professor wrote:First of all, Steve (stva) was reffering to drug users who do drugs as recreation and not medical reasons. That was pretty obvious.
I just reread his post and still do not see it is obvious that he is referring to just recreational drug users. He says it’s childish to use drugs. I merely gave two examples that counter his broad generalization. Instead of re-quoting his whole post I will just say to reread his post and make up your own mind if he does in fact specify he is only referring to recreational drug use.
professor wrote:
Second, you bash many of these posts including mine, and yet we all give reasons for our points, but where are yours? You just say we are wrong and leave it without reasons.
You are right. I should include reasons with my post. My excuse is that I have been jaded by so many similar discussions in the past. I didn’t feel compelled to go take even more time on this discussion to find reliable sources for each point I would make.
I might have “bashed” many posts but I was simply stating that many were broad generalizations. I do not think I need to point out each time this has happened in this thread. It seems apparent that both sides of the argument are doing this. If this is not apparent to you then I will not take the time to explain why because I simply don’t car to waste too much time on the subject. That may be a lame reason but so be it.
In reference to your post only I cited that your reasons for believe that drugs were illegal were wrong. If you would research instead of just stating assumptions you might discover that many of the drug laws around the world stem from racial persecution and a desire by those in power to control minority groups. Example: the Asian people that helped build the railroads in North America and their link to opium, Mexican workers in the US and their links to marijuana, and more recently the persecution of black people in the US that use crack.
http://hrw.org/campaigns/drugs/
“Black men are admitted to prison on drug charges at eleven times the rate of white men. Most drug arrests occur in lower income, primarily minority urban areas, even though whites use drugs at approximately the same rate as blacks.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_(drugs)
“Religious intolerance was also the motivation for drug prohibition in Christian Europe. In a move interpreted as support of the efforts of the Spanish Inquisition against the Arabs, in a 1484 fiat Pope Innocent VIII banned the use of cannabis. The persecution of heretics in the form of witch-hunts also gathered momentum around this time, and frequently targeted users of medicinal and hallucinogenic herbs. The Inquisition proceeded apace in Central America and South America, where peyote, ololiuqui, toloache, teonanacatl and other sacred plants of the Aztec culture were prohibited as works of the devil.”
“The first law outright prohibiting the use of a specific drug was a San Francisco, California ordinance which banned the smoking of opium in opium dens in 1875. The inspiration was "many women and young girls, as well as young men of respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese opium-smoking dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise," though there is no evidence to suggest this ever happened. The primary cause of the movement for the law was a moral panic based on a fear of Chinese immigrants and other railroad workers seducing white women with the drug. This was followed by other laws throughout the country, and federal laws which barred Chinese people from trafficking in opium. Though the laws affected the use and distribution of opium by Chinese immigrants, no action was taken against the producers of such products as laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol, commonly taken as a panacea by white Americans.”
“Cocaine was prohibited in the first part of the 20th century. Newspapers used terms like "Negro Cocaine Fiends" and "Cocainized Niggers" to drive up sales, causing a nationwide panic about the rape of white women by black men, high on cocaine. Many police forces changed from a .32 caliber to a .38 caliber pistol because the smaller gun was supposedly unable to kill black men when they were high on cocaine.”
Ask yourself why crack use is punished more harshly and more reguarly then cocaine use? Why is alcohol, a once banned substance, is now legal again. If it were true that, “The fact is all illegal drugs are illegal because they alter your mental state, specifically it destorts your choice making abilities. This means while under the influence of drugs, you will do things you wouldn't normally do when you are sober.” Then why are antidepressants/alcohol/salvia legal?
Maybe I didn’t spend enough time finding crediable sources for you but I don’t see me taking a chunk out of my day to try and prove a point on the internet as an effective use of my time nor do I believe it will change anyone’s views on the drug debate. I apologize for not stating my reasons before.
