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I'm not so sure. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that all drugs are legalised - what's the worst thing we could expect to happen?
 
More widespread use of hard drugs, greater cost to health services, more people on the roads driving under the influence. That said I'd be fine with cannabis being reclassified and regulated in a similar way to alcohol.
 
Ariana said:
Kids getting hooked long before they have the psychological and physiological maturity to handle them. Same as alcohol and cigarettes.
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Alcohol and cigarettes are already illegal for children here, and kids are getting hooked on both long before they have the psychological and physiological maturity to handle them. That being said, they're being hooked on illegal drugs too.

Brigantium said:
More widespread use of hard drugs, greater cost to health services, more people on the roads driving under the influence.
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Legalized drugs will generate increased tax revenue, which can be funneled into prevention or harm reduction programs to alleviate the cost on our health care systems. Our police forces can be given more tools to arrest and incarcerate those who drive under the influence.
 
To legalize or not to legalize cannabis is a pretty hot topic here at the moment ever since a cop got shot at the free city of Christania in Copenhagen earlier this summer. As some of you might know Christania is a collectively controlled village (established by old hippies and occupiers/squatters in the early 70s) where you have been able to buy weed in various stalls in what is known as "Pusher Street" for many, many years..with the government sorta accepting it for the most part...Christania is a big alternative city within the city of Copenhagen and a big tourist attraction, which may have something to say.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

Ever since the shooting of the cop there's been a lot of political debate about weed and to legalize it or not. Concentrating on fighting the gangs behind it and the benefits of keeping it local at a place like Christania or risk the gangs taking the market to other places of the city..
 
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LooseCannon said:
Alcohol and cigarettes are already illegal for children here, and kids are getting hooked on both long before they have the psychological and physiological maturity to handle them. That being said, they're being hooked on illegal drugs too.
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That's exactly what I'm saying. By reducing hard drugs to the same status that alcohol has, you are opening a hundred more doors for kids to lay their kid hands on them. And it's not the same if a kid stole a cigarette from his mum's packet and smoked it secretly, and if the same kid stole her dose of meth or crack. Alcohol and cigarettes are illegal for children here too, by the way.
 
What's the alcohol and cigarette laws in your countries? Here you need to be 18 to buy cigarettes, 18 to buy strong alcohol, 16 to buy milder alcohol like beer and wine that is not up to 16%. They're not that strictly enforced though I think...each supermarket or place that sells either alcohol and cigarettes need to ask the customer if they're in doubt about their age...So it's up to whoever is behind the counter to ask someone who to them doesn't look 18. So if you're a young looking 17 year old you're fucked but if you look older than you are, you can still buy most places I would think :p
 
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It's 18 for alcohol and cigarettes here, but the laws are not very strictly enforced, as you said.
 
18 for everything, although it only became strictly enforced in the last few years; I was buying beer (for guests and parents etc, not for me) when I was 12 or younger, although only in smaller shops near my building where I was a regular and they trusted me.
 
I'm all for legalising cannabis and taxing the shit out of it. I don't smoke either way, but we've proven it's not more harmful than alcohol or cigarettes. The same cannot be said of meth, heroine, cocaine, etc.
 
I live in CO so I'm a bit of an authority on this topic. :D

Ariana said:
Kids getting hooked long before they have the psychological and physiological maturity to handle them. Same as alcohol and cigarettes.
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This is an issue with marijuana here. Even though it's illegal for kids to use, it is pretty easy to get ahold of if you want it. The problem is lack of education on what these drugs do. A lot of kids think the only downside to 'soft' drugs are the addictive qualities and since weed doesn't have addictive chemicals that makes it ok. What they don't understand is that you can still get addicted to it and it negatively affects brain development.

Luckily we are starting to see more efforts on programs that educate kids on the downside of smoking weed. I would like to see more of that instead of just suspending/expelling kids who are caught, which was the solution when I was in high school.

Anyway, I'm for legalizing with heavy tax to be used on education facilities. I don't know about making hard drugs legal, but they should be decriminalized at least. I think one solution to the drug problem is bringing it out of the underground.
 
18 for cigarettes, 21 for alcohol here. You can buy cigarettes without much problem even if you're like 10, nobody really cares about being caught in the act. Alcohol is a bit more strict, shop owners usually look out for the cops. But it's no big deal if you're a bunch of youngsters looking for some alcohol, they'll hook you up.
 
19 for alcohol and cigarettes. Cigarettes are probably better protected than booze, in my opinion.
 
Mosh said:
I live in CO so I'm a bit of an authority on this topic. :D


This is an issue with marijuana here. Even though it's illegal for kids to use, it is pretty easy to get ahold of if you want it. The problem is lack of education on what these drugs do. A lot of kids think the only downside to 'soft' drugs are the addictive qualities and since weed doesn't have addictive chemicals that makes it ok. What they don't understand is that you can still get addicted to it and it negatively affects brain development.

Luckily we are starting to see more efforts on programs that educate kids on the downside of smoking weed. I would like to see more of that instead of just suspending/expelling kids who are caught, which was the solution when I was in high school.

Anyway, I'm for legalizing with heavy tax to be used on education facilities. I don't know about making hard drugs legal, but they should be decriminalized at least. I think one solution to the drug problem is bringing it out of the underground.
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I pretty much agree with this, beyond the heavy tax .. it should be taxed like booze. One of the main benefits to legalizing is getting rid of the black market, if it is priced to high, the black market stays. See New York City, where there is actually a pretty thriving black market for cigarettes.

I am far from one of these "well Europe does "X", we should be like Europe" kind of people, but their drinking laws make a lot more sense to me, every once in a while, a state will try to bring the age below 21, most recently Alaska toyed with the idea of bringing the drinking age to 18 for active duty military in certain places in the state and the Feds pretty much said if they do that, they will loose their highway funds .. which they did for a long time to keep the speed limit at 55. Hopefully the Feds will divest themselves from the Drug War beyond capturing stuff coming in through the border, let states set drinking ages, and defund inititatives that promote the drug war in the states .. namely certain law enforcement grants
 
Should add, AKP government is more strict in their policies against cigarettes and alcohol than any government before them. They installed the smoking ban in public places, raised the age of being able to buy alcohol from 18 to 21, banned alcohol from stadiums. Images of alcohol and cigarettes are censored on TV, in fact. TV shows refrain from using such scenes, and movie scenes that involve smoking or drinking are either cut, or they're blurred.
 
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