This forum is dying

[jcp123]

Drugs (heroin, meth, cocaine, etc.) should not be legalized. Try it once and you're hooked and your life becomes a living hell. I'm on the fence for marijuana; at least for recreational use. For medical use doctors should be peddling pot over oxy and such for cancer patients and the such. Why give someone a dangerous drug for a dangerous disease? Just let them smoke a joint to relieve the pain than some pill (which is addictive) that can kill you just as easily as the ailment the patient is suffering from.

The reason I say that is because treating addiction like a criminal problem has not really helped. We have crowded our prisons and sent billions of dollars down the toilet on a problem which has never gone away. I think it's worth a try to treat addiction like the medical problem it is, and hopefully thereby cut out the criminal element (drug smugglers and dealers) which cause the serious violence problems both here and abroad.

[Kitdy]

The reason I say that is because treating addiction like a criminal problem has not really helped. We have crowded our prisons and sent billions of dollars down the toilet on a problem which has never gone away. I think it's worth a try to treat addiction like the medical problem it is, and hopefully thereby cut out the criminal element (drug smugglers and dealers) which cause the serious violence problems both here and abroad.

I am in favour of legalizing all - currently illicit - "drugs", regulating and taxing them, and producing them in our own countries.

LT, I assume more people die because of drug illegalization overseas, just because prude countries like the US and Canada do not allow consenting adult citizens to do what they want in their own privacy.

The state has near 0 role in the affairs of individual's lives.

[f6fhellcat13]

I am in favour of legalizing all - currently illicit - "drugs", regulating and taxing them, and producing them in our own countries.

LT, I assume more people die because of drug illegalization overseas, just because prude countries like the US and Canada do not allow consenting adult citizens to do what they want in their own privacy.

The state has near 0 role in the affairs of individual's lives.

But Barry cares about us and the Queen aboot yoo!

I think possession should be decriminalized below a certain threshold, above which is intent to sell. jcp said it perfectly: treating a medical issue criminally is unlikely to succeed

[Kitdy]

But Barry cares about us and the Queen aboot yoo!

I think possession should be decriminalized below a certain threshold, above which is intent to sell. jcp said it perfectly: treating a medical issue criminally is unlikely to succeed

What then if private companies and/or the government were the sellers instead? Let's get the gangs out of this and let those that want to use drugs recreationally do so, and offer help to those upon who drugs have a negative impact.

[Kitdy]

But Barry cares about us and the Queen aboot yoo!

Pic related.

[LTSmash]

What then if private companies and/or the government were the sellers instead?

Private companies sell heroin and meth? Why don't they just make suicide booths? Or yet, just shoot the buyer on sight... because many people who start that don't make it back. It's not like alcohol addiction or something; much more serious.

[Kitdy]

Private companies sell heroin and meth? Why don't they just make suicide booths? Or yet, just shoot the buyer on sight... because many people who start that don't make it back. It's not like alcohol addiction or something; much more serious.

I think that people know the dangers of those drugs, and making them legal is not going to make them more popular. If you want to do heroin, you will. At least in this case you can use better methods (safe injection sites, counselling, etc) to help those with problems.

As I said before, the arrogant attitude of wealthy countries regarding what individuals put into their bodies is yielding tens of thousands of deaths per year in developing countries and aiding gangs, corruption, and poverty.

[jcp123]

^^ That's what I am getting at. Folks doing drugs are doing this to themselves and at most their families. The really insidious stuff has come from driving it underground. Heck, last night I watched a video of some drug cartel henchmen with, I believe, two men and two women. The women were stripped naked, the men blindfolded and all were forced on their knees to say what they were doing for the "other" gang/cartel/whatever. After "confessing", an axe was taken to their necks. They were then systematically dismembered and the limbs tossed like so much garbage into a drum of some kind of acid. It was brutal and chilling, and all because we as a society have created a completely criminal enterprise around drugs.

[LTSmash]

Folks doing drugs are doing this to themselves and at most their families.

This is a very narrow view of drug use (opioids especially) and its impact. Just saying...

[jcp123]

Alright, badly worded. There are wider societal impacts from people who do drugs (loss/estrangement from loved ones, burglary, unemployability, etc.). But nobody held a gun to their heads and forced them to shoot up, and as my friend from north of the border said, if they were prone to doing drugs in the first place, then prohibition sure didn't stop them, and neither did the idea of handing over good money to bad people, hanging out in crack houses, or driving through bad neighborhoods to acquire their high.

[LTSmash]

if they were prone to doing drugs in the first place, then prohibition sure didn't stop them, and neither did the idea of handing over good money to bad people, hanging out in crack houses, or driving through bad neighborhoods to acquire their high.

Who exactly is prone to do drugs? An addict can be someone who is as grounded as the next person, the honor roll and straight A student, or someone with a tough situation who is trying to escape from it.

I've met plenty of people who are indifferent to their marijuana habits (we all knew the pothead kid in college or high school)... and their pot use is akin to mild alcohol use. Hell, alcohol has more physically addictive properties than mj ever had. I've never come across a heroin/oxy/methadone addict who was complacent in their choice to start using. And its not like these people can just wake up and stop; cold turkey could kill these people from the withdrawal alone.

Pot enthusiasts (or whatever you want to call them) aren't empty vessels of their former selves. Opioid users are... from the moment they shot a syringe, popped a pill or crushed in water, they changed and lost themselves and crawled in bottomless hole. As someone who has witnessed the impact of this cycle in person; there is no way in hell that I, personally, would ever condone the idea of legalization and distribution of heroin and other hard drugs.

Alcohol prohibition was a failed experiment. But alcohol doesn't immediately change your life from the first drink (and comparing alcohol prohibition to criminalizing the distribution of heroin and meth is amateur and exemplifies little knowledge of their differences and its true impact to a human beings' life). The urge to use and abuse doesn't mentally and physically strike you after your first hangover. That first balloon or quarter immediately hits with a big comedown and you're trapped and you immediately want more and more and more... now that's criminal.

[Kooper]

I started writing a lengthy submission about just why I think activity has decreased here, and why I haven't been here nearly as frequently as I was at one point.

The distilled version: Speaking only for myself, I still love this place. My interest in all things automotive is still there, but it has taken a decided back seat to other, less interesting things that popped up in my day-to-day life in the meantime. Not much point in me participating here if I have little of worth to contribute.

I don't think there's necessarily anything that needs "fixing" here, I just think that the world's changed significantly (and somewhat frighteningly - and frightfully quickly) since 06-25-2007.
Always great to rediscover this place every so often though.

Just for my own curiousity, any chance of perhaps creating a /r/ultimatecarpage subreddit on... err... reddit?

[jcp123]

What is reddit?

[LTSmash]

What is reddit?

About two steps away from 4chan.

[jcp123]

Hmm. Must be getting old. No idea what that is, either.