Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
Usage staying the same is not a win in my opinion, and as I said in the other drug thread, I'm against normalization.
OK.
Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
Allowing people to abuse harmful substances because there's a 'net gain' is not acceptable to me.
Usage doesn't equate to abuse. I'd argue factors like education would go a fair way to preventing abuse by forming an open, informed, normalised discourse about drugs.
Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
But that said, I would prefer there to be no laws and people just do the right thing. As it stands, people do not do the right thing, and cause danger to themselves and others, so laws are a necessary evil.
The laws don't work, though. People abuse it regardless of the law. If the law's not working the law's not working. It needs to change. Another point not many people bring up is that a lot of the danger to others that you're talking about stems from addicts trying to acquire their drugs. Legalisation nips the supply and price problem right in the bud. It also provides revenue that can be directed at rehabilitating addicts.
Legalisation does have a net gain - it's at least a better alternative to the situation we have now.
Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
That is to say, normalization of something that is potentially dangerous is not OK to me. Of course we have to take some risks, people are irresponsible with cars as much as they are with drugs - I would say it's a calculated risk, but most people don't think about it and the odds are relatively low.
Short term, if nothing else, the results of legalisation (of weed, anyway) looks promising. The normalisation process has probably begun, and usage remains the same (if it hasn't begun, then we'll wait and see what happens). By all reports, crime has dropped - if there's a pool that represents the total danger to society, then the pool's now a little shallower.
Yes, people are irresponsible. But we can combat that. If we're serious about this, then governments should be piling a whole heap of money into educating the people. Informing them so they have the knowledge that presupposes a responsible decision.