All Nonviolent Drug Use and Possession Should Be Decriminalized

Sugar is probably the most evil drug I know. Mainly I am biased. But, also, think about how fully it is integrated into our society! If you need any more proof, what is the staple food for most consumer holidays? What about birthdays? What about weddings? A lot of our social rituals have sugar embedded into them. Many people do not have a problem. But, some do. And, we're becoming systemically unhealthier as a society because of it.

So much so that we've invented a whole "sugar free" industry so people can pretend they are eating sugar when they aren't.

Br. John wrote: Wescli Wardest

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Look, long story short, there is nothing that someone that uses drugs can tell me that will sway me the other direction.

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Why? Because I believe they are at a conflict of interests. I do not know if they are putting their own selfish desire to get high above the good of the community.

So If I make a post in favor of a particular drug policy you won't consider it but if someone else posts the exact same thing and you believe they don't use drugs you will? How do you know if someone uses drugs or not when you read an article, an editorial or study?

Yes people are biased. They can also want something that's good for them and good for others too. You're making a classic Argumentum Ad Hominem.

http://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/person.html

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_hominem

I admit and accept that my argument is bias. I realize that.

And it is for many reasons... but most of all because of past experience, knowing drug users, behavior studies which show drug user tendencies towards behavioral patterns, and being a parent.

What does being a parent have to do with it? Children, and I am not calling any of you children, but children present the same behaviors when they want something that a parent tells them no to.

But what I think we are missing is that I have said, I really don't care if drugs are legal or not.

Even if they were legal, I would implore, reason with and beg every single one of you not to go down that path. Why? Because I care. Because past studies don't lie, no matter how one decides to interpret the information presented. And I love each and every one of you.

It pains me to see people make the same mistakes I have seen so many others make. And if you want to be a part of a community, a family, then you don't get to decide which aspects of your life people care about. You have to accept it all... all the caring. Drugs may be fun. Illegal car racing may be fun. Ammeter dare devil stunts may be fun. But they are all dangerous. Maybe not at first. Maybe you'll get lucky. But they all have side effects that will harm you long term. And I don't want to see any of you risk your health for a few minutes of "good times." And no one that loves you would want you to do it either.

We are a community and I feel responsible to, not for, to, each and every one of you. Just as if you were my own family members. And non of them use drugs either.

From everything I have ever read, from medical reports to respected religious leaders, there are only a few possible benefits for very particular uses for an incredibly small amount of medical uses. Other than that, the cons, just for health reasons alone, far outweigh any benefit of drug use.

And just because alcohol and tobacco are legal, does not mean I would want any of you using, or abusing those either. They are incredibly addictive and except for minimal benefit of alcohol under certain circumstances, they are bad for your health as well.

And I know that we have members that have been through rehab that know the destructive abilities of all these things whether they chose to ignore their past experiences or not.

So for all of you that are confused... I love you and don't want to se you hurt yourself or ruin your lives. And all those things are predominately bad for you.

And argumentum ad hominem is when one attacks the person instead of the argument. I am basing my decision on behavioral patterns being displayed by a group and determining that any reply has the ability of not being subjective and demonstrating a conflict of interest by said group. I am not attacking anyone. I have decided that the arguments presented by said group have a great possibility of being not reliable due to personal interest. Just as you would not trust the oil cartel to have our best interest in mind when they lobby to have policy written.

Thank you Clint. I understand what you're saying now. It was not coming across that way (to me) before.

That is my partners view and experience, from seeing people in her youth abuse outright recreational drugs in social settings, and end up in mental institutions, at least one of them for the rest of his life!! So she avoided it like the plague!! But before I met her I'd already embarked on a journey into it all for broadening self awareness, in my own experimental way. You can imagine it's a funny topic to try and discuss for us, having such different experiences LOL!

But at the time, even me with my focus on research and careful gradual dosage in relatively controlled conditions I still ran into problems, most dramatically finding myself in a catatonic state for a few hours once, and another time having a serotonergic crisis which had me near death, and another time having convulsions from nicotine of all things.... anyway, I even accidentally got to experience a true psychotic state (though not from anything illegal funnily enough) - which was very interesting not having any actual mental disease (that I'm aware of), it made that experience quite an eye opener to how different awareness can really be, and so heavily dependent on what systems of belief we subscribe to!!

I was able to just take all that in my stride and not have it really impact me outside of my application of it for exploring awareness and self, never needed any professional help or anything like that, but I'm well aware how detrimental its impacts can be if becoming entrenched. I don't consider myself an expert on it, but I did try a lot of different things but I don't talk about it much because I don't want others to wander into following my example.

The problem I've found is that 'use' can easily and accidentally become 'abuse'.... for various reasons, like not knowing product quality/strength, adverse dietry, drug or medical interactions, genetic predisposition etc. All those things though can be addressed by legalization or perhaps decriminalization, potentially.

The problem is the brain and body are quite sensitive, and while careful use can be handled by perhaps most people most of the time - it's also true it is very easy to do serious damage as well with some of the stuff available. Risks do exist.

I don't tell people to do, or not to do. If your asking someones permission by seeking their opinion, then don't do it, its too serious to blame someone else for the decision to embark on that particular journey IMO.

The worry probably is that pretending to restrict it by using fear to keep some away from it might work for those who dont try it, but is it really working for the society!? Is it really criminal to hurt oneself by taking a drug? I do think its criminal to participate in organized crime that exist to fuel the reality of demand for use, and all the various types of crime which emerge from drug abuse. The current approach has real problems.

If people are using it anyway, then what is being discussed I think is that if society has the choice of controlling quality, increasing education and dealing with problems as medical rather then criminal, then it addresses the issues of reducing the chance of people having it anyway having accidents. If the truth about drugs is so bad then more of it should continue to deter those who would not have done it anyway.

The downside is increased availability... but the shift would probably still be able to limit that by increasing cost to access them while keeping it illegal to produce and distribute (without appropriate licensing and quality control etc). So this would break the criminal side from the average user while better informing the user, and having society better handle accidents. A large part of mental health is getting back to being involved and feeling part of society, and having a drug user seen as a criminal by society is very counter-productive to the healthy recovery of that person.

So I'd like to be able to argue that more education and responsible use should be an improvement, but it seems human nature to ignore or not trust official advice whether its legal or not.