[ytNumbers]

> Drugs really aren't as dangerous as you've been told.

I guess no one here watches the TV show "Intervention". Pity. That TV show is a better education on the real impact of hardcore drugs than any book you might read. This Colorado vote is a relatively minor issue, really. But, it does indicate that we're heading down a slippery slope. Since those running the meth clinics say that only one person in 50 can stay clean for a year, there might come a day when half of society are hardcore drug addicts. But, we will never face that kind of zombie apocalypse because the life expectancy for a meth addict is only seven years from the moment they get hooked. Let the down-voting commence!

[Nursie]

Yeah, that's right kids, a tv reality show gives you a better view of what's happening than anything those stoopid scientists might have to say.

/facepalm

[Symmetry]

Drug abuse is a serious problem, but it's not limited to those drugs that are illegal. Meth is one of the very few drugs in widespread use that are actually more destructive than alcohol. By contrast, pot abuse can screw up your life but it's still far, far less dangerous to the person and to society at large than alcohol abuse. I'd like to think that marijuana legalization would end up putting us on the slippery slope towards legalizing or banning drugs based on how dangerous they actually are.

[Nursie]

I'd also like to know how you think prohibition is helping these people.

[Scramblejams]

The connection you're looking for is probably that generally where prohibition has been lifted, consumption has increased.

[Nursie]

Like in Portugal?

Where decriminalisation has been a harm-reducing success?

[Scramblejams]

Turn it down a notch.

[base698]

Anecdotal really. The questions that have to be asked are how many casual users become addicts 1 in 10? 1 in 100? Of those addicts how many have life ruining consequences? Is there a way to be functional?

If you start from the worst, something like: "OMG every time you walk in a room with an illegal drug you'll be turning tricks on the street inside of a week", then yeah it seems pretty awful. But if only a minority of people have a problem and accept the risk of being an addict who's to stop them? Being an adult means responsibility.

[darkarmani]

> But, it does indicate that we're heading down a slippery slope.

Where is your evidence to support this? Do you have access to polling that indicates people are really to support legalizing hard drugs?

[Daniel_Newby]

> ... the life expectancy for a meth addict is only seven years from the moment they get hooked.

Due to sleep deprivation, because methamphetamine has a very long half-life in the human body. The government noticed that people were enjoying short-acting stimulants with only moderate harm, so it restricted everything but methamphetamine to increase the harm to punish sin. The meth "epidemic" is a planned social cleansing program. (The government is very much not doing this by accident. They know they won the Battle of Britain because our boys used Dexedrine and could get their eight (hours of sleep) after each mission. The Germans used methamphetamine to the extent they used anything, and we know how that turned out.)

This is a repeat of the mass murder and maiming campaign conducted during alcohol Prohibition. Then the government quietly added methanol to industrial ethanol. Methanol was chosen because it selectively damages certain nerves, leaving drinkers blind, gruesomely brain damaged, or dead if they were lucky. Thousands of Americans had their health destroyed and the central planners considered it a great success.

[drivebyacct2]

> Since those running the meth clinics say that only one person in 50 can stay clean for a year, there might come a day when half of society are hardcore drug addicts

It would take me 10 minutes to get a bag of meth, yet I'm not addicted to meth. I have smoked weed every day for 3 years while maintaining a high GPA, getting three internships and a full time job.

Intervention is hardly much more "real" than any other reality TV, though I do enjoy watching it.

And I don't know what to tell you if you think prohibition is keeping half the populace off meth. As far as I'm concerned, that can go in the pile with "atheists must be evil since they don't fear God".

If you can't stay away from meth without prohibition, you're not going to stay away from meth with prohibition. If you can't behave properly without a scary Bible, you probably won't behave all that well with it either.