The welfare state?

I have a son who is an addict. He was busted back in October with possession of meth and is out on only $1000 bond. This is since he got out of prison last December for burglary to support his habit. We hate to leave the house unattended because he knows what I have in the safe.

Your point of view is predicated on the idea that a "law enforcement" solution does anything to stem the usage of drugs.

I flat-out don't believe that.  In fact, current and past evidence indicates that it only makes it violent and lucrative to some evil motherfuckers, along with taking control of sales to children completely out of government hands.

Like I said earlier in this thread, your outlook is based on the assumption that there are legions of people who are currently productive citizens who would run out and be keeled over in the gutter holding a bag of dope if drugs were ever legalized.

No, I think that people are going to do what they are going to do, especially with substance abuse, there is no stemming or stopping it.

I see drug laws as a disorderly conduct issue. I do not give a flying fuck if junkies are dying of overdose in a dismal flophouse somewhere. I don't care if a tweaker is howling at the moon in the yard of his trailer. I don't want to see it on the sidewalks while I am out on a date/going to the store/doing whatever. Tolerance of public drug use and drug sales is the reason LA, San Francisco, and Seattle are total fucking shitholes and unpleasant places to be.

It's a conduct based law, like vagrancy, that we used to believe in as a society, that is being attacked by socialists, liberals, and communists because it assists them in their goal of eroding American culture.

I definitely don't want to pay a single dime for any healthcare for someone suffering the effects of a choice they made.

Its awful, her life is ruined, shes been raped, beaten had to have an abortion, almost died from bleeding out at a tweekers place, etc by other drug user meth heads. Truly a fucking life destroying drug.

Ramp that shit up or down, but the status quo has to end.  Shoot addicts and dealers dead in the streets or swap out the HUT HUT parade for rehabilitation for the willing and Darwin for the rest.

It is such anecdotes that fuel the War on Drugs, Privacy, and Civil Liberties.  Life is cruel, be kind to those that you can and have sympathy for those that got the short stick.

It's everywhere here in central NC.  I'd say half my young friends do it on the regular and are now lying, homeless pieces of shit because of it.  I've known more people to die from heroin/fentanyl overdoses though.

A border war, nightly gang murders in American cities, SWAT teams kicking down doors of innocent families on the word of some shitbag doper informant, etc., is one heullva price to pay for a "good neighborhood" law.  Far too much, IMO.

And back in the Good Ol' Days you could buy a carboy of morphine along with your Maxim gun.

Heck, back when I was a kid we used to make fun of police "checkpoints" as some Boris & Natasha stuff that only happened in communist hellholes.

Locally, nearly 100% of all drug arrests involve meth and opioids.

LE says meth is everywhere, cheap and powerful. Mexican meth is cheaper and easier to get than even attempting to 'shake n bake' in the Cum N Go bathrooms.

Nearly all residential/property crime has been related to meth use.

In St. Louis city, meth is simply an accepted part of drug use and ALL the ER's are flooded with drug related emergencies, more than alcohol or opioids.

You don't get out much do you? I've never met an engineer without a caffeine addiction or an iron worker who didn't use meth/crack/caffeine

I was watching a show on addiction a few weeks ago...The show talked about a Virginia coal miner who lost his leg in a work accident. Doctor prescribed Oxy. Was taken off Oxy, had to go back to work to support family. No more oxy for pain, turned to heroin.

His work injury caused him pain that I could not imagine yet tried to get back to work. What are patients to do if they are taken off a pain killer based on politicians laws.

I do agree, people make bad decisions. I just think that there has to be a better way.

Not to mention every infantryman or sailor worth his paycheck can pretty well survive on caffeine in lieu of food or sleep for a good 48 hours.

Guess they weren't "challenged as a child" or something.

Weird post is weird.

Oh, and that shit they sell to soccer moms at Starbucks isn't coffee; it's dessert

I say this with absolute knowledge.
Since the crackdown on pills, in the last year meth has came back hard. Meth was the king here first but when they made it nearly impossible to get the ingredients it died down. People moved to pills because they were abundant and cheap before they restricted them. Now that you couldn’t get a pain pill with a bone sticking out of you, the old supply and demand market has changed everything. Honestly I don’t know how they are getting the ingredients for the meth but they are making it somehow. The drug problem here is out of control.

When my adopted son was a teenager I had to log chain and padlock my safe to keep him from stealing stuff.....in addition to changing the combination.
The last straw was when he drew back his fist to hit his Mother.I knocked him down,straddled him and beat his face bloody.He was 17 years old.
He went on to do 9 1/2 years in prison for making/ selling dope.

I think he's right, and your post didn't prove him wrong. I'll take it a step further and say we simply have an addictive nation. I am one of very few adults I know that can function without chemical assistance of some kind. Some addictions are socially acceptable, others less so.

Caffine-->Nicotine-->Alcohol-->MJ-->Hard Drugs

They're all mind and body-altering substances. All of them make your body feel or do something that it wouldn't naturally feel or do at that time. Caffeine is socially accepted everywhere. Hard drugs are the least socially acceptable, with the rest falling somewhere in between. Their social acceptance corresponds with their perceived effects and potential negative side effects.

At one point, even caffeine wasn't readily available to the masses. We went to war with England over taxes on it, though there was a lot more going on than that. But normal/average people didn't constantly use it every day, and I doubt anyone said, "ugh...I can't possibly plant corn today until after I spend half an hour's wages on some tea."

Americans are pretty much addicted to everything they use or consume. That's why they're fat, lazy, and increasingly willing to give up their constitutional rights as long as their supply of whatever-it-is isn't disrupted.

Meth (aka shabu) is a big problem in Japan as well.

I was unaware that the constitution conferred rights.  Hmm.

Some people just belong in prison it seems.

Not our job.

No doubt, that’s why I emphasized the legitimate, medical need.  My nephew just started college and is wanting some.  I told my sister in law to get him tested by a legit psychiatrist instead of an ADD clinic.  Had a stern talk with him about the side effects if you don’t need Adderall.  Hopefully it stuck.

Serious question for you folks who think that the government has no right to prohibit the use of street drugs like meth, crack, marijuana, and heroin:

Do you feel the same way about laws prohibiting you from running stop signs, running red lights, passing on double yellow lines, and exceeding speed limits?

It seems to me that street drug use can (and does) harm innocent others in the same way that violating traffic laws can.

And, like illegal drug use, there is no explicit Constitutional provision regarding the government's authority to impose vehicular traffic controls.

It's a dilemma. (a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones.) Same as planning departments: either follow some ridiculous rules or have a pig farm move next door.