Dennis Olson
New member
Incursion, you said:
...to me alcohol is not really a drug because if you drink in moderation it is actually beneficial to your health.
They used to say the same thing about cig's (another drug) back in the 50's. Nice excuse to booze it up, isn't it?
On the other hand cocaine, heroin, ecstacy, LSD, etc., have no benefit besides getting someone "high". Cocaine and heroin are chemically addictive. As far as I know ecstacy, alcohol, marijuana are not chemically addictive, but ecstacy severely affects your brain and so does marijuana.
Okay, ask yourself one simple question about ANY substance: Does it alter your mood and/or ability to perform activities?
Yes...? It's a drug. Pretty strightforward.
I guess YOU would prefer to think of it as "good drugs" vs. "bad drugs". (FYI, cocaine was LEGAL in the U.S. until Prohibition. Coca-Cola got its name from having the drug in it. But when booze became legal again, the "other" drugs somehow got left out. Hmmmmm.....)
Implicit in your statement is the idea that the "War on Drugs", with its associated destruction of American civil liberties and freedom, is a GOOD thing. Personally, I am unable to support Gestapo/Sturmtruppen tactics against law-abiding citizens (oops, wrong house, but he's dead anyway) for any reason. I would hope that most people agree with me on that issue.
Like booze, these substances should be decriminalized, and behavior WHILE IMPAIRED punished as needed. Just like DWI. Smuggling would stop (no profit in it), jail space would open up (no "users" inside), the courts would unclog, and a bunch of lawyers would have to get honest jobs.
Funny, but otherwise rational people cannot understand this simple premise. For the impaired: Prohibition never works. Not for booze, not for tobacco, not for drugs, and not for GUNS.
Might I suggest some serious soul-searching on this issue.
[This message has been edited by Dennis Olson (edited August 06, 2000).]
...to me alcohol is not really a drug because if you drink in moderation it is actually beneficial to your health.
They used to say the same thing about cig's (another drug) back in the 50's. Nice excuse to booze it up, isn't it?
On the other hand cocaine, heroin, ecstacy, LSD, etc., have no benefit besides getting someone "high". Cocaine and heroin are chemically addictive. As far as I know ecstacy, alcohol, marijuana are not chemically addictive, but ecstacy severely affects your brain and so does marijuana.
Okay, ask yourself one simple question about ANY substance: Does it alter your mood and/or ability to perform activities?
Yes...? It's a drug. Pretty strightforward.
I guess YOU would prefer to think of it as "good drugs" vs. "bad drugs". (FYI, cocaine was LEGAL in the U.S. until Prohibition. Coca-Cola got its name from having the drug in it. But when booze became legal again, the "other" drugs somehow got left out. Hmmmmm.....)
Implicit in your statement is the idea that the "War on Drugs", with its associated destruction of American civil liberties and freedom, is a GOOD thing. Personally, I am unable to support Gestapo/Sturmtruppen tactics against law-abiding citizens (oops, wrong house, but he's dead anyway) for any reason. I would hope that most people agree with me on that issue.
Like booze, these substances should be decriminalized, and behavior WHILE IMPAIRED punished as needed. Just like DWI. Smuggling would stop (no profit in it), jail space would open up (no "users" inside), the courts would unclog, and a bunch of lawyers would have to get honest jobs.
Funny, but otherwise rational people cannot understand this simple premise. For the impaired: Prohibition never works. Not for booze, not for tobacco, not for drugs, and not for GUNS.
Might I suggest some serious soul-searching on this issue.
[This message has been edited by Dennis Olson (edited August 06, 2000).]