education and medical reviews are nessecary because there are so many stupid, weak willed individuals who will get hooked on some of these drugs and who will harm others in the process

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I fail to see how an individual is responsible for other peoples' reactions to their behaviour, unless they're actually an aggressor. But the crime isn't the taking of the drug, it's the theft/violence etc. which is already illegal, irregardless of drug abuse. The same is true of alcohol, right?

Original post by bertstare

Well no, because an individual can't use a nuke to defend themself from a criminal, but they can use a gun. Failed strawman argument

It also isn't similar to alcohol prohibition because alcohol has been a massive part of social culture for millenia, among all social classes. Heroin on the other has never been a large component of our society's culture. Which is similar to guns.

Yeah they could, or a bazooka, or a heat-seeking missile. I'm arguing from absurdity by extending the logic of your argument, no straw-man here.

I would say drug abuse en bloc is certainly a part of the 'social culture', and I say it's more similar to alcohol because it's substance used by and for the individual, rather than a direct aggression upon someone else. Drugs, like alcohol, are not generally taken to harm/affect/impose upon other people, whereas the one and only use of a gun is to injure or kill. Massive difference. Besides, social culture changes, or else we'd all still be slaving.