The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, say World Health Organization researchers.
Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal, PLoS Medicine.
The survey of 54,000 people in 17 countries found that 16 percent of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetimes — far higher than the next highest rate, found in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine.
More than 42 percent of Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, closely followed by 41 percent in New Zealand.
Americans were also the most likely to have smoked, with 74 percent saying they used tobacco at some time in their lives, although current smoking rates are far lower at 21 percent.
Feels great to be in first place, doesn’t it?
Im thinking that there is a KEY word here…
ABUSE..
It would make a nice test for the far right religious moralists: given–if you fully educate people as to the dangers of drugs but make them legal to purchase and use the actual rate of drug abuse will be lower than if you keep it illegal.
Question: are you willing to decriminalize drugs?
In the USA the answer would be “No” because drugs are immoral and should be illegal to protect the kiddies.
Why can’t everyone just agree with me?
>>Why can’t everyone just agree with me?
Because you keep dragging religion into every discussion, no matter how irrelevant it is to the topic at hand.
It might come as a surprise to you (I realize that your knowledge of religion is meager), but in addition to the Religious Right, there is also a Religious Left.
http://tinyurl.com/54v2ox
Stephen Colbert is a Sunday school teacher. Peace activist William Sloane Coffin was a minister, as is George Foreman. Cindy Sheehan is a devout Christian.
Maybe if you got over your ridiculously obsessive conviction that all people of faith are right-wing kooks like Jerry Falwell and Ted Haggard, we COULD all just agree with you.
As long as you took a course in Basic Punctuation.
#3 – I certainly support these people’s superstitions.
#4 – Salsa de Tomate
>>I certainly support these
>>people’s superstitions.
As they support yours.
See? Rodney King’s dream has become a reality.
well when it’s glorified like it is here what do you think? People are more like sheep then you may think.
Is this where we get out the big flags and start inappropriately chanting “USA…USA”?
IIRC drug use/abuse tends to track economic cycles. So clearly this is GWB’s fault. 🙂
Well, what is the difference between use and abuse? Alcohol can be abused, so does that make every user an abuser? (“This Bud’s For You!”).
Or, to put the question another way: how can alcohol be enjoyed without being abused? We know the answer: it is regulated by alcohol content. You can enjoy a beer or two at the ball game, safe in the knowledge of what you’re getting. So, I have no trouble envisaging a future in which someone can go to a corner store, show proof of age if reqd., and walk away with a pack of Marleys.
The pack will have a marked THC percentage, just as tobacco cigarette packs have nicotine and tar percentages. It will be controlled, and taxed, and probably safer than alcohol. The existing laws on driving-while-intoxicated can be modified if required. The existing alcohol abuse support systems can be extended to support dopeheads, since there will be tax revenues to pay for them.
I don’t see the attraction myself, since I don’t smoke anything, but if we should learn anything from the Prohibition era in the USA, it should be this: Prohibition does not work. Pleas for Abstinence do not work. In the beginning, the thrill of the forbidden is the attraction, not the substance itself, and you fight in vain against the human urge to get shit-faced!
“if you fully educate people as to the dangers of drugs but make them legal to purchase and use the actual rate of drug abuse will be lower than if you keep it illegal.”
Case study please? I think not. Hrd drugs can be used as weapons, i.e. spiking people. Should be kept illegal.
#11 – get off your dull, moral butt and Google around on your own. There is no shortage of studies on decriminalizing drugs – and the preponderant analysis is positive. Including a reference within the article cited for this Post.
There is no one lazier than a fracking “moralist”.
I’m really disappointed. I thought British Columbia would have brought up the Canadian average.
#3–Mustard==yes indeed there are Liberal oriented religious moralists and rightwing nutjob religious moralist. Why do I only mention the rightwing nutjobs? Because in the main, its only the rightwingers that want to force their morality on others thru force of law. The libs prefer to lead by example. 100%-? Of course not.
#11–Don==did you miss my entry was a hypothetical? But thanks for directly proving my point.
Now, for Mr Mustard, are you a liberal religious wingnut or a conservative religious wingnut?
#14 – Bobbo
I’m not a wingnut, liberal or conservative.
What kind are you? Atheist right or Atheist left?
#7
What the F is tobacco abuse? I honestly have never heard the term before. You smoke..or you don’t smoke. Do tobacco abusers go out robbing you one the street and raping your wives? (Not that that won’t soon be happening more often, at least the robbing part, as the gov in it’s wisdom continues it’s path towards making tobacco illegal also.)
#11
Pencils can be used as weapons..ie..pushed through your eye into your brain. Should be kept illegal. What’s that you say? They aren’t? OMG!! How do you manage to sleep at night with such a menace freely available for anyone to use all willy-nilly like that? Better get that letter right out to your elected representative.
“The question was poorly directed at Don but always glad to get your input.”
I’m Social Market Economics wing-nut. The concept of Christian Democracy hasnt reached America yet. Pitty.
#18–Don, yea you seem to be violating the social safety net programs of most Social Market Economies that I know of, mostly just Germany? Given that, are you sure that left/right, liberal/conservative label don’t get used within a more general Social Market Theory?
I’m sure it does. Maybe adding “Christian” is enough as most self identifying christians are conservative given that liberation theology is frowned on as a protestant thing.
“Don, yea you seem to be violating the social safety net programs of most Social Market Economies that I know of, mostly just Germany? Given that, are you sure that left/right, liberal/conservative label don’t get used within a more general Social Market Theory?
I’m sure it does. Maybe adding “Christian” is enough as most self identifying christians are conservative given that liberation theology is frowned on as a protestant thing.”
As far as I know hard drugs are illegal in Germany. I would a more conservative strand od CD than the Germans.
As far as I know, the German CDs were set up by mostly Catholics.
I’m not infavour of complete privatization. I’m centre right.
#16 – Bobbo
>>The question was poorly directed at Don
>>but always glad to get your input.
I’ll say it was “poorly directed! What you said (and I quote), was
>>Now, for Mr Mustard, are you a liberal
>>religious wingnut or a conservative religious
>>wingnut?
If anyone could determine that question was “directed at Don”, poorly or otherwise, they must be a mindreader. Sheesh!
I took Scottie’s test, btw. Southwest quadrant.
>>Maybe adding “Christian” is enough as most
>>self identifying christians are conservative
>>given that liberation theology is frowned on
>>as a protestant thing.”
Uh…..Protestants are Christians too…
#20–Don==my experience in Germany is that drug addicts are ignored until they break the law otherwise.
But I’m curious. You only strongly implied that you think drugs should be illegal. Assuming thats the case, why do you want your value system to be forced on other people? Suppose I thought drugs were “good” and required you to inject heroin? My values, the only thing missing is my power to force my values on YOU. YOU wouldn’t like it==so why act the same way towards others with your morals?
Why not lead by example and ADVISE people not to do drugs? Why not let people exercise their free choices?
#21–Mustard==maybe a clue was I addressed you in a numbered paragraph and then started a new numbered paragraph reference to engage Don. Not as explicit as I took it to be? A matter of style.
And I do make mistakes as with christian/protestant. I got wrapped up in my liberation theology history and went off the rails.
#25
Nope. Just because doing something may increase the percentage of incidence of getting a given disease does not equate to abuse. I do understand that the difference between use and abuse is lost on you, as 3 of the letters are the same, and therefor horribly confusing to your tiny mind.
Since the above shows why you don’t see why my reply to 11 is the same as his suggestion..let me try and simplify. Just because something can be used for illegal or immoral purposes does not mean that it must be banned. It is a specious argument, and can be used just as I did…about almost anything. Yes, my argument was (intentionally) ridiculous, just as his (unintentionally) was.
“and you fight in vain against the human urge to get shit-faced!”
Humans have been getting “shit-faced” since they came down from the trees in one way or another – only the US thought to criminalise it…pot was made illegal as a way of harassing mexican immigrants.
Monkeys are known to select over-ripe fruit with a high alcohol content in order to get “shit-faced” … whatever, part of the game of life – choose to or choose not to, illegal or not essentially it make no difference to your choice. That said, plenty of studies show that if you draw attention to something (ie make it illegal) interest in that something goes UP as does consumption – curiosity and rebellion!
” Do tobacco abusers go out robbing you one the street and raping your wives?”
HAHAHAHA weirdo! Do you think a pothead can be arsed gettin off his arse to do any of the above? HAHAHAHA – a drunk (LEGAL DRUG) is more of a threat here….. as for harder substance users – if their poison of choice were regulated and legal the need to rob would be removed (as you seem to have figured out with your comment on making tobacco illegal) – raping wives? what whacky tv shos have you been watching? the per capita incidence of this is higher in alcohol cases than ALL illegal drugs combined…
“#9 Becasue allowing people to use something they were forbidden to and thus made hard to find will decrease it use when you make it freely available. Now, that’s logic.”
THE HUNDREDS OF STUDIES DONE IN THIS AREA PROVE YOU WRONG… IT IS NOT LOGIC, BUT SPURIOUS LOGIC – CHECK YOUR FACTS, NOW THAT IS LOGIC
#10 and you want to learn that easy availability isn’t the solution the hard way.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ SOME OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED STUDIES
#17 cuase you’ve never heard of lung cancer and the incidence that ammount & frequency smoking has on it.
WELL… AT LEAST YOU READ THAT ONE
#28 – Troll Hill
>>See? The liberals can make this country
>>number one if they try hard enough.
Seems to me that your pajama pal Anal Cyst Limbaugh is one of the leaders in keeping America #1 on the addiction front. And don’t forget about Meth-and-Man-Ass Haggard.
I’ll bet, if the truth were known, it’s the right-wing fucktards who are keeping the Columbian drug lords, the Afghani heroin producers, and the rest in business.
And keeping us Numero Uno.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
I’d like to see any link to pot and lung cancer.
The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana… …despite strict drug laws
Keep publishing the Good News! 🙂
What can I say? Americans are self indulgent. We don’t control imports enough to make the price prohibitive. We make heroes of pushers. God knows how many law enforcement people are on the take. Elected offices, ditto.,
I’d say make a lot of the crap legal but tatoo the people that use. Remove their right to use heavy equipment like cars, and motorized vehicles. Throw them in jail if they get caught using motorized transport for a week to let their craving kick in. Laws againts theft should stay in place but let them sign up on labor contracts to get their fix.
Course they would be treated like slaves while on the contract but they could leave if they could live without their fix.
Not humane but I no longer know how to keep people from killing themselves.
Bobbo, stick a redwood in it. _You_ are the religious obsessed nut case posting on this site. Nobody else is trying to shove religion into every discussion.
Did it ever occur to you to seek treatment about your obsessive compulsive behavior? If it hasn’t it should. It is getting the way of your social life.
#2,
and god gave you choice..
If you want to go to HELL, isnt it your OWN choice?
WHY should it be YOUR CHOICE?? and not mine??
#25..
Its a case of “SEEING OTHERS” ruin their OWN lives, and having a REAL education in LIFE..by watching SOMEONE ELSE do something, and SCREWING UP.
If you dont open the BOX and look, you will never discover WHATS IN THE BOX.
If you watch the decline of 1 persons LIFE, with drugs. Is better then HIDING IT UNDER THE BED, and no one understands WHATS HAPPENING TO YOU.
1 persons LIFE experience can Affect 100-1000 people, IF’ its shared.
If its Hidden..No body knows or can be AFFECTED and helped, to KNOW what THEY’ shouldnt do.
#37,
you dont understand death, until your DOG/cat/pet/aunt/uncle/father/mother/… Dies..
You wont understand the words, “DONT TOUCH, HOT” until you reach up and Pull the pot down..or someone SHOWS you..taking the pot down FOR you, and shows you the boiling WATER, and you reach to touch it.. and MOTHER rinses your hand in cool water, so it dont burn any more.
Better to have controlled EXAMPLES, then to have a person say..Whats so BAD, lets try it and find out…COOL!!… and find out that SMOKING is bad for them, after a LUNG is removed, or Lyrnx, or a HOLE drilled into the throat..