In the New Yorker, Obama said Colorado and Washington’s laws were “important” since they decriminalized a commonly used substance. But he also said the laws could raise questions for other illegal substances.
“If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka, are we open to that?” Obama wondered. “If somebody says, We’ve got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn’t going to kill you or rot your teeth, are we O.K. with that?”
Yes, absolutely, unequivocally open to 'that'. Some forms of cocaine, especially the coca leaf in it's natural state should be legal. Plants should not be against the law. No law should curtail the right of any adult of sound mind to ingest any substance; or for that matter restrict an adults consciousness in any manner.
I almost don't know where to start arguing this asinine notion down. Essentially it sounds a lot like, and do excuse the language but as anybody who has read Huck Finn knows, some folks used to say: "give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell", referring to non-whites and slaves being free or having 'rights' and so fourth. Of course, no one ever should have been forced into slavery and dark skinned peoples always should have had the same rights as white men.
The other part of this is the naivety in thinking that drug usage or availability is or will be eliminated as the result of laws against any drugs. Drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy, etc. will always be more or less in demand. Illicit opioid drugs such as heroin, and pharmaceutical opioid drugs available on the street are
physically addictive. Over a million junkies (heroin addicts) in the United States of all different backgrounds gotta get their fix, EVERY DAY. Millions more are addicted to illicitly obtained, over-priced prescription opioids (oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl) and millions more still use them now and again.
Even while cocaine usage has declined quite a bit, according to statistics, there were still just under a million frequent and about 1.5 million casual/regular cocaine users. Then again, more people seem to be using methamphetamine instead, or even entirely new, largely untested experimental drugs- so called "bath salts".
This is what happens when you have a market for something illegal, especially with a fairly large and persistent consumer base. The product is still available, the price is inflated, the quality is more often than not suspect and in order to obtain it you've gotta go through folks you probably wouldn't normally associate with, who could potentially rob or kill you. Just as during the early Prohibition of alcohol, and how can they deny?
Their primary hang up to providing us with
all of our rights to
our adult bodies always seems to be "the children", and are all these politicians seriously such numbskulls? Be it cannabis, alcohol, cigarettes, heroin, etc. black market dealers do not generally check ID. Illegal drugs are
frequently in the hands of juveniles, even commonly sold by them. You are providing very often unscrupulous individuals with an easy means to profit, from the crack dealer/pimp on the corner to menacing leaders of criminal and overtly terrorist organizations. Furthermore, these days somewhat more intelligent (perhaps), but still very unscrupulous individuals are being more innovative- coming out with novel compounds produced in the laboratory, sometimes initially synthesized in the past merely for research purposes: but which in some way mimic an illicit substance or are otherwise psychoactive. These substances, such as the "bath salts" are much more dangerous than the more commonly known and widely used substances of the past 70+ years (including LSD, MDMA).
Aside from this, I do not believe that use of other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, or MDMA would increase significantly or long-term should they become decriminalized or legalized to any extent. Those who really want to use what they want to use, or try what they want to try, are most likely going to be able to. When you "control" drugs in such a manner and place as the United States, you really take away to ability of government to
actually control what drugs are available. You totally take away any ability to regulate the quality of the product, how much is sold, or even to who (children included).
At any rate I think there is another solution, besides the CSA, which I believe could be elucidated and worked out in more detail to satisfy our health and safety as well as personal liberty and responsibility. I do not believe in this "oh the children" government knows what is best for me bullshit cop out.