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Topic: Viewpoints - Should illegal drugs be decriminalized?

Topic Posted by: Close To Home
Date Posted: Wed Mar 18 15:22:22 1998

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Posted by: Steve
Date posted: Wed Apr 1 9:55:27 1998
Subject: What are the choices?
Message:
I think people who support drug prohibition tend to make
a couple of erroneous assumptions:

1. That prohibition is actually keeping people from using
   drugs;
2. The only alternative is unbridled hedonism.

Both assumptions are questionable at best. I've seen
studies suggesting that kids can buy marijuana more easily
than alcohol, and I have no doubt that if I wanted to buy
any drug I could find the drug I wanted with little effort.
So what, exactly, is drug prohibition prohibiting?  

Also, there is a whole spectrum of alternatives to total
prohibition.  Decriminalization (which I take to mean
treating drug offences similarly to parking violations,
for instance) is one; regulated sale (similar to alcohol)
is another.   Some kind of controlled distribution of
drugs to addicts (the Swiss model) is another.


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