More broadly...why should something someone does in their own home, hurting no one except possibly themselves, be a crime?
I have two arguments against this
How is hurting oneself a "victimless crime"??!
More broadly...why should something someone does in their own home, hurting no one except possibly themselves, be a crime?
I have two arguments against this
I think you meant to say "stoned." To be "stoked" means to be exhilirated and enthusiastic.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stokedstoked [stohkt]
adjective Slang .
1.exhilarated; excited.
2.intoxicated or stupefied with a drug; high.
I was arguing her/his specific position there, not the general issue i.e.
More broadly...why should something someone does in their own home, hurting no one except possibly themselves, be a crime?
That is, it can be, because...etc
chimpkin
More broadly...why should something someone does in their own home, hurting no one except possibly themselves, be a crime? My own view is that in a free society, it should not be.
So you suggest that allowing these drugs to be allowed moreso into the society as a good way to reduce problems, I'd think your high yourself.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.htmlfive years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does.
Officials believe that, by lifting fears of prosecution, the policy has encouraged addicts to seek treatment. This bears out their view that criminal sanctions are not the best answer. “Before decriminalisation, addicts were afraid to seek treatment because they feared they would be denounced to the police and arrested,” says Manuel Cardoso, deputy director of the Institute for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Portugal’s main drugs-prevention and drugs-policy agency. “Now they know they will be treated as patients with a problem and not stigmatised as criminals.”
The aim of the dissuasion commissions, which are made up of panels of two or three psychiatrists, social workers and legal advisers, is to encourage addicts to undergo treatment and to stop recreational users falling into addiction. They have the power to impose community work and even fines, but punishment is not their main aim.