[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu5692O9y1c]YouTube - Just Say No! to the War on Drugs[/ame] Hey guys. I just uploaded this to youtube and think it could be a powerful tool against the war on drugs. Check it out and tell me what you think. Thanks. --Adam A video highlighting the social, political, and economic failures of America's War on Drugs. Howard Colvin (The Wire): I mean, you call something a war and pretty soon everybody gonna be running around acting like warriors. They gonna be running around on a damn crusade, storming corners, slapping on cuffs, racking up body counts. And when you at war, you need a fucking enemy. And pretty soon, damn near everybody on every corner is your fucking enemy. And soon the neighborhood that you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory. David Simon: The people most affected by this are black and brown and poor. It's the abandoned inner cores of our urban areas. And we don't, as we said before, economically, we don't need those people. The American economy doesn't need them. So, as long as they stay in their ghettos, and they only kill each other, we're willing to pay a police presence to keep them out of our America. And to let them fight over scraps, which is what the drug war, effectively, is. The war on drugs is a war on the underclass, that's all it is. It has no other meaning. Listen, if you could be Draconian and reduce drug use by locking people up, you might have an argument. But we are the jailing-est country on the planet right now. Two million people in prison. When I started as a police reporter, 33, 34 percent of the federal inmate population was violent offenders. Now it's like, seven to eight percent. So, we're locking up less violent people. More of them. The drugs are purer. They've not-- they haven't closed down a single drug corner that I know of in Baltimore for any length of time. It's not working. Please subscribe to AENFROY87 for more videos.
I have an issue with this video. I believe cannabis should be legal. But I don't think other harder drugs should be legal. Drugs such as cocaine, ecstacy, meth, and heroin are dangerous, addictive and their legalization would lead to major social problems in this country. Imagine a place where you could buy coke at a specialty shop. Addiction would go through the roof. I wouln't want that to happen to any family. I believe cannabis should be legal. But saying other drugs should be legal too undermines our cannabis legalization movement.
I believe everything should be legal, or everything should be illegal, its hypocritical. We stop drug abuse through education, best way.
Idk man... 98% of all the drugs I have done are fun at first but there is a negative side affect, like headache, "come down", hang over..etc. With weed, I used to get the occasional headache(from prolonged smoking) , but now that I have been vaporizing, no headaches-feels good man.
It's not hypocritical. Drugs such as cocaine, meth, heroin and other hard drugs are harmful. Pot is not harmful. It is a distinction we have to make. If we say we want pot to be legal because it is so harmless, but also say we think other drugs should be legal, it is something the pot prohibitionists can use against us. Pot is different than other drugs. Arguing that all drugs should be legal only hurts the pot legalization movement.
Exactly, freedom is freedom. That is a good way to put it. Most people don't seem to understand that drugs were only recently made illegal and making them illegal has made things much worse. Back in the 1800s, all drugs were legal. You could legally buy them on the street from "traveling doctors". We had no vast criminal drug cartels gunning down kids on the street and Mexican drug lords. All drugs should be made legal again, not just pot. Alcohol is legal and sure, it has its social costs, but look at the alternative: Al Capone-type drug lords running nasty "bathtub gin" to the people that want it. No age limit on its purchase either. Sound familiar? It is what is happening today with full-on drug prohibition and what happened in the past during alcohol prohibition. Our society should have learned its lesson from alcohol prohibition. Drug prohibition does-not-work. Besides, it is none of your business if I personally decide to risk addiction by putting some chemical substance into my own adult body. As long as I do not violate the rights of anyone else when I consume a drug (which I wouldn't), I should not be punished for it.
So its ok that you found out what works for you and what doesn't, but your opinion is others should not legally have that right? The question of legal vs illegal will not decide who does these drugs. Making them legal would take the dealers off of the streets, make them less accessible to kids. Everyone thinks legal means pick it up in a 7-11. Not how it would work. It would work like alcohol, but probably stricter. So yes, the youth would still get their hands on it, but it would not be as easy. But as long as the gov't makes everyone think if they are legal everyone will do them, then this misinformed opinion will stay out there. Who cares if someone wants to ruin their lives and do heroin, who are we to tell them they can't. Its up to them. As stated above, drug awareness will come through science and education, not through making it legal or illegal. Making it illegal just creates the black market, and put drugs in children's hands.
I completely agree, all drugs should be legal. The realization is people are going to do drugs regardless if its legal or not. Drug addicts will continue to be drug addicts. If we legalize everything, yes some people are going to go try it. But eventually they will either stop and think saying "It's just not for me," or they will become a drug addict, overdose and die. Thats really what it comes down too, how you want to live your life.
I agree that freedom is freedom. Prohibition is harmful, not just marijuana prohibition. It's ridiculous to suggest that, yes, people really should be imprisoned for using any drug except cannabis and cannabis derived products. Ridiculous.
It's not ridiculous. The social costs of legalizing cocaine, meth, and heroin would be enormous. We don't want college students going down to the drug store to buy cocaine. You say, who's business is it if someone wants to become a heroin addict? When American society has major drug addiction problems, and work isn't getting done, and homelessness rates skyrocket, then people will care. Legalizing drugs such as those could very well be the downfall of society. Not only that, but those drugs lead to crime. I've met several "hard drug" addicts who steal and rob to be able to pay for their fix. I don't want some druggie breaking into my home to steal my stuff to pay for his addiction. And this happens all the time in areas where hard drug use is high. This will only lead to an increase in family problems, social issues such as crime, homelessness, and addiction. Many people who are addicted to hard drugs eventually die from their addiction. Is that something you think we should have in society? As a voter, if I only had a choice between voting for legalization of all drugs, or keeping cannabis and all other drugs illegal. I would vote to keep them all illegal. Remember, the many Americans might want cannabis to be legal, but most Americans do not want hard drugs to be legal. The mindset that you want all drugs to be legal only hinders the cannabis legalization movement.
Well you would choose to keep cannabis illegal just so that "hard drugs" would not be legalized while I will not accept prohibition of those drugs just to, supposedly, keep up the appearances of the cannabis movement. I don't care what a majority of people want. It has no bearing on what is right. "Hard drugs" would not be a cause for concern if they were not all distributed via black market, and if people who develop a problem could seek help without feeling like a criminal. Educate people if you want to change their mind about drugs, don't send cops after them.
Yeah that's all good and fun, but what is a politician more likely to agree with: "Let's legalize one harmless, medicinal, and spiritual herb that many people love." or "Let's legalize one harmless, medicinal, and spiritual herb that many people love... oh... and a bunch of other dangerous chemicals."? Legalization of drugs is a STEP BY STEP process. It can't happen overnight. Step one is legalizing the safe ones. And I think we can all agree that the safest one is marijuana. Once weed is legal, THEN you can start worrying about getting other drugs legalized.
Same argument as always. One the prohibitionists use against us about legalizing marijuana as well. "Legalize and usage will go up" Shame there is no evidence to support such a notion. In fact, the only case studies we have point in the exact opposite direction. Look at the Netherlands, since effectively legalizing cannabis use has gone down. Look at Portugal. Since legalizing all drugs use has gone down. Ask the average citizen why they don't do meth, crack, heroine etc. and the answer won't be "because it's illegal", it will probably be along the lines of "because it's bad for you and destroys your life". Legalize and educate the masses about the harms. Prohibition never has and never will work. For anything. If there is demand for a product, it will be supplied. Simple economics.
Cannabis is only a small piece of the corrupt pie that is Drug Prohibition. As i mentioned already in portugal less people, including less students, use drugs and the people that do use drugs, especially the heroin addicts, can get the necessary treatment that can put them on the path to recovery. LSD is physiologically harmless, the problem lies within the mind. Yet, there is another form of LSD, LSD-Bromide, which does not have the psychological and hallucinogenic effects and also happens to cure migranes and more importantly cluster migranes, yet remains illegal. *These types of migranes can fuck your day up and they occur frequently. My point being, drugs aren't as bad as the government says they are. It is true that drugs in general are bad for you, some more than others, but no one has the right to tell you what you can and cannot put in your body. The fact of the matter is that prohibition makes criminals out of those who choose to run their own lives instead of having them run for them.
SORRY BUT>>> ADAM = fail (period). I'm willing to bet you're pretty young and are the "enhancement" smoker...(its all good cause its natural, it makes everything better, its just a plant, God wouldn't put it here if it was not for us to use...) You have not lived long enough yet to see the utter disgusting lies don't just apply to ONLY pot...its everything they don't want. Sorry man, but prohibition is no good for anything, it does not work (period). And Coke, LSD, Mushrooms, and whatever is around has come from somewhere where it once had an excepted use, its only because the lies and uneducated programs that we have the issues we do... sorry man, but epic fail, everything you say needs looked at again from a more adult perspective.