The legalization of Illegal Drugs

Eating is the gateway to obesity, but not all users of food develop such an over dependency. 

I was a smoker for almost 50 years, but I never found that being addicted to nicotine caused me to seek stronger drugs.  I drink a little wine from time to time, a beer now and then and once a year around the holidays I drink a bit of Rum.  But I've never become alcohol dependent. 

There are many factors that cause drug dependency, both physical and psychological.  And by the way, I've known folks who were totally messed up on Weed, but never used any other drug. 

 

Curious Carl

----- Original Message -----

From: Rex Leslie Howard, Jr.

To: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a widerange oftopics from blindness to politics,issues of the day or whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is afreeform discussion list.

Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 1:44 PM

Subject: Re: [acb-chat] The legalization of Illegal Drugs

I'm not sure I would agree with the legalization of Marijuana but I'm also
not sure that I would disagree with it.

I will say here that, in no way, do I agree that Marijuana is the "gateway"
drug to other drugs. Sure, most people try Marijuana before they try other
drugs but it is not because the Marijuana effects wear off and they need to
try something more to get a high.

I believe that this "gateway" effect is more of a "slow fade" effect than
anything.

Our bad choices escalate from a small bad choice, to a larger bad choice to
a still larger bad choice.

The married man does not sleep with the secretary the first time he sets his
eyes on her or, in most cases, that's not the case. But one's conscience is
skewed by the culmination of choices made.

I will wholeheartedly agree with Jessie on one thing she said: No one who
has overcome a drug addiction or an addiction to alcohol will make excuses
for or justify drug addiction.

I was 7 years old when my father first introduced my brother and sister and
I to pot. We would smoke a joint rolled in flavored paper. We liked the way
it made us feel. I was 10 years old when I did speed for the first time. I
was drinking whiskey by age 11 and strung out on Meth by the time I was 19
years old. Surprisingly enough I didn't drink my first beer until I was
almost 20 years old and it made me sick. I tried to guzzle the beer and I
wasn't used to drinking it.

Am I proud of any of this?

Absolutely not but I say all of that to say this: environment is directly
and proportionately conducive to drug addiction. They have a saying in
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. If you hang around a barbershop long enough
you're going to get a hair cut.

Do I believe, as is taught in Alcoholics Anonymous, that because I was once
an alcoholic, I will always be an alcoholic? Do I believe that because I was
once a drug addict, I will always be a drug addict?

Absolutely not. I believe that's one of the biggest lies ever taught by
these recovery programs.

I know some disagree with me and I absolutely respect your right to
disagree.

Maybe you are still an addict (recovering addict), I don't know. All I know
is that My God was big enough to deliver me from that addiction.

I believe we need to stop blaming Marijuana as a gateway to other drugs.
People will become addicted to substances or they won't. It is about choice
and everyone, at some point and time, has the opportunity to grow up and try
to live a life where we try to make as few bad choices as we can.

Not to say we won't make mistakes and do boneheaded things, but at least
we've grown to the point where it is not our every desire to live a life of
addiction and bad choices.

Anyone that makes excuses for drug or alcohol addiction, is, in my
boneheaded opinion, an idiot!!


-----Original Message-----
From: Desiree Oudinot
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 3:00 PM
To: acb-chat@acb.org
Subject: Re: [acb-chat] The legalization of Illegal Drugs

I completely agree with you. The only thing I would add to your
sentiments is this: taking the illegal allure out of marijuana will
cut back on its usage. many people, mostly teenagers, will try
something illegal just to say they walked on the wild side. They broke
the law and got away with it. Tearing that away from them will help
cut back on overuse. I won't say addiction in this case because I
don't believe it's possible to become addicted to pot, not physically,
anyway. Mentally, anything can become an addiction if you think it
can, but it's not going to cause physical or life-threatening
withdrawal symptoms if stopped.

On 9/7/12, Bob Hachey <bhachey@verizon.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Here is my position on the legalization of currently illegal drugs.
> 1. I'ave seen way too much damage caused by adiction to hard drugs like
> heroin, meth and cocaine to support their legalization.
> 2. I think it's time to legalize and regulate marijuana. I'd treat it much
> like alcohol including taxes and age restrictions and treat driving under
> the influence of marijuana just like we treat driving under the influence
> of
> alcohol. This would do a number of positive things:
> 1. Take a good bit of money out of the hands of organized criminals
> 2. IT would help decrease prison populations
> 3. WE could take the funds currently use to imprison those convicted of
> marijuana crimes and that are currently used to stem the flow of marijuana
> into our country and use them for treatement centers and to bolster the
> fight against harder drugs.
> 4. We could use the taxes collected from the sale of marijuana for the
> same
> purposes.
>
> bob Hachey
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Rex Leslie Howard, Jr.
rex.howard@gmail.com
rex@littlelaw.com
http://www.rlhr.com

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