apples and oranges v. marijuana and heroine? shooting yourself up hurts your family far more than shooting someone else.
that is very debatable. let's see - would i rather see a family member addicted to drugs that they can get treatment for or would i prefer a family member to be a murderer (or at least attempted) and sentenced to a long-term prison sentence or lethal injection?
In case you still think shooting up is worse (though i'm not sure how), that still doesn't counter my argument that while a family member addicted to hard drugs is sad and a shame, it doesn't justify taking away my freedom to do the same thing if i please. the theme of my message is i don't want my government to act like my parents. i will take responsibility for myself.
i don't believe any government should have the right to tell me what i can and can't do with/to my mind and body regardless of the consequences - short of infringing on someone else's rights.
is it sad for the family to lose someone to addiction? sure.
is keeping drugs illegal preventing addiction? sure isn't.
is keeping drugs illegal trampling on my rights? in my perception, sure is.
not that it matters, but in case you are curious...
if heroin was legal would you shoot up? fuck no
do you shoot up now? fuck no
If you really want to keep "hard" drugs illegal that is entirely up to you. I would ask that you at least concede you are forfeiting not only your rights, but mine and everyone else's. I will concede there are far more important rights that we've lost that would be better to focus our attention but that doesn't make keeping drugs illegal the correct path to take.