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Admitting Defeat in the War on Drugs

Updated on November 1, 2011
Drug use... Definately not a good thing...
Drug use... Definately not a good thing...

Even just a Little-Bit better...... ...IS... better.

In my Hub 'How to Create a Better Nation...a Better Social System' I made a statement that I would legalize drugs if I were the president of the United States. I stand by that statement.

Lily Rose in the comments section of that hub raised some points and I was unable to clearly respond to her. This hub is an attempt to be more clear.

I do not support drug use, nor do I think that legalized drug use is a good thing.

I do however think it is a better choice than the current alternative.

I do support the ideal that citizens should be allowed to make their own choice in as many things as possible, including the use of intoxicating substances.

The fact that Law Enforcement has not been able to stop drug use proves to me that the current way of doing things is a failure.

Lily Rose says:

Wow, Mikel - I didn't know my comments would lead to a whole hub containing my comments to you. It would've been nice to know, but now I do and it's okay.

Lily Rose
Lily Rose

The comments:

Lily Rose says:


I'm 100% with you on building that wall, and I would love to be part of that! Rounding up the illegals - let's go!

Legalizing drugs, however, no so supportive of that. Trust me, I KNOW we're not winning that battle - but if you only knew how much IS stopped at the ports of entry you may reconsider. And the tunnels ARE being found, you just don't hear about 'em all.


I'm not trying to be argumentative. I like your thinking and your writing - just giving my $.02, not that you asked for it!

Mikel G Roberts says:

But we could stop it all. 100%

(We could stop the supply from foreign suppliers, and eliminate the risk of terrorist attacks from that source by...) {Statements added for clarification are in parentheses}

by selling safer, FDA controlled locally produced drugs. People could be honest about where they got it if a problem comes up. Thefts of drugs could be stopped by law enforcement and the murder rate would drop as well. (Gang violence do to the illegal drug trade, and we would put a financial drain on the gangs by taking away one of their big money makers)

I don't think drugs are a good thing, but the way we are trying to combat them is a total failure.

The drugs stopped at the borders are gifts from very smart drug lords, to make you think this is the place to look, and to make you think your doing a good job. (It is also how they eliminate their competition.)

The fact that drugs are never hard to find, to buy illegally, shows that the war is lost.

Lily Rose says:

You make good points, but I just shudder to think what this country would be like with things such as cocaine and meth legalized - scary! I do agree that we are not doing enough, and I don't have the answer, but having been part of the war on drugs in my past life, I find it hard to say it's a complete failure.


I prefer to look at the gifts from drug lords as seizures of drugs that are not going to make it to the street. The war is not lost, it's ongoing...

Mikel G Roberts says:

lol, you still don't get it, it would only legalize the stuff that is already here.

( Cocaine and meth, legal or not, is already here, and is not going away. Legalizing them doesn't mean we are adding something new to the drug trade. Anybody that wants to try Cocaine or Meth or any illegal drug can do so, even if they are illegal, making it legal will only make those drugs be from a controlled processing system with safe guards in place for their production.)

Being illegal has not stopped it, or even slowed it at all. The only thing that would change is the people that have been sneaking it will no longer have to hide it.

There won't be more drugs, there will just be the drugs that use to be here in hiding, out in the open.

Your feelings on the 'drug seizures' is why they give them, so you feel like someone is doing something about it...

Lily Rose says:

What do you mean that it would only legalize the stuff that's already here? So if anyone currently has illicit drugs in their house when this new law goes into effect, those drugs would be "grandfathered in?" But no more drugs will be brought into the country from elsewhere or grown/processed here? Are you saying that the use of drugs would end once everything that is currently here is brought out and legally used because that's all there will be and no more will come in or be grown and made here? You're right, I don't get it. But then, we're not talking about reality here either so I'll stop arguing with you, Mikel! It certainly has been fun, though!

Mikel G Roberts says:

No Lily, that isn't what I'm saying. You are correct, my way doesn't eliminate the existence of drugs or drug use. (Which I don't believe can be done. I believe it is a personal choice, perhaps a poor personal choice, but a choice that each of us has to make on our own.)

It simply makes that drug use a little bit safer.

In my opinion the war on drugs has proven that we can't eliminate the existence of drugs.


My point is... Drugs are here to stay, whether we like them or not. Since we can't eliminate them, let's make them as safe as we can.(Legalizing them is the first step to being able to control the processing of them, the safe distribution, and the elimination of the financial aid to illegal border crossings and the expensive and failed war on drugs.)

The Interview: ...(Grinning)...

Lily Rose says:

I still don't see this as clearly as you do, and it'll never happen, but for the sake of conversation, I'll comment:

I don't see how your plan helps things at all.

Mikel says: Your Idea of helping things, if I am understanding you correctly, is the elimination of the existence of drugs such as Cocaine and Meth, Heroin, and so on.

Anything other than the total elimination of these types of intoxicating drugs, to you, is not helping, it is just giving up.

I think of it as an acceptance of facts. Facts: 1 the drugs are here to stay. 2 The current system of fighting their existence is too expensive and ineffectual. 3 Because they are here to stay attempting to eliminate them in their entirety is an exercise in futility.

If you think that legalizing drugs will stop them from coming into our country from other countries you're mistaken. They would still be smuggled in because there would always be someone trying to undercut the "government's price" and addicts will seek out different potencies.

Mikel says: They are coming into the country because they can't be grown here, without detection. If they are legal they can be grown here. The costs of illegally transporting them to a market in the United States where they are already legal and easy to find. Would make the profits from a smuggling enterprise a dwindling affair. Drug Lords are in the business to make money, they would not make very good money if the competition's cost were so much less than their own. The lowered price of the product would also make it a not so profitable commodity for these drug lords.

So are you saying that there would be government run storefronts where people would go to "try" or buy cocaine and meth - and the production of these drugs would make the drugs safer in what way? If your proposed safeguards include controlling the strength of the drugs' effects, you can bet there will be a black market and where do you think it will come from?

Mikel says: No, not government. Private companies. Let the drug manufacturers produce and sell them. They already have the knowledge, experience and facilities. They have sterile conditions and technical laboratories. Controlled production sites, experts in the fields of medicine and drugs. The controls and standards of the FDA would make the products safer, in whatever dosage. We already have and allow the production of products and activities that are health risks, some of which are lethal.

As examples of this I list: Guns, Alcohol, Tobacco, Explosives, and even Automobiles, Gliders (motorized or not), Motorcycles, Skiing, Skydiving, Spelunking, and the list goes on. Drag Racing, Boating, races of all sorts, Diving...

Already legal 'over the counter' medications can also be lethal, all a citizen needs do is mix the wrong ones together in an attempt to get high and there 'ya go. Life is a risky proposition, drugs aren't the ultimate evil, but the process of getting them now does promote evil and puts them in the control of evil people. I say let good people be in control of them. Separating them(drugs) from the control of evil people can only be better than what we have now.

I don't think there is an answer, unfortunately. Whichever way you look at it, drugs will be a problem in this country and there will always be a market for them, be it legal or illegal.

Mikel says: I agree they are here to stay, so we can bang our heads up against a wall like we have been or we can accept that fact, and make the best of a bad situation.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'the elimination of financial aid to illegal border crossings.' Do you mean the expense from the citizens to house the smugglers in our jails?

Mikel says: If people get drugs from a legal source, at any liquor or drug store. That money will not be going to the drug lords... that reduces their ability to produce and/or smuggle them into the United States.

If, as you say, your way won't eliminate the existence of drugs or drug use, then what good is it? How does it make drug use safer - seems like an oxymoron to me!

Mikel says: As I stated before: Controlled production sites, experts in the fields of medicine and drugs. The controls and standards of the FDA would make the products safer, in whatever dosage.

You're kidding yourself, Mikel, if you think this tactic would actually be able control the processing and distribution of these drugs.

Mikel says: I don't think so, I believe the way I'm looking at this issue is with my eyes wide open. To me drugs should be treated just like we treat alcohol. We tried the making it illegal thing once before if you'll remember, it didn't work then either.

Hey, thanks for giving me something "grown up" to debate about - all I usually debate about is how to properly put away toys and how to put what you were using away before taking something else out!

Mikel says: No,Thank You for the great conversation, and the different perspective. I'm not sure that a conversation with me really qualifies as a grown up conversation though... (grinning)...

Continued...again... from the comment section...

Mikel says: Hi Lily, I'll add your continued comments here to the hub and answer.

Thank You for your honest and open opinion.

Mikel

Lily says: Why?

Mikel says: Because it makes the hub better.

Lily says: Okay, improve on the hub, but don't say it's an interview with the back and forth banter that you are making it look like when it's not, please. If someone is interested in reading what my thoughts are, I'd rather they read my comments as a whole without your responses "mixed in." That's only fair, after all.

And by the way, my eyes are wide open as well and I still can't see how having private companies or individuals manufacturing methamphetamine and cocaine for the masses makes it any "safer" than it is now. Sure, what it's "cut" with may be better known or regulated, but the fact that it is still cocaine and methamphetamine doesn't change. The fact that cocaine and meth affect people in bad ways and make them do bad things won't change. Safe cocaine/safe meth = oxymoron. It's just not possible.

I think we're just going in circles, Mikel! Perhaps we should agree to disagree?

Mikel, after perusing your profile and seeing how you like sayings, I just had to tell you one of my favorites:

"It's better to remain silent and be thought of a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt."

(not a personal attack, BTW - it truly is one of my all-time favorites!)

Mikel says: But it has been a back and forth banter, with my responses, in the hub mixed in... makes it clear and concise.

one of my all time favorite sayings:

even just a little bit better...

...is still better.

Lily says: Clear and concise to you and me, maybe, because we know what we've said. It may not be so clear to other readers, though.

It's your hub; I shouldn't be telling you how to format your hub. I just think it would make it a 'little better' - HA!HA! I do like that one; I haven't heard it before.

Mikel says: It is just as clear to them because every word is written here. (in the hub and the comments) I haven't edited anything that you have said. It is clear that in the 'interviewed' format of the hub your statements were one long statement with my answer to each part being written in , in the section that applied.

I'm glad you like my saying, and I'm sorry you don't like the hub...

Peace and Love, Mikel

Lily says: Mikel, I DO like the hub! I enjoyed this debate quite a bit. I was just making a suggestion about the readability of it, nothing more. Too bad that we couldn't come up with a better solution together (about the war on drugs, that is!)

Even just a little bit better...is better.

 

I believe that making drugs legal will lead to the diminished use of drugs. Legalising them takes out the 'Bad-Boy' feel to drugs. Many people, especially younger people get hooked on them because in their 'rebel' years they(drugs) are a way of not following the rules.

The simple fact that the 'cool' people do drugs, and don't have a problem with it, is a big part of the attraction to drugs, at least in the beginning. The only people saying they (early drug users) aren't cool are the police, the authority figures, the very people that the young people are rebelling against. The parties and popularity, the 'losing control' and loss of inhibitions, all team up against the young person deciding. In the end in what ever capacity, most people decide to experiment.

If drugs were legal, they wouldn't be a form of rebelling. If drugs were legal the Government could more accurately target experimenting drug users(with an information/education campaign), before drug use became an addiction. We could teach people that once the brain chemistry is altered, and a person needs(no longer an optional wanting) drugs then the addiction keeps them on drugs. The peer pressure by people(peers) that are making money from selling illegal drugs would go away because these people would be out of business, having lost their business to the legal businesses that we would create.

The power the illegal drug dealer has over the addict would also be reduced or eliminated. Making the illegal drug dealer a less powerful person and there by less of a threat to the safety and security of the public, obviously a better situation.

Having drugs legalized, we could create a research and development department in the drug company labs to create a new drug or new drugs with the benefits of the 'high' but without the negative side effects. We could find a way to fill the need that is currently being filled with these dangerous narcotics. If we get enough smart people working on the problem I am sure we could reduce or completely eliminate the bad side effects like the addiction.

But like I have said, this approach requires that we admit that the 'War on Drugs' is a lost cause. That we need to try something else, and that the only way we can eliminate the existence of intoxicating drugs is by allowing everyone to make the personal decision to not take drugs. That we need to identify the need that the drugs fill in a person's life, and replace it with something that fills the need without hurting the person.

We must admit that a Government cannot, and will not be allowed, to make the decision for 'We the People'. The more Nazi like the Government is on any given issue, the more rebellious the people become. In effect pushing the people towards the undesired behavior rather than keeping them away from it.

We must keep in mind... "Even just a little bit better.....is still better."

working

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