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From: gkb@necntc.UUCP (Greg Busby)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.med
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <374@necntc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Sep-86 16:16:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: necntc.374
Posted: Fri Sep 19 16:16:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 03:18:57 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP> <20756@rochester.ARPA> <463@epimass.UUCP> <1302@trwrb.UUCP>
Reply-To: gkb@necntc.UUCP (Greg Busby)
Organization: NEC Electronics Inc.  Natick, MA 01760
Lines: 48
Xref: linus talk.politics.misc:266 net.med:4650
Summary: Legalizing drugs

In article <1302@trwrb.UUCP> suhre@trwrb.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
>In article <463@epimass.UUCP> jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) writes:
>>You're right, Ray.  A fairer comparison would be to legal, but

[note: this is in resonse to comparisons of # of cocaine deaths vs.
# of appendicitis deaths, etc.]

>>harmful, drugs like tobacco (350,000 deaths a year) and alcohol
>>(25,000 deaths in drunk driving wrecks alone).  Can you explain
>>to me why cocaine use is worse for society than alcohol and tobacco
>>use?
>	I don't have to.  The principle is, if you have two problems
>	on your hands, should you acquire a third one if you don't
>	have to?
>
The problem here is not that alcohol and tobacco are LEGAL, but that
they are so ACCEPTED.  Because of the fact that they are taken for
granted in society, and their use is socially acceptable (if falling out
of fashion), we (as a society) assume that young people will be able to
make their own decisions about how to use them.  BUT (and this is the
main point) WE DON'T EVER TEACH YOUNG PEOPLE WHAT THESE DRUGS CAN DO AND
LET THEM GAIN SOME [LIMITED] EXPERIENCE WITH THEM.  THE AVERAGE PERSON
DOESN'T KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT LEGAL [OR ILLEGAL] DRUGS TO MAKE AN INFORMED
DECISION.  This doesn't mean I think people should smoke or drink, but
that they should be free to make that decision on their own.  Society's
place is to present them with information and help them out if they feel
that they can't handle it once thy've started.

>	But for starters, I don't think that tobacco users have
>	to steal to support their "habit".  Similar for alcohol
>	users.
And neither would drug users if the drugs weren't sold on the black
market, which always has high prices for its commodities (how expensive
was alcohol during prohibition?). If drugs were
legal, the competition in the market would drive prices down to the
point where stealing wouldn't be necessary. In addition, it would bring
the grower/producer and distributor under all the same regulations that
govern tobacco and alcohol and provide a measure of control against
young (<~15 or 16) people getting ahold of drus that are harmful.
[As an aside, some of my siblings' high-school-age friends have said
that with the higher drinking age, they can't get alcohol, so they have
turned to drugs.  But that is another pet peeve.] The point is that
regulating a legal drug has made it harder for "children" to get it, so
why wouldn't legalizing and regulating illegal drugs have the same
effect?

>Maurice Suhre

GKB