Slashdot Mirror
Local News Anchor Feels Pain from Afar
In times when Clear Channel makes up "local news" reports from central studios and broadcasts them over radio stations around the country, it's worth asking the question: when does it cross the line into deception?
> Everybody's doing it. Which is why it is also okay to do drugs, j
It's ok to do drugs because it's your choice, and nobody elses.
Alright let's put this in order.
;-)
Someone argues: How does the war on drugs stop second hand drug related deaths? (IE. Someone get's stoned and hits someone with a car.)
I refute: The war on drugs SHOULD end those types of deaths. It is in place to stop drugs from being used. If no drugs are used, no drug-related deaths can occur.
You argue: Well, alchohol is legal, just drinking while drunk isn't.
I argue now: Thank you captain obvious. Drugs could be legal and have the same laws and alchohol, and it would have the same effect. However, that doesn't take away the fact that the illegalization of drugs ALSO stops those types of deaths.
I leave by saying... and I wouldn't mind alchohol being completely illegal either....
First, I have to admit that I browse at +1 with the show-nested-comments-on-main-page thingy set to +3, and I browse highest scores first. So I don't read very many low-rated posts.
:gasp: karma for it, but somebody has to do it!" But in reality he's just saying the exact same thing that every single other poster on the entire site has been saying since the beginning of time.
Do posts with phrases like "I'm sure to lose karma" or "I'm sure I'll be modded down for this, but..." ever actually get modded down? I'm utterly sick of reading this phrase. It inevitably is in a post whose opinion is against "the public"'s opinion but is perfectly aligned with what all of the slashbots think. So of course it will get modded up, because it contributes to the great groupthink project. However, the poster has to imagine persecution. Even though all of his friends and everyone on this site agrees with what he's saying, he puts in a little persecution complex. "It hurts to bear the truth, and I'll lose
Sigh. I guess I'll go take my meds and relax now.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Take a drug like heroin. Heroin is actually a fairly benign pain killer. it's addictive to about a third of the people who take it (compare that to tobacco!) and, by itself, unless taken in overly large quantities, it has little negative affect on the user. In Britain until 1970, the number of heroin addicts was counted in the hundreds. Doctors prescribed the drug to the addicts, limiting their quantities and with the drug supplied by legally accountable organizations. Organized crime didn't get a look in - there was no point in selling the drug to someone who could then go to a doctor and get it on the NHS. Deaths were practically non-existant.
Illegalization, frankly, screwed that up. Nixon's War on Drugs was fought internationally and Britain signed up. Heroin was outlawed. So it became available to everyone! Suddenly organized crime had a captive market. Heroin was pushed by the same people who sold more popular drugs such as Cannabis, which also could only be obtained via illegal means. Crime syndicates had little or no accountability: one day they'd over-cut the drug to sell to more addicts (the poor reputation of heroin is in part because of this: the drug is frequently cut with stuff nobody in their right mind would want in their bodies), another they'd supply it raw to someone expecting it cut. Overdoses became common. More importantly, addicts became common. By the late nineties, Britain's heroin addicts reputedly hit six digits.
Illegalization causes drugs related deaths. Drugs related deaths would be less frequent with their legalization, unless and until someone can come up with a way of removing drugs completely. NEVER confuse criminalizing something with getting rid of it.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.