Well, if you knowingly break the law then...yeah...
How's about this. Why don't we all rally to purge the world and our nations of laws that punish that which is not inherently harmful?
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· 3 years ago
I totally agree with you here. Problem is just that (certain) recreative drugs had NOT been made illegal over such a long period of time for the purpose of harm reduction. I almost hate to spoil this little moment of unity, but the actual motivation was - sigh - racism. It's an abundantly proven fact that opiates, cocaine and cannabis had majorly been prohibited to target certain racial groups (opiates = asians, cocaine - blacks, cannabis = mexicans/blacks). These things develop into a self-regulating system when the original purpose was not the pretended. The history of alcohol prohibition shows what happens when a recreational drug is prohibited for reasons of public safety and health alone without any racist context, and authorities learn (the hard way) how drug prohibition has so much more negative effects on a society and the individual user than a regulated liberalization. Why did it still take more than 60 years after the LaGuardia Report of 1944 to even consider cannabis?
Okay? Literally has no effect on what I said?
Also, way to ignore the American Indians.
I only said that if it isn't inherently harmful, it shouldn't be the state's concern. Systemic racism can only flourish when done by an empowered state, along with most other of the worst injustices.
What drug was prohibited to aim at american natives? Far as I know some of them even got pretty sweet extra treatment, looking at peyote.
As I said, I agree with what you said, just that it won't be easy to normalize things as these drug prohibitions are so deeply rooted in the us society. And I noted you have a tendency to go ballistic once I mention racism. Sorry for the trope, it wasn't even necessary in this case. Mea culpa.
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· 3 years ago
Peyote I believe, but don't take my word as gospel. My memory sucks.
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· 3 years ago
I'd say peyote is different from most recreational drugs in that is not commonly used as recreational. It doesn't do anything different from acid or shrooms except a period of severe nausea and explosive vomiting. I did it a couple of times and it's not a happy fun-time thing at all for the most part. Also in the case of opiates, cocaine and cannabis, white people always used them in equal or higher ratio than minorities but got punished way less than them, in terms of number of convictions and duration of jail, times. Especially in the case of cannabis (due to it being more wide spread than any other illicit drug) the laws were used to prosecute and silence deviant individuals, political leaders and protagonists of any sort of sub culture, also here with significantly more drastic consequences for non-white people. I was pretty sure none of that applied to peyote, that's why I didn't mention it in this context, sorry if this is perceived as ignorance and/or disrespect.
How's about this. Why don't we all rally to purge the world and our nations of laws that punish that which is not inherently harmful?
Also, way to ignore the American Indians.
I only said that if it isn't inherently harmful, it shouldn't be the state's concern. Systemic racism can only flourish when done by an empowered state, along with most other of the worst injustices.
As I said, I agree with what you said, just that it won't be easy to normalize things as these drug prohibitions are so deeply rooted in the us society. And I noted you have a tendency to go ballistic once I mention racism. Sorry for the trope, it wasn't even necessary in this case. Mea culpa.