"War on Drugs"

Quote from Maverick74:

No EL, you are putting words in my mouth. I am not making a legalization argument for or against any drug. Hell, if it were up to me, I say legalize all drugs hard and soft. Who are you to say what drugs should or should not be legal?

What I am saying is that people who abuse drugs should be on their own as far as health insurance goes. Very simple. I don't understand all the confusion here. And btw, I think the same goes for tobacco smokers, heavy drinkers and obese people. My argument really has nothing to do with drugs specifically, but rather people who choose to live unhealthy lifestyles. This country is becoming so socialistic. We tax the rich to help the poor, and we tax the healthy to pay for the unhealthy.

Do you have any any idea what it cost for a healthy male in this country to get basic coverage with a $1000 deductible. And by healthy I mean, works out 5 days a week in the gym, 10% bodyfat or less, no cholesterol problems, no blood pressure problems, no family history of medical problems. It's a joke. Something like $250 a month on the low end. And do you know why? Because I have to pay for all the people in this country who choose not to take care of their body. So instead of charging them what they really should be charging them, they charge me more.

I had no idea I was living in France! F*ck man, at least in France I get a 35 hour work week, 4 months of vacation a year and free healthcare. We basically have socialized medicine in this country except without all the benefits. And we let the heathy people pay for it. Figures huh.

Look, if we are going to have full blown socialism in this country, let's at least be honest about it and make it public so those of us that don't want to live here can move to a different country. Let's stop pretending.

$173.00/month blue cross blue shield....
 
Quote from HELL YEAH:

questions to anyone who can answer:

if you eat weed, is the high as good as smoking it? do you need the same amount? basically, what are the differences if you eat it? i say this because i am generally not someone who likes to smoke (lung damage).

thanks

Eating weed just causes it to take a bit longer to kick in. The amount you'd need is similar, although you'd probably need a bit more than if you were smoking.

Look up the term 'space cakes'...
 
Quote from aphexcoil:

Hey hey hey! Calm down. Maverick has a point. I know plenty of people who smoke in moderation. In fact, I don't smoke, but if I go out drinking, I might have one or two cigarettes. This doesn't cause me to go out and buy a pack and start a habit, though.

When it comes to weed, I can't think of one person in my life who hasn't tried it at least once. I know plenty of people who do it somewhat regularly, including people who are productive.

It really amazes me how our government can spend millions and millions of dollars on an anti-drug campaign targeting weed, yet they just let the tobacco industry have at it. Well, it doesn't amaze me because the all-mighty dollar is behind it.

Instead of paying $50 for an eighth, they could legalize it, sell it in a controlled fashion like they do cigarettes, and collect an amazing amount of taxes from it.

Have you seen some of the pathetic PSA (public service announcements) our government has done for weed? They made one commercial that portrayed weed as a date-rape drug where the woman can't say no because she's too high. Give me a break! If you want to go down *that* road, then surely alcohol has been used in that fashion much more effectively since the Greek civilization.

The war on drugs is bullshit. You have an act of government criminalizing a substance that naturally causes that substance's price to increase due to supply/demand. Since that substance now costs much more, it is harder to obtain and guess what -- crime increases! So now we have more crime!

The government is under the mistaken idea that by legalizing soft-drugs, that everyone is suddenly going to run out, get high and sit around all day eating cheesie-puffs while watching simpson re-runs. It doesn't quite work like that. cigarettes are legal, but does everyone smoke them? Alcohol is legal, but is everyone getting drunk all the time?

The biggest problem with the drug war is simply put like this -- the government doesn't trust you to make responsible decisions and therefore makes the decisions for you.

I don't think there is anything morally reprehensible when someone on a Friday night decides to smoke a bowl. In fact, if you're in the privacy of your own house and you aren't affecting anyone else's life, you should be able to pop any pill under the sun or smoke any kind of weed, plant, shroom your heart desires because it is *your* life.

There are a growing number of people who want weed legalized and it is not because they are pot-heads. Simply, it is because the more intelligent people realize that the amount of money we piss away in our current system chasing users is a complete waste.

I don't have any cold hard facts and I hate to make numbers up, but I easily bet that over 10% of our prison population could be released right now without any severe consequence to our society because they were simply non-violent offenders that got caught up in a bullshit war to help make our streets safer from people high on weed in search of cheesie-puffs.

Great post Aphie. I can usually count on you for clear, logical posts. Believe it or not, the statistic is not 10% of our prison population, but <b>over 50% of American prisoners are non-violent drug offenders. </b> aka political prisoners.
 
Quote from HELL YEAH:

questions to anyone who can answer:

if you eat weed, is the high as good as smoking it? do you need the same amount? basically, what are the differences if you eat it? i say this because i am generally not someone who likes to smoke (lung damage).

thanks


Let me say this...if you aren't a weed smoker and you eat some brownies or "puna butter" on toast you will be knocked on your ass. Ingesting Cannabis is likened to smoking very good hashish (polm shaken or pressed from cannabis leaves/buds to make oil or bricks). To answer your question you need to eat very little to get high. It wil take longer to kick in but will last for hooourrrrsssssssss....s..........s...................s. :cool:

1 stick of butter.
1/4 of bud or alot or leaf.
place both in a double boiler and let it boil but not burn for a good half hour (the only way to transfer THC to the butter or oil product is via cooking. you cannot just ingest weed and get high you need to extract the THC).
Now simply use the butter in any recipe and enjoy.
 
Quote from ElCubano:

$173.00/month blue cross blue shield....

That's outrageous EL and you know it. You know what that policy should be. About $50 a month. Do the math. You think I should pay $2100 a year so I can get a free physical and I still have to cough up the first $1000 deductible? Come on man, this is fraud. I can get a catastrophic insurance policy for $35 to $50 a month that gives me a $10,000 deductible.

So let's see here, let's take the annual premium and let's say I use up the whole deductible every year OK? That's $3100 a year right? Now take 10,000/3100 and we get about 3 freaking years, that's it. It takes me three years give or take a few months to breakeven on a catastrophic policy vs a regular policy. Now what if I go 20 or 30 years without any health problems? How much does that cost me? Well, let's take 20 years. The difference between 2100-420 (the cost of 12 x 35) =1680 x 20 years=$33,600 in overpayments. This is fraud of the worst kind. Can you explain to me why I would ever pay $173 a month vs catastrophic?
 
Quote from Maverick74:

And you still haven't answered my question on the first page. LOL. I had no idea when I first asked it that it would be so controversial. It was a simple question. Oh and btw, would I be willing to give up my healthcare rights to do whatever drugs I wanted without the gov't interfering in my life? The answer is Yes. You keep acting as if I'm on some kind of crusade against drug users or something and I'm not, I just don't want to pay higher taxes and higher healthcare costs. Is this so hard for you to understand? I believe in personal freedoms in this country but not at the expense of the US taxpayer. This is why I do not support universal healthcare, free education, and gov't sponsored abortions. You know this yet you continue to act as if you don't know I'm a diehard anti-tax conservative. Smoke all the joints you want, just don't pass the buck to me. Got it? Good.

Good trading.


WTF are you talking about.

Why the hell would any healthcare costs even matter in drug decriminilization? If anything, drug related emergency visits and problems would go down due to strongly decreased crime.

It is very simple. Look at the history of alcohol prohibition. Did drinking all of the sudden skyrocket after its repeal? No it stayed the same. People are gonna do whatever drugs they want. Most drugs are so easily accessible and are not regulated by their distributors. It's easier for a 16 year old to get a hard drug like X or coke vs getting cigarettes or alcohol. Drug dealers don't ask for proof of age. Drugs create a black market and a taboo image. Look at Holland, their Marijuana and hard drug usage is less than USA's.

Complete nonsense. Seriously man, stop trying to talk super intelligent because you are talking out of your ass. Do yourself a favor and watch the Penn & Teller episode on the War on Drugs. It is not at all biased, I mean Penn HATES all drugs.
 
Quote from Maverick74:


But I am curious as to how many of you would forego emergency room healthcare and also if universal healthcare ever became a reality, how many of you would choose to go without that as well for the privilege of lighting up.


What's the real connection?

What percentage of illegal drug use instances result in emergency room visits? .0005?

And by your standard (another example of your mindless sophistry) consumers of anything legal that can result in emergency room care should be denied care. Car wreck, sorry, take two bandaids, two aspirin. Heart attack, sorry, too much steak and ice cream, no care for you. In other words, if there is any health risk to any activity one undertakes, then you can't be offerred emergency room care. That covers simply existing.
 
Quote from Mecro:

WTF are you talking about.

Why the hell would any healthcare costs even matter in drug decriminalization? If anything, drug related emergency visits and problems would go down due to strongly decreased crime.

It is very simple. Look at the history of alcohol prohibition. Did drinking all of the sudden skyrocket after its repeal? No it stayed the same. People are gonna do whatever drugs they want. Most drugs are so easily accessible and are not regulated by their distributors. It's easier for a 16 year old to get a hard drug like X or coke vs getting cigarettes or alcohol. Drug dealers don't ask for proof of age. Drugs create a black market and a taboo image. Look at Holland, their Marijuana and hard drug usage is less than USA's.

Complete nonsense. Seriously man, stop trying to talk super intelligent because you are talking out of your ass. Do yourself a favor and watch the Penn & Teller episode on the War on Drugs. It is not at all biased, I mean Penn HATES all drugs.

Mecro, I am not even talking about drug decriminalization. I am talking about healthcare costs and the acceptance of drug users into free emergency room care and insurance policies. What this has to do with prohibition in the 1930's is beyond me.

The point I am making is if drugs were legal, not the act of decriminalizing drugs, but if they were legal, there would be a substantial increase in the treatment of abusers in emergency rooms and the there would an increased burden on insurance providers if they were forced to cover those charges. As of right now, they don't.

See, I think we are having different arguments here. I am not talking about the act of decriminalization. Rather I am talking about the consequences of decriminalization especially how it pertains to the insurance industry and emergency room care.

The act of decriminalization is a political debate. I'm not getting into that as I have said previously, I don't care one way or the other. What people do in their own homes is up to them as long as they don't get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence or expose drugs to their children then I am game. But if you think that legalization would not increase the burden on our healthcare system then I guess you would also argue that obesity doesn't increase the burden of our healthcare system either and that is flat out wrong.
 
Quote from Mecro:

Do yourself a favor and watch the Penn & Teller episode on the War on Drugs. It is not at all biased, I mean Penn HATES all drugs.
I watched that episode and thought it very well done.

HOWEVER, P & T mostly covered marijuana. All they had to say about the hard drugs were that they were cheap and their dangers could be better brought to the public's attention via more education.

I agree with P & T's assessment of marijuana, but heroin, crack, crystal meth, etc. are too dangerous to legalize IMHO. As far as I'm aware, even the Netherlands, Land of Legal Cannabis, has not legalized those substances.
 
Quote from dgabriel:

What's the real connection?

What percentage of illegal drug use instances result in emergency room visits? .0005?

And by your standard (another example of your mindless sophistry) consumers of anything legal that can result in emergency room care should be denied care. Car wreck, sorry, take two bandaids, two aspirin. Heart attack, sorry, too much steak and ice cream, no care for you. In other words, if there is any health risk to any activity one undertakes, then you can't be offered emergency room care. That covers simply existing.

I don't think you understand how out emergency care works in this country since you live in Europe. The emergency room in this country has basically become the resting palce for everyone in this country that does not have health insurance because by law, anyone that comes to an emergency room, cannot be turned away. So what we have is people who instead of paying to see a doctor because they have no money, they simply go to an emergency room, for anything.

Your back hurts, headache, broke a nail, you name it, they go to the emergency room. And no, the point is not about turning people away that engage in anything that is dangerous. When people choose to ruin their health, why should the american taxpayer have to foot the bill? He shouldn't, that's my point, it all comes down to personal responsibility, that's it.

As of right now, drug abusers seek very little treatment in hospitals for obvious reasons, if drugs were legal, all drugs, the social stigma would be removed and the hospitals would be flooded with drug users. Either from over doses or from symptoms of drug use.

Look, I don't want to keep arguing about this because not one person on here has stated that they would take personal responsilibty for their own health which is quite sad. They want all this freedom, but they don't want to pay for it.
 
Back
Top