re: AU board OT

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How does it make it easier to do drugs? Punishment is a reactionary measure after use, not before

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Im just saying the state in general. Legalize Pot, Legalize Shrooms, Maybe legalize Crack or Heroin next?

Then, we are going to help you get help when you get addicted to these drugs that we made legal or lighted up on the penalties for using

I wouldn’t characterize Lanier as disingenuous with all that he’s shared, good and bad, here. Dude gets a full pass there

But we southerners do enjoy a good ol’, disingenuous, holier than thou, approach to life. Just means more, Gene

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Who else would I get tequila recommendations from?

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Not a big alcohol guy. Like an IPA, crisp lager or pilsner, and bourbon. But in my large neighborhood liquor store there’s two very small groups of liquor. And they’re Vodka and Tequila.

Now, the comparison ends there. I do find tequila interesting but is there a wide variety of it? Just feels like that’s the sort of drink that you find out quickly what you like and dislike.

A lot like mayonnaise. You’re a Hellman’s or a Kraft guy. But you’re not seeking out some small batch, homemade shite.

Off topic. With Biden's energy policy, LA should be crushed. Gus needs to get those recruits

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And they'll have programs available to anyone that may have a problem with the two I mentioned.

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Hope that they tax the crap out of it to pay for those programs, because it isn't great to have people who don't consume it pay for rehab of people who can't control themselves by getting into drugs in the first place.

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people who can't control themselves by getting into drugs in the first place.

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We have to view addiction through a different lens. Not everyone got into drugs because they can't control themselves. Opioids are prescribed at a mindblowing pace in this country and they are highly addictive. People get wrapped up in them before they even realize it and it spirals from there.

What about the veteran that comes home with serious injuries and gets hooked on the oxycontin they got prescribed, because that absolutely has happened. Do we cast them aside?

Are there those that do get into them simply because they lack self control? Absolutely, but at the same time, we have to approach these people with grace and try to help them get back on the right path. We can't put everyone in the same bucket. Every addicts path to how they got there is unique. There are a multitude of reasons people "get into" hard/addictive drugs, and we have to stop seeing these people as criminals.

Are the people that push these hard drugs criminals? Yes, and they will still go after them, but again, if you can start to get the demand to go down, the supply will start to as well.

To add to that, when you decriminalize them, it takes the stigma of the dark/mysterious/criminal element away from them, which does draw some people to them, especially younger/teenage users. If it's seen as an illness, it's not as attractive as seen as..."Oh, I could be bad like these people too?'

Watching this Walter kid on Lake Fork. Fishing the standing timber for LM like a young Lanier Spots.......

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My conservative views agree with you 100%.

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Agreed. I am libertarian on most social things but I don't want to pay for it in any way. Nor do I want them to impact kids (i.e. sharing it with underage kids, or doing it in front of the kids as there is an impact).

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I totally get what Kage is getting at but I think his view of it is different than mine. Im old school and believe people should deal with their own problems.

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I agree that they deal with it and pay for it. The social countries that legalize it and have safe needle exchange etc just puts off the problems. For each of their arguments there is a counter argument. I also understand the view but sometimes you have to look at the whole picture to really understand the problem and some people arguments are short sided as a whole...not saying Kage's is but the whole rehab is better than criminalization thing...you have to look on it as a whole and our incarceration system is not about rehab but about money....as there are ways to improve it tremendously but that is a different topic.

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Of course I do not know anyone close that have addictions issues so it is easy for me to have that stance.

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I have had a few close people that have had addiction issues. Some overcame them and others just exhausted their bodies that they died from it and overdosed. You can't help people until they want to help themselves and some never do. There is no way to do that as those that want to fix their issue and others think they don't have an issue. I have made many choices in my life because of what I saw happening to others around me and didn't want to end up like that. No judgements just not want I wanted for myself.

Not to mention that what others do may affect whether you live or die. I have many examples of things I saw or experienced over my life that due to others wanting to do something that was illegal and legal could have affected my life when I was flying in the Navy. Didn't want people affected by Drugs and Alcohol affecting my life because they didn't do their job correctly. Personal experiences have happened but luckily caught before the consequence could have happened.

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Then why even make these drugs illegal in the first place?

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My main reason for keeping them illegal is because people in general are weak and stupid. They dont have the ability to use things recreational without going over. When you give access to things that are more addictive, more people will get addicted to them. Then they end up in a place where everyone else is forced to pay for their clean up.

People who dont have the means or strength to take care of their own problems, become the responsibility of everyone else. Its our system now on a lot of things. We dont need to add legal access to things that will make it worse.

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People who dont have the means or strength to take care of their own problems, become the responsibility of everyone else. Its our system now on a lot of things. We dont need to add legal access to things that will make it worse.

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From the fact sheet of the Drug Policy Alliance linked below:


Decriminalization Does Not Affect Drug Use Rates

Countries that have adopted less punitive policies
toward drug possession have not experienced any
significant increases in drug use, drug-related harm or
crime relative to more punitive countries. A World
Health Organization study, for example, found that the
U.S. had the highest lifetime drug use rates by a wide
margin, despite its punitive policies – concluding that
decriminalization has little or no effect on rates of use.


LINK

and...

After nearly a decade and a half, Portugal has
experienced no major increases in drug use. Yet it has
seen reduced rates of problematic and adolescent
drug use, fewer people arrested and incarcerated for
drugs, reduced incidence of HIV/AIDS, reduced drug induced deaths, and a significant increase in the
number of people receiving treatment. According to
the United Nations, “Portugal’s policy has reportedly
not led to an increase in drug tourism. It also appears
that a number of drug-related problems have
decreased.” Independent research concludes that
“there is ample evidence of a successful reform.


I completely understand that it's hard to completely change the lens we view drug addiction through, but I firmly believe that this is the best way to attack. The war on drugs has been going on for decades and it's clearly not working because we haven't at any time been anywhere near winning it.





An article from the Cato Institute in 2017 that really lays out the far reaching failures of the US war on drugs.


LINK


We conclude that prohibition is not only ineffective, but counterproductive, at achieving the goals of policymakers both domestically and abroad. Given the insights from economics and the available data, we find that the domestic War on Drugs has contributed to an increase in drug overdoses and fostered and sustained the creation of powerful drug cartels. Internationally, we find that prohibition not only fails in its own right, but also actively undermines the goals of the Global War on Terror.