Time To Discuss Drug Prohibition?

gplus writes "December 5th was the 75th anniversary of the end of alcohol prohibition in the US. The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed which argues that now may be the time to discuss our war on drugs and the drug prohibition currently in place. The article argues that the harm caused by the banned substance must be balanced against the harms caused by the prohibition. As to why Americans in 1933 finally voted to end prohibition, while we barely even discuss it: 'Most Americans in 1933 could recall a time before prohibition, which tempered their fears. But few Americans now can recall the decades when the illicit drugs of today were sold and consumed legally. If they could, a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming.'"

SMOKE

[Anonymous Coward]

SMOKE

Or better yet

[kbrasee]

Let's just bring back alcohol prohibition.

Re:SMOKE

[denmarkw00t]

ARE YOU SMOKING YET?

You fools!

[shma]

Don't you know that drugs fund terrorism? That every puff of weed kills 5 innocent victims? And I'm talking about the white ones, not those scary looking foreign victims from the middle east.

I mean, just look at this government ad [youtube.com]! How do argue with logic like "It's a fact because it's true"?

Suck on that, dope fiends!

Re:I wouldn't hold my breath

[Yvan256]

Wait, what about my $200?

Re:Reconsideration sounds prudent..

[Warll]

Did alright!? They lost nearly the entire continent! Sure go smoke yourself silly, just don't complain when the non-smoking aliens take over earth. Who knows maybe they'll let us run casinos?

Re:I wouldn't hold my breath

[Drakonik]

Exactly. No better way to punish criminals than forcing them to deal with the bureaucracy. :3

Re:Elimitate upselling

[Drakonik]

I think that the worst that's ever happened to my pot-smoking friends is that they got very baked one day, and ran down to the 7-11 to buy taquitos. That's stimulating the economy. How can you possibly think that's bad?

Re:I wouldn't hold my breath

[GaryOlson]

You didn't pass any "go"....

Re:SMOKE

[Anonymous Coward]

If we had a choice of exterminating 20 million Americans to only wipe out half of all illegal drug use I would vote to open the death camps and lite up the ovens.

You first, OLD MAN!

Re:Or better yet

[cayenne8]

"Let's just bring back alcohol prohibition."

I'll drink to that....err.....wait.....

Re:I wouldn't hold my breath

[Anonymous Coward]

If we grew the plants cocoa and marijuana in our own country

... we'd have all the makings of some killer chocolate brownies dude!

Re:Bad idea for some drugs

[Ihmhi]

Exactly! Plus, if everyone is smoking weed, then the bacteria will be too lazy to mutate and just veg out.

Re:SMOKE

[fractoid]

No, I've never considered it and neither should you. Drugs are bad, and only bad people take them. Therefore we should try and stop anyone taking them for their own good.

If you do, you've gotta PAY . . ..

[MarkvW]

Unregulated drugs will destabilize families more. Money will need to be spent to deal with the aftermath--the damaged children.
Unregulated drugs will make the highways more dangerous. Money will be needed for enforcement and treatment.
Unregulated drugs will increase the need for social welfare programs to deal with the extra detritus.

A doped society will weaken the United States. Deregulation need not increase the 'doped' population, but we must be prepared to help the people who will be harmed by deregulation.

I'd favor decriminalization if people would pay for cleaning up the aftermath. But people won't pay.

Re:Elimitate upselling

[zeroduck]

I see Taco Bell becoming the biggest company in the United States if Marijuana is legalized. Maybe Demolition Man had the future half right.

Re:SMOKE

[DocHoncho]

'sarchasm'.

Is that the gulf between a sarcastic comment and someone who takes it literally?

Re:SMOKE

[moderatorrater]

I don't think that method has much of a future. Give it a generation or two at most.

Re:Or better yet

[dougisfunny]

A while back, I made a crack about helping to end women's suffrage. Someone responded to that, that women's right to vote is what caused organized crime. In the sense that them being able to vote allowed the prohibition to pass. And creating the demand for the mob.

I thought it was amusing, in that it was at least indirectly true.

Re:SMOKE

[ozmanjusri]

Are we going to ban cars and cold medicine too?

No! Cold medicine has other important uses.

A guy is walking down a dark street, when he hears something behind him. He looks behind him and sees a casket, and it's going, 'dum ... dum ... dum ... dum ... ' and it's followin' him. So he gets frightened and goes faster, and the casket goes faster â" 'dum, dum, dum, dum, dum ... '
So he starts to trot and runs into his apartment building and the casket crashes through the door and comes at him faster, up the stairs - 'dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum!'
He slams the door, and it crashes through his apartment door, so he runs into his bathroom and he slams the door and he hears, 'dum ... dum ... dum ... dum ... ' and he knows it's going to crash through the door ... then it crashes through the door, and he grabs the only thing he can. He grabs a bottle of cold medicine and he throws it at the casket ... and it stops the coffin!

Re:SMOKE

[NiteShaed]

Bonus points if you can tell me how the joint I smoked last night affected your life or anyone around you

Well, the pizza delivery guy appreciated the big tip....
Oh, you meant negative effects.

Re:I wouldn't hold my breath

[geminidomino]

It's such a bad move, in fact, that even considering it constitutes a "Sin tax error"

(Wow. I actually heard the groans through the internet!)

Re:SMOKE

[Smauler]

The prisons would be empty

Heh, that's what you think, but you're forgetting the new prisoners we'd get. I know I'd be locked up long ago for coveting my neighbour's ass.

Re:SMOKE

[atraintocry]

Yeah, I can quit spell-checking whenever. Just helping me get through some hard times right now. I'll drop the red squigglies when I'm ready, OK?