Legalize Methamphetamine!

With all due respect Poncho I have read what you have posted and your posts do beg that question. Legalization is not the solution and criminalization isn't. So what is? Legalization will cost us in social reparation and in intervention. Criminalization will and even now cost us in imprisonment, as well as the current social ills of disruptive drug use. No matter what course you take it still means using the public dollars for funding.
Again just what is the solution?

 

And this same govt supervising intervention is going to be any less wasteful and corrupted? What I'd like to see is having it turned over to faith based programs. However in today's climate you'll have the anti-God crowd crying foul.

Fact is interdiction in regards to alcohol has failed. We still have crimes committed
even though it is a legal commodity. Illicit drug interdiction will be the same-o same-o.

I'm not convinced that legalization helps or that criminalization hurts society. IMHO neither helps society.

This nation has rejected God in the public square. Taken Bible and Prayer from our children as they have forced them into public (govt) schools. This is the key you need to make intervention work. If we can get the Bible back into the schools you can begin to work on societies ills, the human heart. Of course not all are going to heed to the Gospel but the Holy Spirit is our best shot at intervention.

 

And a hearty Amen!!

 

It seems, poncho, that nowadays that if Americans don't approve of something they want the government to ban it and if Americans approve of something they want the government to subsidize it. That's why government continues to grow whether Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, are in office. They all want to grow the size of government, just in different areas.

 

Poncho, you never dealt with the fact that many European countries have tried legalizing hard drugs (Switzerland & the Netherlands come to mind), and it has been an abject failure. If it failed so badly there, why on earth would it work here??

Have you no answer to that? Did prohibition work? No....but this is no better, and IMO much worse.

 

How has it been an abject failure? From the ridiculous bias of the DOJ, which has a vested economic interest in the continuity of this problem, one place in the entire country of Switzerland was named as problematic: Needle Park. Legalizing drugs saw one documentable scenario of rising crime and the DOJ cites ONE, JUST ONE, incident as precedent for dictating a national policy? I can give you more than one reason for legalizing drugs: I can give you 300 million to be precise. Curiously, the report also failed to mention how crime would have fallen by default of legalization. Also, differentiate between abject failure and current policy.

There is no solution to the drug problem. There is only money spent and money saved. Tragically, mine.

 

No, and I haven't that is why I have suggested that we get back to teaching God's Word in our public life. I stated that it should be where we start for interdiction. However we like King Saul's armies are cowering in fear when the giant of "Separation of Church and State" advocates start to cry when we want to do something about the drug issue through faith based initiatives.

Funny, I think that we are on the same page here.

When did I do that?

 

The point is that we need solutions to Criminalization/Legalization issues. I am in total agreement with you and KenH and Ivan on the getting govt out of our lives issues.

Ce la vie? That's some what callous Poncho surely you do not mean this.
So when the father/mother are hooked on an illicit drug and the kids are left in squaller that's life and no one (faith based or government) is to do anything about it?
The father/mother are not to be made responsible for their actions?
The children are to just starve and fend for themselves?
That is a strategy that will solve the social ills of illicit drug use, yes-sir-ree.

 

Meth is already sold legally as DESOXYN its trade name, so I suppose it hasn't helped for it to be sold legally...... it has destroyed many many lives . No to legalizing it as a recreational drug.

 

Actually most people addicted to wine accelarate their lifespane by 90 years and are forcecd to crawl around selling "Street Spirit" or otherwise beg for wine...they'd get stress fractures by just attempting to grab a knife! Meth abusers on the other hand get the feeling of invincilibity I guess and doesn't have the same bodily damaging effects as alchol does...

 

Actually, prolonged use of meth disfigures both body and face.

 

You tell me....

What are the long-term effects of methamphetamine abuse?
Long-term methamphetamine abuse results in many damaging effects, including addiction. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and drug use which is accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain. In addition to being addicted to methamphetamine, chronic methamphetamine abusers exhibit symptoms that can include violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. They also can display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects creeping on the skin, which is called "formication"). The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts.

With chronic use, tolerance for methamphetamine can develop. In an effort to intensify the desired effects, users may take higher doses of the drug, take it more frequently, or change their method of drug intake. In some cases, abusers forego food and sleep while indulging in a form of binging known as a "run," injecting as much as a gram of the drug every 2 to 3 hours over several days until the user runs out of the drug or is too disorganized to continue. Chronic abuse can lead to psychotic behavior, characterized by intense paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and out-of-control rages that can be coupled with extremely violent behavior.

Although there are no physical manifestations of a withdrawal syndrome when methamphetamine use is stopped, there are several symptoms that occur when a chronic user stops taking the drug. These include depression, anxiety, fatigue, paranoia, aggression, and an intense craving for the drug.

In scientific studies examining the consequences of long-term methamphetamine exposure in animals, concern has arisen over its toxic effects on the brain. Researchers have reported that as much as 50 percent of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain can be damaged after prolonged exposure to relatively low levels of methamphetamine. Researchers also have found that serotonin-containing nerve cells may be damaged even more extensively. Whether this toxicity is related to the psychosis seen in some long-term methamphetamine abusers is still an open question.

What are the medical complications of methamphetamine abuse?
Methamphetamine can cause a variety of cardiovascular problems. These include rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and irreversible, stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain. Hyperthermia (elevated body temperature) and convulsions occur with methamphetamine overdoses, and if not treated immediately, can result in death.

Chronic methamphetamine abuse can result in inflammation of the heart lining, and among users who inject the drug, damaged blood vessels and skin abscesses. Methamphetamine abusers also can have episodes of violent behavior, paranoia, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. Heavy users also show progressive social and occupational deterioration. Psychotic symptoms can sometimes persist for months or years after use has ceased.

Acute lead poisoning is another potential risk for methamphetamine abusers. A common method of illegal methamphetamine production uses lead acetate as a reagent. Production errors therefore may result in methamphetamine contaminated with lead. There have been documented cases of acute lead poisoning in intravenous methamphetamine abusers.

Fetal exposure to methamphetamine also is a significant problem in the United States. At present, research indicates that methamphetamine abuse during pregnancy may result in prenatal complications, increased rates of premature delivery, and altered neonatal behavioral patterns, such as abnormal reflexes and extreme irritability. Methamphetamine abuse during pregnancy may be linked also to congenital deformities.

Source: http://www.starliterecovery.com/methamphetamines.asp


And, from another source...

Made from chemicals such as drain cleaner, hydrochloric acid and anhydrous ammonia, meth is extremely toxic. Recent studies have shown meth causes more damage to the brain than alcohol, heroin or cocaine. Meth use may also cause:

Acne or sores
Tooth decay
Hair loss
Severe weight loss
Self-inflicted wounds from removing hallucinatory “crank bugs”
Liver damage
Kidney and lung disorders
Putrid body odor
Convulsions or seizures
Heart attack or stroke
Death

Some Behavior Effects -

Hallucinations
Aggression
Paranoia
Anxiety
Confusion
Mood swings
Depression
Insomnia
Psychotic behavior

Meth users suffer the same addiction cycle and withdrawal reactions as those suffered by crack cocaine users. Although meth’s relapse rate of 92% is worse than cocaine, addiction is a treatable, chronic illness.

Source link: http://lancaster.unl.edu/famliv/MethEffects.htm

 

I'm saying stuff stored in my head.

Meth is NOT under Quality Control.
It is made by usually untrained people who have
very little concept of chemistry.
Depending on the materials assembled into meth,
there are 4 to 8 chemical transactions each of which is
capable of making one or two hazardous chemicals
if not done properly. These deadly byproducts may
only be present in small quantities (that will collect
over time to a poisonous level).

There is no quality control in meth labs.
Meth is a killer operation, a killer drug, a deadman's
lifestyle.

Col 3:3a (Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition):

For ye are dead, ...

 

I'm a teetotaller, and this ain't an alcohol thread...but alcohol and meth are very dissimilar in how they affect the brain.

You're way off on the damage issue...latest medicine journal research in the pre-frontal lobe shows Alzheimer's-like "plaque" in chronic meth users.

Not to mention some estimate meth to be up to 100 times (!) more addictive than many "recreational" drugs.

Both alcohol and meth have many destroyed lives, minds, and bodies in their wakes...but meth is much worse for the bod.

 

Both have destroyed many lives but still... Ah, Politics, you will be the downfall of reason yet!