I think it's a huge mistake to assume people who joke about a sensitive subject don't understand the gravity of it. Finding humor in darkness is a classic coping mechanism. People who have been the worst crap tend to have the best sense of humor about it - when you are surrounded with violence, or war, or abuse, many people begin to see it humorously because they cannot survive flying off the handle and getting upset every single time the subject comes up. They'd lose their minds or have no energy to do anything else. You say here "Drugs aren't funny, they ruin lives." But what I'm reading from it is, "The seriousness of drug use upsets me. I'm upset when people joke about it because I think it comes from indifference or not understanding their situation." But there must be room in the world for everyone to have an opinion, and just because someone does not share yours or express it in a method you find suitable does not necessarily mean they are callous and unfeeling. It's not as if a good person never makes bad jokes.
The war on drugs is a huge problem. I don't happen to find it as black and white as you seem to. In my opinion, criminalizing the drug trade only drove it under ground and gave the money and power to the wrong people, much like Prohibition did alcohol. And all of the temperance movement would have said the same of alcohol as you have about drugs. Please consider that.
In the end Prohibition did very little to stop the abuse of alcohol and it certainly didn't curb its availability to the public - in fact it made it more available to some people, such as women, with the advent of speakeasies. My point is, criminalizing a behavior rarely keeps people from doing it. In an already-stressed system of justice, it doesn't necessarily make sense to spend the time and resources it takes to keep putting people in jail over it. A lot of people would argue that much of what you dislike about illegal drugs - the exploitation and violence involved - come not from the nature of the users and suppliers, but from the fact that drugs are illegal, and therefore completely unregulated.
Abusing drugs is definitely bad for you, and the current illegal drug trade bad for society, but I think this 'blase' attitude about it comes from what a lot of people see as hypocrisy concerning the issue. Cigarettes and alcohol are still legal, as are fast foods and video games that are tailor-made to be addictive. All of these things have a potential to ruin lives, yet they are legal. The diamond trade and the oil trade are the cause of a great deal of war and strife, and yet they do not suffer the same demonization (well, the oil trade is getting there...). Not to mention the outright lies included in a lot of anti-drug campaigning, particularly in its early years, which are rather akin to the puritanical mythos surrounding the abstinence only attitude about sexual eduction. Attempting to scare people into not using drugs just meant that the real warnings and dangers about it go further unnoticed, having come from an unreliable authority.
To be honest, I'm not interested in doing drugs and I know people whose lives it's ruined. I would never downplay the seriousness of drug addiction or trafficking, and I would have trouble respecting someone who did coke simply because of the high level of danger and its very addictive qualities - I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable enough around them to want to RP. I don't think that drugs are totally harmless, socially or chemically, but I also don't feel like it's as simple as 'they are bad and no one should do them ever', and I doubt I'm the only one. However, people tend to get pushed to one extreme or the other in these types of debates.
The Netherlands made pot legal and it hasn't exploded. At least not yet. I think they're onto something, honestly, but it's a much smaller, more liberal country than ours.
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The war on drugs is a huge problem. I don't happen to find it as black and white as you seem to. In my opinion, criminalizing the drug trade only drove it under ground and gave the money and power to the wrong people, much like Prohibition did alcohol. And all of the temperance movement would have said the same of alcohol as you have about drugs. Please consider that.
In the end Prohibition did very little to stop the abuse of alcohol and it certainly didn't curb its availability to the public - in fact it made it more available to some people, such as women, with the advent of speakeasies. My point is, criminalizing a behavior rarely keeps people from doing it. In an already-stressed system of justice, it doesn't necessarily make sense to spend the time and resources it takes to keep putting people in jail over it. A lot of people would argue that much of what you dislike about illegal drugs - the exploitation and violence involved - come not from the nature of the users and suppliers, but from the fact that drugs are illegal, and therefore completely unregulated.
Abusing drugs is definitely bad for you, and the current illegal drug trade bad for society, but I think this 'blase' attitude about it comes from what a lot of people see as hypocrisy concerning the issue. Cigarettes and alcohol are still legal, as are fast foods and video games that are tailor-made to be addictive. All of these things have a potential to ruin lives, yet they are legal. The diamond trade and the oil trade are the cause of a great deal of war and strife, and yet they do not suffer the same demonization (well, the oil trade is getting there...). Not to mention the outright lies included in a lot of anti-drug campaigning, particularly in its early years, which are rather akin to the puritanical mythos surrounding the abstinence only attitude about sexual eduction. Attempting to scare people into not using drugs just meant that the real warnings and dangers about it go further unnoticed, having come from an unreliable authority.
To be honest, I'm not interested in doing drugs and I know people whose lives it's ruined. I would never downplay the seriousness of drug addiction or trafficking, and I would have trouble respecting someone who did coke simply because of the high level of danger and its very addictive qualities - I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable enough around them to want to RP. I don't think that drugs are totally harmless, socially or chemically, but I also don't feel like it's as simple as 'they are bad and no one should do them ever', and I doubt I'm the only one. However, people tend to get pushed to one extreme or the other in these types of debates.
The Netherlands made pot legal and it hasn't exploded. At least not yet. I think they're onto something, honestly, but it's a much smaller, more liberal country than ours.