01/29/2006
10 Reasons to Legalize Drugs...
Top 10 Reasons... This website gives 10 reasons that drugs should be legalized. Some of the reasonings are very interesting and somewhat convincing.
Reason #4 provided some facts that related to Go Ask Alice:
4 Drug users are a majority
Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. Up to one and a half million people use ecstasy every weekend. Amongst young people, illegal drug use is seen as normal. Intensifying the 'war on drugs' is not reducing demand. In Holland, where cannabis laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.
Legalisation accepts that drug use is normal and that it is a social issue, not a criminal justice one. How we deal with it is up to all of us to decide.
In 1970 there were 9000 convictions or cautions for drug offences and 15% of young people had used an illegal drug. In 1995 the figures were 94 000 and 45%. Prohibition doesn't work.
Go Ask Alice was published in 1971, the same year that President Nixon declared a "war on drugs". What a jump in teenage drug use since then! Although I do think those numbers could be deceiving. Perhaps after Nixon declaration of war, police made more of an effort to get those drug convicions and parents became more aware of the signs of use which would cause reports of use to rise, whether or not the actual amount of use changed.
23:15 Posted in Book Journal | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
Comments
Well it's like, how many kids do drugs just because they want to be rebellious? Some kids feel so cornered that they are just willing to do anything to be a rebel. What better way to be a rebel and be high at the same time. In order to fit in with kids, you gotta rebel agaisnt everything else... or else you're not worthy of the group I guess.
If you take away that chance for rebellion, they would be more likely to not do it for those reasons.
But then, drugs would turn into being rebellious in other ways... suicide, killing, etc...
Yet you see some kids who totally turn their lives around because their parents are assholes.
Which leads me to think... What if we made "school" "homework" and success a thing to be used in rebellion?
I'm not saying you should say, "don't you dare go to school."
But if we give our REBELLIOUS kids these false expectations, "you'll never graduate"... "You'll never stop using drugs." "You'll never get your life together." The reverse psychology could work wonders... BUT ONLY with the rebellious kids.
Posted by: Ian | 02/01/2006
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