Kill All Drug Users?
I don’t know if any of you are on the YouGov site. But it is addictive. A bit like twitter, but with 500 characters. I wrote an Opinion on the Legalisation of Cannabis.
Why do we gift the most profitable industry in history to criminals? Successful Interdiction of supply is incompatible with a free society, so why bother? Legalise. Enjoy the benefits of police no-longer alienating swaths of the population enforcing ridiculous prohibition, who can be deployed elsewhere. Tax the trade. Enforce quality standards, Treat problem users medically rather than criminally. EVERYONE is better off.
I received the following comment
EXTERMINATE once the users , dealer and growers are suitably dead there will be no further problem And anyone calling for legalisation MUST be tested one trace and its guilty
So there we have it – some people getting high is more of a problem than a murderous state executing people without due process. That’s the level of idiocy we’re up against, people. And for the record, I suspect this is what he genuinely believes. I have come across plenty of police who think like this.
You cannot stop people desiring to get out of themselves chemically. Whether it’s booze or narcotics. And in a free society, you cannot meaningfully interdict supply of psychoactive chemicals. To some people such as my correspondent above, that means a free society is the problem. Perhaps he needs some time in the salt-mines to learn the value of freedom?
How about death to commenters on websites? (It's a habit I am trying to kick.)
I have always thought that there were only two ways to deal with the issue of drugs: First, as your respondent stated. "Kill them, kill them all". This may work, but I suspect it may be a tad hard to police. The second method is legalise, and then tax until their eyes water. This would work and be relatively easy to police. Mainly because anyone avoiding tax is soon chased…
Legalise and tax is certainly the way to gp. As for cops or others who think execution without trial is the way to go (are there really more than a few of such idiots/menaces) they need to be "rendered" to black ops sites for "special treatment" until they understand how unacceptable their ideas are.
This is just mad – of course you can prevent the widespread use of drugs without resorting to killing everyone – look at Japan.
And why on earth would you want to legalise drugs? You want your children to destroy their brains?
The people taking these drugs aren't for the most part making a rational and informed choice – they are going along with a moronic trend.
And is everyone better off when we're using drugs? I'd suggest the opposite is true. Everyone else is far, far worse off when you voluntarily zombify yourself.
And, uh, "raising tax" – what a silly thing to say. Really, really, silly.
OK, Anon, But the UK is not Japan. Culturally it's hard to imagine a society more alien. It's a relatively closed society. Oh, and they have a big amphetamines problem. And harsh drug laws.
"Why would I want your children to destroy their brains" It's because I don't want that, I want it legalised.
The experience of Europe is decriminalisation/legalisation makes it much easier to control to whom it is sold.
So are you in favour of legalisation on practical or moral grounds?
You can't seperate the practical from the moral.