Have the dangers of illicit drugs been massively overhyped?

[Elroy The Great]

laid back without the additives

[Elroy The Great]

of course be filled with cool stoners...

[Hype job]

of course be filled with cool stoners...




]

[Thraxox]

What BS?? I'm a smoker, i go through 1 pack a day, Probably will die of lung cancer at the of 50. But i dont stole from my family to fuel my habit, not looking like vampire sharing needle with othe addicts, dont have a risk contracting blood transmitted diseases, certainly not OD-ing or being burden to friends and family because of hard-drug addiction.

Do you ever see heroin addict??

Yeah I saw drug addicts first hand. Back then when I was in college still living in the Philippines, my neighbor was a drug addict and an alcoholic he stabbed a sari-sari store owner (Small down local business) and took 3 thousand pesos (60$)from her to just buy hundred grams of shabu (poor man's cocaine), he was shot dead by the police 3 days later attempting to rob another innocent with a butchers knife.

If you think that 50 years of smoking is = 50 years or even just 5 years of heroin addiction then you don't know much, you'll die of over dose before you can even reach your 5th year.

Edit: I realized your question was misunderstood.

[Elroy The Great]

lovable losers


sad that cheech and chong had to go

[Rudyo]

There are arguments to be made that the war on drugs is an infringement on personal liberty and that it an immoral crusade. Essentially who's business is it what I put into my own body? However, as someone who has had problems with addiction, and witnessed a lot of pain and death caused by them, I am not in that camp. Plus i don't think we as a society are ready for the end of prohibition of all drugs.

[GhostofDempsey]

The thing about highly addictive drugs like heroin, meth, crack, it's not just the user who is the victim. Once these addicts reach a certain desperation level, they do anything to get the drug--rob, steal, assault, murder. They become a burden on the taxpayer as well when you factor in arrests, jail, EMT calls, emergency room visits, public defenders, rehab, etc. I think 60K addicts die each year from heroin alone. It destroys families, kids have to be removed from homes, parents, kids, siblings have to bury their loved ones, and drug dealers and criminals all get richer.

[Hype job]

The thing about highly addictive drugs like heroin, meth, crack, it's not just the user who is the victim. Once these addicts reach a certain desperation level, they do anything to get the drug--rob, steal, assault, murder. They become a burden on the taxpayer as well when you factor in arrests, jail, EMT calls, emergency room visits, public defenders, rehab, etc. I think 60K addicts die each year from heroin alone. It destroys families, kids have to be removed from homes, parents, kids, siblings have to bury their loved ones, and drug dealers and criminals all get richer.

What about the majority of users who aren't addicts?

[GhostofDempsey]

What about the majority of users who aren't addicts?

I doubt a majority of heroin, meth and crack users are not addicted.

Not sure where you grew up or when, but I lived through a very violent crack epidemic of the late 80s and early 90s. It ripped through major cities all over the country. There was a climate of violence in the streets that I had not scene before or since. It was Dodge City.

People talk about the 700 murders per year in Chicago, but back in the early 90's NYC had around 2,400 murders per year. With the crack trade at the epicenter of it all. Once they got crack off the streets (for the most part) murder rates plummeted. Near my neighborhood there was a street known as Zombie Land. On any given day you'd see a dozen or more strung out crackheads roaming in the middle of the street stoned out of their heads in a trance. Looking right through you, and that gaunt, ghostly look on their faces. It was eerie, and it was dangerous. I had a lot of close calls during that time and I only wish there were cell phone cameras at that tie to record that craziness.

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