Legalize All Drugs
One of the “Real Housewives of New York City” cast members feels we should legalize all drugs, not just marijuana. Aviva Drescher says that America should “free today’s slaves who are shackled in the modern day plantations — aka jails.” What does that even mean? This is what happens when reality TV enables morons to say what they think. She said wants to, “Legalize possession of all drugs.” Could you imagine letting that genie out of the bottle? Grandma could be shooting black tar heroin or your kid’s school teacher would be keeping some meth in her pocketbook just in case it was a hard day. We don’t even have enough addiction treatment centers as it is. Can you imagine what a medical issue this would be if idiots like this lady got her wish?
I have to agree with “housewife” and “Pat” on this one.
A very high percentage of the use and expense of the medical system are for patients to get refills or re-prescriptions for something they already know what they need for a chronic or recurrent condition.
Legalizing all drugs would get rid of the “drug seekers” who come into ERs and clinics trying to scam (more) prescription narcotics. Getting rid of these two would free up the doctors to use their professional expertise to find out WHY someone who comes in sick and complaining of some symptoms to find out what ails the person and treat them. As it is, when they’ve seen 3 people trying to scam oxycodone, and another who just wants the same prescription cream they’ve been using on their eczema for 20 years, and then someone who is complaining of pains, trouble breathing, and a rash, you get the first four out of there, don’t assume the last one is trying to scam pain killers for his pains, say the rash is “nothing” or “an alergy”, legitimately test for the cause, and find that the fifth has a contagious, life-threatening illness.
I have to agree with the majority position above on this one, Doug. However, it’s not the “Progressives” that want to control everything, at least in this case, it’s the conservatives. Doug, Republicans are all about government “hands off” when it comes to interference with medical practice, gun control, and a myriad of other issues, and I have some sympathy for those positions. However, it always seems that conservatives can’t leave people well enough alone when it comes to personal behaviors, including drug use.
You can argue that drug use is a tax on society, that it costs us and causes people to not contribute to the greater good. Is that much different if I choose to disconnect from society and live in a cave or in the woods? See how England and Scandinavia have dealt with the heroin problem. They do not have an explosion of abuse because of it.
From what I understand the rate of addiction for drugs in the US has always hovered around 2% of the population. This is from about 188o until today. Legalize the drugs and tax them. Dedicate this tax to drug rehab centers. We’d have much less crime.
Fine, but why even tax them? By what justification do we tax booze or tobacco? Therein are the real philosophical seeds of this foolishness.
So, I have to actually agree with the housewife on this one (shudder). Lets look at evidence: namely Portugal. Since decriminalizing all drugs, they have found that drug use has….decreased. Shocking and possibly counter-intuitive, but the one place that actually tried this has gotten excellent results.
As for ‘modern day plantations:’ with the shockingly high percentage of black inmates, the increased incarceration rate (most of which is non-violent drug possession), and increasing privatization of prisons (wouldn’t dare privatize if you couldn’t make heaps of money from inmate labor) the parallels and comparisons to southern plantations are fair. Prisons in this country are designed to keep prisoners coming back. As they do not try to reform behavior (at least in a positive way), the job markets for former inmates are dismal at best. Combined with prison culture that extols gangs and loyalty for safety, the re-incarceration rate for the US is the highest in the developed world. Prisons churn out profit for the owners, while the workers are forced to work there for pittance and have no voice in changing it. It really is a modern day plantation.
I have no pity whatsoever to those who ‘earned’ their way into the system, but non-violent drug possession (not driving or selling to minors or robbing a store for money….simply wanting to take an LSD trip in their homes) should in no way be a lifelong sentence, or even a crime.
But lets look at it in a way to benefit all of us…with legal drugs, drug seekers wouldn’t have to come to physicians for their fix. Just imagine (if you can) a month without drug seekers in ER or clinic. A year without them. No merry-go-round of pain clinic referrals and cross clinic checks. It would be GLORIOUS.
I agree with Pat (and Dr. Ron Paul) on this one. Progressives have the delusion that they can control everything. Grandma is not going to start using black tar heroin if she doesn’t already use it. Prohibition has failed. Portugal has the right approach on this one; if you need treatment you can get it.
Okay, let me take the opposite view: why are ANY drugs illegal? Because they lead to robbery, rape, murder, or impaired driving? Those are already crimes, and should be prosectued thusly. Or perhaps because drugs lead to worthlessness and ruined lives? Not my problem, not my business. Disrupted and destroyed families? Ditto. Let Grandma shoot the heroin, and don’t demand society pay for it; prosecute the teacher bringing meth into the classroom.
Any “real housewife” is by definition a moron, but in this case she’s a broke-down clock (right twice a day). To be logically consistent, the argument for illegalization should be expanded to alcohol, or lungers on home O2 that keep smoking. Doctors have badly, dangerously overstepped their bounds by expanding the scope of public health into repeatedly getting uninvited into other peoples’ business.
Wouldn’t Grandma, who already is a heroin user, benefit from legalization of drugs via access to high quality heroin rather than the dirt-diluted version? Kinda like how making oxycodone difficult to abuse shifted drug use to impure street opioids?