Personally, I think morality is "tits"! What's outdated and archaic are religions that indoctrinate children from an early age that instill the belief that we must be "Christ like" in order to attain divine reward in the next life.

Why does the human race sell itself short, and rather than accept that we can live our lives morally, without infringing on the rights of others, without dragging religion into the equation?

Like anything, excess can lead to ruin. Be it alcohol, gambling, tobacco use, pornography, or any other number of "legal" vices.

My point is, that many federal laws fly in the face of the constitution, and states are now rebelling against these laws as we're seeing with the decriminalization of marijuana.

Dwalin, You mention spitting on the feelings of relatives who don't want to see you die of drugs. Do you honestly think that if a person wants to consume a particular controlled substance, that the laws against it, or the 40+ year "War on Drugs" has limited accessibility to that drug and saved that person from killing himself? Drugs are cheaper, more readily available, and much purer now than they were prior to the declared war on drugs. I'm not pulling this out of my ass, these are facts.

Between 1972 and 2008, our government had spent over 500 billion dollars on this drug war, and again, drugs are cheaper, more accessible, and more potent than they were prior. The current strategy has not only failed, but failed in a big way.

Let's address why so many people die from drugs each year.

1. You have scumbags selling kids Ajax, or any other types of readily available poisons to rip them off, with no regard for loss of life or limb due to their heinous actions.

2. You have batches of drugs of varying purity, rather than uniform industry controlled purities (That could eliminate many ODs due to a "hot" dose)

3. You have clandestine chemists manufacturing batches of fentanyl (Which is extremely easy to synthesize in a half-assed lab, with a little organic chemistry background), and cutting it with heroin, or passing it off as heroin, due to it's low cost, extremely high potency, and ease of synth. Again with no regard for loss of life.

4. You have people that are terrified to call 911 in the event a person overdoses, due to draconian drug laws that could possibly get everyone that was present a long prison term.

5. Etc., etc., etc.

Again, this has become a pet project for me, not because I'm "Pro drug" ( I seldom even drink anymore, and if I do it's 2 beers tops)
but because I believe it's everyone's civil liberty to do As though so choose with their own body.

Drug abuse and availability is at an all-time high, and this is after 40 some years of a drug war. People cite total erosion of society if drug policies were to change. It's already there, I'm sorry to say....

The DEA figures they stop about 15% of the drug traffic into the U.S., and every year the amount of seizures climbs, however so due the amount of shipments smuggled in.

Do any of you actually believe this "war" has accomplished anything?

It's obvious the current strategy is not working at all, the focus needs to shift from drug enforcement, to prevention, education, and treatment.

People are going to do what they choose to do, whether it's illegal or legal. And like I said, drugs are just a phone call away, that's pretty fucking sad considering the wasted expenditures to curb the flow.

If I'm off base here, tell me what the answer is to the growing epidemic of narcotic abuse in this nation?