Instead of trying to make the other guy look bad in this war on drugs, lets all come together and figure out something that might help, Lock em up and throw away the key ain't working. I used to think I had all the answers, but, I don't have any. I have been personally touched by this problem and I would listen to anything that would help. Please give suggestions.
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Narcotics are actually very inexpensive, the high cost is from them being on the black market .
That means that once someone is hooked, they have to do whatever is necessary to pay the high price of street drugs, be it prostitution , or holding up a liquor store or whatever.
I think we should put the drugs in the drugstores, (drugs, drugstores- kinda seems to go together), and quit monitoring how many scripts a doctor can write for those things.
So, an addict can go to a dr, get a script for enough of whatever his dope of choice is to be able to function , and go to a drug store and get his drugs at a reasonable rate. Most addicts can function pretty well, and even earn a living if they just didn't have to spend it all building some pusher a Mr T jewelry set.
So, that could turn a lot of addicts into productive citizens, and stop a lot of street crime in one blow. Sounds like a win-win to me.
(BTW, I didn't just dream this up, some European countries have already tried this and that is the result).
Marijuana should just plane be d-criminalized out and out. Quit locking some poor head up because he got caught mellowing out on some good weed.
It cost over $45,000 a year to keep somebody locked up in the pen. Seems there are a lot of things that money could be better used for than locking up people for using.
Now, the first thing some people are going to say is "no - "they" will abuse it " . Well, there probably would be some abuse, and some people are going to overdose legal or not, but like you said, Nixon's war on drugs has never worked, so try going the other way.