Illegal drugs Canada's Growing International Market

Quote: Originally Posted by DurkaDurka

How does the government regulate a dangerous drug like crack cocaine or crystal meth? By doing so, they would be complicit in overdoses and would open them selves up to all sorts of liability lawsuits. Pot is one thing but when people talk about regulating other drugs they really haven't thought the whole situation out.

In order for the product to be taxed one would have to buy it from a "government approved" dealer, which again is unlikely.

Quote: Originally Posted by Niflmir

I am unfamiliar with any lawsuit where a manufacturer or distributor is held liable for improper usage when sufficient precautions are taken. Certainly, when typical precautions are overlooked, then liability enters but prima facie there is no liability.

Think alcohol and alcohol related deaths. Guns and gun related deaths. The reason the tobacco companies were held liable is because they tried to cover up the fact that tobacco is toxic, not the fact that it is in fact toxic. Same goes for bartenders who let people drink themselves into oblivion at a bar, they can see the person has had too much letting them have more is a bad idea.

Although generally in Canada one must buy alcohol from a government retailer or government approved retailer, this is not so much the case with tobacco products and less so with guns. Technically every retailer needs some amount of government approval. In Germany for instance, one can buy beer and wine all over the place, even my local Quik-E mart and I have never heard any stories about people being sued for negligence.

Quote: Originally Posted by lone wolf

De-criminalize and control. Risk is profit and it's the easy money aspect that draws organized crime into it. Actual street price would be a fraction of what it is when pusher premium is gone and you wouldn't have all the foreign substance rubbed in for extra mileage and bigger profit.

If it's regulated, quality will always be the almost the same.

If the thrill of getting away with something is gone, a big part of the market will be gone.

If the artificially high price is gone, users won't be stealing to feed the need.

If programs are put in place, addicts can be treated instead of incarcerated.

If cops aren't occupied with tracking down drugs, they can be out on the street catching impaired drivers and child molestors.

Quote: Originally Posted by DurkaDurka

What sufficient precautions could possibly be taken when making crystal meth? Fires, explosions & chemical burns are common byproducts of making this drug and not to mention the ills it brings upon the end user. It is not a product where one can decree it to meeting government standards.

Quote: Originally Posted by Niflmir

There are safer ways of making it from chemicals which are not allowed to be sold in stores for just those reasons.

Quote: Originally Posted by DurkaDurka

Find me a product that you can by legally ingest which allows for ingredients such as brake fluid, butane and drano?

Quote: Originally Posted by Niflmir

There are safer ways of making it from chemicals which are not allowed to be sold in stores for just those reasons.

Quote: Originally Posted by DurkaDurka

Has there ever existed a form of crystal meth not made from those types of ingredients?

Regardless of how safe they could make it, it would still be a very dangerous drug. Then we have the problem of inevitably having to devote considerable health care resources toward a problem the government is actively complicit in.

Quote: Originally Posted by DurkaDurka

Has there ever existed a form of crystal meth not made from those types of ingredients?

Regardless of how safe they could make it, it would still be a very dangerous drug. Then we have the problem of inevitably having to devote considerable health care resources toward a problem the government is actively complicit in.

Quote: Originally Posted by DurkaDurka

Has there ever existed a form of crystal meth not made from those types of ingredients?

Regardless of how safe they could make it, it would still be a very dangerous drug. Then we have the problem of inevitably having to devote considerable health care resources toward a problem the government is actively complicit in.

Quote: Originally Posted by Niflmir

See, I would argue the converse. They are currently complicit in the problem. The current policy of prohibition is doing nothing but driving the activity underground, the policy of criminality is punishing these people and not helping them. We are already devoting considerable resources towards this problem and we are not trying to help people, we are trying to punish them. So currently, we take a known problem and make it worse?

Further, how truly dangerous is methamphetamine? How much of the known side effects can be attributed to contamination by the extremely toxic ingredients? Or due to just poor hygiene? What studies have been done? What real non-emotional reasons does society truly have to fear giving people legal access to such a substance?

Criminality should not be a default position for something personal. It should be necessary to give an enormous amount of evidence to support such a position. But there is almost none.

In short. I don't believe you. Where is the evidence that it is so dangerous?