Poll: Drug War

DeF a change needs made but just making it legal isn't the answer.   

What are your concerns with legalization/decriminalization?

Weed should be legalized across the board. The others I'd have to know more specifics.

posted by thavoice

DeF a change needs made but just making it legal isn't the answer.   

It's done a world of good elsewhere. Here is a complete list of products where a ban has made a positive societal impact:

I am all in on legalizing them all.  The war on drugs is just as dumb as the prohibition era.  It's pretty much the same exact thing.  How long are we still going to keep throwing money to "battle" drugs, before we realize it is a waste of time and money?

So many benefits to legalizing it all.  If someone wants to fuck up their body let em be.  If  you want to help them, you're more than welcome to.

The drug war is great! If you like pissing away a shit ton of money without actually coming remotely close to solving any problems, while incarcerating lots of people for truly minor league shit, that is. If you think those things aren't positives, then it sucks and is a complete waste of resources.

I mean, if people actually cared about drug "epidemics", they'd go after Big Pharm and their vested interest in keeping people doped up on something from a young age throughout life. But this is more of a "say some stuff is good and the rest isn't for arbitrary reasons to set up a crime-n-punishment system that only a dipshit could think is a positive".

Legalize weed and that's about it. I'm not for a return to the late 19th century when there were opium houses all over the place and people used to get high and addicted to coke. 

Legalize weed.  I'm sick and tired of reading about people getting arrested and jailed for possession of it. 

posted by queencitybuckeye

It's done a world of good elsewhere. Here is a complete list of products where a ban has made a positive societal impact:

I think banning places people can smoke cigarettes (now basically just your home, assuming it's not an apartment in California) has been effective in reducing smoking.  There's also a successful social campaign to stigmatize it that helped.

posted by Heretic

The drug war is great! If you like pissing away a shit ton of money without actually coming remotely close to solving any problems, while incarcerating lots of people for truly minor league shit, that is.

Our jails are so overcrowded you have to actually do some serious crime to do real time.  I'm sure people spend a few days in county on misdemeanor possession charges, but this meme that the jails are overflowing with guys who's only crime was smoking a joint is pure bullshit.

posted by ptown_trojans_1

Legalize weed and that's about it. 

legalize weed and decriminalize everything else

I'm sure these drug charges are more than just "smoking a joint," but still...

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp

posted by gut

Our jails are so overcrowded you have to actually do some serious crime to do real time.  I'm sure people spend a few days in county on misdemeanor possession charges, but this meme that the jails are overflowing with guys who's only crime was smoking a joint is pure bullshit.

OTOH, there are bad, bad people who should be in that aren't due to dealers doing time.

posted by justincredible

I'm sure these drug charges are more than just "smoking a joint," but still...

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_, inmate_offenses.jsp

That's federal, which actually makes up only like 10% of the prison population.  But federal prison, those are usually major drug offenses.

In many states [before legalizing], simple pot possession is just a fine/citation.  But there are 225,000 more in state/local jails who's most serious offense is a drug charge.  Which kind of drug we're talking about probably shouldn't matter, but it's highly unlikely many people are doing significant time just for smoking a joint.

For a little context, there are 1.4M active gang members nationwide.   Brookings reports 24M people served time for possession between 1993-2011.  But at any given time, we're talking less than 15% of the total prison population.  There's a lot of turnover in that number, which means people are not rotting in prison for simple possession charges.   If my math is correct, 1.3M per year works out to an average of about 60 days jail time.

Now, the damage is already done and that's a different debate.  And it's very wrong to throw the book at a gang member because that's all you could get on him, but I think that's a huge part of it.

I'd like to see the enforcemtn efforts increased.

I personally would rather not have "cannabis" legalized or decriminalized but more importantly i think things that are not stated rights such as this should have laws that reflect the desire of the people and the type of society they wish to have.  That being said, if the masses want decriminalization then I respect those efforts and understand legislature supporting those wishes.

posted by ptown_trojans_1

Legalize weed and that's about it. I'm not for a return to the late 19th century when there were opium houses all over the place and people used to get high and addicted to coke. 

That happens now...

posted by gut

Our jails are so overcrowded you have to actually do some serious crime to do real time.  I'm sure people spend a few days in county on misdemeanor possession charges, but this meme that the jails are overflowing with guys who's only crime was smoking a joint is pure bullshit.

Money being wasted isn't just going to incarceration. 

posted by like_that

Money being wasted isn't just going to incarceration. 

I don't disagree.  That's not the point I was making.

However, legalizing weed and decriminalizing everything else still, I assume, incurs the same costs to go after illegal dealing.  You won't be jailing or prosecuting users, but possibly cops still issue citations (because revenue).

interesting poll results....you'd think this board would be relatively aligned.

Probably proves this is a political non-starter for Washington, beyond weed.  Although I wonder.  Decriminalization seems like it would be a winner with over 60% of the population.  Not sure why anyone would oppose it, since you're not making drugs more available or accessible.   I don't think you'd see much of an increase in usage, and overall crime might decrease because you aren't saddling otherwise decent folks with a drug conviction.

On a related note, I wouldn't make any long-term investments in companies having anything to do with servicing, building or running prisons.

Heroin should never be sold over the counter