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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Legalize All Drugs? The 'Risks Are Tremendous' Without Defining The Problem

Opioids are becoming the latest serious addiction problem in this country. Among these drugs manufactured from opium, heroin is the most serious, dangerous, cheap and available everywhere.

In April's edition of Harper's Magazine, Dan Baum has examined a new response to this latest addiction problem: the legalization of drugs.

NPR's Linda Wertheimer asks Baum about how he began to delve into the topic of America's war on drugs and why he calls attempts at legalization a big risk based on our approach to solving the widespread problem.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Civil unrest.

Anonymous said...

There is so much money in drug smuggling that the big banks, intelligence agencies, and government insiders would simply collapse without it. It must remain illegal. That way, competition can be controlled (arrested) and the for-profit prison industry can continue to make huge profits.

Mena Arkansas during Clinton's governorship was the center of cocaine import by the Bush family during the 1980s. A lot of money was made by those 2 families.

Anonymous said...

But the competition is NOT being controlled. And it costs boatloads of money to incarcerate these people.

Anonymous said...

Keeping it illegal keeps the prices high

Anonymous said...

They speak as if nothing will be in place to deal with consequences when and if drugs are legalized. And don't think it's going to be any sort of wholesale "Okay, everybody, it's Tuesday and all drugs are legal". If it happens at all, it will be drug by drug, and it will occur over many years.

Anonymous said...

5:22pm you probably hit the nail on the head. It will take years if ever to happen. But chew on this. Of all the "ellicit" drugs out there many are safer that sugar.
Pot-no known OD, non addictive.
Mushrooms - no known OD, non addictive.
Start with those 2.

One thing that most people can agree on is that pharmaceutical opiates and heroin should not be legalized. In fact the way these drugs are prescribed needs to be drastically changed. We should not be getting Oxycontin for pain not associated with a terminal illness. What you probably need is exercise. Which btw is fun to do while high on Pot.