When All Drugs Were Legal.... There Wasn't a Drug Problem

http://www.lewrockwell.com/browne/browne32.html

The Drug Crisis​

by Harry Browne​

​

Few people are aware that before World War I, a 9-year-old girl could walk into a drug store and buy heroin.

That's right – heroin. She didn't need a doctor's prescription or a note from her parents. She could buy it right off the shelf. Bayer and other large drug companies sold heroin as a pain-reliever and sedative in measured doses – just the way aspirin is sold today. Cocaine, opium, and marijuana were readily available as well. No Drug Enforcement Agency, no undercover cops, no "Parents – the Anti-Drug" commercials. Just people going about their own business is whatever way they chose.

Seeing today's never-ending crisis of teenagers using drugs, you can imagine how bad it must have been when there were no laws to stop children – or adults – from using drugs. But, in fact, there was no drug crisis at all. A few people were addicted to heroin or cocaine, just as a few people today are addicted to sleeping pills or Big Macs, but there was no national uproar about it. Such people, if they wanted to break their habits, could freely consult doctors without fear of being sent to prison.



There were no black-market drug dealers preying on school children. There were no gang wars over drug profits, because there were no drug gangs. After all, who would buy dangerous drugs from a gangster at outrageous prices when he could buy safe drugs made by a reputable drug company at modest prices?

Americans got a taste of what a Drug War might be like when they endorsed the 18th Amendment invoking alcohol Prohibition in 1919. The result was gang warfare, people dying from drinking bathtub gin, corruption in police departments, and non-violent citizens sent to prison for indulging in a vice that was strictly personal. Most Americans rejoiced when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The chances of them supporting another such Constitutional amendment within the next 50 years were slim to none.

So the federal government didn't dare try amending the Constitution when politicians and bureaucrats decided to reinstate all the trappings of Prohibition in a new Drug War. This War That Will Never End was begun in stages – probably starting with the rarely-enforced Harrison Act of 1914. In my recollection, the Drug War as we know it today began during the 1960s, moved into second and third gears during the Nixon administration of 1969–1974, and shifted into overdrive during the Reagan administration of 1981–1989.

The Drug War has been easily the greatest cause of violent crime in American history: Gangs fighting over monopoly territories, children killed in drive-by shootings, families in the inner city living with the constant sound of gunfire outside their doors, police killing innocent people in misguided drug raids, crooked cops helping to spread poisonous drugs, non-violent citizens sent to prison to be terrorized by violent prisoners – none of which would exist in the absence of the federal drug laws.

There is nothing that could make our cities safer than repealing the drug laws – all of them.

Does the idea of heroin, cocaine, and opium being sold over the counter sound too ludicrous to be true? You can check it out for yourself. A marvelous website, maintained by the University of Buffalo's Addiction Research Unit, shows the actual labels and ads from patent medicines of the 19th and early-20th centuries. You can see the claims made, the ingredients used, and the acceptance of what so many Americans fear today.

That era of innocence didn't end because America was threatened by a drug crisis. It was ended in the traditional way – by politicians looking for new worlds to conquer, politicians who have no interest in examining dispassionately the chaos they cause, and who will never face a single personal consequence for the lives they have ruined.

 

I agree. I just doesn't make since how some drugs like alchohol, caffine and nicotine are leagal, and weed and others aren't. Why don't people see how or care stupid this is. It's like this country's made up of 60% lazy asses, 35% registered voting sheep, and 5% actual real people (i'll check my numbers later).

And this is how it goes:
1. all the lazy asses sit at home in a daze, consumed in whatever.
2. the def blind and dumb registered voting sheep, are pumped with dare programs and other propeganda (not sure why, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was $$$ topped off with someone's fear)
3. And of course the genuine smart people are completely outnumbered.
It's insanity

there needs to be some major ammending goin' on. (in more areas than one)

 

I concur forest_pixie, our nation is 95% retard.

The drug war is bullshit, I cannot believe we allow it. What is wrong with people?

 

Drug war has nothing to do with clear logic. It's a tactic used to keep control , a population in a state of constant fear, feed the beast. C'mon, with as much $ as is spent on it we should be completely drug free by now, but then again it doesn't help when the very same institution that wages the war also brings them into the country.

 

The only way to controll the drug problem is to decrimilise it, take in off the streets!

I dont like drugs, I dont take drugs, but I think if people had somewhere to go to get their drugs, it would be cleaner, because street drugs have all sorts mixed in with in.

It will stop people stealing to feed their habbit and stop in being pushed onto people.

Plus this way every drug user can be moniterd!

This sounds a bit harsh but lets face it, people are always gonna take drugs weather it ie illeagle or not, so lets at least do it cleanly and monitor it!

 

I dissagree. the damage is done. We cannot look at today in teh context of yesterday. The outcome of legalising dtugs would be completely different to having never illegalised drugs, because now that weve been so far into this war, it has made such an impact on culture. people didnt think of them as 'drugs' back then, they thought of them as 'medicine'. now, we think of it as 'drugs' and so, it will not cease to be a problem, at least in the drug use issue. But the tactics used to fight crime would also be a compltely differnet scale to what it was when drugs were medicines. So while crime may go away, complex and detrimental socio-economics may ensue.

People must stop thinkning about legalisation as a reversion to some 'original' state, because it wouldnt be, it would be a completely new state of legalisation, and while i think its possible to work out, it wont be if people dont see it this way.

 

I agree that legalization probably wouldn't affect the problem of DRUG USE very much (I think it could help a little, but I'll get to that later). But there are plenty of other problems associated with the drug war that could be easily solved by legalizing them all. The most obvious is the instantaneous elimination of illegal drug cartels responsible for thousands of murders in the United States and Latin America. I often compare them to the mafia: The haydays of the mafia in the United States coincide almost perfectly with Prohibition. Coincidence? I think not.

Also, legalization would drastically reduce the price of various drugs as the supply was increased. Why is this a good thing, you ask? Because addicts are often willing to do anything - including steal money or commit acts of violence - in order to get their drugs. If they were affordable, no crime would be necessary to obtain them.

As for drug use itself, I mentioned above that I don't think that legalization would change the situation much, for better or worse. However, I can see a few benefits to doing so. If drugs were legal, addicts would no longer feel like criminals. Therefore, they could seek help for their problem without fearing prison.

Also, the reason that drugs like marijuana are often considered "gateway drugs" to harder drugs like cocaine or heroin is because they all have one thing in common: dependence on a criminal to obtain them. If these products were all available over the store counter, the government could require the industries to display health warnings much like tobacco companies must do today. There would no longer be any pressure for the occasional pot-smoker to try harder substances if they didn't want to.

 

I think legalizing pot would be a very sensible policy experiment. As you note, people would no longer have to get pot from pushers of hard narcotics, which would solve the "gateway" problem. However, I would want to see if legalizing pot resulted in a sharp increase in use before legalizing harder drugs. Increased pot use would not be a major social problem, in my opinion, but I can't say the same for coke or heroin.

 

I don't think its a good idea to legalize hard drugs, kind of legitimizes their use......I think the penalty for personal use should not be prison though.

Pot might as well be legalized, i don't think use would increase, its one of those things that most people try, but not everyone likes....I don't think that percentage would increase much.

 

I have seen the drug trade up close and personal



i know herion and cocanie dealers...i have seen people beaten to a inch of there lives..and i have heard stories about people who have diappeared(Dead) because of dealing with the drug gangs and societies.....



In Canada Marijuna is not a big deal and is ok...but the leagilization of stuff heavier then that is stupid and moronic.



I do not and will not trust herion and cocaine users/Dealers to unstable and to dangerous without there drugs

 

Everyone,

out of everything crazy that goes on in the world the one piece of personal porperty we --->should<--- own is our own bodies. How dare people tell us what we can and can't do to them. I appreciate the medically researched warnings, but having another force anything about my body is barbaric and primative. This is supposed to be a free country, but how dare it's people deface what it stands for by voting to enforce laws that dictate the way I choose to live my life.

Where exactly does the freedom come in?
People need to get their minds right.

I should run for something...

 

Well then people into heavy drugs should not get any coverage medically...wasting our money with drug clinics or anything..if they wanna destroy themselves then so be it..i am for weed but not heavier then that.


my Goverment alone spends Muti-Billions of crime realted to Herion and Cocanine...i have seen the drug trade from the suppliers and Major dealers...they kill/beat/and destroy to keep there product going.

Alot of these addicts steal from friends and family to get there fix. i FIND THIS DISTASTEFUL IN THE EXTREME

 

People are missing a major fact which has been proven time and time again by people like Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb (RIP) and Michael Ruppert, and that is the US government -- in particular the CIA -- is responsible for shipping the majority of illegal drugs into this country; namely cocaine and heroin.

As former LAPD narcotics investigator turned investigative journalist Michael Ruppert (www.fromthewilderness.com) has said, every year $600 billion in illegal drug money passes through Wall Street, and plays a major role in sustaining the overall economy.

The government then uses this illegal drug money, along with your hard-earned tax money, to fund their black ops and advance their unconstitutional tyranny on the people. Those people being you and I.

Knowing this, I don't see how anyone could be against the legalization of drugs.

The government is cashing in double on the phony war on drugs. They're making tons of money shipping in the drugs, while at the same time making money off of the prison labor system they have systematically created, which is where people end up for using these same drugs the government shipped in.

The REAL criminals and the REAL drug pushers are those in our very own government. This is not being anti-government, it's seeing the truth and acknowledging it.

If you don't believe what I am telling you, find out for yourself.

The reality is, people, that hard drugs were introduced into our society intentionally, and are continually brought into our country by the very government that is imprisoning people for using them. Not only is millions of dollars being made on the drug war by the elites (while you are raped of your hard-earned money, which supposedly goes towards this phony war), these same drugs are being used to enslave various segments of the population -- namely those living in poverty in the cities across America. It makes people slaves to the system -- either the prison system or the welfare system -- and this is exactly the way it was engineered to be.

 

I agree with you rat....its just that 6 years ago when i was kicking heroin, I'm glad I couldn't walk into 7-11 and get more.....

I'm all for the decriminalization of drugs for personal use, its just that if hard drugs were actually sold in retail stores like 100 years ago, the youth of today would be far more tempted to try them...

 

These dealers who kill/beat/destroy would not exist if their product was legal.

If drugs were legal, they'd be sold at affordable prices. Most addicts would no longer have to steal to support their habit.

 

All drugs are not equal
have any of you seen a coke-head freak out...it takes like 4-5 people to stop them. look at alot of the killers in prision time and time again..for those of you who watch like cold files and american justice..in many cases when they are caught they talk about there heavy use of coke and herion

i will not have and friends who use hardcore drugs..they are unstable and can't be trusted. So if u are readying this and are a current user of herion or cocaine then you would never be a friend or even someone i know just someone who wants to hurt themselves and i find it in poor taste

 

So drug cartels should be allowed to continue murdering thousands of people because you find drug use to be "in poor taste"? That is a horrible reason to make something illegal.

 

I agree that the "War on Drugs" and many of the drug laws are absurd, innefective, and even create and/or sustain the underground market they seek to destroy. I am not so sure, though, that there was no drug problem prior to the control drug act, etc. My family has a long history of work in pharmacy and drugstores. Just the few stories I have heard about pharmacy patrons, eating lunch daily at the pharmacy counter, just to get their fix of paregoric with coca-cola..., well, suffice to say, drug problems have always existed...as long as drugs have.

 

it matters not whether the drug are equal though, a drug is a drug. It makes no since why some like alchohol and nicotine are legal and others like weed aand whatever aren't. the argument can be made that you are umstable for smoking weed. We've all heard those tv ads about driving high and stuff. The drug doesn't make decisions for the man it can only change his reaction. I bet that program you watched didn't say anything about how a bunch of those killers in jail drank or smoked cigarettes and cigars...

 

Can anyone come up with any good reasons for keeping pot illegal because of problems with it that are distinct from those of alcohol, which has been kept legal? For example, one could argue that pot can alter your judgment and cause a traffic accident, but alcohol can do that too. Therefore, that example is not valid. Pot can damage your lungs, but alcohol can damage your liver. So that argument isn't valid either. Etc.

What is it about pot that is so terribly more dangerous than alcohol?