Opinions of the topic for non LE, please post in thread lined above. It occurred to me there’s no poll/survey’s asking LEO their opinion/positions on “the war on drugs” which began with Nixon. We have a big survey on what LE thinks abut gun control, none I’m aware of about their positions on drugs, legalization there of, and what comes next. As expected, vast majority of LE were not in favor of gun control, and totally ignored by the media, but I digress.
My own experiences talking with LE about drugs is, more of a mixed bag then guns, some in favor of major reforms and getting away from current approaches, some not. What’s the consensus among LE here? Add comments/context to poll as needed:
Im conflicted on this topic. Im all for making weed fully legal. It’s been treated like alcohol here in Az for several years now and was basically legalized through the medicinal route years ago. It hasnt been a huge problem. Id still say it causes far less issues than alcohol.
Meth and the opiates are where I have a problem. I think legalization would probably have a longer term reduction in use and abuse. But I definitely think a short term spike in use would happen. I dont think American as a whole would react well when all of a sudden suburbia starts having a huge problem of teens and young adults ODing on fentanyl and running around naked in excited delirium on meth that was bought at the local gas station.
We have the silly “must inform” nonsense for carrying guns thanks to the Michigan state police lobbyists.
The same MSP lobbyists were against weed being made legal, but somehow “recreational weed” made it to a ballot and was passed by the voters.
My thoughts are make it all legal and let the weak kill themselves using the stuff they choose.
Oh and while we are at it, make it illegal to have uniformed state troopers being lobbyists.
See some of the vids and other sources I posted on last page of thread posted in the OP for additional info that way be value added intel on the issue.
My main problem with the drug war is the amount of freedoms everyone has lost mostly eroded and stripped away by courts that have allowed police sometimes scary levels of authority over everyone.
When I entered LE in the very early 2000’s I was by all accounts a Reagan Republican. When I left around 10 years later I was hardcore Uber libertarian. That transformation started about 2 years in when I started to question just what the hell we were doing.
I worked patrol and also held a position on a multi agency SWAT team. Our training for a slot on the team was great, some serious talent, old school door kickers from Benning ran a business training just LE at the time and they taught us some valuable things. I looked forward to doing it for real and I was quickly disappointed when all we did was more of less serve drug search warrants. Twice we had barricaded gunmen calls and once an active shooter at a strip shopping mall that turned out to be a single gunshot fired at a car during a domestic dispute.
Everything else was dope and not a lot of it either. They had us ripping down doors for at times just a few grams of weed, meth and crack.
We had a huge drug corridor that ran thru our jurisdiction, I-75 so we believed the BS hype our drug guys fed us about real weight moving into and out of our area. Kicking in doors at shitty motels because some dope cop got a tip from some CI and from there they put together some bullshit search warrant affidavit that our local magistrate couldn’t wait to sign, had us busting in on some real ****ing winners over nothing. Maybe one or two had felony level dope but most it was just a joke.
I want to say: War On Drugs is a war on Liberty, has been a disaster. That is undoubtedly 100% accurate. Unfortunately, in practice going full bore freedom will result in an even worse disaster and epidemic than we already have in this country. Neither political party has any common sense when it comes to criminal law and public health policy regarding Schedule 1 drugs. They’d rather go full-retard and attack their opponents than combatting the root cause of the problem.
So in practice, I fall into this category: Make MJ and some mild drugs legal. Specifically some of the therapeutic drugs that were unfairly categorized early on, due to lobbying from the holy rollers and big pharmaceutical companies. Stuff like MDMA and psylocibins have been shown to be far more effective treatments for some mental health issues than many manufactured drugs with a laundry list of side-effects.
Ultimately I’d be in this camp: Make all drugs legal if a sane rational approach happens. But, only if the politicians and drug manufacturers came to their senses. I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.
I really don’t see why it can’t be handled like alcohol.
Alcohol prohibition “appears” to have caused some reduction in alcohol use based on a reduction of liver cirrhosis cases. I think the “appears” part is true, although I haven’t seen any info about deaths related to alcohol that was immediately poisonous(due to ignorance, greed, or law) so there is some chance the “appears” is misleading.
For sure prohibition brought about other health problems(Jake leg) as well as private and public crime that basically disappeared upon dropping the 18th amendment.
So .gov and it’s partners .med and .pharma can be trusted with it based on their handling public health over the last 3 years along with going back decades with such things as the Tuskeegee syphilis experiment.
And on the controlling a weapon part, the 3 partners have stated they take a dim view on other parties possessing or distributing the namesake of the site we are on.
EMS carries fentanyl, it’s in every ICU, on helicopters, in the ED. Hell, in the mil we had fentanyl lollipops. Hospice and palliative care have been using it for decades. Fent in and of itself isn’t not the issue, and it’s actually less addicting than other opioids. The problems arise when booger eaters cut it with other products, ramp the dose 500%, and mass produce.
Remember boys, the only reason fentanyl is a thing is due to government/pharma corruption and greed, who started the entire thing. Cartels simply did what they always do, and always will, and filled a market niche. They didn’t create the demand for the product, they simply doing the econ 101 thing: where’s there’s demand there will be supply. Always.
The only way we will ever see any changes is by focusing on the demand side. That’s much more difficult, takes longer, does not make pharma, politicians, etc rich. Hence, it’s given lip service while billions thrown in the toilet for said war lost decades ago.
They are using our own misguided policies against us to destroy the US from the inside, and they are winning. Excellent overview of how we, yet again, shot ourselves in the proverbial foot and how said “booger eaters” won, and still are:
I’m not LE, so I didn’t poll. But I think weed is fine for legalization like it is in AZ. IMHO, it doesn’t kill as many people as alcohol, but it kills motivation. But that is where I would draw the line, and its all a gateway for some in my opinion.
These places where everything is legal and can’t stop people from stealing under $1,000 is complete deterioration of all humanity. God help those places and the kids growing up in those places. Its terrifying.
Been a cop in 2 countries and at least for the USA, I say either we are free or we are not free.
I came to the position of legalization a long time ago. Take the profit and related problems out of the drug trade.
But then we might just make a bigger mess, by getting big Pharma into the drug trade, they already has so many lobbyist that they are screwing the American people.
So now in my old age I am for decriminalization in drugs and guns
Yoni;
As I tried to point out earlier, there is no way to legalize narcotics without bringing in Big Pharma to get the safety and purity necassary for CONUS sales.
Ponder that for a moment, because the reality is that if the Drug Cartels truly need to fear anyone, it’s Big Pharma.
Big Pharma can probobly squeeze them out in a year.
The question is which Cartel do we want to destroy the Republic.
I came to me position a long time ago. This thread has given me pause. I actually trust the Mexican Cartels more than big pharma. The Mexicans are more honest about being scum
On one hand; back when I started 18 years ago things were much more normal taking into account the narcotics enforcement of the time and also the enforcement and prosecution for thefts.
Since that time we’ve seen how things have gone with the decriminalization of the narcotics and the decrease in punishment for theft combined with the increased value ($500 to $1000) for Felony status. Hell our Soros DA (in Okla) won’t even charge the state larceny stuff now.
On the flip side, I’m also of the camp if you want to screw up your own life go for it. It’s not my job to babysit. The problem being when those life choices affect others in society circling back to the theft stuff. Which as I said aren’t prosecuted.
Weed as it was, I wouldn’t care a bit. The problem comes with the new generations that are being created and sold as “medicine”. The THC level of this crap is having the same affect as PCP on suspects. One of whom we had an OIS and killed and another who was running around possessed in a grocery store parking lot, grabbed a baby carrier from a mother then proceeded to lift it overhead and slam it into the concrete. All that were in their systems, THC.
So I guess my TLDR version is, if we are going to reform the narcotics stuff we have to balance it out on the other crimes which accompany it. Easier on one requires harsher on the other to maintain equilibrium. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case and it’s causing chaos.
As for NARCAN, don’t get me started on how that just allows people to defeat the law of natural selection. Around here it’s just become an “Undo” button as users lost all fear of ODing knowing they can just have someone with NARCAN close by to jump in, bring them back to life, then back to the party.
For it to work in our favor nationally, it has to be at the fed levels, must be balanced out where appropriate as to LE focus, focus on demand side, treatment (paid for with taxes generated) and high level traffickers while putting them out of biz with better/cheaper product, proper oversight like booze, not following the progressive chit holes policies obviously of defunding LE, not arresting and prosecuting for other crimes, etc. that leads to the general decline of the area.
