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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on June 30, 2011 at 9:22am

Marijuana is such small potatoes compare to other drugs.  I don't think it's as nearly harmful as alcohol.  The same driving restrictions should apply regardless of intoxicant.  It's so difficult to overdose on marijuana that the idea of marijuana overdose is controversial.  There actually are alcohol overdose deaths, although the main problem with alcohol is alcoholism.

 

Prescrition drugs, not marijuana, are the main drug problem now.  According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 5.3 million Americans abuse prescription painkillers every year, compared with 605,000 heroin users and 4.8 million cocaine users.  Consequently, emergency room visits related to pain pill abuse have skyrocketed, increasing from roughly 627,000 visits in 2004 to 1.2 million in 2009, according to the federal government's Drug Abuse Warning Network.  OxyContin is especially problematic, claiming more lives than heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine abuse combined. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. saw 11,000 OxyContin-related overdose deaths in 2007 -- the most recent statistics available -- a tripling since 2000.

 

If we were really interested in addressing a drug problem we would make oxycontin illegal from the source - Purdue Pharma.  The company has been fined for misbranding the drug as safe, when it is the opposite.  It's hypocritical to have marijuana treated like a major drug that kills and harms, which it isn't, while the company that makes oxycontin continues to make billions, and the government makes hundreds of millions off fines from oxycontin's manufacturer. " From late 1995 to mid-2001, when the company dropped its “reduced risk” claims, the drug produced $2.8 billion in revenue for Purdue Pharma."

 

The illegality of marijuana does support mafia cartels, and results in billions of lost revenues from the US treasure.  The mafia cartels kill untold numbers of people and disrupt an entire nation (mexico).

 

I personally don't care if people smoke pot or not.  But it should be legal and regulated same as tobacco and alcohol, taxed and with consumer safety mechanisms in place.  And people should be able to grow their own.

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on July 2, 2011 at 2:58pm

I'm surprised at the apparent ease with which Oxycontin can be obtained.  While there are people with extreme pain that only a drug like Oxycontin can ease, there is no way there are that many people in the degree of pain that would necessitate the use of such a quantity of a powerful drug as is Oxycontin. The people that will ultimately be hurt are those that actually need such a drug.

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on July 2, 2011 at 10:45pm

The problem with oxycontin is that it was formulated not to give constant blood levels, as promoted, but in two big rushes.  Blood levels then went up and down and up and down, tuning the brain receptors for addiction.  Withdrawal from oxycontin is probably as bad as from heroin, but no one wants to admit it.  It's so self-reinforcing, people keep thinking their pain is uncontrolled, and sincerely ask for higher and higher doses.  It's not their fault.  It's also not their doctor's fault - the medical profession was intentionally misled by Purdue-Pharma, and even though the company has been fined hundreds of millions, they are still allowed to make it.  They also did away with their competitors, to prevent production of a generic.

 

There are other opiates that are equally effective and formulated for continuous levels.  Plus, there are other nonaddictive medications that can and should be used in addition to opiates, sometimes instead of them, that modify nerve pain receptors and control or reduce pain.  Plus there are electrical stimulators, numbing treatments, physical therapy.....  That's not to say that there aren't people who find oxycodone / oxycontin the only releif they can get, but it should be the last resort.  (sore topic, this shit's basically heroin in pill form.  by the way, heroin was originally released by a German pharmaceutal company as a nonaddictive form of morphine).

 

Pot is nothing compared to narcotic pills.  That we imprison pot dealers and let pharmaceutical companies make market and sell far, far worse drugs is hypocracy.

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Permalink Reply by Will Faithless Sophia on July 2, 2011 at 12:47am

Agreed. Epic FAIL, can't say it more clearly than that. I dislike the idea of anybody having the power to ban me from taking any substance I want, or forcing me to take a certain substance.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wood on July 2, 2011 at 11:13am

Given the current state of the U.S.,what thinking person  does NOT want more drugs?

 

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Permalink Reply by Alex Tyler on July 3, 2011 at 6:41pm

Oh please, this whole War On Drugs was never even started. My guess is that it was a way for political figures to get votes. All they have to say is "I'll crack down on Drugs." and they can reach out to numerous demographics at once.
Marijuana isn't a drug because it has the effect of Alcohol and is consumed like Tabacco. Beer and Cigars are legal but thats because the Government can place a tax on them. However with the economy here in California, I heard that they are thinking of passing a bill that alows anyone to purchase it legally. It's only a matter of time until Marijuana is legalized.
Methamphetamines, Psychoactive Drugs like Acid and Downers like Reds are the real problem and a total war should be launched against them. However since a number of Law Enforcement make extra money by busting drug dealers then selling their dope, I don't think that a real War On Drugs will be comming anytime soon.
A peaceful way to resolve this would be to just move all the Junkies to an island and let them stay there/do as they please. Of course they can't leave or create any sort of military groups mind you.

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Permalink Reply by Alice on July 4, 2011 at 12:53am

They should legalise all drugs for over 18's - then tax them highly, regulate them and use the proceeds for educational campaigns and counselling, medical support etc. It would save massive amounts of police time, for them to get on with something useful.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer W on July 4, 2011 at 1:52am

Legislating drugs practically makes it cool to do them. If they legalize them and make drugs boring, practically half as much people would do them and all of the thugs would be gone from drug making.

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Permalink Reply by Alice on July 4, 2011 at 9:49pm

Holland have legalised smoking marijuana in bars and they have a very effective education on marijuana.  Which they didn't have when I was a kid at school in the UK.

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Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on July 4, 2011 at 10:22pm

Good points Peggy. Here in New York after passage of the Rockefeller drug laws a large part of gubernatorial politics consisted of prison building to hold drug perps who became over night criminals. Movies like "the French Connection" and other exploitation flicks helped desensitize the public to the arrest of these purveyors of poison while prison jobs became the social welfare for economically blighted upstate New York.

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Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on July 4, 2011 at 10:48pm

Had they grown hemp they could have ended the dearth of jobs and gained tax revenue without wasting money on prisons for drug perps. The point of the inner party members in the book and the movie 1984 WAS to waste money so that they could remain in control while everybody else had the boot of an oppressive and canniving state stepping on their faces forever.

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