Comments Posted By Lenny Zimmermann
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Chris stated: "I started using marijuana, now reliably known to be a gateway drug, just as critics have been contending for years."
I would contend that it is not reliably known to be a gateway drug. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00280.x;jsessionid=opclFahk62oaWQPkqx?cookieSet=1&journalCode=add
Shows a paper concluding "our results demonstrate that the phenomena used to motivate belief in such an effect are consistent with an alternative simple, plausible common-factor model. No gateway effect is required to explain them."
http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/94/5/836
"Results. With the exception of higher drug use in San Francisco, we found strong similarities across both cities. We found no evidence to support claims that criminalization reduces use or that decriminalization increases use.Conclusions. Drug policies may have less impact on cannabis use than is currently thought."
And see for more:
http://www.drugscience.org/sfu/sfu_gateway.htmWhile I agree that drug ABUSE is something that we, as a individual members of our society, should provide education and rehabilitative support for, I would argue taht having the government directly involved in the matter is of no use, and may, in fact, be more harmful to the cause.
Private and charitable organizations tend to be far more capable and successful at treating drug abuse than the government ever has been with prohibition laws.
I appreciate and greatly sympathize with your position, Chris, but you seem, to me, to be an example of why government involvement in prohibition is a failure. You were still pulled to the allure of drugs and fell to the consquences of drug abuse and addiction despite the government's ban on the very substances you became addicted to. It is those factors of abuse and addiction that we need to address in order to facilitate helping our fellow human beings, not making the drugs illegal since that has never proven to be useful.
Comment Posted By Lenny Zimmermann On 19.08.2005 @ 14:34
Just a little light reading that may enlighten some of the "statistics" constantly thrown about in the "War on" mindset where it concerns pretty much any of the "consensual crimes".
http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/toc.htm
Definitely worth a read and nicely covers the arguments, I think.
Comment Posted By Lenny Zimmermann On 12.08.2005 @ 08:24
