XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans, soc.culture.usa   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc   
   From: governor.swill@gmail.com   
      
   On Sun, 19 Jun 2016 16:50:17 -0400, Mr. B1ack    
   wrote:   
      
   >On Tue, 14 Jun 2016 22:45:27 -0500, "Byker"  wrote:   
   >   
   >>"Frank"  wrote in message news:njq0k7$olh$1@dont-email.me...   
   >>>   
   >>> Similar to the heroin problem where current solution is to get out more OD   
   >>> kits.   
   >>   
   >>Why don't they just sell methadone over-the-counter...   
   >   
   >   People get high on methadone. Unfortunately they   
   >   also get very dead on methadone. Janis Joplin   
   >   reportedly OD'd on it amongst other notables.   
      
   She od'd on heroin.   
      
   > The   
   >   problem is that the dosage range that gets you high   
   >   isn't all that far off from the dosage that kills. Heroin   
   >   is actually safer in that respect. Fentanyl is another   
   >   narrow-range narcotic ... which nailed Prince.   
   >   
   >   Time to just end the 'drug war'. X-percent are gonna   
   >   be stonies pretty much no matter what and that's that.   
   >   No point in funding huge crime organizations, corrupting   
   >   cops and officials, funding the companies that provide   
   >   expensive drug-war-fighting stuff. No point in turning   
   >   stonies into criminals who have to skulk in the darkest   
   >   corners of society while the drunks are free to stumble   
   >   down the street to the nearest bar. No point in fueling   
   >   street-level gangs that massacre each other and anyone   
   >   who gets in the way like it was the 1920s. No point in   
   >   corrupting constitutional protections of due process,   
   >   evidence-gathering and rational sentencing either.   
   >   
   >   There are also some annoying cultural/racial/class bias   
   >   issues involved that shouldn't exist.   
      
   The real problem is our drug orientated society.  Americans are by far   
   the biggest users of prescription meds in general and opioids in   
   particular.  This modern heroin epidemic isn't driven by "stonies" who   
   just want to get high, it's driven by pain patients whose   
   prescriptions have been cut off and resort to black market opioids.   
   Eventually they get to heroin - the mother of all opioids   
      
   >   Most stonies CAN do stuff ... even if it's just working   
   >   at the Circle-K ... but the current environment makes   
   >   that almost impossible, leaving them nothing but a   
   >   life of crime to survive on.   
   >   
   >   So just DROP the damned drug war. Clean dope in   
   >   measured strengths for realistic prices ... and 99%   
   >   of the "drug problem" and its ludicrous, pointless,   
   >   expense will just disappear. Tax on the sales can go   
   >   to programs for people who get tired of being stonies.   
   >   
   >   So who's FOR the drug war ? Corrupt cops and pols   
   >   and mind-everybodys-business neo-puritans For   
   >   everyone else the negatives greatly exceed any benifits.   
      
   I agree with your assessment of the drug war - it certainly has failed   
   miserably - but there are real problems with simply selling dope over   
   the counter.  For one thing, the number of users would jump sharply.   
   Opioid addiction would skyrocket.   
      
   Our best long term solution is to learn to treat pain and illness   
   without addictive medications.   
      
   Swill   
   --   
   S. E. Cupp has characterized Trump as wearing the Republican party   
   like a rented tuxedo.  When the prom is over, it's going to end up on   
   the floor with the liquor stains and cigarette butts.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)