Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Good Drugs, Bad Drugs
You know I've had my share. Pardon to Led Zeppelin(Good Times, Bad Times). What is a good drug and what is a bad drug? Who's to say? Do you think you are able to decide between a good drug and a bad drug? Do you think your doctor can decide that? Do you think the Federal Government should be deciding which drugs are classified good and which drugs are classified bad? Do you even think there is such a thing as a good drug or a bad drug? I've got a thousand-million questions about this.
I've got one thing to say about good and bad drugs; it's is all relative. When you hear the word drug, what immediately comes to your mind? Do you think of simple, everyday drugs, such as aspirin or tylenol or do you leap to the hideous, vile illegal drugs like marijuana or cocaine? Does the word drug conjure up some evil thoughts about wicked dealers having a shootout in the streets? Or do you associate the word with arthritis relief or back pain or maybe just a simple, good night's sleep?
See what I mean? It's all relative. There are times when a drug is the best thing in a person's life. Anytime you have pain, really unbearable pain, you would do anything to end that pain. Enter drugs. A drug is not good or bad in and of itself. It is only good or bad relative to its' use. And when you need a drug to ease the pain or promote good cholesterol or help you out in any way, then that drug is a good drug. We each can decide that for ourselves with a little knowledge.
Why do we then allow, in fact, pressure, our government to draw the line between good and bad drugs? Why do we think that a group of politicians has any more knowledge about drugs than any of the rest of us? They don't. We have simply become lazy and would prefer to let our government take care of us and use their best judgment to make the choices that we don't feel like making.
Much of the argument against the use of what are classified as illegal drugs stems from moral issues. You can't make a blanket statement that all drugs are good or bad. As I've said before, that is relative. A drug is a drug is a drug. But a moral argument against the use of drugs is not an argument that our government can justly be involved in. Morals are not legislated. We do not get our morals from our government. We each develop them in our own unique ways.
Drugs do serve a purpose. All drugs serve a purpose. Just watch the TV advertising and see how many purposes we have found for drugs in our society. It is a massive industry and drugs help many people live and do things they would not otherwise have been able to experience. We discover or invent new drugs everyday.
So the seemingly arbitrary classification of certain drugs as bad for people and bad for society does not make any real sense. Well, there could be some sense in it if we look at the effects of classifying a popular drug as illegal. Take marijuana, for instance. Take some and pass it around, please. This is a plant that grows wild all over the world. No one needs to put it through any kind of process before it is used. It comes out of the ground and goes into our lungs without having additives or any kind of special process to go through before it is used. Just burn it.
But it is a bad drug. Why? There was a time when marijuana was legal. In the 1930s there was a campaign led by the rope and fabric industry to paint marijuana as an evil, wicked, horrible drug that would lead to phychoses and drive people insane with just a few puffs from a cigarette. It worked. People in this country in the 1930s were in a bad state of mind. Depression was in full force and work was scarce and people were begging for the government to bail us out of the bad economy.
Well, anything that could cause teenagers to go insane should be banned. We need to protect our children. I think that argument started back then. Because of the children. So without consideration for the people in this country who can think for themselves, marijuana was made illegal. Most of the other currently illegal drugs followed shortly afterwards and eventually our government got into a full-scale war on drugs that costs our economy a fortune.
People associate crime, robbery, burglary, muggings, street shootouts with illegal drugs. This is a natural fact but only because of their illegality in the first place. Think like this, why do people get into the business of transporting, growing or selling illegal drugs? Profits! Huge, huge profits! Unbelievable profits! Profits so large that make the lure of breaking the law irresistable. Why are the profits so high in drugs deals? Because they are illegal. Simple solution, make them legal and there will be no inflated profits anymore. Let the free-market economy regulate the cost of drugs and there are no more huge profits to be made. The drug trade will dry up and be left to the real entrepreneurs who can run a business efficiently and turn a profit legally. Supply and demand is a natural law that always brings things to a stasis. Why don't we let it work with drugs?
Do we really want to continue a police state that punishes a person for using a a drug that does no one but himself any possible harm? Do we want to put a person in jail because he tried to feel good in his own home? Just because the way he was trying to feel good was with a drug that our government has determined is bad? Don't we have better things to do with our police? With our time? If someone harms someone else while using a drug, punish him for harming the person. But not for taking a drug.
Everyone still deserves the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness as long as their pursuit does not infringe upon the life, liberty or property of someone else. Drugs are not good or bad. Drugs are good and bad. you decide. But keep an eye out over your shoulder for Big Brother. We have brought him to life and let him take on a presence all his own. He scares me. I like my brothers to be honest and straightforward and intelligent and reasonable, like my real-life brother.
OH
I've got one thing to say about good and bad drugs; it's is all relative. When you hear the word drug, what immediately comes to your mind? Do you think of simple, everyday drugs, such as aspirin or tylenol or do you leap to the hideous, vile illegal drugs like marijuana or cocaine? Does the word drug conjure up some evil thoughts about wicked dealers having a shootout in the streets? Or do you associate the word with arthritis relief or back pain or maybe just a simple, good night's sleep?
See what I mean? It's all relative. There are times when a drug is the best thing in a person's life. Anytime you have pain, really unbearable pain, you would do anything to end that pain. Enter drugs. A drug is not good or bad in and of itself. It is only good or bad relative to its' use. And when you need a drug to ease the pain or promote good cholesterol or help you out in any way, then that drug is a good drug. We each can decide that for ourselves with a little knowledge.
Why do we then allow, in fact, pressure, our government to draw the line between good and bad drugs? Why do we think that a group of politicians has any more knowledge about drugs than any of the rest of us? They don't. We have simply become lazy and would prefer to let our government take care of us and use their best judgment to make the choices that we don't feel like making.
Much of the argument against the use of what are classified as illegal drugs stems from moral issues. You can't make a blanket statement that all drugs are good or bad. As I've said before, that is relative. A drug is a drug is a drug. But a moral argument against the use of drugs is not an argument that our government can justly be involved in. Morals are not legislated. We do not get our morals from our government. We each develop them in our own unique ways.
Drugs do serve a purpose. All drugs serve a purpose. Just watch the TV advertising and see how many purposes we have found for drugs in our society. It is a massive industry and drugs help many people live and do things they would not otherwise have been able to experience. We discover or invent new drugs everyday.
So the seemingly arbitrary classification of certain drugs as bad for people and bad for society does not make any real sense. Well, there could be some sense in it if we look at the effects of classifying a popular drug as illegal. Take marijuana, for instance. Take some and pass it around, please. This is a plant that grows wild all over the world. No one needs to put it through any kind of process before it is used. It comes out of the ground and goes into our lungs without having additives or any kind of special process to go through before it is used. Just burn it.
But it is a bad drug. Why? There was a time when marijuana was legal. In the 1930s there was a campaign led by the rope and fabric industry to paint marijuana as an evil, wicked, horrible drug that would lead to phychoses and drive people insane with just a few puffs from a cigarette. It worked. People in this country in the 1930s were in a bad state of mind. Depression was in full force and work was scarce and people were begging for the government to bail us out of the bad economy.
Well, anything that could cause teenagers to go insane should be banned. We need to protect our children. I think that argument started back then. Because of the children. So without consideration for the people in this country who can think for themselves, marijuana was made illegal. Most of the other currently illegal drugs followed shortly afterwards and eventually our government got into a full-scale war on drugs that costs our economy a fortune.
People associate crime, robbery, burglary, muggings, street shootouts with illegal drugs. This is a natural fact but only because of their illegality in the first place. Think like this, why do people get into the business of transporting, growing or selling illegal drugs? Profits! Huge, huge profits! Unbelievable profits! Profits so large that make the lure of breaking the law irresistable. Why are the profits so high in drugs deals? Because they are illegal. Simple solution, make them legal and there will be no inflated profits anymore. Let the free-market economy regulate the cost of drugs and there are no more huge profits to be made. The drug trade will dry up and be left to the real entrepreneurs who can run a business efficiently and turn a profit legally. Supply and demand is a natural law that always brings things to a stasis. Why don't we let it work with drugs?
Do we really want to continue a police state that punishes a person for using a a drug that does no one but himself any possible harm? Do we want to put a person in jail because he tried to feel good in his own home? Just because the way he was trying to feel good was with a drug that our government has determined is bad? Don't we have better things to do with our police? With our time? If someone harms someone else while using a drug, punish him for harming the person. But not for taking a drug.
Everyone still deserves the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness as long as their pursuit does not infringe upon the life, liberty or property of someone else. Drugs are not good or bad. Drugs are good and bad. you decide. But keep an eye out over your shoulder for Big Brother. We have brought him to life and let him take on a presence all his own. He scares me. I like my brothers to be honest and straightforward and intelligent and reasonable, like my real-life brother.
OH
# posted by OH @ 7:04 AM 
