Legalizing all drugs thread pt 2 : Through the eyes and life of ONE DRUG WAR POW!

[Dankmaster]

edited for rewrite

[RSLudlum]

i think i'm gonna need some kinda drug to just get through this post :D

[Dankmaster]

Yes I know but it equates to living in 15 years of FEAR from government for my and LIFE and FREEDOM. I felt very compelled to really tell the life of a drug user that once believed it wrong and it would KILL you. Its a lengthy read but so interlinked on this drug issue. Maybe its too much but I really thought it was important to get my story out there

[DamianTV]

Outlawing drugs or not outlawing drugs. It is nothing more than exchanging one set of problems for another. One thing I can guarantee you that outlawing drugs does not stop people from using them. Next thing that it does is it creates a business for those who are willing to look past the laws. If drugs were legal and regulated however, criminal business would have to find ways to compete and find they probably cant and just end up going out of business, a.k.a. getting jobs like everyone else.

Sorry but its not the governments place to make those moral decisions for me. Just dont drive while you are under the influence of anything and I will be happy.

[Dankmaster]

Outlawing drugs or not outlawing drugs. It is nothing more than exchanging one set of problems for another. One thing I can guarantee you that outlawing drugs does not stop people from using them. Next thing that it does is it creates a business for those who are willing to look past the laws. If drugs were legal and regulated however, criminal business would have to find ways to compete and find they probably cant and just end up going out of business, a.k.a. getting jobs like everyone else.

Sorry but its not the governments place to make those moral decisions for me. Just dont drive while you are under the influence of anything and I will be happy.

Yes I think some people don't know when they have had "too much" of a good thing and think they are in the right frame of mind. I've been with the crowd many times before and some of them should never be behind the wheel at a certain point. Many feel though as they are not impaired to drive, although I never been in an ACCIDENT or WRECK with ANY PERSON I'VE BEEN WITH in the some 15 years I've been in someone's car smoking. So tough to say if influence is a factor. I personally won't drive under the influence, but honestly I don't need to drive, I can get where I need to go. When I do need to though, it won't be under influence. People have to realize usage can't be reckless, that what got us this problem in the first place ala reefer madness

[Dr.3D]

Deleted this message. Improper thread for it.

[DaneKirk]

QUOTE=DaneKirk;530450]Your retarded. Why would anyone think that we should legalize these damaging drugs. Let me tell you why I think you who are for complete legalization need to be institutionalized.

Oh WOW I'VE WAITED FOR A DAY LIKE THIS FOR 15 YEARS FOR SOMEONE TO REFORM THESE LAWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS poster has infuriated me and I'm about to explain how DAMAGING the TERROR and FEAR indoctrination of the 80's was nothing but BRAINWASHING for my generation. This will be a LONG read but it relates so much to this issue at hand. Please take the time to read a story of person AGAINST ANY DRUGS and THEIR USE as a child and then saw the LIGHT and to see they are NOT ALL THE SAME OUR GOVERNMETN CLAIMS THEM TO BE!

YOU DaneKirk, must be one of the early-mid 80's that BOUGHT the bill of goods from Nancy Reagan's "JUST SAY NO" campaign. The HUGE in your face blitz advertising on TV, in schools and just about everywhere of HOW DEADLY they are? How wrong they are to do? How they would RUIN your life. How they would eventually kill you!? Tell me, is that you? REGARDLESS of what decisions your UNCLE made to his life to put him on his current course in life. IT is a simple question and relevant to my points

I USED to be YOU. I BOUGHT the bill of goods hook, line and sinker at 8 years of age! I was terrified of DRUGS or be around anyone that used them after seeing Nancy Regan address the nation on this drug epidemic. BOTH parents of mine used under my nose. My father coke, ludes and pills. My Mother alcoholic marijuana coke and sometimes LSD. IF ANYONE thinks the campaign wasn't a success you better think again.

My mother wasn't too nice at times being a heavy drinker and would sometimes fly into a rage and hit me. One time I ran out of the house after I found yellow bottle with WHITE POWDER in it in her bathroom to escape from her rage. I went to a NEIGHBORS house to report my mommy using drugs. The bottle was poppers and she had coke hidden elsewhere. She had at the time a corrupt cop to bring me home every time I try to run away from her too.

She had a baking pan full of buds and this cop FLUSHED it down the toilet and did NOT take her jail! She should have gone, but no I was made out to be a spoiled brat making trouble. This guy was clearly bought off. DO you see where I'm going with this that I believed I should report my mother to the law for just having it?!?!?! That was the goal of of the campaign to get kids to turn against their parents/family for the right and just of this moral law

Eventually I managed to move away from my mother to end up with my father for a little while to settle in with my grandmother and START an abuse-free life. The damage has already been done and I turned into a DISTANT RECLUSIVE kid w no friends for a yr. THEN some kids did move into the neighborhood and they were surfers. My grandmother had a house on the beach so this was like a fantasy for a start-up surfer, so I made so-called friends and I entered the surfing culture.

Time goes on and one day coming home from school on the bus about 6 of the kids were arranging a get together in one of their garage's after everyone changes clothes and meet there. NOW I'M STILL AGAINST ALL DRUG USE PERIOD AND TERRIFIED OF WHAT IT WILL DO TO ME AND MY LIFE and little did I know what I was going to do there. So the moment comes, everyone gathers and the older kid whips out a bag of green material. There is a bucket w water in it and cut off 2 liter bottle sticking out with foil covering the top. I'm starting to put 2 and 2 together here and start to back away. I'm like whats going on here and they said "we are smoking pot" and I said "I DON'T DO DRUGS" and they were like "just TRY it" and I'm thinking maybe I will TRY and then my mind is wrestling with the fact that I was indoctrinated to believe that I'm going to DIE and HURT myself even trying something like this. So with everyone encouraging I go over and the FIRST HIT of my life is drawn up and in it goes....


DID I DIE? DID THIS REALLY HURT ME? UHH NO FREAKI'N WAY in fact I felt like more lively, more personality boost and fun to be with. THEY ALL said I was acting NORMAL for a change and not the former self. WHAT THE HELL AND WHY was the question on my mind. WHY was I feeling better like a cloud had been lifted over my head and it was like some kind of MEDICINE to me... Yeah the "buzz" feeling was a strong euphoria but it was feeling of being able to FUNCTION and FEEL like a normal person rather this DISTANT and WITHDRAWN SHY TEEN!! I was absouletly enraged to find it was ALL A PACK OF LIES, HALF-TRUTHS AND DECEIT. NOTHING at all to what it was made out to be growing up!!! The whole purpose was to make you so scared that you would never want to try anything ever. FEAR!!! is what was behind that "Just say NO"crap peer-pressure!!! Yea I was pressured to try but there was no gun to my head. I was probably worried about being shunned and alone again, but after I realized its something that helped me and was almost prevented from even trying it I became very ANGRY with my gov for complete BRAINWASHING of term "DRUG". THEY are NOT all the same NOR or PEOPLE that use....


YES there were negatives into getting into this. Money of course was one factor and most everything was provided for me but I could not ask my grandmother for money to buy pot with. YES I had to steal it and NO I couldn't just go get a job living where she was being about 20 miles by car to town plus I wasn't old enough to work in the close by area on the beach! I will not sugar coat and say there is NO NEGATIVES with using cause there are some. Smoking marijuana isn't the most healthy but its more natural than a tobacco cigarette is!

Your probably under the impression I'm some high school drop out. Yes and no. No in the sense that where I was going to school I wasn't popular or "in" and wasn't getting along with the right kids. YES in the sense that I got busted smoking a cig and reaching into the wrong pocket to a dead give-away on me. I told who I got it from and RUINED what little if any rep in school I had and was expelled and arrested for the first time. Did that detour me? NOT a chance! I wasn't about to succumb to FEAR of the LAW for using something that is helping me feel normal. And if you think I want prescription mental aides for a normal feeling. I have already been there and it doesn't deliver the same help. Its more of a dumbed down zombie feeling and hardly something to lift you

I NEVER quit school. I was told numerous time this person wanted to HURT ME with a passion and luckily I managed to avoid seeing him living in a small beach town. I managed to go to GED classes and get that done. School was miserable for me to go and being miserable was NO ENVIORNMENT to learn in. So I never went back and soon started a see a spiral of violence happening at schools. THOSE were the last safe days of going to school compared to what it is NOW!!!!

Soon came the end of my teen years. My family was losing their wealth by supporting all members with no jobs and got to a point where my grandmother had to move into her son's house (my uncle) and I had to be on my own. NO SCHOOL could ever prepare one the LESSONS of learning LIFE the hard way after a silver spoon is ripped from your mouth. I became a drifter for awhile with no real home until I met someone that gave me a life

So I end up starting a life with my partner. He soon discovers what my fix is and is not anti-drug to me, though I now have another problem and thats knowing where to get it now that I don't have those kids as middle men to supply me. This person in my life starts see what marijuana usage helps me with and sees that it is indeed medicine to help me and that is who I am. Not that I'm hurting myself or that it is hurting/impacting negatively in their life as well. They are only concerned about the criminal laws of marijuana. Seeing that I have a supply problem there was only 1 solution at the time, I started to think about growing the plants.

He is not thrilled at this idea but not against it. So it was decided I'd do a small personal stash and I entered the life of a growers culture along with damaging paranoia that goes right with it. I decided if I was going to live a marijuana growers life that I would have to live a VERY QUIET life and draw as little attention as possible, but looking back, it wasn't a QUIET life, no it was more like CONSTANT WORRYING and TERRIFIED of adrenaline charged guerilla commandos storming the front door down with guns pointed at my head and partners!! WORRIED that some nosey person could see my light, smell the odor in the hallway, detect possible water leakage, electrical fires ect ect. That would have my life CONFISCATED!!! PARKING blocks away to get supplies and always HIDING everything from everybody and WORRIED they might know or have seen something to report me

THIS FEAR NEVER ENDED and I GAVE UP GROWING after 5 years of being on edge every day!! To be FREE I HAD TO LIVE MY ENTIRE LIFE IN FEAR AND TERROR OF THE DRUG WAR and LAW!!! WHAT FREEDOM DID I HAVE!?!?! I WAS HOSTAGE in my own home and country. Going outside the walls of my home was like a battle-ground afraid for my freedom and being pulled over by cops while I had stash or growing supplies on me TERRIFIED that my LIFE and FREEDOM could be taken away in the blink of an eye for years or decades, and all for what growing a NATURAL plant for medicine in my closet for my own use?!? ABSURD!!! WHY do I have to abide by moral society at the expense of my liberty? Thats all this is about MORALS!! WHY do I have to suffer for others that are unable to handle responsible use and stimulation? WE are not created all the same. What dictates any law to tell everyone they are not allowed to use something because we must pay for IRRESPONSIBLE people who can not use is so VERY WRONG and unconstituitional!!! I have been nothing but a good law abiding citizen other than laws that concern marijuana


1. My uncle almost completely ruined his life by doing drugs. It started with pot, then cocaine, heroine, and god knows what else. He had a great paying job with NAPA as one of the highest executives on the west coast, he lost it, along with his beautiful wife, and children. Now he is in his late 50's and works as a used car salesman and can not remember over 20 years of his life because of all the drugs he was taking. Luckily he is now helping other addicts and is starting to make up for lost time with his two children.

NOW your uncle is NOT EVERYONE. Unfortunately your uncle could not discern what his limit was and that is KEY to responsible usage. Some people do not know their own limits of what they can or can not handle so they should never use in the first place. Marijuana is NOT the gateway drug, its been made a scapegoat for those that only intend to use soft drugs and not move on. THIS where I draw the line HARD DRUGS ARE OUT and why would I feel the need to use something stronger that WILL really hurt me or possibly kill me if used too much or for too long?

I'll admit I have even tried other things once so I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. Once was coaxed into hitting a bowl of opium and NEVER did it again. I did E a MDMA powder while it wasn't terrible its not something I WANT all the time. Same goes with LSD. Ive done it many years ago in my teens PERIODICALLY but again not a drug you would do every day or even every week! Once was coaxed into a hit of crack and this by far was the WORST DRUG out there. PURE CRAP that I hated and made me feel like my heart was going to explode and I WOULD NEVER EVER touch a piece of crap rock as long as I live! This is plain ignorant to assume 'everybody' needs something stronger and the need to jump to harder drug. You have to know what your limit is at and stick to it for the sake of the way you want to live and ONLY YOU can CHOOSE to set that limit or abandon it and take RISK then you face the CONSEQUENCES. Sooo while I feel empathy for your hardships your uncle has gone through, you uncle is not the poster child of "drug users". Sorry, your way off base there


3. Lets take a look at The Netherlands, where these drugs are legal. All you have to do is walk through Amsterdam ounce to see all the scum shooting up in the streets, they of course get needles and safe places to shoot up paid for by taxpayers. And anyone that says that The Netherlands never had a problem is a filthy liar, do any research and you will find that when these "tolerant" laws to legalize drugs were passed, there was a rash of young men and women who died from their use. Legalizing drugs will make problems worse. Where do you draw the line, what will we legalize next, sex in the streets? Hey, if it feels good do it right? THERE IS A REASON THAT THESE LEFT-WING COUNTRIES ARE STARTING TO ELECT CONSERVATIVES, THESE POLICIES DO-NOT-WORK!!!!!!

The Netherlands are bastion of FREEDOM and HOPE for my kind to escape to, but you fail to see even deeper issues with all the drugs. Well they have coffee shops to buy certain quantities high quality marijuana to use there or take with you. Your not allowed to carry a lot on your person from what I understand. They circumvent the marijuana/soft drug black market there making it obsolete. MOST do not want to use harder drugs there. They go there for the soft drug atmosphere.

Fueling the lucrative profits of BILLIONS of dollars thats what makes it all attractive to be ILLEGAL to begin with. Just how attractive are any drugs with NO INFLATED VALUE affixed to them? With NO BLACK MARKET means NO CRIME SYNDICATE FINANCING and would mean a lot less crime, less incarcerations and SAFER STREETS!! To take the dollar out of drugs would put a crimp in the entire underworld means of financing criminal activity and end a lot of crime on the streets that ILLEGAL drugs bring.

So you like/support how the black market DEPENDS on these laws to stay intact with all the CRIME and VIOLENCE that it BREEDS and your a RP supporter??!! SHEESH!! This contradicts Dr. Pauls article of the War on Terror? Its as bad as the War on Drugs. I suggest you read it because its exactly what I'm point out right now. Its all about $$$$$ and gov knows this and without the $$$$ drugs themselves would NOT be intertwined into criminal activity and no need to have a DEA or a RICO act!


This train of thought will be the death of America and will give birth to a nation with no morals and no soul, plain and simple. The truth is that doing any type of illegal drugs and using legal drugs knowingly wrong should not be tolerated. I am all for the states deciding what is best, but do not expect the vast majority of Americans to support legalization. I am from Olympia, Washington which is a very liberal city, and I know hard core socialists who would never in a thousand years support this type of talk. Not to mention mainstream voters who would have the exact same reaction to this garbage as I have. This is an area where I think you all who are advocating legalization need to wake up and think about what you are saying. Your ignorance about how drugs can ruin people's life's knows no bounds. Try talking to someone like me who has had an addict in the family and see what they say. Everyones life is better without drugs and those who take them should be ridiculed and shunned, thats my opinion.


YOU have balls of steel to type and tell people like me I should FEAR for my freedom and liberty because a substance helps me medically and not to get "high" with it!!!!! Who are you to say I should have a conscious about using anything illegal or not just because you think its wrong for moral society to use?!? You are a BLIND Nancy Reagan drug warrior propagandist drone who lumped it all generalizing and know no differences of what isn't really harmful out there!!! Before I read this thread and your post I was on the VERGE of quitting my smoking life for other reasons, but now you have lit a fire of rebellion underneath me with BOLD and BASELESS statements to say people should be afraid of using anything the federal gov deems UNHEALTHY, especially a PLANT!!! What unmitigated gall you have sir to even be here!!!!!

While we are at it lets examine what is LEGAL and readily available at the local store. OH we have GLUE, PAINT, COLD MEDICINES, TOXIC CHEMICAL rainbow of flavors ECT ECT to sniff and stuff we still don't know about yet and why BECAUSE they are cheap, easy to get and legal to use, but your precious draconian laws have caused this delima to begin with and kids/junkies are hurting themselves more than they could EVER do with the NATURAL drugs be it coke, pot or even heroine. THEY all come from PLANTS!!!

You can't dispute this and you know this is true. IF we had some type of distribution ala the Dutch and yes I think ALL DRUGS should NOT be legal but deregulated/rescheduled and controlled then problems like this will GO AWAY and kids/junkies won't be able to cause serious health damage from these cheap legal products. LET them do what they want to THEIR BODY as LONG THEY ARE A: OLD ENOUGH and B: THEY are RESPONSIBLE with use and I do stress in a RESPONSIBLE WAY!!!!! YOU and your ilk will NEVER STOP EXPERMIMENTATION from happening EVER!!! FORGET IT!!! OPEN your eyes and SEE these LAWS are creating more problems and not SOLVING them in the end. I'm so happy to see a person like Dr. Paul wants to ELIMINATE big brother gov from interfering in our PERSONAL lives once and for all. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT!! I've dreamed of this for 15 years and hopefully with the power of the people we will unite end this INSANITY known as the War on Drugs or the War on People

So here I am today at 32, I've lived very rough patches of life and made it through and I'm still a pot smoker and I make over 60k year being self employed and have roughly 400 oz of gold in savings. So WHO is the loser if there others out there like me that live productive lives like this!? REMOVE YOUR BLINDER YOU SHILL!!!

RON PAUL IS AMERICA'S ONLY SALVATION!!!!!!

Wow, what an interesting Biography. To be honest I had to skim through some of it. To answer one of your questions, I am actually 21 and only really started paying attention to politics after 9/11. The point I was trying to make about drugs is that it brings very little good to anyone’s life. You are a great example of this, no offense. You saw what it did to your mom, other than making you feel good when you were high; I doubt you really got anything of substance out of it.

My position is that using drugs is, in my opinion wrong, plain and simple. I figured that out myself, not by listening to any empty suit in office. Let’s look at my drug-free life instead. I am as I said 21, I did well in high school graduating on time with above a 3.0 average. I enlisted in the USAF and became an enlisted aviator. I earned my silver wings after a year of hard work and graduated at the top of my class every time. Now I am married to the most beautiful woman I have ever meet. I am already saving for retirement, have money in the stock market, and have a very substantial amount of money in high yield savings accounts. Oh and I am going to college now even though I am deployed, that takes some effort. The same morals that my liberal mom and dad gave me have helped me live a proud drug free life because I know that I am better than that, I do not need to smoke anything to feel good. Look where I am right now, I am getter off than many adults, and I do not live pay check to pay check or have any happiness or money issues in sight.

I know that no one will stop experimentation, many of my close friends smoke pot and I would never report them. And I am aware that it is somewhat hypocritical to let people smoke tobacco and not pot (even though nicotine does not impair your judgment, there is reason heavy equipment operators get drug tested.) I only advocate that people use good judgment not to get into the downward spiral drugs offer. I have nothing personal against people who use drugs, I pity them, because they are missing out on a much happier life. When I am 32, I will be a few years away from retiring and will have at least a bachelor’s degree. I owe that fact to good judgment and taking responsibility for my life, which is a conservative value. Good luck to you and yes, I do agree that Ron Paul is our only hope for salvation. It is a testimate to his message that he can bring someone like you and me to his campaign, even though I am sure we look at the world in very different ways.

[johngr]

delete

[d_goddard]

Folks here may have heard of an excellent organization called L.E.A.P., "Law Enforcement Against Prohibition" -- current and former police officers who have concluded that the War on Drugs is more damaging, both to people and to our Constitution, than the drugs they're ostensibly fighting.

The founder of that group, Jack Cole, was at the last NH Liberty Forum; one of their better speakers will be at the 2008 Liberty Forum (just 36 hours before the NH polls open!)
http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum

[brianbb98]

i dont do drugs (except caffiene, huge coffee in front of me) but if someone wants to do that to themselves who am i to say anything to them? marijuana also can do a lot more good to someone whos sick then the pharm companies anyway.. its sick that pots illegal.

[ken locke]

What is sick ?
You do not know, unless you are the one experiencing it.
What is Injury ?
Those living with results of: That is Living Testimony.

It makes me mad as heck, that those that are neither sick or injured, can stand or write that
we that are and have been, dont not know what we speak of.

Testimony can not be alter nor denied or ignored.

The day that Ron Paul becomes President of the United States :)

The Constitution will be back in Full Power, bring an end to The War on Drugs, the release of All medical patients from the prisons across the United States.

If your sickness or Injury can be helped or cured by a all natural herb, it surly would be a Sickness to deny them that natural herb.

ken locke
Ron Paul Riders

[Zibblu]

I really believe that if marijuana smoking community in America would take a break from hitting the bong and get into politics in 2008 by supporting the only candidate who really wants to end the Drug War that they could make the difference in getting Paul elected. There are a *lot* of people in America who smoke marijuana. A *lot* ! And they do not think of themselves as criminals just because they smoke pot.

It's truly insane to me that we accept this idea that the Government can tell us what is OK for us to put into our own bodies. That we accept the idea that the Government can lock us away. Put us in PRISON for what we put in our own bodies in our own homes! It's not OK. And you shouldn't have to be someone who smokes marijuana to realize that. It's really a simple issue of freedom.

[JeNNiF00F00]

Legalize.

[Gunpartsguy]

If somebody wants to smoke a weed, inject anything into themselves, snort, drink, inhale,huff, lick frogs/toads...whatever.......this SHOULD be a free country and you should be free to do so. Once you cross that line and endanger others or their property. That's when the law should come into play. Not before then.

Think about how much more free we would be without this damn drug war. The price to pay for that freedom would be fairly high. But you know what? That's freedom and liberty for ya! The price for that is always high!

[Libertarian_Rebel]

If somebody wants to smoke a weed, inject anything into themselves, snort, drink, inhale,huff, lick frogs/toads...whatever.......this SHOULD be a free country and you should be free to do so. Once you cross that line and endanger others or their property. That's when the law should come into play. Not before then.

Think about how much more free we would be without this damn drug war. The price to pay for that freedom would be fairly high. But you know what? That's freedom and liberty for ya! The price for that is always high!

btw Im the original OP

Great comments everyone!!! I'd like to point out your EXACTLY right but lets stress YOU as the person and shouldn't be the INFLUENCE OF THE DRUG. I'm a non-violent person and I've been around enough people that use are ethier violent or wreckless by nature or they don't have it in them period, regardless of any type of drug influence they are under. The person is in full control of thier actions and can't place the blame on the drug for actions that are criminal. Futhermore I don't feel its fair that RESPONSIBLE users are punished for the IRRESPONSIBLE users. I think the general public thinks we are going to have a nation full of dope addicts being irresposible in society. I think the MOST IMPORANT ISSUE with drugs in the education process is teaching responsiblity in its usage if one chooses to use as to prevent wreckless usage from happening in society. With knowing what being a responsible user is in society it is then up to them to use what they were taught to live a resposible life as that drug user. Lets face it there always going to be irresponsible people who use no matter what. I say if you can't use in a responsible manner then suffer the consequences of your own actions, the rest should not!


Keep it comin....

RON PAUL 08

[noztnac]

Private drug use should be viewed as a civil liberties issue.

Drug addiction should be treated as a medical disorder.

Right now both groups are treated as criminals and risk being thrown in jail.

[kushaze]

This quote explains how I feel about the drug war:

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
Hunter S. Thompson