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Politics : Discuss the candidates honestly. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (3603)	8/5/2004 5:49:58 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4965

You assume there will be an increased supply of idiots if drugs were legalized. That is far from obvious. With alcohol and tobacco legal, hardly everyone smokes or drinks. And there is quite difference between teenagers stealing fags from the local 7-11 and gang members gunning each other down in the streets. What? You LIKE spending billions every year on an unsuccessful "War On Drugs" that has been going on longer than the Vietnam War and with no more success? You like putting lots of people in jail on minor drug offenses at $30K-$60K per?

To: John Carragher who wrote (3603)	8/5/2004 6:08:55 PM
From: miraje	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4965

take out the risk, increase crime, increase addicts as more drugs available and cheaper? Take out the drug war and the cost of illegal drugs would drop by more than 90%, eliminating the need for addicts to steal to support their habits. Get addicts in treatment and out of jail and save hundreds of millions of tax dollars, not to mention keeping prison cells available for the violent offenders who are far too often let out due to lack of capacity. Kids since the late 60's have had easy access to drugs (easier than alcohol, for that matter) and the vast majority of them experiment and then go on with productive lives. Some continue on to become casual users and weekend tokers who's lifestyle choices aren't a detriment to themselves or anyone else, the same as social drinkers. There will always be junkies, as there will always be alcoholics, and ending the stupid drug war would free up more than enough resources to deal with their self destructive addictions medically, rather than criminally. And another consequence of decriminalization would be no more horror stories about trigger happy, cowboy narcs busting in and mistakenly shooting innocents citizens, as has happened on more than one occasion...