Gov’t Should Facilitate Dope Smoking to Decrease Heroin Use, Says GOP Prez Candidate

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Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination, argues that if the government would facilitate marijuana smoking in this country it would decrease the use of heroin.

Johnson favors the legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of other drugs, including heroin.

He also believes that if state governments would like to do so, they should be able to open marijuana stores and sell marijuana directly to the people–although he would prefer that once marijuana is legalized that the government in his state of New Mexico stay out of the business of selling it.

“I espouse legalizing marijuana,” Johnson told CNSNews.com in an Online With Terry Jeffrey interview. “Control it, regulate it, tax it.”

cnsnews.com/news/article/gop-prez-candidate-gov-t-should-facilita
 
SURE, legalizing one drug is going to decrease the use of another drug :doh2:. That’s a plan…
I know what this guy is smoking…
 
tuscany said:
SURE, legalizing one drug is going to decrease the use of another drug :doh2:. That’s a plan…
I know what this guy is smoking…
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Right, just like making alcohol illegal eliminated its use. :rolleyes:
 
jilly4ski said:
But legalizing it, sure didn’t make its use any safer or rarer.🤷
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Right, but in return we stopped treating its use as a legal problem and started treating it as a moral/health problem, and created a tax revenue stream to boot.
 
Why doesn’t he suggest something to help the New Mexico economy, like peyote.

Peace, Graubo
 
Scott_Lafrance said:
Right, but in return we stopped treating its use as a legal problem and started treating it as a moral/health problem, and created a tax revenue stream to boot.
Click to expand...
**The point is, alcohol, dope and heroin are ALL problems in this country. Legal or illegal, they are causing personal, family and societal problems. If maybe keeping something illegal stops someone from doing it, then that’s a good thing.

Making dope legal doesn’t magically turn it into something good. It is still the gateway drug to the other drugs, and it is far, far more potent today than it was 40 years ago.

For this Gary Johnson to say that making dope legal will make heroin use drop is
ludicrous.

And for both to say that a good windfall from legalizing something that causes so much pain and misery is a way to get more tax revenue is troubling.**
 
tuscany said:
**The point is, alcohol, dope and heroin are ALL problems in this country. Legal or illegal, they are causing personal, family and societal problems. If maybe keeping something illegal stops someone from doing it, then that’s a good thing.

Making dope legal doesn’t magically turn it into something good. It is still the gateway drug to the other drugs, and it is far, far more potent today than it was 40 years ago.

For this Gary Johnson to say that making dope legal will make heroin use drop is
ludicrous.

And for both to say that a good windfall from legalizing something that causes so much pain and misery is a way to get more tax revenue is troubling.**
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You realize that Prohibition gave us Al Capone. The Drug War has given us the Zeta Cartel, among other things. Making something illegal doesn’t solve the problem. More often than not, it makes things worse.
 
Makes sense to me…

ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/war-on-drugs/

On November 20, 2008 Ron Paul said in a New York Times / Freakonomics interview:
“...] the federal war on drugs has proven costly and ineffective, while creating terrible violent crime. But if you question policy, you are accused of being pro-drug. That is preposterous. As a physician, father, and grandfather, I abhor drugs. I just know that there is a better way — through local laws, communities, churches, and families — to combat the very serious problem of drug abuse than a massive federal-government bureaucracy.”
 
Portugal now treats drug addicts instead of imprisoning them. So far the policy has been very successful. At the end of the day, taking someone who is addicted to a drug like heroin, putting them in prison with a bunch of other people who are drug addicts, and then eventually letting them out after there are good odds they joined a gang and are going to have lots of problems finding legal work because of a criminal conviction just doesn’t make sense.
 
Marijuana has been classified since 1972 as a “class 1” drug meaning it has no medical purpose, which is ridiculous. At a minimum it should be reclassified and decriminalized.
 
** The OP’s article said that Gary Johnson says that legalizing dope will decrease the use of heroin. Where does he get this, just pulls it out of thin air ? People will magically stop using heroin because dope will be legal ?? Dope is STILL the gateway drug to the harder drugs. That is mainly what I was responding to.

He also wants to decriminalize other drugs too. So because bad people will show up whenever the public wants to do something illegal, logically, we should just decriminalize everything so there won’t be any more criminals ?

I just don’t agree with you.

Maybe making dangerous things illegal hasn’t been the problem, maybe it’s been the implementation on how the government has handled it is the problem.

People with drug problems should be treated medically, not in jail. But to decriminalize something that is making these people dependent in the first place does not make any sense**
 
_Abyssinia said:
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination, argues that if the government would facilitate marijuana smoking in this country it would decrease the use of heroin.

Johnson favors the legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of other drugs, including heroin.

He also believes that if state governments would like to do so, they should be able to open marijuana stores and sell marijuana directly to the people–although he would prefer that once marijuana is legalized that the government in his state of New Mexico stay out of the business of selling it.

“I espouse legalizing marijuana,” Johnson told CNSNews.com in an Online With Terry Jeffrey interview. “Control it, regulate it, tax it.”

cnsnews.com/news/article/gop-prez-candidate-gov-t-should-facilita
Click to expand...
Well, that should garner him the hippie vote. 🙂
 
tuscany said:
** The OP’s article said that Gary Johnson says that legalizing dope will decrease the use of heroin. Where does he get this, just pulls it out of thin air ? People will magically stop using heroin because dope will be legal ?? Dope is STILL the gateway drug to the harder drugs. That is mainly what I was responding to.

He also wants to decriminalize other drugs too. So because bad people will show up whenever the public wants to do something illegal, logically, we should just decriminalize everything so there won’t be any more criminals ?

I just don’t agree with you.

Maybe making dangerous things illegal hasn’t been the problem, maybe it’s been the implementation on how the government has handled it is the problem.

People with drug problems should be treated medically, not in jail. But to decriminalize something that is making these people dependent in the first place does not make any sense**
Click to expand...
Right, Cannabis is a gateway drug ONLY because of the circle of people you suddenly get involved with, you get involved with drug dealers, eventually one or two of those dealers sell something harder then Cannabis, and you’ll get offered some, some people take it, thats why Cannabis if a gateway drug, not the drug itself.

To be honest, what he says makes sense, legalize it, regulate it and tax it, the fact the government could make a fair bit of money but regulating and taxing marijauna use, same as it does Tobacco and Alcohol, and takes the drugs out of the hands of the illegal market and into the hands of the Middle Class Business man.
 
Skeptic92 said:
Right, Cannabis is a gateway drug ONLY because of the circle of people you suddenly get involved with, you get involved with drug dealers, eventually one or two of those dealers sell something harder then Cannabis, and you’ll get offered some, some people take it, thats why Cannabis if a gateway drug, not the drug itself.

To be honest, what he says makes sense, legalize it, regulate it and tax it, the fact the government could make a fair bit of money but regulating and taxing marijauna use, same as it does Tobacco and Alcohol, and takes the drugs out of the hands of the illegal market and into the hands of the Middle Class Business man.
Click to expand...
**Is no one but me seeing the part that he thinks legalizing dope will decrease the use of heroin ? So if dope is legalized, people will magically not use heroin ? HE ALSO SAID HE WANTS TO LEGALIZE HEROIN AS WELL AS OTHER DRUGS. Are you people serious in thinking this is fine ?

And I don’t believe that dope and the other drugs are the innocent thing so many of you think it is. YOU guys have your heart surgeon, the big rig driver, your babysitter, or your airline crew smoking legal joints just before, or while they are working. As for me, NO THANK YOU.**
 
i actually know several people that were addicted to alcohol or heroin that used pot to help them stay clean (from the former). i can say one person (once the desire to drink was broken) gave up pot too as it is not physically addicting. another has kept clear of heroin for 20 yrs by substituting weed. it might not seem like a perfect trade off, but at least he can work/function and his family doesn’t have to worry about him dying from an overdose.

i don’t buy that pot is a gateway drug, but if one were to accept that, then i would imagine they would also have to claim the same for alcohol.

more people die from legal drugs than illegal ones and even so it is still a good thing that our government doesn’t arrest people (absolutely) for drinking and smoking cigarettes.

anyway, it is my belief God gave us this plant for our benefit. there is probably another thread discussing marijuana having properties that shrink tumors so i won’t go into that here. harvard published some research if anyone wants to google it.

peace.
 
Skeptic92 said:
To be honest, what he says makes sense, legalize it, regulate it and tax it, the fact the government could make a fair bit of money but regulating and taxing marijauna use, same as it does Tobacco and Alcohol, and takes the drugs out of the hands of the illegal market and into the hands of the Middle Class Business man.
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Well heck, let’s legalize prostitution and tax that too… :rolleyes:
 
mtbender said:
Well heck, let’s legalize prostitution and tax that too… :rolleyes:
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Prostitutions causes an easy to notice harm to society, the studies into cannabis has shown it’s nowhere near as damaging as alcohol, plus prohibition leads us to treat VICTIMS of drug addiction as criminals, not as victims.

Plus Prostitution is a complete red herring, properly controlled cannabis is nowhere near as damaging as the tobacco it’s mixed with, plus it’s not actually addictive (psychologically it may be, but your body does not actually WANT it like it does nicotine, you only think it does), is there a taxable controllable way to distribute Cannabis, yes it will also take it out of the hands of the drug cartels and dealers that wreak havok where it’s grown and distributed.
 
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