Thread: Prescribed Heroin?

I wonder how many people who would have otherwise not taken that first dose would take it if it were legalized.

Originally Posted by Half/Dreaming

I wonder how many people who would have otherwise not taken that first dose would take it if it were legalized.

Most of the people I know who got into drugs did it initially because it gave them membership and status in the rebellion culture. They were in the teenage rebellion years and thought they were being so defiant and daring by doing something the government declared war on, and they thought they weren't hurting anybody. If the drugs had been legal, I don't think the drugs would have ever looked so cool and given the users so much status. I remember how cool a lot of my high school friends thought they were because they were into drugs. The focus of what they said about drugs in the beginning was not as much on how fun they were as it was on how much they could brag by saying they were so messed up. The focus was always on how messed up they got, not on how much fun they had while they were messed up. The ones who made the biggest deal out of what they were doing were the ones who ended up the most screwed up. The one who used to act the most disgusted that people didn't want to do drugs because he thought sobriety was extremely dorky ended up dying of a cocaine overdose.

So even though legalization would lead to easier access and less social disgust, I think legalization would take away a whole lot of the attractiveness of drugs for people who are in the age group where the vast majority of users first get into drugs. I think it is a long term solution to fixing the drug problem. I am very much for fighting drugs on the demand side, but a supply side drug war causes a much greater magnitude of problems than it fixes. I don't think teenagers or people period are anywhere near as educated on drugs as they need to be. All people hear is, "Drugs are bad, mmmmkay." What they need to learn is stuff like, "____ % of people who try heroin become addicted to it, and ____ % of heroin addicts never recover from the addiction." That's the approach I think should be used.

My friends were the same way. Always talking about who was more screwed up, and who had the best weed. I found that talk lame and boring. I was always the kid talking about the cool conversations we would have and the cool things we would do, like walk across a 20 feet deep canyon over a fallen tree.

As I have said before, I'm not too sure about the legalization of drugs. It is very hit or miss. It would either be succesful or a complete failure which could do a lot of damage.

My proposition is far less harsh punishments. People treat cocaine like manslaughter, and I'm not even going to get into weed.