manhunter098
Smash Lord
I don't think that its a very strange thing to say that the war on drugs harms far more people than the drugs it tries to eliminate. With the drug war in Mexico (if you haven't head about what has been going on its truly appalling) taking a gruesome turn thousands have died in the past year and ending the criminal effort in the war on drugs will help to prevent these kinds of things from happening by taking away crucial funding from criminal organizations, without the funds from drugs to power their other illegal endeavors they will be severely weakened and less capable of obtaining weapons not to mention with less money in these criminal enterprises there will be less of an attraction for new members to join in.
According to the AMA about 17,000 deaths are caused each year in the US directly and indirectly by illicit drug use. More people in fact die from adverse reactions to prescription drugs than illegal drugs at roughly 32,000 deaths per year and alcohol kills around 85,000 people every year, a staggering number. Of course the biggest killer is cigarettes with nearly 400,000 deaths annually.
Now in all of this it is important to understand that two illegal drugs account for more deaths in the users than any other, cocaine and heroin. The third highest killer is amphetamines with about 1/9 of the deaths caused by heroin.
Right now, the primary focus of the war on drugs is marijuana, truly a great waste of our resources because if we are going to try to eliminate drug use, we should probably start with the ones that are actually dangerous (and addictive) and don't have an absolutely massive potential for a legal market that could benefit the economy by creating jobs and revenue for the government.
Right now the prison system in the US has more non-violent drug offenders than persons being held for any other charge and regardless of their situation in life they are simply thrown into prison, their families devastated, their lives ruined, and not necessarily because of their drug use, but rather because of the laws against those drugs. This is a great injustice, and while not everyone in the prison system was a productive member of society beforehand, for that that are it is an even greater injustice.
The proper way to treat the use of drugs is as an issue of health, not crime. The most effective means of controlling drug abuse is education, not reduction of the drug supply and not destroying the lives of responsible drug users.
That said I am not positive that legalization can work for all drugs. Heroin and cocaine would almost certainly be better off with decreased availability, but its important to understand that the key to controlling the use of these drugs is not by banning them, but education. Drugs like marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, and psilocybin are quite safe. And ecstasy which is often cut with other drugs like amphetamines would be a LOT less dangerous if it was actually regulated.
http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/death/real-story.htm
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/27
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/no...r-10000-dead-mexican-drug-war-violence-ebbing
According to the AMA about 17,000 deaths are caused each year in the US directly and indirectly by illicit drug use. More people in fact die from adverse reactions to prescription drugs than illegal drugs at roughly 32,000 deaths per year and alcohol kills around 85,000 people every year, a staggering number. Of course the biggest killer is cigarettes with nearly 400,000 deaths annually.
Now in all of this it is important to understand that two illegal drugs account for more deaths in the users than any other, cocaine and heroin. The third highest killer is amphetamines with about 1/9 of the deaths caused by heroin.
Right now, the primary focus of the war on drugs is marijuana, truly a great waste of our resources because if we are going to try to eliminate drug use, we should probably start with the ones that are actually dangerous (and addictive) and don't have an absolutely massive potential for a legal market that could benefit the economy by creating jobs and revenue for the government.
Right now the prison system in the US has more non-violent drug offenders than persons being held for any other charge and regardless of their situation in life they are simply thrown into prison, their families devastated, their lives ruined, and not necessarily because of their drug use, but rather because of the laws against those drugs. This is a great injustice, and while not everyone in the prison system was a productive member of society beforehand, for that that are it is an even greater injustice.
The proper way to treat the use of drugs is as an issue of health, not crime. The most effective means of controlling drug abuse is education, not reduction of the drug supply and not destroying the lives of responsible drug users.
That said I am not positive that legalization can work for all drugs. Heroin and cocaine would almost certainly be better off with decreased availability, but its important to understand that the key to controlling the use of these drugs is not by banning them, but education. Drugs like marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, and psilocybin are quite safe. And ecstasy which is often cut with other drugs like amphetamines would be a LOT less dangerous if it was actually regulated.
http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/death/real-story.htm
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/27
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/no...r-10000-dead-mexican-drug-war-violence-ebbing