How do you feel about legalizing some drugs? What are the pros and cons?

Sunday 16th August, 04:10 AM JST

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Dilbert14 at 11:48 PM JST - 17th August
Pros: 1. People's lives won't be ruined. Most people looses their job if cought on drug charges. And they will never be able to find respectable job. Law is ruining innocent people's lives. Look what they are doing to person they loved for all these years Norippi. Brutal!! Media and police working together to make an example of her. Wasn't even a gram! All the videos they show her DJ'ing, looks like she was having fun. What's wrong with that?
1. And yes, legalizing even only Pot will make drug dealing obsolete. Licence idea is very good. Just like driving school, people can be thought how to treat Pot. How to make most of it without impacting one's life in bad way. Many people have been doing it for many generations. Healthchecks are welcome. All pot smokers I know are healthier than alcohol drinkers I know.
2. Definately it will be easier to track hard drugs like heroin and meth. And it may even help definance terrorism. Wouldn't it be great pot is legalized and terrorism is over? Pot will have save the world. Amen to that.
Cons:

I can't think of any cons legalizing pot. Should not be advertised, or consumed in public places.
Venlo at 12:18 AM JST - 18th August

Get this all you debating folks.

The Economist Magazine, one of the top international weekly business & news magazines in the world, (one of my favorites too, for may years) recently devoted their cover to the issue of drugs. Here is what they had to say in their March 3, 2009 issue.

"The Economist continues to believe that the least bad policy is to legalise drugs.

“Least bad” does not mean good. Legalisation, though clearly better for producer countries, would bring (different) risks to consumer countries. As we outline below, many vulnerable drug-takers would suffer. But in our view, more would gain."

They go on to say many more interesting things. Check it out.

"The failure of the drug war has led a few of its braver generals, especially from Europe and Latin America, to suggest shifting the focus from locking up people to public health and “harm reduction”

And more...

"There are two main reasons for arguing that prohibition should be scrapped all the same. The first is one of liberal principle. Although some illegal drugs are extremely dangerous to some people, most are not especially harmful. (Tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them.) Most consumers of illegal drugs, including cocaine and even heroin, take them only occasionally. They do so because they derive enjoyment from them (as they do from whisky or a Marlboro Light). It is not the state’s job to stop them from doing so.

What about addiction? That is partly covered by this first argument, as the harm involved is primarily visited upon the user. But addiction can also inflict misery on the families and especially the children of any addict, and involves wider social costs. That is why discouraging and treating addiction should be the priority for drug policy. Hence the second argument: legalisation offers the opportunity to deal with addiction properly.

By providing honest information about the health risks of different drugs, and pricing them accordingly, governments could steer consumers towards the least harmful ones. Prohibition has failed to prevent the proliferation of designer drugs, dreamed up in laboratories. Legalisation might encourage legitimate drug companies to try to improve the stuff that people take. The resources gained from tax and saved on repression would allow governments to guarantee treatment to addicts—a way of making legalisation more politically palatable. The success of developed countries in stopping people smoking tobacco, which is similarly subject to tax and regulation, provides grounds for hope."

What more can I add?

Comments please.
Dilbert14 at 12:55 AM JST - 18th August

Great article. I have a hope that we will break this taboo.
Icewind007 at 02:02 AM JST - 18th August

I am somewhat for it. It has to be well regulated/taxed/kept in order. Some blindly call for the complete eradication of all drugs... I find those people as bad as those for the Prohibition. Some drugs are safer and have less effects than alcohol, but retain the good feeling (this is from psychology study, not personal experience).

There will be good and bad from this. One of the main drugs in question is usually cannabis. This is currently circulated underground. It is the driving force of some crime syndicates. It makes very little money for the economy.

If it were legal, the crime involving that drug would lower. However, people may misinterpret this and think other drugs are also legal. Or they may just push on toward another illegal drug. Legalizing would bring a lot of official revenue to the government (high tax). And once it get legalized, there may be a large influx of people suddenly wanting to try it out, which may lead to people getting bored of it or giving it the same reputation as cigarettes. However, it may also push people to try out other drugs.

The outcome will only be known when/if it happens.
Valmain at 10:24 AM JST - 18th August

@AK619

All you people that believe in legalizing drugs, how would you feel if you had a beautiful young daughter, and I got her on drugs, controlled her by it, and made her into my prostitute slave?

I don’t even know where to start with you. My first thought was that you were a troll, and I hope that’s on the money. If you’re not a troll, then your closed-minded inability to grasp some of the basic logic people (including myself) have presented here. I am willing to recognize that there are cons to drug legalization, but it seems that all the points you have presented so far are straight out of inane movie plots. Using drugs to control my daughter?? What kind of crap is that? I’d be careful if I were you, someone out there just may take that as a threat.

If Japan legalizes Pot, it will create violent gangs that will start mapping out turfs where they will make a profit from there drug addicts. Japanese, Chinese, British, Americans, and many other foreigners will turn Japan into a drug money making land full of corruption and filth.

You really miss the point that drug legalization ELIMINATES drug dealers and cartels. The point of legalization is that there would be legitimate shops where you could buy these substances. There would be no need for drug dealers any more. If drugs were legal, how could you control anyone with them? If you threaten to take their drugs away, they can simply go to the conbini and buy another pack of joints.

I hate drug dealers, and I know from my own experience that drugs only harm you, control you, and can lead to worse drug abuse.

I would be curious to know exactly what your experience with drugs and drug dealers is. Do tell.

Japan already has a people of weak minds and many social problems, what they don't need is to legalize drugs for a bunch of drug dealers.

Ouch. Keep digging, my friend.

@Damien15 I agree with your license idea %100 and I’ve had similar ideas in the past. With legalization comes the need for regulation. Advertisement would be limited and where it can be sold also needs to be limited. Tests to check for intoxicated driving and the like would need to be developed and age limits and health regulations need to be put in place. Rehab and treatment facilities need to be established as well as open information regarding the safe way to use substances as well as the negative effects they can have if abused. I agree that a license system should be developed where people need to take training courses where they learn about the history, composition, effects, and safe way to use a certain substance. After a health check, they are issued a license. You can’t make it too hard to obtain a license because then that will create a market for forged licenses, making for further substance abuse. Oh, and of course alcohol and tobacco will require licenses as well.
Valmain at 10:26 AM JST - 18th August

Here 's a good related article I came across today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/16/AR2009081601758.html
viking68 at 12:54 PM JST - 18th August

The biggest obstacle to legalization of any drug is the current industries that profit from its illegality, namely the tobacco and alcohol undustries. Both industries would take a huge hit to their profits. Many states in the US are legalizing marijuana becuase it is not associated with health issues and the penalties are disproportionate with using the drug.

Another obstacle is the fundamentalists who think that nobody should do anything outside of social "norms". They want to mandate a social cohesion by eliminating anything outside their own norms. From a libertarian point of view, if you are not hurting someone else, then you should not be prevented from doing what you want, i.e., your liberties should not affect another's liberties. If they do, then what you are doing is wrong.

The current state of the law is too broad. It has created an artificial vacuum where bad things are inherrent. If the law were more libertarian, then we would not have "gangs" profiting hand-in-hand with tobacco and alcohol companies.

By the way, the US originally banned marijuanna because it competed with cotton and other textiles and booze. It was purely an economic/political move on the US' part. Later it was demonized to give everyone a scapegoat and to further support these industries.

On the other hand, drugs like meth still concern me because users are typically driven to steal to support their addiction. I like what the NE has done by providing the drug free to users. Undobtedly, people will use these harmful drugs, so it is best to allow their use in a way that keeps these high risk users in a controlled environment.

Moderator: Tobacco and alcohol are not relevant to this discussion.
SiouxGirl at 01:19 PM JST - 18th August

Pros: (1) death blow to the dealers big and small, (2) ppl with medical problems would benefit from legal marijuana

Con: smacks of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley where the government anesthetizes the masses to the point where everyone works, takes their drug, spends their money and keeps smiling
blvtzpk at 01:31 PM JST - 18th August

I think the only drugs that should be legal in Japan are the drugs that are perscribed from a license Doctor, and not from a street person. Illegal drugs are bad for peoples health, mind, future, family, and can be used by criminals to control weak minded people.

The last time I commented on this statement it was pulled. Let's see if this fits the bill.

Alcohol is a drug that is legal here, but not legal in other places. Tobacco contains drugs, and there is no discouragement by the Japanese government to stop using it, because sales of this product in Japan's best (fiduciary) interests.

The issue of what is 'legal' and 'illegal' is set by the standards or mores of the society. If a drug is illegal in your country, IT does not mean it IS bad - but the general thinking and belief about it is that it is bad.

If one were to suggest that Japan take a good hard look at the effects of alcohol and tobacco on "peoples health, mind, future, family", then it would be deemed bad and made illegal. During Prohibition in the US when alcohol was illegal it was often controlled by criminals, but were the people who chose to go to Speakeasies and illicit sellers of liquor 'weak minded' just because it was illegal? Do people in Japan who drink and smoke 'weak minded people' who are simply living in a place were the substance they enjoy is legal?

Moderator: Readers, please stay on topic. Alcohol and tobacco are legal. Focus your comments on those drugs that are not legal.
viking68 at 02:54 PM JST - 18th August

If a government is willing to kill people with legal drugs (i.e., alcohol (8,700 deaths in 2008 in the US), tobacco (440,000 deaths per year in the US), and prescription drugs (320,000 deaths per year in the US)), why not legalize drugs that are not associated with such high death rates.

Marijuana has a zero death rate and has been proven to not only not cause lung cancer, but it may be able to prevent the cancers associated with tobacco, i.e., it has the some of the same cancer causing agents as tobacco but doesn't cause cancer, so it must have some protective effect (medical study from the University of Southern California).
blvtzpk at 02:55 PM JST - 18th August

Let me succinct then. Alcohol WAS an drug that was made illegal at one time but eventually was allowed back for public consumption. And when Prohibition was over, the the US did not go to 'hell in a handbasket' as a result. It's the same with similar drugs. ;)
kavikahi at 04:12 PM JST - 18th August

Recreational drugs you mean? Some? Yes, pros = legal management and responsible use. Cons = There is sometimes a life expectancy for some individual drugs where a particular society at a certain stage of development no longer gains benefit from it, at that time, changing the law again may be required.

Now you understand the difficulties that may arise from the addictive varieties if they are outlawed after being legalized. In spite of this, a pure society should neither fail or fall.
Icewind007 at 03:39 AM JST - 19th August

"Con: smacks of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley where the government anesthetizes the masses to the point where everyone works, takes their drug, spends their money and keeps smiling"

Minority Report anyone? If certain drugs are allowed on the market, I doubt they will introduce something worse. They may even be improved health-wise by allowing production studies that would make for healthier usage.
kenbrady at 12:31 PM JST - 23rd August

Everyone arguing that drug use isn't victimless by saying "What about the crimes surrounding drug use?" are so missing the point. Those surrounding crimes have victims, sure. Theft, murder, rape, and other things people do while on drugs (or not on drugs) are rightfully illegal and have victims. But those offenses stand alone. Drug use is not the only catalyst.

AK619: Wow, you spout the official line well. Kudos to Valmain for trying to get through to you.
Dilbert14 at 09:49 PM JST - 26th August

Kenbradrady,

All the bad things you listed people doing while on drugs, are done even when not on drugs. There's no reason to put the blame on drugs, because some criminals decided to do them too. What about crimes surrounding legal substance alcohol? Aren't they in majority? How can anyone show drugs as his reason of rape or theft? People affraid of what they don't know. Have you thought about doing some research?