Ok... I don't get the black market excuse. We already have a black market for drugs. It is ALL we have. I'm not saying legalizing will end all drug related violence. That is obvious. But it would help. This has been shown time and time again.
This. The Whopper from Burger King didn't cause a tweaked out meth head to sneak into my wife's 83 year old grandpas house continuously for weeks. The guy was sneaking in while her grandpa was asleep in the middle of the night and going through his dresser drawers, stealing hundreds of dollars, all in the same room that he was sleeping in. Her grandpa is 83, has lymphoma, and was too scared to report it out of fear that the guy would retaliate. The whole "Fast food is worse for you" argument is just plain stupid. Eat a burger, it only hurts you. The laws about drugs arent there to protect people from themselves, they're there to discourage use so that the innocent don't have as high of a risk of being "violated"... That's my opinion of course, but I'm sure it's wrong. But let's go ahead and legalize meth an heroine so that theirs more worthless tweaked out running around... Sounds like a grand plan.
Would you go out and buy heroine if it were legal today? I guess the question is, would people who do not get into drugs today go out and start using drugs if they became legal? I don't think they would. Drugs are too easy to come by these days, if you wanted to try them, you would/could.
Yes I do, but I wasn't aware that it was all attributed to obese people.. guess those skinny (smokers, alcoholics and druggies) are not part of it.. Stretching the thought process here to see how 2+2 = 5 in your eyes! Here is a thought--- More people die from the miss use of prescription drugs that any other cause... I say doctors need to stop writing scripts and it would cut our health care cost.. see 3+3 does equal 7.. LMAO...
I just hope Humana isn't your policy provider then. I won't go as far as to say its worse than drugs for society... But the mindset that smoking, being obese, eating terribly only affects you is flat out wrong and why our healthcare costs have spiraled to where they are. Your bad decisions do directly affect me by my premiums and copays going up to cover the costs of your healthcare.
I cant wait for the movie scarface2. Tony Montana will be sitting at his desk surrounded by cheeseburgers and weigh 400 lbs. The movie will be exactly the same but with junk food instead of drugs and all the bad guys are fat.
Here is what you said... I would argue that obese people are a huge drain on society. If its on the internet it must be right? Like I am a French model too! Yeah-- Link take you to a liberals math class where 3+3 really does equal 7!
I have a hard time with this subject on many levels, including my professional level. I grew up in a house where my dad ruled with an iron fist, one in which drug users and hippies were scumbags, and drug use of any kind was considered a horrible crime that not only dishonored you but your family. On the other hand my family had a strong bond with Native American cultures, ones in which peyote use was accepted, spiritual quests were taken upon with the help of mind altering drugs, and people lived free without government intrusion. I've had family members addicted to drugs and alcohol, some of which whose lives were ruined. Add those dynamics to my current profession and I am conflicted. I don't think my upbringing and thoughts are much different than most when it comes to this touchy subject. It is tough.
precisely! Law enforcement knows when they encounter said prohibited items, they are CONTRABAND and therefore subject to seizure and the possessor(s) arrested. When you have two classifications of the same item, one being contraband and the other legal, and no feasible way to tell the difference between the two, how the heck do you portend the government effectively regulates said item? Your theory would hold true if the government were to tax at such a low rate as to remain competitive with the black market. However, as I noted in #148, that is already proven to not be the case with marijuana. What the market has proven "time and time again" is that if the price on an item in the legitimate market becomes prohibitive and there is a cheaper alternative on the black market, said demand will shift to the black market. All the government resources currently allocated to the identification and seizure of the (currently contraband) item will only be shifted to the collection of revenue from the (newly legalized) item, and need increased budgets in order to effectively identify/separate the "approved" good from the black market good.
Your article lumps illegal drug use and abuse in with legit medication errors/adverse events. Of course the numbers seem huge. LOL Smokers, Obesity, Non-exercisers, drinkers, fast food eaters, etc are ALL drains on society and our healthcare system. We all do some of it to some degree and no one is perfect. It just cracks me up to see a 300 lb man with high cholesterol, hypertension, and bordering on the edge of Type 2 Diabetes complain about how smokers or drug users are costing us a fortune. (Example not from here, working in healthcare.... you are exposed to these types dozens of times daily).
The reason the chasm exists is because the limited legality of it. If marijuana was fully legalized across the board, and taxed reasonably like tobacco or alcohol (Not $1600/lb as someone pointed out) it will go the way of cigarettes. Do people really find a huge black market for tobacco still?
