well I'm not really meaning over the counter, it would have to be regulated of course, but the point is most of the issues the show outlines are actually more due to the fact that it's illegal. At the moment manufacture and distribution is controlled by gangsters - hence the prohibition analogy - all the prohibition did was make a lot of money for people on the black market, which also lead to dangerous moonshines that were toxic, could make people blind etc etc..... because the people getting into it knew people would get whatever they could, so they made dodgy bootlegs.MarkvW wrote:Wow. I look at this show a lot differently. Meth is absolute poison. It destroys everybody it touches in the show.Forge. wrote:just got to the end of season 3
ahh shit I liked Gale....
Love that Harvey Keitel dude though, classic character.
anyone who still thinks drugs should be illegal needs to watch breaking bad....
thought the prohibition showed that
Boardwalk empire is a perfect companion to this
Think how awful it would be if drugs were legalized. Anybody could buy penicillin. Morons would use it like candy and super-bacteria would develop (and everyone would be hurt). Teenagers would be chomping oxycodone like candy; and parents would be crying. PCP in the household--it would be devastating. Cocaine psychosis would become commonplace. Driving would be really expensive and the DUI laws would become super-tough. Imagine dependency court if drugs were legalized--it would be even worse for the little children of dopehead parents than it is now.
Some drugs should be legal, just like alcohol and nicotine are legal. But other drugs should NEVER be legalized--meth, PCP, and penicillin, for example, must be restricted. In my opinion the debate should always be over particular drugs--not all drugs in general.
likewise, drugs are made underground with no concern for how toxic they are so there is no doubt that they are far more dangerous than they could be if they were manufactured under strict guidelines to minimise negative effects.
The 'war on drugs' is a total failure and always will be because the demand is so high and there is so much money in it, so better to actually do all possible to reduce the damage.
Plus at the moment all the profits are untaxed, yet society still has to foot the bill for all the problems they create. If it was taxed the revenue could be used towards fixing those problems, including better research into how, and education to use them properly etc. Not to mention that you would also be taking a huge chunk of income away from organised crime etc..
Plus it would open the way for developing "healthy" ways of taking them - like maybe a cannabis inhaler for example that doesn't involve smoke to reduce lung damage.
And cocaine for example - if you look at how it's manufactured currently it's scary - they use petrol as the solvent and caustic soda and things like that, then it gets cut with all kinds of crap, making the purity very low so people take more of it. And people still take it in the millions. If it was regulated they would be able to use safer alternatives as it could be made in proper labs with better solvents etc and make it purer.
Of course the problems wouldn't go away, but it would be easier to minimise some of them because people would be able to tackle it as a civilised society rather than pretending it's not there and leaving it in the hands of gangsters.
