Prohibition of drugs. Criminals love to see it. Why do we make their day?

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Prohibition of drugs. Criminals love to see it. Why do we make their day?

You will know why criminals love to see us prohibit the various social drugs that we and our children consume.

Why did you vote to make their day?

Why are we fighting a drug war against our own children when our intelligentsia pushes for drug legalization so that we can then control in a better way what we and our children consume?

Our children are the ones dying due to our drug war, --- while we adults hide behind legislation that criminals love to see?

Regards
DL

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 1,737 • Replies: 52

It's all about control over the population and also the fortunes to be gained by those pressing the war.

2 Replies

@edgarblythe,

I have a grandaughter who is an emit on an ambulance in a populated area. Every day she seed someone who has overdosed and many who have died. If you went out with a emit sometime you might change your mind. By the way most are either under the age of 20 or just over.

2 Replies

@RABEL222,

Drug use and its attendant problems, e.g. overdoses, will never cease to occur. We can deal with the problem of drug overdoses much better through public health care approaches rather than through police/military ones.

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

Drug use and its attendant problems, e.g. overdoses, will never cease to occur. We can deal with the problem of drug overdoses much better through public health care approaches rather than through police/military ones.

But how do you change the culture of recreational drug use so that people choose sobriety over using?

Milder penalties enable pushers to persuade more people to try their products, which inevitably leads to more addiction because they are addictive substances.

The question is what it takes to end the culture of recreational substance use.

It takes a lot for users/addicts to realize the negative effects of using outweigh the pleasure/relief they get. It is easy to ignore the negative effects of things when the short-term benefits feel more important.

And the mind is good a rationalizing and justifying policies and beliefs that support habits; while hating and demonizing those that interfere with them.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Recreational drug use is ingrained in human behavior. You can't change that. You can only try to influence people's behavior, such as public service announcements against drinking and driving, moderation in regard to alcohol consumption, responsible marijuana use, etc.

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

Recreational drug use is ingrained in human behavior. You can't change that. You can only try to influence people's behavior, such as public service announcements against drinking and driving, moderation in regard to alcohol consumption, responsible marijuana use, etc.

Many people choose sobriety, often because they become aware of the negative effects of substance abuse and addiction.

Why not everyone?

2 Replies

@livinglava,

Because they like getting intoxicated.

3 Replies

@InfraBlue,

Or they used to like it, and are now dependent on it.

For some, it comes to the point where there is no choice in the matter.

2 Replies

@livinglava,

livinglava wrote:

because they become aware of

That's such an odd way to put it.

You make it sound like someone who one day discovered a mole started to change shape.

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

Because they like getting intoxicated.

Of course. So much so that they pull the wool over their own eyes regarding the negative effects.

Pleasure, addiction, and self-destruction are logically connected. If there was no pleasure and/or addiction, why would people choose to self-harm?

Now you can make the argument that people have the right to inflict harm on themselves as long as they don't harm others, but consider the bigger picture:

Drugs are brought into an area, marketed to people like bait put out to catch vermin, and then when the people take the bait, they gradually self-destruct, ending up poor, burdensome to family and friends, and/or dead.

You can argue they are doing it to themselves, but someone else knew the effects the drugs would have when they introduced them into the population.

Then you can say, "well just inform people about the consequences so that they can avoid them," but note the incredible culture of marketing recreational drug use in popular music, and other aspects of youth culture.

There's a large-scale effort to get lots of people hooked on drugs to milk money out of them, nevermind the self-harm and social-harm it brings on people, families, and entire communities.

How is that all justified by the fact that people like to get intoxicated?

1 Reply

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

livinglava wrote:

because they become aware of

That's such an odd way to put it.

You make it sound like someone who one day discovered a mole started to change shape.

No one thinks they're addicted to alcohol until they try to quit. People just think that they like having a few drinks. It becomes a ritual on weekends and gradually they may realize that they really don't feel happy on a friday night or weekend, etc. if they aren't drinking.

People think addiction isn't real until you're living on the street or something drastic like that, but in reality regular people who work jobs and function well socially can be situationally addicted to substances or other behaviors/habits that have harmful effects, and they deny the addiction and harm because it conflicts with the positive self-image they want to maintain.

Why do you think there is so much resistance against Green/climate reform, for example, except because of all the addictive power built in to industrial-consumer culture? Businesses market products and services to get customers 'hooked' so they will spend more money. The products and services may be legal and may not even be substances to ingest, but the business model is the same as getting people addicted to a drug so you can milk regular income out of them.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

livinglava wrote:

No one thinks they're addicted to alcohol until they try to quit. People just think that they like having a few drinks. It becomes a ritual on weekends and gradually they may realize that they really don't feel happy on a friday night or weekend, etc. if they aren't drinking.

People think addiction isn't real until you're living on the street or something drastic like that, but in reality regular people who work jobs and function well socially can be situationally addicted to substances or other behaviors/habits that have harmful effects, and they deny the addiction and harm because it conflicts with the positive self-image they want to maintain.

Absolutley false.

Many people realize they have big problems while they are still drinking and drugging, while holding down responsible jobs and maintaining relationships/friendship/social obligations.

Why do you think they decide to quit? Why would they want to stop if they don't think there's a problem?

No, people in general do not believe addiction means living on the street or "something drastic" happening. Whatever that means.

The destruction caused by alcoholism/drug addiction is the fall out of the physical or mental addiction. The general public well knows that.

0 Replies

@chai2,

That's why the potential dangers of drug use must be announced to the public.

2 Replies

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

That's why the potential dangers of drug use must be announced to the public.

They are, but there's a sub-culture that ridicules drug-warnings and promotes the idea that sobriety and abstinence are for suckers who are too afraid to take risks.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Liking intoxication is justification in and of itself in terms of validity.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Acknowledged.

0 Replies

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

Liking intoxication is justification in and of itself in terms of validity.

No it's not. If it intoxicates me to harm you or your loved ones, that doesn't validate the harm; so why then would it be valid to bait people into self-harm with intoxicants?

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

That's why the potential dangers of drug use must be announced to the public.

Yeah sure, they're fine, if you want to waste a lot of time and money.

Sure, some people might get enough of the message absorbed to file it away and merge with other data in their brains. Then it will be part of whatever comes up when the information is recalled.

In general, it's not a cost effective, or plain effective enough way to make much of an impact.

To be clear, I'm not for legalizing drugs, but honestly, rehashing old methods that have been proven to be meh at best, isn't the way to go.

I'm not arguing with you infrablue, it's simply a very complicated issue, and PSA's are lie tossing crocus styles and stigmas into the wind, expecting to harvest saffron.

1 Reply

“The question is frequently asked: Why does a man become a drug addict?
The answer is that he usually does not intend to become an addict. You don’t wake up one morning and decide to be a drug addict. It takes at least three months’ shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. And you don’t really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. It took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. I think it no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict.
The questions, of course, could be asked: Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in the other direction. Junk wins by default. I tried it as a matter of curiosity. I drifted along taking shots when I could score. I ended up hooked. Most addicts I have talked to report a similar experience. They did not start using drugs for any reason they can remember. They just drifted along until they got hooked. If you have never been addicted, you can have no clear idea what it means to need junk with the addict’s special need. You don’t decide to be an addict. One morning you wake up sick and you’re an addict. (Junky, Prologue, p. xxxviii)”
― William S. Burroughs, Junky

0 Replies

Prohibition of drugs. Criminals love to see it. Why do we make their day?

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