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A comment on The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 to YesOn19. Parent comment

Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by VladRussian on Friday October 29, 2010 @08:13PM (#1849609)
>The justifications used in your post are equally applicable to cocaine and to other drugs.

Cocaine was legal before it became illegal. What results il-legalization of cocaine have produced? More crime and more funding for crime organizations - check. What else? Look at the history of opium as well. And don't even start about LSD - the drug my reading about have discovered it having only positive benefits so far.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by rick888 on Saturday October 30, 2010 @01:27AM (#1850187)
"Look at the history of opium as well."

You mean the fact that it was legal in China about 500 years ago and it nearly created an entire country of addicts?

Vicodin (another form of heroin) is legal, yet there is still a black market for it.

I would also be interested to see "your reading" where LSD only had "positive benefits".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by VladRussian on Saturday October 30, 2010 @05:09PM (#1851820)
>it nearly created an entire country of addicts

An entire country of addicts was nearly created by a Big, i'd say Huge, Business + Government Corporation - Britain's East India Company. These and other addictive substances have existed through the history of human species. They become a huge problem only when big money and/or big power gets involved.

>Vicodin (another form of heroin) is legal, yet there is still a black market for it.

that your statement doesn't make sense - Vicodin is legal for prescribed purposes. People having Vicodin prescription don't buy it at black market. Vicodin is illegal for all other situations, and in these situations people go to black market.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by matwood on Saturday October 30, 2010 @03:18AM (#1850347)
Vicodin (another form of heroin) is legal

If you're using Vicodins legal status (requires prescription) as a comparison then pot and cocaine are already legal.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by llimllib on Saturday October 30, 2010 @11:13AM (#1850996)
> If you're using Vicodins legal status (requires prescription) as a comparison then pot and cocaine are already legal.

I believe in legalization, but this this is false (in the US at least). Pot is a Schedule I prohibited substance, Cocaine is a Schedule II prescription drug, and Vicodin is Schedule III. Each schedule carries with it a large difference in how available and legal a drug is.

"legal" is a spectrum, and vicodin is much more legal than pot or cocaine are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act#Sched...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by matwood on Monday November 01, 2010 @11:07AM (#1856704)
While that is true on a federal level it is quite a bit different on a state level. In CO for example, pot is very simple to get legally. You can tell a doctor you have head aches, back pain, whatever and quickly get a pot card. When it comes to pot it is legally easier to get than an endless prescription of vicodin. At one point they had 'doctors' onsite at the pot dispensaries, but I think they may have recently changed that part.

You are right that cocaine is more strictly controlled than either of the other substances, but the original point I was making is that you can't use vicodin as an example of a legal substance when it's not freely available.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by rick888 on Saturday October 30, 2010 @10:18AM (#1850893)
"f you're using Vicodins legal status (requires prescription) as a comparison then pot and cocaine are already legal."

Right..so why fight for other forms of it then?

Also, it didn't stop people from selling it on the black market (like so many proponents would like you to believe)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by VBprogrammer on Saturday October 30, 2010 @08:45PM (#1852169)
It may be legal, but not in the sense that access to it is unrestricted. I can't think of a situation where it is possible for a black market to exist for a legal and unrestricted product.

Not that I'm arguing for or against just enjoying seeing the opinion of other HN readers.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by matwood on Monday November 01, 2010 @11:11AM (#1856715)
What researchers should do is look at the prevalence of black markets in states where pot is easy to get legally. In CO pot is easier to get legally than anything else other than alcohol or tobacco. I wonder what that has done for COs black market for pot.
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Re:The quest for freedom and safety: Why I donated $100,000 ... by Symmetry on Saturday October 30, 2010 @07:57PM (#1852093)
Erm , no it wasn't. Opium was illegal in China which is part of the reason that China ended up at war with Britain where it was legal. Its totally unfair to use that as an argument for legalization since the problem was more complicated than that, but its also unfair to use it as an argument against legalization.
[ Parent | on HN ]