I lit him at a supper club back in the 70s and he was a mensch then and he's a mensch now.

He's right about this. The Drug War is what is destroying lives. A few people will always find a way to fuck themselves up, that's a guarantee and there's not much we can do about it except hope they want to live and rehab works. The Drug War has not slowed that down and might in fact have increased it. It's certainly ruined lives by putting trash into street drugs, denying quality and dose control to addicts, and throwing people in jail for what's really a public health problem.

The insanity has got to stop. Our country is on the brink of totalitarianism, fueled in large part by the militarized local police dealing with what is essentially a war against human nature.

There would still be people who went to extremes.

but the examples he cites goes in the other direction. It is sounding like Houston's drugs were prescription, Winehouse's drug was alcohol, and Jackson died while being drugged under a doctor's watch. These are very bad examples to support Bennett's position.

The takeaway from this seems to be no matter what level of resources you have available, beating a drug habit is incredibly hard. Did any of the three ever spend a day in jail for their drug use? It seems that the argument would cut the other way. What would society be like if they needed to try to provide the level of care these and other Hollywood types get but still cannot cope. The only effective thing seems to be using the hammer (ie Robert Downey Junior) instead of "treatment".

My argument for drug legalization is the savings in $$$$$s. Also the potential reduction in crime by reducing the profit motive associated with drugs. Finally the reduction in health issues by ensuring pure drugs (think meth for example).

to make his point...and Amy abused alcohol, which is legal...

1- Children under age 18 would need to be protected somehow. No clue how to do this, since current methods are only partially effective.

2- Protect society from consequences of unwise drug usage, such as driving while under the influence, etc. Again, no clue how to do this since current methods are ineffective or only partially effective.

Cocaine almost killed him; how would drug legalization keep addictive personalities from doing what they do?

The hope is that current funding devoted to the drug war could instead be devoted to drug rehab and drug education. Even with that, some are going to become addicted and die. There is no perfect solution, only one that minimizes the harm to society.

They see drug abuse, alcoholism, addiction as a moral weakness; if tax monies aren't spent on punishment, they sure will fight them from being spent on treatment.

I see no good answer to the drug problems of this world, every scenario has massive drawbacks.

But criminalizing drug abuse is the worst of them all.

If we legalize all drugs, like Taverner and others propose, think how effectively we can rid the world of surplus population and stop crime. For example, if people want to "ride the rocket" (smoke crack) until their heart explodes, score one for Darwinism. One less mouth in an overcrowded world to feed. Sucks hard for their friends and family who love them, but it helps on the population pressure.

For example, tobacco and alcohol is harmful, but legal. How often do you hear about organized crime selling bootleg (untaxed) cigarettes and alcohol?

Canada in particular has had a serious problem with organized crime smuggling American cigarettes and illegal re-exporting of Canadian cigarettes to Ontario through Mohawk Indian reservations on both sides of the border. The trend became evident since the early 1950's
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889371,00.html
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/04/14/9106291-sun.html
And has led to hundreds of gang related deaths in both Ontario and in the New York Mohawk reservations.

JFK airport had a massive cigarette bust in 2004, and it still hits the news from time to time. the New York mafia in particular bases a big chunk of its earnings on illegal cigarette and alcohol sales.
http://gothamist.com/2004/11/17/illegal_cigarettes_seized.php

than prison? Also taking the huge profits out of the illegal drug trade. Use those profits for research into what causes addiction and to provide intense treatment and over a long period of time. A month long stint in rehab has never done much good. And jail according to counselors I have spoken to, is almost a 100% failure. A few may quit after spending time in jail, but research raises the question about whether these are people who have had a 'bad habit' rather than a real chemical dependency.

In Europe eg, there is ongoing medical research into the causes of alcoholism and some interesting findings have emerged from those studies. However the funding for such research is nowwhere near what it needs to be. Meantime we waste money on the failed Drug War.

ruining their careers and/or lives with criminal consequences over a medical issue is Dark Age thinking.

It only serves to reinforce the guilt/pleasure circle of addiction.

Back in the early 90s when her public image was still "clean" Whitney said in an interview with Rolling Stone that she could be "raunchy," it wasn't just Bobby Brown, that was part of her makeup.

I believe the stress from this forced duality of pristine public expectations and real human frailty only serves to magnify the inner turmoil or Demons that Whitney spoke about with Dianne Sawyer described by the corporate media as an "infamous interview" instead of the candid, cry for help that it was.

The "War on Drugs" is De Facto a War on the People in multiple ways with many dimensions.

Thanks for the thread, steve.

helplessly as someone destroys themselves. But I completely disagree with you, although I understand your taking that position.

Addiction, real addiction, meaning a chemical dependency on substances like alcohol and/or drugs, IS a desease, that is why jail or rehab cannot cure it. Those who stop after being in jail, are most likely not in the 'desease' category, but more in the 'bad habit' area.

There has been research that shows, and your post in a way, confirms this, that chemical dependency is in many cases, genetic. Iow, it has a physical cause. Some progress has been made in this research, but not nearly enough money is available to fund it.

Meantime, as you point out, anyone afflicted with the desease at this point in time, cannot be helped, which is why it is so heart-breaking for those who love them. There are at the moment, no real answers.

When as much effort is put into researching this desease as has been into others, maybe one day it will be curable, or at least preventable.

If it did, people wouldn't be drinking and smoking themselves to death everyday.

The 1920's proved that with alcohol.
How long has the "war" on drugs been going on now? It has been proved it does not work.

Portugal decriminalised ALL drugs a few years ago and now has less of a drug problem.

Legalize them, tax them like alcohol and tobacco and licence the distribution.

What proportion of the prison population is made up of non violent marijuana users?
I don't know, but it is quite a high percentage.

If drugs were legalized there would be slightly less hard drug users.
The government could save many billions thru savings on law enforcement, lower jail population, new source of tax revenue.
To say nothing of the social costs of incarcerating young people who experimented with a drug less harmful and less addictive than tobacco. And ruining their lives by giving them a criminal record.

I seem to remember the total budget savings would be about $800bn p.a.