I've never had drugs, but in my opinion, and I expect many would disagree, I would ban any chemicals that negatively affect the human mind.
This includes all current narcotics, alcohol, cigarettes and any other mind altering substances.
Nope, tonight I've read the whole thread from start to finish and that is my honest perspective on the entire topic/thread.
If I break it down:
- Much of the opinions I hear about drugs are riddled in fear - either of using them or admission of having used them(or had problems with them, etc.)
- Social fear seems to be the worst, those who judge others for their drug choices, judge harshly - usually without a basis in first hand experience, or truly empathized with the ones they judge. It's for fear of social disparagement, and for drug users/history-of fear of ostracism.
- Conflicting hidden motivations that drive social-economic "progress" and "order" push drug education, research, tolerance, and understanding down to a place of "taboo" and in the arena of "criminality". A lot of very helpful and available medicines and plants get lost and buried forever, giving more control to the big pharmaceutal and insurance companies to dictate to the ignorant sufferers of illness and pain what they should and should not use. And if you can't afford their treatment and prescriptions....well you're on your own buddy, and good luck trying to safely find alternatives that may be banned...
- It keeps people from learning and really understanding how drugs/medicines work and where they come from
- It restricts a person from being able to indepentently produce and benefit from their own medicines, leaving them vulnerable to big pharma, insurance companies, and social-economic pressures.
- It creates an acceptable "bubble" to make it ok to shun, ostracize, discriminate, and reject a human being, who has a lot more to their life than drug use, without adequate understanding of the person, the drugs they use(d), and how it affected them or others.
I like you Maikl, so please don't take this as an attack on your ideas, but in this respect I do disagree with you.
In fact I feel we are opposite extremes here as I am even more in favour of Temperance than even the average person with my ban on alcohol.
I respect your position and what you feel, but this is my thinking on the matter -
Do I want people criminalised? No. I'd like a rehab program and treating it like any illness. Drug addiction is a symptom, not a disease. The problem is usually trauma or problems in life that drive them to use.
If one requires a substance that alters reality, what is wrong with reality that it needs altering?
Beyond the social element why do people do drugs and alcohol? Serious question.
If it is to escape, why not divert energies to fixing the problems we have? If they cannot fix their problems on their own, then it is society's duty to do what it can to fix the problems so drug use is unnecessary.
And also I'd continue drug research and make any drugs avaliable for prescriptions where it can be used to treat illness. But I would ban recreational use.
My solution to big pharma is regulation of the pharma industry rather than allowing drugs to be legal.
I don't think giving everyone in the public sphere a knowledge of all drugs and reactions would be helpful. We just need to decouple the doctors from the pharma industry so they can provide the best drugs, not the ones they prefer. It works well in the UK with our NHS as Doctors don't manage drug prescriptions, its heavily regulated by the state what can be prescribed and what can't. Its not perfect but British doctors can't get kick backs the way US doctors can.
When people say 'Weed is less dangerous than alcohol' that to me doesn't mean we should legalise weed, it means we should ban alcohol.
People under the influence of mind altering chemicals are a danger to others, as well as themselves. Drunk driving. Second hand smoke.
If humans were to use drugs responsibly, then there is no problem.
The problem is most people can't use them responsibly, or they do for 99% of the time, but the 1% is when people die. And I personally don't believe its worth it. There isn't enough value in the 99% to justify the death in the 1%. People will be unhappy, but hell if drinking is the only thing that makes you happy there are bigger problems with life than the lack of alcohol.
This is one problem I don't think even education would fix. Some people have addictive personalities which means when they get hooked they struggle to get off.
When I'm on a caffine or sugar binge its a struggle to bring my eating habits back.
Lord knows what I'd be like if I drank alcohol or did some form of narcotics.
Just my opinion though. I'm not going to stop someone having a drink if they enjoy it, but I do believe society would be better if we just banned the lot and put our energy into improving the species as a whole.
, but it's pretty rare. I've seen some of my friends in the past over-indulge, but I never really understood that. I guess the idea of getting blackout drunk for them makes for a better story, and it helps them forget their lives for a day. For me, if I'm having a good time with friends, it's something I want to remember for years to come, so blacking out doesn't make sense to me. 
