Decriminalizing Drugs

[dong]

lol George, I gotta quibble there because I feel like being an ass:

Only 20% of what we breathe IN is oxygen...if you breathe in nothing but oxygen, you will die from oxygen poisoning! That's why they only give it to patients in severe respiratory distress.

Most of the rest (79%) is nitrogen, about 1% is argon (yes, argon...one of the noble gases), and traces of carbon dioxide, among a few other things. Then there is all that toxic crap you get if you hang around the city...you get the idea. Nothing of course to do with the actual point, but yeah, just thought I should point out that one fact for the edification of anybody who didn't know...

While I'm at it, just like to also remind people to appreciate that while all effects are in some ways permanent (the minimal extent is in a trivial temporal sense), to keep in mind the relative nature of risk and how this impacts moral consideration.

 

[framed]

I think I agree with all of you on legalization of "lesser drugs". It's a waste of resources for very minimal gains, putting aside that the "war" has its own casualties. That said...

There's a valid argument to be made probably based on some puritan belief that too much fun can be bad for society. I'd bet thats why most of these things get outlawed more than the health danger aspect.

As a thought exercise: Imagine if someone invented a drug that had all the positive effects of all the drugs currently in existence, but none of the negative ones. No long term health effects, no physical addiction, etc.. Just pure...Joy. What would happen if that were legal?

I'm pretty sure people would stay home doing it as often and as much as possible, and if its that good probably not in moderation either. There's probably a decent chunk of the population that would quit being productive and just use this drug until they were out of money. That could well be bad for society as a whole.

The drive to be better and improve its pretty key to the human condition, and drugs (even without negative health effects) take some of that drive away. Thats a concern worth paying attention to beyond just the heath impacts of drugs.