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Title: All Drugs Should Be Legalized Immediately, Says Harvard Prof
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URL Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/all- ... tely-says-harvard-prof-2010-10
Published: Oct 6, 2010
Author: Henry Blodget
Post Date: 2010-10-06 15:28:23 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 1750
Comments: 9
California residents will vote in November on whether or not to legalize marijuana. If they vote "yes," says Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron in the interview below, that should only be the beginning. All drugs should be legalized nationwide, Miron says. Pot, cocaine, LSD, crystal-meth --- you name it. "Legalizing drugs would save roughly $41.3 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. Of these savings, $25.7 billion would accrue to state and local governments, while $15.6 billion would accrue to the federal government," Miron claims in a recent Cato Institute report he co-authored. According to their website, "The report also estimates that drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $46.7 billion annually, assuming legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Approximately $8.7 billion of this revenue would result from legalization of marijuana and $38.0 billion from legalization of other drugs." But won't we become a nation of drug addicts? No, says Miron. Walk down any city street and you can already buy legal drugs in multiple establishments: Caffeine at Starbucks, nicotine at the supermarket, alcohol at bars and restaurants. And we're not ALL addicted to all of these drugs. Our current drug policy doesn't work, Miron observes. Despite ~$40 billion spent on enforcement and prosecution, drug use is still widespread. Meanwhile, because the products are illegal, they're dangerous, low-quality, and unregulated, and they generate zero tax revenue. Legalizing drugs would solve those problems, Miron says. It would help close the budget deficit. And it would eliminate a bizarre double standard, in which Americans are encouraged to drink and smoke themselves to death -- while guzzling addictive coffee and tea -- but become criminals if they dare to get stoned. By the way, here are 10 ways to invest in the drug-legalization trend > Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/all-drugs-should-be-legalized-immediately-says-harvard-prof-2010-10#ixzz11bn72Wky
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
Portugal. 5 Years After: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results Street drug–related deaths from overdoses drop and the rate of HIV cases crashes By Brian Vastag Tuesday, April 7, 2009 87 DRUG PLAN: Portugal decriminalized the use and possession of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other illicit street drugs in an attempt to cut down on related deaths and infections. In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections. Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank. "Now instead of being put into prison, addicts are going to treatment centers and they're learning how to control their drug usage or getting off drugs entirely," report author Glenn Greenwald, a former New York State constitutional litigator, said during a press briefing at Cato last week. Under the Portuguese plan, penalties for people caught dealing and trafficking drugs are unchanged; dealers are still jailed and subjected to fines depending on the crime. But people caught using or possessing small amounts—defined as the amount needed for 10 days of personal use—are brought before what's known as a "Dissuasion Commission," an administrative body created by the 2001 law. Each three-person commission includes at least one lawyer or judge and one health care or social services worker. The panel has the option of recommending treatment, a small fine, or no sanction. Peter Reuter, a criminologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, says he's skeptical decriminalization was the sole reason drug use slid in Portugal, noting that another factor, especially among teens, was a global decline in marijuana use. By the same token, he notes that critics were wrong in their warnings that decriminalizing drugs would make Lisbon a drug mecca. "Drug decriminalization did reach its primary goal in Portugal," of reducing the health consequences of drug use, he says, "and did not lead to Lisbon becoming a drug tourist destination." Walter Kemp, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, says decriminalization in Portugal "appears to be working." He adds that his office is putting more emphasis on improving health outcomes, such as reducing needle-borne infections, but that it does not explicitly support decriminalization, "because it smacks of legalization." Drug legalization removes all criminal penalties for producing, selling and using drugs; no country has tried it. In contrast, decriminalization, as practiced in Portugal, eliminates jail time for drug users but maintains criminal penalties for dealers. Spain and Italy have also decriminalized personal use of drugs and Mexico's president has proposed doing the same. . A spokesperson for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy declined to comment, citing the pending Senate confirmation of the office's new director, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs also declined to comment on the report. Source URL: www.scientificamerican.co...cle.cfm?id=portugal-drug- decriminalization
Woops, sorry about that post !! We can't legalize it, because the thugs in blue uniforms would riot in the streets and they would have nothing to do, no one to harass, bully, beat on, steal from, shoot, kill, murder and put in cages....the horror.
Not me. I'm as clean as the white sheep's wool after a soft, gentle rain without a scrubbrush or woolite applied.
"we ought to lay off the criticism" -- Pinguinite, circa 2010-05-26 22:17:22 ET
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
except for 1 problem. some pharmaceutical drugs at least are very harmful to the environment. Pharmaceutical drugs normally pass right through people and get into the water supply. They've been measured in the Mississippi River and in many fresh water bodies. They cause the fish to be unable to reproduce over time. The habits we have of using pharmaceutical drugs actually will destroy the earth in the long run.
Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Sounds like a certain Harvard Prof is having trouble finding a quarter of decent weed.
Legalize after after a school curriculum is adopted and put into practice to thoroughly explain all possible consequences of using these and other drugs and the need to adopt a lifestyle that minimizes the need for any drug. Also needs to be research to determine how some people avoid the need for medications, most of which have undesirable side effects.
I don't take any medications at all. Not even aspirin. If someone wants to kill themselves they are going to do it despite the laws on the books. Legalizing all drugs won't stop people from over dosing, but it will allow them to get help for their addiction without being thrown into jail.
God is always good!
That's fine now but wait until you're 70+ and you'll most likely be helping this major sector of the economy with purchases of Flow-max unless you put up with a catheter.
#2. To: Ada (#0)
#3. To: Ada (#0)
Walk down any city street and you can already buy legal drugs in multiple establishments: Caffeine at Starbucks, nicotine at the supermarket, alcohol at bars and restaurants. And we're not ALL addicted to all of these drugs.
#4. To: Lysander_Spooner (#2)
#5. To: Ada (#0)
#6. To: Ada (#0)
All Drugs Should Be Legalized Immediately, Says Harvard Prof
#7. To: Ada (#0)
#8. To: Tatarewicz (#7)
#9. To: RickyJ (#8)
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