Thoreau72
DP Veteran
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- Sep 26, 2012
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- Libertarian
Discounting alcohol and tobacco which are over the counter, so to speak (as is a great many other drugs such as aspirin, Ibuprofen, etc. etc.), what drug use that isn't medically supervised isn't drug abuse?
Isn't the consumption of illegal drugs by definition drug abuse?
I do not defend the policy, I state that it is the current.
What I'm not supporting is the free for all access to hard narcotics for the population to more readily become addicted, and the medical, physical, emotional, familial and societal costs that come with that addiction.
You seem to sweep all the negative impacts of drug addiction under the rug of 'it's because they are illegal', as if making these drugs legal cures all the damage they bring.
It most certainly does not.
That damage will still exist whether the drugs are legal or illegal, and making them legal will only make the drugs more readily accessible, resulting in more of the population being addicted to them, i.e. increasing their damage.
I do not see that as a positive step forward for society. You seem to see that as a positive step forward for society. On this point we most certainly disagree, and likely will never agree.
Yes, I understand that in your mind, your view, consumption of "illegal" drugs is drug abuse. Such a simple-minded view is the hallmark of the prohibitionist. I understand that absurd over-simplification.
But the reality is that many of the "illegal" drugs have a long history of therapeutic use, unsupervised by medical authorities. Marijuana, for example, was listed as a therapeutic agent in the National Formulary, which may have preceded the US Constitution in time.
The reality is that DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, after days of hearings back in about 1981, declared marijuana to be the "safest therapeutic substance known to man." Your view does not allow that reality, but that's your problem.
I'm not sweeping anything under the rug. I am trying only to bring some perspective about human behavior regarding drugs, a move which you and other prohibitionists reject at every turn. Your authoritarian frame of mind does not allow you to deal with reality, but that's nothing new. It's OK. Irrational, but OK. eace