And what's the deal with anti-depressant drugs?

That kinda sounds lame. No offense to you, just your schools.
I took a seven year break after I graduated highschool, went to a school that has a 21% graduation rate, smoked pot every day *4, and still finished with an A in every class I took. Well, the one professor gave me a B+, but that's technically an A-. Sure, they were all first year courses, but I did the work as well as I could, all things considered.

 

/facepalm

 

The lackadaisical ethics of Australian schools don't take place at Northampton. Either you do the work or you get a zero. I'm proud of the work I did, but I'll admit I could've done better if I didn't smoke so much weed.

 

The attitude of drug users are more troublesome than the drugs self, indeed. Their behaviour are totally changed and different than before they began to become an user.

There is a lot of accurate information these days, but if some people don't do anything with it, then there will be still drugs deaths.

Pot or weed does not wreck your body and mind like hard drugs like Speed, coke or heroine. Yes, you can become addicted to weed or pot, but it does not chance you into a walking wreck.

 

The problem with heroine is that the sensations one gets while using can actually stimulate the production of natural opiates in the brain responsible for feelings of love. Eventually, the only way one can get this feeling is through using heroine, and everything else becomes meaningless. Watch Requiem for a Dream.
The problem is that no matter what the laws are, people are going to find a way to get the drugs they crave, so it's better to simply legalize and regulate. By legalizing the drugs, the government can make sure the drugs people are getting are clean, and in non-lethal doses. Plus, the drugs through the gov't would be cheaper on the whole, completely outclassing street drugs in both potency and cost.
Opium and its derivatives were made illegal in the US due to Chinese laborers using opium to work long hours at repetitive and tedious jobs, i.e. the only places that would hire them. People not using opium couldn't work through the night or for more than 12 hours because they weren't being stimulated in the same way as the Chinese laborers.
Coca and its derivatives were used to breed dissention against the black community. It was said that a "negroe" on crack had the strength of ten men, and would go on crime sprees and rape white women.
Cannabis was used to stereotype Mexicans as lazy layabouts.
The reason users of hard drugs are so different from the standard populace is that they have unregulated, illicit drug addictions and can't moderate their habits anymore. If the government stepped in, they would be moderating the use of the drugs. This won't fix the problem, because those people are wrecked now and may never live normal lives again. And, honestly, I don't think heroine should be legal, nor morphine or crack or cocaine. But, if opium was legal, and coca, then people would have moderated sources of high-quality coca for use in teas or as a stimulant in chewing gum, much as nicotine is, and opium is generally a relaxant.
Coca is not nearly as big of a problem in its place of origin.
Opium wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't illegal.
It's not those plants that are the problem, it's the illegal to possess derivatives that ruin people's lives.

 

I made the mistake of smoking pot while doing advanced pharmacology exams. The funny thing is when I reached the section of the exam on pot and THC, I thought "I must do well on this section, I'm stoned!"

But no.

I quite agree that legalisation is the only practical solution to the health problem of addiction. Not to mention the problem of billions and billions of dollars going to organised crime. Amongst others, the Taliban would be bankrupt overnight, and there's another trillion dollars saved right there.

It's just stupid to wage war on plants and chemicals, and the citizens who love them. Like most of the 20th century stupidities, there's no chance of a change until all the old people die.

 

I smoked pot while writing papers because it helped me to distance myself from the subject matter and write more objectively. However, while writing my final paper of the semester, I was in Kansas with my sister, nephew, and brother in law during Thanksgiving and couldn't smoke due to not wanting the hassle of airport security finding my stash. I wrote a paper on evolution and how fossils can be misinterpreted, and how this in no way discounts the theory as a whole, stating that we simply haven't found all of the evidence yet. I spent a lot of time on Ediacaran fossils. I got an A, that's what counts.

 

I don't see how legalising the stuff so more people can do drugs instead of just allowing the dregs of society to kill themselves with them is better.

 

It's not so more people can do drugs. While I'm sure there are indeed people who don't do drugs because they're illegal, they're definitely a minority.
Say sodomy is illegal in your locus. You also happen to be a gay male. Will the law prevent you from having anal sex? I don't think so. So, removing the law would essentially allow people to practice sodomy without fear of reprisal during a compromising situation.
The same thing can be said of drug use. By legalizing the plants by which the drugs are made, and regulating the use of plants through government run dispensation stations, or "stores," you're ensuring that the people who get the plants are getting clean plants, cheaper than on the street, and they're also no longer breaking the law.
If cannabis was legalized, there'd finally be a substitute for trees in the paper production market. Hemp is the only plant that can compete with trees in pulp production. What should the government do? Legalize.
The dregs will get their drugs no matter what, so why not legalize the item of their desire and eliminate the "crime" associated with attaining said substances? Plus, it'll cut down on people being killed in the streets over obtaining the substances, or the money for their purchase through shady dealers.

 

I'll support Grossenschwamm on this one and endorse the legalization of sodomy.

 

Plus making drugs illegal is pretty retarded when alcohol is legal. And remember how things went to hell when we made THAT illegal? Its a fairly similar situation actually.

 

In Australia you can grow up to 4 marijuana trees to a certain height legally anyway. As long as you aren't selling it you are fine so sucks to be in a crap country I suppose.

 

Um, I don't think so Zanza. I wish it were so. That would be civilised, but not even SA allows that anymore. Possibly ACT still allows it.

It does suck to live in a crap country. Ah well, when all the old folk die... then we can impose our values on the younglings while they wait for us to die. Mwhahaha.

 

You can, its been decriminalised, not made legal though you just get a slap on the wrist.

 

...but... this is tremendous news!!!

Thankyou, sir!

 

Zanza, have you ever been to Nimben?

 

Hah! You betcha. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

 

I wish all places elicited star wars references.

 

Eh? What's this, Gross? You've changed your signature to an ode to your testicles? It used to be a misogynist argument based on video games.

I deduce it's going well with your new girlfriend?