Poll: 99 Percent Wouldn't Use Hard Drugs If They Were Legalized
EDITORIAL ADVISORY -- December 5, 2007
If Heroin or Cocaine Were Legal, Would You Use Them?
Zogby Poll Suggests Prohibition Doesn't Reduce Hard Drug Use
Washington, DC -- Marking the 74th anniversary of the repeal of national Alcohol Prohibition, StoptheDrugWar.org today released polling results suggesting that drug prohibition's main supporting argument may be simply wrong. Drug policy reformers point to a wide range of demonstrated social harms created by the drug laws -- crime and violence, spread of infectious diseases, official corruption, easy funding for terrorist groups, to name a few -- while prohibitionists argue that use and addiction would explode if drugs were legalized. But is the prohibitionist assumption well-founded? Zogby polling data released today asked 1,028 likely voters, "If hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine were legalized, would you be likely to use them?" Ninety-ninety percent of respondents answered, "No." Only 0.6 percent said "Yes." The remaining 0.4 percent weren't sure. While some of the "no" respondents may have been overoptimistic about their future self-discipline -- current use rates under prohibition are slightly higher than that -- the survey nevertheless demonstrates that almost all Americans consider the use of certain drugs to be inadvisable, for reasons other than their legal status. It is therefore unclear that laws are needed to dissuade them from using "hard drugs" or that legalization would result in increased addiction rates. The social implosion predicted by some drug warriors seems especially unlikely. The results are similar to usage rates occurring under today's "drug war," as measured by the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (formerly the National Household Survey). The 2006 NSDUH found 0.3 percent of the population had used heroin in the past month and 2.4 percent had used cocaine. Even for cocaine, the numbers are compatible, because Zogby surveyed persons aged 18 years and up, while NSDUH begins with age 12; and because of the poll's statistical margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. A comparison of drug use rates in countries with criminal penalties for drug use with the drug use rates of countries that have decriminalized personal use also suggests that policy may play only a secondary role in determining use rates. For example, in the Netherlands, where marijuana is sold openly in the famous "coffee shops," 12 percent of young adults age 15-24 reported using marijuana during 2005, as compared with 24 percent in neighboring France, where marijuana is an arrestable offense, according to data compiled by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.In the United States, where police make nearly 800,000 marijuana arrests each year, young adults age 18-25 in the 2004-2005 survey year reported past-year marijuana use at the rate of 27.9 percent. David Borden, StoptheDrugWar.org's executive director, commented when releasing the Zogby data:"Prohibition is sending hundreds of billions of dollars per year into the global criminal underground. That money fuels violence and disorder on the streets of our cities, while simultaneously helping to finance international terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted cocaine prices are a fifth of what they were 30 years ago, and any kid who wants to join the Mafia can sign up to deal it in his school. Addicts are harmed by the prohibition policy worst of all. It's time to stop shooting ourselves in the feet, and to control and regulate drugs through legalization."The full Zogby poll results are available online at: http://stopthedrugwar.org/legalization StoptheDrugWar.org (still known to many of our readers as DRCNet, the Drug Reform Coordination Network), is an international organization working for an end to drug prohibition worldwide and for reform of drug policy and the criminal justice system in the US. Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle for the latest issue of our weekly, in-depth newsletter, Drug War Chronicle. — END — prohibition-era beer raid, Washington, DC (Library of Congress)
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Marijuana Legalization Fine - But what about Hard Drugs?
Why are all candidates afraid to address the issue of the War on Drugs? Why are all media reporters afraid to ask this question of all candidates?? Time to end this insanity now!
Reganism instilled the WAR ON DRUGS ACT - in effect, another dismal attempt at Prohibition, which now has our jails bulging with first time non-violent offenders locked up for using drugs or innocently being associated with someone who used or sold drugs.
The end of Reganism should also be an end to Prohibition and a repeal of the WAR ON DRUGS ACT which has devastated the economy, put non-violent offenders (tax paying citizens)with career criminals and drained this economy to a breaking point. It has yielded relentless federal prosecutors to demand justice by inappropriate cruel long sentencing and tied the hands of judges to effectuate the proper treatment of a drug user to a rehabilitation center instead of a hard core prison. I hope that Reganism dies for ever or is outlawed!
I don't care if someone has been married three times, has five mistresses, does or does not go to church (maintaining the separate of Church and State) as long as he is aware of a government of the People, By the People and For the People.
Commentators – Moderators – all news people ---- please ---- ask the candidates when they will rescind this Terrible Prohibition and get to the real issue at hand – go after the drug czars – not the afflicted sick non violent tax paying citizens.
Here is a big laugh - part and parcel of why the Justice Department is so screwed up. Supporters of former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales have created a trust fund to help pay for his legal expenses, which are mounting in the face of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales committed perjury or improperly tampered with a congressional witness. Justice??? My butt!
This sickens me to no end. While innocent people sit in jail (4th 6th 8th & 14th amendments violated), no money for defense, this corrupt justice department runs rampant with Bush appointees that forget this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Gonzalez should plea bargain because you know Bush will pardon him.
Why waste our money in a trial? The Attorney General appointees from states are sitting in Washington DC leaving their state's prosecuting offices in a shambles; no direction, run, by dictator shark prosecutors and defenseless poor tax paying people sitting in jail waiting for the axe to drop. Shame on this government - it is not a democracy any longer - it is a dictatorship. Down with Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez and all of his followers - No Fords in this family.
Where is the ACLU??
Time for US voters to wake up! Face the issues and down with Prohibition and the War on Drugs as well! You won't find StoptheWarOnDrugs Org., L.E.A.P. or F.A.M.M. supporting Gonzalez - or Bush - Time we took the government back and get rid of these mongers! I know a good place to put all of them - a prison far away where there is no mercy - no money and no defense - just as they do NOTHING for us!
The church bashing needs to go away
If we freedom lovers are going to win against the evils in our gov't we need to fight on the same side. There are many, many Christians and Christian organizations that believe the War on Drugs is dead wrong. Do some research.
We Christians are just as upset as anyone that George Bush and his wealthy do gooder like have hijacked our faith to do their evil under a cloak of good.
I live in the fat of the Bible Belt. I don't know one sensible Christian that believes drug testing or swat teams killing puppies or The War in general to be Christlike/right.
Jesus said "whatever you do to the least of these you do to me". Is that being honored by the Christ professing G.W. or any of the high profile tele-evangelist? That should tell you they are fake. Yet, it's easier for you to paint us all with a broad brush isn't it? You got to blame someone...right?
You want to blame someone? Blame the rich and powerful in this country that buys their ideals wholesale from congressmen. Blame the millions of 40 and under that won't get off out from infront of their game boxes long enough to vote. They have been "convinced" their vote doesn't count when they outnumber the opposition. More mind control.
We tend to vote the same idiots in office over and over. How is that? There are millions of smokers and nonsmokers that disagree with these laws, why are they inacted? Corruption and again...mind control.
Stop voting Republicrat and vote for a third party. If the party isn't on your ballot move to change that. Don't blame every man you see with a Bible. If you haven't noticed the gov't doesn't much like us either. Remember Waco?
You are just as guilty of being brainwashed as anyone. The gov't tells you something and you swallow it whole and accuse your counterparts of being blind. Wake the hell up man.
This is a battle for freedom. period. When you figure that out you will begin to grow.
...and by the way. There is no such thing as "separation of church and state". Another brain wash. It's no where in the Constitution.
The 1st amendment states "congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or religion". Where do you get separation of church and state from that? That simply says the State can't tell you who to worship. Period.
Get control of your own mind friend and then we can all come together as one and fight this battle as "we the people".
Another scripture for ya..."A house divided cannot stand".
Fair Game
There can be no doubt that many people who use recreational drugs are also religious—this is America, after all. But until Pope Benedict XVI, Mormon Church president Gordon B. Hinckley, and any or all Pat Robertson clones come out for drug law reform, I would say their respective religions are fair game.
The religious themselves are irrelevant but for what influence they may have to change their churches’ policies and preferences with respect to any support a specific organized religion maintains for the drug war.
It’s not uncommon for adherents to be way ahead of their church’s policies. But most religions are systems with top-to-bottom hierarchies, so needed change gets addressed very slowly.
One other note; it doesn't matter that the exact words "separation of church and state" don't appear in the Constitution. Separation of church and state is a long recognized part of U.S. common law (legal precedent).
Giordano
Right on
Dont forget "judge not less the be judged." There are alot of Christians who listen to crap that is not there like "Jesus was a Jew" (an abomination read John8:44) and that the "jews" are Israel, and they think Israel is a country in the bible. It is not. Many hypocrites! Yet some things are right there "Every green herb for meat" wow..imagine that..in the very first book even. So they will tell people they are commiting sin, yet they think a group of murderers of the worse aparteid ever in modern history are "His Chosen people". With prohibition, the mind will allways tend to guilt, when in actuallity, herbs and some illicit drugs open not your mind but actually intensify whats really in your heart.
Some things like MDMA,(ectasy) I believe the evil corrupt governet has locked down on to stop a revolution of togetherness. the people who really run everything need us in constant conflict..oh looks like I allready mentioned them or thier base. The international bankers have everyone by the yoke. Once Christians figure out that the anglo-saxon is the lost tribes of Israel, and one group who easyly recognixed by Christs comment "by their fruits you shall know them"..see whose the devils chosen, and who most corrupttoin and drug profits come to, they will se its time to once again have "free will" to choose. I wont buy any soda but diet, sugar I dont need the calories, yet its legal to everyone, even though the choices of flavors are better, I do wihtout for MY health.
Alot of us has been forced to change jobs. Why cant all the prison money go into farming? Thats another reason they wont legalize. I am not the only Christian to feel this way. Drug policy has been brought into exixtence by control freaks and jew know who, not Christians
Hard drug use would decline with legalization
If all types of recreational drugs were re-legalized and sold in
regulated, controlled and taxed business establishments for pennies per
dose, our overall crime rate would decline dramatically and our public
safety would increase substantially.
And, I believe, that our overall drug usage rates would decline
substantially. That's because drug dealers as we know them today would
disappear for economic reasons.
The first time almost all drug users use a particular drug, they don't
buy it -- either a friend or drug dealer gives it to them.
Most retail drug dealers of hard drugs are addicts themselves. They
sell drugs to finance their own drug habit and recruit new users by
offering free samples to potential customers. With the end of drug
prohibition this practice would end.
Kirk Muse
Every legalization attempt
Every legalization attempt is usually stalled by the proposed alternative system; whether taking issue with which drugs (and in which forms and quantities) or how to operate and regulate, and where to locate, legalized dispensaries.
I used to be a legalizer, but I have drifted towards being more of a pure harm-reductionist. Obviously enforcing user-sanctions against users of hard drugs or 'soft' drugs is a ludicrous waste of public resources, to say nothing of it being an excessive infringement on liberty. But I'm not sure that open legalization is the best choice -- though it's necessary to clarify that I (of course) believe the status quo needs to move quite a bit in the legalization direction. I mean doctors should have access to heroin (viz. Brompkin's cocktail as used in British hospice-like settings). And doctors should also be allowed to prescribe maintenance doses of narcotics to treat chronic pain (and to treat addicts as well).
Most people's reluctance to accept legalization as an alternative derives from the belief, propagated by Califano of CASA, that legalization would increase the number of heavy cocaine users by the tens of millions. Obviously this is BS. What we in the drug reform community need to figure out how to do is to paint the picture of our desired legalization regime as one where we are trying to decrease use of the most hardest drugs ingested by the most risky methods. To anyone who buys the basic tenets of the drug war this is a hard sell. As in the fact that we would like to make, say Coca-chewing gum, legal (as suggested in the 1970's by Dr. Andrew Weil) in order to decrease the desirability of powder/rock cocaine or other riskier substances we think are substitutes (in the economic sense of the word).
Side note: While most drug dealers are users themselves, that is only because we define dealer as anyone who sells (or even shares, technically) and quantitatively there are exponentially more guys moving dime bags than pushing kilos. Most mid-level and higher hard-drug dealers are definitely not addicts, and most don't even use.
Peter Mathews
Let's give it a three year trial!
Let's give legalization a three year trial to see what becomes of it. If the government is correct in thrie assumptions then let it stay illegal, and if the pro folks are correct then legalize it for good.
This idea would make a lot more sense than wasting money that is scarce enough without all the massive spending on the so called "Drug War" .
Let's have a try at this approach to see what happens. Nothing could be lost by it, but for a few money mongers that work for the pharmacials or enforcement officials that make their loot from this War!
RON PAUL for President 2008
I am not sure why I haven't seen anything about Ron Paul on here! He wants to end the drug war.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Legalize It?
The Washington Post is reporting that the biggest pot settlement ever may be happening soon in Colorado. According to the constitution, police stations will now be required to have grow rooms in their stations. Is it too soon to declare "Mission Accomplished"?
Nothing New
The fact that very few people will ever use the really "hard" drugs is eminently provable simply by looking at the data on use rates and comparing the use of various drugs against that of alcohol and marijuana. I did the work to make it easy to prove it all roughtly two years ago: http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/big-pic/index.htm
and did a write up here: http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20051218220358430
Nice to see somebody else is finally catching on.
b
Along with "hard drugs", natural form would be legal
Have you ever seen a coca leaf? I haven't either. In order to suppress the allegedly dangerous powder, authorities have made the natural leaf hard to get. Andeans chew it, etc. I'd try it too-- via the smoking route, ground to a 1/16th-inch particle size, in a 25-mg. serving in an anti-overdose screened-crater utensil.
Someone once gave me some cocaine powder so I simply up and ate it. Still throwing up hours later. Same thing happened when I tried a small piece of opium. That's how you know they are poison-- like tobacco. But-- you could dry and toke the petal of an opium poppy, couldn't you? Just one or two little tokes to get an idea-- that's dynamic tokenism.
I think quite a few Americans are practical-minded and curious enough to see it this way. Bravado overdose suicide is a "culture" forced on us by big-bucks cigaret advertising over the last century or two.
Anyone who takes a "big hit" on a wide-bowl bong and bursts out coughing is simply a victim of this tobacco-based commercial overdose "culture" and has proved nothing one way or another about cannabis or any other herb.
I am seriously interesting in seeing if DRC will have the "stones" to endorse and support and promote a safe anti-overdose smoking method which guarantees 25-mg. serving size for tobacco, cannabis and all other herbs anyone wants to use au naturel, i.e. unadulterated dried leaf or petal and that's it.
If you are too lazy to make your own utensil out of a screened socket wrench or hose-nipple with a long flexible extension tube, go to your computer and check out Lsando.com, a Tokyo shop which exports the KISERU, and also look at a similar middle-eastern product named MIDWAKH. Both permit small servings burned at minimum temperature if you learn the technique of sucking slow enough.
grind coca leaf?
smoking coca leaf until you flet something would cause emphesyma, like 600 leaves for a gram? they chew these and its a appetite supresant and like caffiene. they make meth with match heads but wont do you any good to chew matches. Matchheads are not illegal, eith er should coca leaf..but if they did dont smoke it..
Drug legalization
The Ruling Class is very well aware of the FACTS about drug addiction and legalization. The Capitalists are in fact KNOWINGLY deceiving people. They have smart scientists and Think Tanks that do the research. The Ruling Class WANTS to deceive us, so that it gets away with putting people in jail who are poor and/or black or brown: in other words people who are most unlikely to vote for Conservative or Right-wing candidates for public office. The sacrifice and struggles of the Civil Rights Movements of the '60's and '70's have been NULLIFIED by these means.
The United States of America has the LARGEST percentage of its population in prison, of any country of the world, LARGER than China, Russia, or any Dictatorship, Fascist or Communist; it is the "Land of the Free", no longer! Entirely the result of the "Drug Wars".
All this is upheld by DELIBERATE and systematic LYING. It is WE who are being deceived; NOT the Capitalists that rule over us, and MAKE the laws.
Where would Big Pharma get its HUGE PROFITS, if Medical Marijuana were legal, and a good three fourths of Big Pharma's synthetic and expensive products became OBSOLETE overnight?
thats funny...
DUDE.. Clinton passed more laws against chemical compounds then any president! Its not a "neoconservative" effort. Vote 3rd party. Big democrats are more pushers of drug laws, those are more governent jobs with bigger prison making. they are alos the worse on regulation. Ask why farmers are republican or indepentent. the 2 parties..both are controlled by big money jews...look whos got the biggest mouth on boht sides..like pelosi..alwasy jews. If we wake up to them and do other things than watch their 96% contolled media by them..we might realize we are supporting the murderers of the universe..thats why they play both sides. Why are we in afghanistan? Because the jews dont want their neighbors to have money power. Anyway Clinton passed the "designer drug" laws in 99 that means if you make something not listed and it has any "good" efftects, its illegal
Connoisseurs and Regulations
Survey results showing 99-percent would not take hard drugs if such drugs were made legal probably compares favorably to the percentage who would refuse to jump off a bridge with no bungees or parachutes (there’s always one…).
People today have a hugely better understanding of pharmacology than citizens did in 1914 when the Harrison Narcotics Act was enacted. Today’s informed connoisseur of synapse surprises doesn’t want or need a paternalistic government chaperone.
Unfortunately, governments seem to attract the types of people who really do need chaperones, but never receive any. For example, in February, 1998, West Virginia legalized the eating of road kill. Contrast West Virginia’s road kill consumer law with the fact that marijuana remains illegal in W.V. The mind boggles when the government regulates.
Some countries; Thailand is one, don’t require a person to have a prescription to buy legal drugs. Thais are expected to know what they’re doing when they buy and use a pharmaceutical product. Except for purity requirements, etc., the government middle man, whose task in America seems to be to prop up the dozens of different profit schemes that become part of the cost of the drug, is thankfully absent.
Giordano
drugss
Okay well first of all Doing drugs will ruin your life ppl are sooo stupid to be doing drugs, think of how much other stuff u could be buying with the 10 bucks u spend on weed or whatever else everyday or more then once a dayy.. no wonder why ppl are poor they spend their money on all these drugs, and how long do they make u feel good for, some a couple hours and some only minutes... some ppl take then for their problems, or whatever, but when your high is all over, your problems are still there. so think about that.. stop useing drugs iligally, your hurting yourself aswell as the ppl you love. your taking time off of your life for what.. a couple hour or less high.. lose the drugs ppl your only fooling yourselff.
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