What is the reason for any drug to be "illegal"?

I'm looking around me, United States. Pot keeps the economy in my town alive. Why make any drugs illegal? I just don't get it... Alcohol causes soo many more problems than marijuana. Tobacco is more disastrous to your health than marijuana is. Marijuana's soo non-addictive... and nothing's wrong with nicotine? Drunk driving's a problem. You can totally function on marijuana. Why is LSD illegal? What harm does it do anyone?

I'm looking around at a government with arbitrary laws concerning drug legality. Alcohol cannot be legal if marijuana isn't. It makes no sense. You must legalize everything... or legalize nothing. Anyway, the government's a power trip. Your laws have no power over me.

Any ideas?

 

This may not answer your question completely, but it helped me understand some of it:

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CONSENSUAL CRIMES
http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/303b.htm
Why The Illegal Drug Business Is Thriving
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr.../math.html
THE JURISPRUDENCE OF THE ILLEGAL DRUG LAWS AND WHY THE DRACONIAN PENALTIES ?
www.users.on.net/~rmc/drugs.htm
Why Are Drugs Illegal
a1b2c3.com/drugs/law01.htm
Why is Marijuana Illegal?
blogs.salon.com/0002762/s...legal.html
A WISER COURSE: ENDING DRUG PROHIBITION
druglibrary.org/schaffer/...lawyer.htm

All of your observations are valid. Don't feel as though you're the only one who sees things as the way they are, or at least the way they should be. A small but very powerful group of people in this country control which laws are enacted and enforced, contrary to preferred popular belief. The rest of us are expected to answer to them, regardless how counterproductive or even insane their sovereignty may be.

 

Continued use of marijuana can cause people to have mental problems but I agree if you legalise alcohol marijuana should also be legalised.

Ironically in the uk at the moment a nationwide smoking ban is about to come into force. At the same time the government have made it less illegal to smoke pot (noone quite knows what that means but it is presumed if you do it in your own house then you aren't going to get into trouble for it).

So we are banning smoking but legalising pot which is by and large smoked.

There are some stupid theories here. By banning smoking people who work in bars etc will be less likely to get cancer. Unfortunately the people who used to smoke at the bar are now going to drink and smoke at home with their kids in the same room. So adult bar staff who have a choice where they work are saved and kids who have very little choice where they live are put in harms way.

You can't legalise all drugs by the way. Look at heroin. Its the most destructive drug there is. It turns people into thieves and potentially murderers because there is nothing a heroin addict won't do to get a fix.

 

They make drugs illegal because they screw up your senses. Even though pot may not have a large effect on you, it has a huge effect on other people, me being one of them. Last time I smoked with some friends, I thought we were driving and we were standing still. LSD is a hallucinogen, so it is much more dangerous than alcohol. The laws aren't arbitrary.

 

Yea, we had this law in the county I live in. It's so dumb, it should be up to the individual bar owners if they want to make smoking ok or not.

 

Yes, it's quite the testament to the triumph of human backwards-ness. Honestly, though, alcohol messes up your senses at least as much as, if not more than marijuana. In the end it comes down to moderation--and personal conviction. Anything in excess can kill you, and likewise, if you never try something, you are never really able to gauge the true impact of that substance or occurence on yourself and perhaps others.

 

Okay, marijuana may be relatvely safe if used responsibly, but some drugs are just downright dangerous and shouldn't be legal. You can't honeslty sit there and say heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine should be made legal! These are extremely dangerous and cause serious health problems for the users and the people who are affected by the user's reckless behavior when they use the drugs.

Everyone is affected differently by any drug. While you may be able to function, another person may be completely sensless and hit a child crossing the street.

Wow. LSD is an extremely powerful hallucinogen which is enough explanation in itself. Tripping on LSD and driving a car...you don't think that would do any harm to anyone? You have to remember, just because using a drug isn't bad for the user, the resulting behavior definitely can harm the user and others around them.

Go smoke a joint in front of a cop and then rethink that statement while your ass is in a cell for the night.

Which is exactly why marijuana is illegal and alcohol is legal, right?
You seem to think you can control what the gov't legalizes and prohibits...you just really have alot of self-confidence don't you?

 

NEVER FORGET THAT THE CIA ARE THE ONES SHIPPING 90% Of THE HARD DRUGS INTO THIS COUNTRY!

They need to keep marijuana illegal because they do not have the control over it they do with cocaine and heroin. They cannot make money off of marijuana, which pisses them off.

 

I'm pretty sure the reason marijuana is still illegal isn't because the CIA is "pissed off." It was originally the timber companies that lobbied for the prohibition of marijuana, mainly to prohibit the cultivation of hemp. The most likely reason that it's still illegal today is because of the pharmaceutical corporations and lobbyists. The pharmie companies stand to gain the most from it today, by getting people off illegal drugs and onto their legal ones.

 

There are monetary reasons aplenty. The WOD is a sham and an extreme exercise in doublethink. One glaring point of interest in the question of necessity for the WOD is prison labor and the various items produced by it.

 

Now you all may not be terribly affected by marijuana, but many people are affected to the point that it hinders their judgement more than alcohol.

 

Am I the only one here that thinks peaceloveandshrooms has some really fucked up points like "Why is LSD illegal, what harm does it do to anyone?"

It just seems like her has really wrong information regarding drugs.

 

Personal experience is the best way to gain information about drugs. There are way too many people out there that want you to think that drugs are "bad" for whatever reason: the law, your parents... You'll never know unless you do it yourself. I have never seen any consequence of a drug that was bad enough that the right of choice should be taken away. Drug use is a part of the citizen's private life that should NOT be controlled by the government. Who has the authority to control someone else's life anyway?

Love hearing everyone's opinion... Differerences are BEAUTY!

 

It's the best way in some cases. I think you should know what you're getting yourself into before you try any drug though. Blindly using drugs is really dangerous and you should read up on them a bit and ask people who've used them before.

You haven't seen enough then. You said yourself in the first post that drunk driving was a big problem. I see drunk drivers as irresponsible people and I think that their right to drink alcohol should be taken away. The fact is, alot of people are irresponsible users and really fuck over alot of innocent people because of that. PCP is another drug that shouldn't be legal because of some of the stuff people do when under it's influence. I've got a buddy who took some PCP and ended up slicing himself up pretty badly as a result and alot worse could've happened. Is the fact that some drugs are harmful and dangerous not enough reason to make them illegal (not including marijuana)?

 

Yea, PCP is really bad because it inhibits pain receptors so you don't know you are getting hurt.

 

I still believe that it should be a person's personal choice whether or not to take a drug. Since when is the purpose of government to protect us from ourselves?

 

They're protecting others from you, when you're high, you're dangerous. I'm sure they won't care if you do it in your own home without making a big deal of it, but when you go out, you're endangering others.

 

Floobajoo2

You sound to me like one of the many people who say that drugs are bad, but have never tried them for yourself. I hope I'm wrong, because blind acceptance of someone's else's knowledge claim can be very dangerous. If you have some personal experience about the danger of drugs, then I can respect your opinion, but if you are simply regurgetating what you have been taught, then I have to ask you to question your sources.

and GoblinDemoTeam
You def. haven't questioned anything or even reasoned anything at all. All you have done is attack me, the arguer. That reasoning proves nothing. If you have a reason for LSD to be illegal, then go ahead and give it to me. Otherwise, you're leaning on common sense, which holds no real evidence. Perhaps you should think about something before groundlessly calling it stupid.

 

Somethings are just harmful for the user and society.

 

Its all about legislation of morality. Something the Christian right is bent on. Sometimes you will find me defending Republicans from bitter and illogical attacks in these forums. Not this time.