Milton Friedman: Legalize It! - Page 5

They have to draw a line somewhere.

The problem I see with this whole argument for legalization, is that the majority of people that are advocating for it are illegal users. You are basically saying to everyone else, "it should be legal because I use it and I'm fine" It's a totally selfish argument.

Originally posted by NaplesX
Yes because drinking is naturally evolves into to rolling something up in paper and lighting and breathing in the smoke.

I see your logic now.

Actually, it's not. RAND did a big study a couple of years ago on it

quote:Instead, the associations can result from known differences in the ages at which youths have opportunities to use marijuana and hard drugs, and known variations in individuals' willingness to try any drugs, researchers found...

"The people who are predisposed to use drugs and have the opportunity to use drugs are more likely than others to use both marijuana and harder drugs," Morral said. "Marijuana typically comes first because it is more available. Once we incorporated these facts into our mathematical model of adolescent drug use, we could explain all of the drug use associations that have been cited as evidence of marijuana's gateway effect."

Originally posted by NaplesX
So smoking pot is a positive thing, in your opinion I see.

What lies exactly about MJ is being spread by DARE or teachers?

Please be specific with some solid evidence or stop being dishonest.

The "boomerang effect" which plagues DARE and many other drug education efforts is the predictable result of their use of what Arnold Trebach has called "prophylactic lies"--exaggerations of drug dangers which are intended to scare kids away from drugs.

When they are first told those lies in elementary school, our children believe them and become motivated young drug warriors. But as they grow older, their own experience and that of their friends exposes those lies for what they are. They see that some of the best students in their school smoke marijuana without any sign of brain damage or progression to heroin. They learn that some of their friends use cocaine occasionally without any sign of becoming hopeless addicts.

Having discovered that their teachers and parents are liars where drugs are concerned, they can no longer trust anything they have been taught about drugs. This leaves them with little reason not to try drugs.

Our state education system has many effective education programs to teach kids about drugs by using professionals in the field. D.A.R.E. officers only receive two weeks of drug education compared to the four year college degrees professional drug educators receive. D.A.R.E. officers are professionals in the field of law enforcement, not in teaching drug education. Because of this, children are often subject to mistruths, outright falsehoods, and intolerant, ignorant attitudes concerning addiction and drug users. DARE exaggerations and outright lies foster mistrust and cynicism among our students, and set them up for dangerous mistakes in their drug choices.

Parents, the traditional villains of psychological polemics, take a terrific drubbing in the D.A.R.E. program, which has traded the quaint notion of in loco parentis for a more contemporary philosophy of parentis locos. In the animated short In the Land of Decisions and Choices, which is routinely shown in D.A.R.E. classrooms, the parental role model is represented exactly twice: by a semisenile grandfather sitting around in his bathrobe spouting inanities through a haze of cigarette smoke, and by an obese drunken father, passed out on a sofa, a beer can perched on his belly, a lit joint dangling from his gaping mouth. In the film, which follows four youngsters as they wander through an eerie world of hag-faced smokers, drooling drunks, and babbling potheads, the only trustworthy figure in the landscape is the wily "D.A.R.E. dog." And though the program counsels pacific methods of conflict resolution, the druggies in the D.A.R.E. video are ultimately destroyed in an orgy of righteous violence.

When I was in 5th and 6th grade I recived the dare program stuff for 2 weeks. At this time I had no idea if I were ever to try drugs, the thought never even passed my mind. During those 2 weeks I was told blatant lies about drug use and drugs in general.. I was told that pot (just smoking pot) has killed millions of people, which is so untrue it's not even funny.. Not one
person on this planet has died from pot smoke alone. They should have
re-worded that one, people do die from smoking pot, but not from the smoke, but from doing somthing stupid while under the influence. Another lie I was told is that your brain will fall out if you do lsd.. It was worded
exactly this way:

"Every LSD user knows that it may not be this trip or the next, but one time the lsd user will have the 'fatal' trip causing the users head to split open"

As a 10 year old boy, not knowing anything about drugs, you are going to think that this 'may' possibly be true. I picked up on it pretty quickly and at the end of the 2 weeks I saw what a ball of shit dare was. I dont even know why drug programs exist in schools. They do nothing what-so-ever to stop drug use. Out of all my friends, I have 2 friends who have never smoked or drank anything. That's like 2 out of 150 people or in my school. I think that the schools should still teach the true dangers of drugs, and the effects on your body (what each drug does, and if it's mentally addicting/physically addicting).

The closely watched case was an appeal by the Bush administration in a case involving two seriously ill California women who use marijuana.