So I was doing some musing on the problem of drug and substance abuse.
Typically, I say people should be able to do whatever the hell they want as long as they aren't stepping on other's toes, figuratively speaking. I think Frank Zappa says it best here "A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an starfish." and I think that about sums it up. My problem with drugs is when people go around and being handicaps. Guys who get boozed up and abuse their wives, drive home and kill a family, etc. You get the idea. Then there's cigarettes, which frankly I don't care as much about because they're just awful for your health, and if people want to smoke them just don't smoke them near me. Then take a look at pot, and I'm sure everyone here can tell us about an annoying/handicapped pothead fool who spends his time smoking and getting high and not much else. Psychedelics can also be an issue, but nowadays you don't seem to hear as much about them.
And then we have hard drugs, heroin, cocaine, meth, crack, etc. These are bad news, and in my opinion should be outlawed across the board. No good coming from them, I tell you what.
However, if we take a look at more natural stuff, why not reduce it to just that: natural stuff? Get rid of big businesses that make fortunes commercializing and advertising and manufacturing stuff like cigarettes and booze. If you want a cigarette, grow the tobacco yourself, or buy it off a friend and roll your own cigarettes. Booze? Wine? Same deal, and then brew it yourself. Same goes for Marijuana, mushrooms, etc. Grow it yourself and consume it in the privacy of your own home.
There'd still be laws against drinking while driving, smoking in public, public intoxication, etc., but all this stuff wouldn't be instantly available. However, the means to make Marijuana especially (you can go buy wine grape vines already, that's no crime) would also be legal and available for purchase, which in turn I guess would make the sale of Marijuana in its current incarnation legal as long as you're not making a huge business out of selling it (i.e. no drug dealer empires).
For one thing, I think the quality of everything you might choose to consume would go up. Think of cigarettes without all those additives, just tobacco. Or beer that you grew and brewed by yourself. The effort required to make these things for yourself or your friends would rise, and within a couple of years I believe the abuse rates would fall. Its use would be more ceremonial and likely social, a more ideal use for such substances than the nightly abuse that some have turned it into.
tl;dr: get out.
Tell me what you guys think.
