Let's talk about drugs.

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My best friend believes that marijuana is worse than tobacco and alcohol. I however have heard from some sources that Marijuana is actually less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol.

“If the principle is, "Let's not get lethal substances out to the public", the first one you'd go after is tobacco. The next one you'd go after is alcohol. Way down the list you'd get to cocaine, and sort of invisibly low you'd get to marijuana.”
-Noam Chomsky

“Very commonly substances are criminalized because they're associated with what's called the dangerous classes, you know, poor people, or working people.… Actually, the peak of marijuana use was as I said, in the seventies, but that was rich kids, so you don't throw them in jail. And then it got seriously criminalized, you know, you really throw people in jail for it, when it was poor people.”
-Noam Chomsky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whaGST64Bo4

I don’t believe marijuana should be illegal but I don’t know what to think about other drugs like cocaine, LSD ect.
This thread is about how dangerous different drugs are and whether or not they should be banned.

I'm not really sure about heroin or crystal meth since they seem very harmful to the vast majority of people using them, but I'm in favor of the legalisation of marihuana, psychedelics like LSD or DMT, empathogens like MDMA or mephedrone, amphetamines, cocaine, etc. Most of not all of these substances are far less dangerous than alcohol, far less addictive than tobacco and have quite a lot of therapeutic potential for people with post-traumatic stress syndrome, psychosis, scizophrenia, cluster head aches, Asperger's syndrome or other conditions. Also, unlike alcohol most of these substances decrease aggression and frustration and create a sense of inner harmony that sometimes lasts beyond the actual duration of the substance, especially in the case of psychedelics.

Tobacco and alcohol are recreational drugs with proven dangers. All while the worst we have about Marijuana is recorded lesser performance in school and paranoia in a small population of people that abuse it. Extreme use of alcohol has actually much worse results like those.


A common excuse to make Marijuana illegal is that it is a gateway drug, but seriously, so are alcohol and tobacco...

The reason the government is so happy making them legal while Marijuana is not is that pot is horribly cheap to produce in comparison to Tobacco and alcohol. Imagine that, poor people being able to get high easily and without paying the amount of money spent in alcohol, and without serious sides effects like alcohol. Suddenly, it would be harder to make them work or sell them consumer debt.

I'm with the first two commenters. For me, MDMA helps me socialise, reduces my fidgeting and related issues, and on a more amusing note, because it's related to sudafed I once had a cold for two whole days without noticing. It certainly doesn't hurt either yourself or the people around you.

I had ketamine once - had the best dreams of my life. Did basically nothing but sit in a corner happily lost in my own world though.

I have a friend who is basically constantly stoned - and she's a productive member of society who does well in her job.

There's really nothing wrong with the majority of illegal drugs - it's alcohol and tobacco you really have to watch out for.

All unhealthy, unhelpful, dangerous drugs should be illegal.

Not everyone who smokes cigarettes get cancer and not everyone who smokes cannabis looses their mind. The link between both is enough to cause serious concern.

The same with alcohol. I am sure that you are a fan of beer, whiskey, and wine being banned, right?

Do you just want to attack everything I write about now?

I also substantively disagree with you on the legal issue.

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The most dangerous drugs in the USA (2011) are likely prescription medicines of all kinds (like what killed Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and caused Rush Limbaugh to lose his hearing). Prescription medicines are the productlines for doctors and pharmacists. The dangers of prescription medicines are often hidden behind the term: side-effects. Today, 2011, mirrors vast improvements in listing possible side-effects of prescription medicines vs years ago when the known side-effects, for economic/sales production targets/political reasons (such as greed), were simply not disclosed. Alcohol is more of a danger - drunk driving due to alcohol resulting in the deaths of many innocent people - than tobacco - takes years to develop lung cancer and die from it: Walt Disney, Edward R. Murrow, Yul Brenner, Peter Jennings, etc. Bottomline, the USA health care system under Bush, Jr./Obama doesn't care 100% about health since they allow grocery stores to sell alcohol and tobacco products. The USA government says one thing - alcohol - tobacco - are bad and does another: allows liquor stores and cigar stores to sell them. There is the possibility that Barack Obama (USA president - year 2011) may someday die from cancer from smoking. Again, the USA government doesn't really care and their approach today is to provide disclosures of the dangers of alcohol and tobacco and allow citizens to make free choices. That may not be an ideal approach but it is viewed as being practical. If alcohol and tobacco were completely banned, they would still exist on the black market. The 18th Amendment to the USA Constitution (alcohol - prohibition) was repealed by the 21 Amendment to the USA Constitution because alcohol - prohibition was not enforceable.

Last edited by pgd on 20 Jan 2011, 12:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.

You legalize drugs then the prices go down, jail populations go down, businesses go up, crime goes down, legitimate tax revenue goes up, law enforcement spending goes down, regulation on the substances goes up (which means that purity/safety goes up).

I don't see a problem with legalizing everything other than the problems of addiction which would most likely stay at the same numbers they're at now (maybe an increase at the initial point of legalization)...just it wouldn't be illegal and so the people would have more opportunity to get help and feel less obliged to hide and excommunicate themselves from society.

I don't see any downside to legalization other than the downsides that already exist with it being illegal.


Also, marijuana is much safer than cigarettes and safer than alcohol and you have less problems the next day after a night partying with MJ than you do partying with alcohol.

The only downside would be you wouldn't have those hundred thousand/million dollar drug busts...but then again, you'd save millions/billions on law enforcement and jailing and still see revenue come in via taxation and regulation (because if regulation is broken, there are fines/fees) and most likely it'd cost money to get permission to get into such a business (both growing and selling). So...yeah...the only downside is more of an upside.

Marijuana is definitely a very light substance. I've never seen anybody get irrational and start a fight while high, whereas with alcohol I used to see this on an almost daily basis during my days as a bus boy. I've read that nicotine can have some long-term benefits against Alzheimer's. That's about the end of benefits I've ever heard of . In my opinion, the only problem with marijuana and tobacco is the fact that most people smoke it. There are better ways of getting the substance that don't involve combustion and breathing in carbon monoxide. Strangely enough the cumulative damage of smoke is actually radiation based. I read somewhere that smokers are exposed to more radiation per year then nuclear power plant workers over a lifetime. I don't know how accurate this statistic is but it is pretty obvious that smoke is not good for you. Vaporize, bake it into food, liquefy it- all of these methods take the cancer risk away considerably.

With cigarettes, the thing is more the act of smoking rather than the substance. At least, for me that's the case. The substance only is the case with when I have nicotine withdrawals and get very flighty/touchy...which would be more reason to smoke something that doesn't do all that. I enjoy the act of smoking...it's an oral fixation thing and a pacing thing.

And I've seen the same thing about radiation from tobacco vs nuclear power plant.

I was a smoker for a long time myself. I guess it is an oral fixation to some people. And I definitely enjoyed the feeling of smoke in my lungs. When I quit it helped me to think of it as an antiquated way of consuming the substance; for more then a year I chewed Nicorette gum until eventually I stopped. Sometimes I wonder what ever made people think wrapping up dried plant material and lighting it up was a good idea. What were they smoking, and where can I get some?? Oh, wait..

Not everyone who drinks does so to get drunk (there are actually laws, which I support, to restrict dunkenness), however everyone who illegally smokes cannabis does so to get stupefied.