Oregon Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Heroin and Cocaine; Four States Legalize Marijuana

Just when the rioters in Portland were running out of juice, they legalize meth and cocaine to re-energize them......what could possibly go wrong?

Oregon Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Heroin and Cocaine; Four States Legalize Marijuana
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/u...ions-2020.html

Oregon Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Heroin and Cocaine; Four States Legalize Marijuana
There were 38 statewide citizen initiatives being decided across the country on Tuesday, about half the level of the last presidential election.

 

I’m a libertarian on this. Legalize it all, have the Walmart of drugs (taxed of course) and an aisle for each kind and let the chips fall where they may.

I think in the long term, society would find an equilibrium on how to treat hard drugs (weed is not a hard drug; a calming high is way less worse than getting drunk) in the same fashion we do alcohol. Let people decide if they want to mess up their lives on their own.

The short term would be a wasteland of destroyed families and overdoses from too much or bad combinations. I’m ok with that. Eventually society would figure it out.

 

They would have to seriously ramp up law enforcement in anticipation for large increase in junkies looking for money. Amsterdam is very liberal on drugs and when they decriminalized weed, all kinds of organized crime poured in and brought hard drugs and other crime with them and in no time crime went up in the city. Everything that is not nailed down disappears, and the cops tell people to never leave anything of any value visible in your car, because the junkies will smash the window and grab it, and it means more work for the cops.

 

I would be more concerned about the ones that decide to do the drugs that cause hallucinations. They think they are running with a dragon on a leash, when really they are chasing someone with a knife.

 

Heroin addicts will steal anything, or rob anyone to get the money for the next fix, so IMO they are the biggest concern.

 

I can tell when a new batch of meth and/or crackheads have moved into local Section 8 housing, ANYTHING left outside disappears. They'll steal wet paint! Have fun Oregon, soon to be known as Woebegone.

 

This is wrong. This will cause loss of lives to overdoses.

I oppose guns. I oppose hard drugs. I oppose tobacco.

 

Yes but then you can put them in prison for that.

I'm very torn apart about that kind of issues. On one hand, criminilization of drug traffic hasn't been a huge success, in the other hand I think it's really dangerous.

Many people aren't able to tell apart the difference between what is legal and what is morale.

Globally, criminilization of drug addicts has been a failure, and it might be better to stop to use repression on that.

 

My views are max freedom/libertarian whenever possible. This is one of those cases.

Addicts are addicts, regardless of legality.

The cost to educate & rehabilitate is dramatically lower than the cost for police + prosecution/courts + prison.

People who are addicted to heroin should face the same penalties as people addicted to alcohol.

 

You don't have to lock them up for consuming. That part can be changed by changing the sentencing guidelines, but to legalize hard drugs seems reckless.

 

We've been at war with drugs for about 50 years. Drugs are winning every battle, yet we keep fighting.

It's the pure definition of insanity.

 

If it's only small quantities, then traffickers should be potentially still be punished by law.

 

Not necessarily, assuming things would be much worse if we didn't fight to minimize the damage.

 

It depends on what "decriminalization" means. In some parts of Florida pot is technically decriminalized, meaning they won't prosecute for small amounts. However, you still get a fine, and by paying that fine, you plead guilty to a drug offense, which will probably make it difficult to find a decent job in the future.

Likewise, Oregon "decriminalized" hard drugs, but it is not clear what that means exactly. Portugal did it 19 years ago, and in their case you are required to get treatment if you are caught with hard drugs. I was in Lisbon for few days and I can't count the times I was approached by a drug dealer. They were everywhere.

 

"Oregon became the first state to decriminalize small amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs."

prob should have included meth in title, as Cocaine is not meth, one is a plant, used to be an ingredient in Coca-Cola

time to end the war on drugs, arrest people for crimes committed while intoxicated, same as alcohol - you drink or do drugs responsibly, I couldn't care less

basically these are amphetamines, same as we give children, taken responsibly they can help people, abused they can harm people

 

alcohol?

how about free speech, do you oppose that?

 

Do you oppose alcohol?

You quote the Bible in your signature, and the verse you picked tends to suggest you are a bit of a morality cop: "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

 

But why assume that?

What would happen if we suddenly started arresting people for drinking beer, and giving people 5-year sentences in a penitentiary for that heinous crime?

Until 1914 all drugs were totally legal. Cannabis was regarded as the "grown-up" version of tobacco. You could buy laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol, in any drugstore, Aspirin, however, would get you a lecture from the druggist, as it was new and almost as untested as the brand new Heroin, which was showing great promise even in treating mental illness.

The greatest drug dealers of the 19th century were the British, who kicked the snot out of the Chinese for passing laws to keep their people from becoming opium addicts. This was how the Brits largely drained the Chinese of all the gold they had picked up over the years.

 

I don't want drugs legalised because the black market is far better than the legal market for things like alcohol or tobacco.

 

I assume it because synthetic heroin (oxy) was made easily available (practically legal) about 8 years ago, and people went crazy with it. We had dozens of "pain clinics" down here in South Florida and people drove down all the way from GA, TN and Carolinas to get some. Tens of thousands got hooked and thousands died of over doses. So, yes, people will self-medicate with such substances and get hooked before they know it, and for many it will cost them their career, marriage, family and life (usually in that order).

Why would you arrest people for drinking a beer? There is no comparison. Legalize weed. That's fine, and that compares to beer, but hard addictive drugs need to be strictly regulated.

 

One of the curious events in Holland when they legalized pot was that a few years later the incidence of use amongst juveniles had declined. It seems the "forbidden fruit" no longer applied, and the kids weren't using it as much.

 

When 'small amounts' are decriminalized, it has to do with the court system and prisons. Why should someone found with a 'small amount' of coke or heroin be put in prison?

 

And we are now seeing the manufacturers of that drug be penalized for their pushing of the drug. What good does it do the individual or the country to imprison people with small amounts of it? Do you think that sending those people to prison will save their career, marriage, family and life?

 

Yes, it might very well save their career, marriage, family and life and an additional bonus is that it saves the society from them.

 

I'm not convinced we are minimizing damage.

Self medication is quite often an indication of a chemical imbalance in the brain. We should be helping these people; not imprisoning them.