57
votes
Accepted
Why are there laws for victimless 'crimes'
There are three major arguments which are often brought up to justify it when societies decide to punish people for victimless crimes:
The values of the society in general are considered the victim ...
- 74.8k
57
votes
Accepted
Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
Much of politics doesn't fit into the traditional left-right one-dimensional political spectrum. Politics is multi-dimensional.
Marijuana legalisation (and the legalisation/regulation of other drugs) ...
- 5,106
54
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Democrats legalize marijuana federally when they controlled Congress?
It would have required a filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate (i.e. 60 votes) in addition to a House majority since it was not a fiscal bill or a Presidential nomination to ratify. They also ...
- 73k
41
votes
What policy arguments do people make in favor of legalizing marijuana?
A government could potentially benefit from increased revenue if they tax the production and sale of cannabis, the legal cannabis industry is already worth billions of dollars.
Making it legal would ...
35
votes
Accepted
Have any governments attempted to provide dosing guidelines for illegal drugs?
Offering generic advice of the form up to xxx mg are generally a safe dosage is very hard to give for illegal drugs because one doesn't know the exact quantities of the various ingredients. It is also ...
- 6,972
28
votes
What policy arguments do people make in favor of legalizing marijuana?
Because many people want marijuana to be legal. In a democracy, if a policy is popular that's sufficient reason to enact it. Hell, in the US all full legalizations have been through ballot initiatives,...
- 13.8k
28
votes
Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
When asking this question about parties, and why they oppose legalization, there are two potential aspects to "why": reasons for the policy as an end in itself, and reasons for the policy as a means ...
28
votes
Why are passengers inspected so thoroughly for drugs when most drugs enter through ports and the majority of shipping containers aren't controlled?
Passengers are not routinely screened for drugs
Normal passenger screening is to detect explosives and weapons, not drugs. That said, if you have two slabs of cocaine in your carry on, the x-ray ...
- 1,169
26
votes
What policy arguments do people make in favor of legalizing marijuana?
To put it into points:
It lowers the cost of having the 'drug' policed. No need to have officers doing drug busts, arresting people, court cases, putting them in prison where food and 'living' costs ...
- 359
23
votes
Why did the US prohibit alcohol (instead of some other substance) during Prohibition
Prohibition did not come about because people were seeking to ban anything and decided to select alcohol. Rather, prohibition was the culmination of a temperance movement that had developed in the US ...
- 17.4k
22
votes
Why does decriminalisation/legalisation not reduce the cost of drugs?
Economics is hard
The number of factors that can impact supply and demand, and therefore pricing, is essentially incalculable and indeterminable. Certainly if anyone can determine and compute them ...
- 16.5k
21
votes
Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
I hate to say this, but incarceration is profitable, and at least in America the political class is plainly for sale:
The largest private prison corporations, Core Civic and GEO Group, collectively ...
- 9,483
19
votes
Accepted
Why did the US prohibit alcohol (instead of some other substance) during Prohibition
Alcohol was banned by Congress through Amendment 18 in 1917 because of Protestant protest groups and grassroot campaigns from several Woman's Rights Movement organizations. The Wikipedia article sums ...
- 688
16
votes
Accepted
Why was the prohibition of intoxicating liquor enacted through a constitutional amendment?
Our cousin site, History.SE had an answer by @Athanasius covering this in-depth.
I won't copy/paste the whole answer, but the executive summary is that Constitutional amendment had the following 3 ...
- 91.8k
16
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Canada leave the UN conventions on illicit drugs before legalizing marijuana?
Probably because Uruguay didn't do it either and apparently without consequences:
While Canada appears set to violate these international agreements, the [International Narcotics Control] board has ...
- 144k
15
votes
Accepted
What's the position of Donald Trump regarding recreational use of marijuana?
The Marijuana Policy Project says:
He supports legal access to medical marijuana, and he believes states should be able to set their own marijuana policies with regard to adult use.
The "he" in ...
- 89.3k
15
votes
What policy arguments do people make in favor of legalizing marijuana?
Because legalisation benefits health. Here is how.
Governments may want to legalise and tax marijuana in order to reduce consumption of soft-drugs and hard-drugs.
For an example, look to The ...
- 47.7k
15
votes
Why does decriminalisation/legalisation not reduce the cost of drugs?
It is conventional wisdom that the criminalisation of the supply of recreational psychoactive drugs causes an increase in the cost to supply and therefore to the user... However other studies have ...
15
votes
Have any governments attempted to provide dosing guidelines for illegal drugs?
Portugal would be one example, since drugs in Portugal were decriminalized a few years back. This means drug users there are treated as patients, not criminals and people are actually educated about ...
- 279
14
votes
How many people are in favor of legalizing marijuana, but have no intention of ever smoking it?
I couldn't find exact numbers, but I can give a relatively reasonable estimation.
Last year marijuana use in Colorado, where it's legal, by individuals 12 and older was at 12.7 percent (specifically ...
- 8,973
14
votes
What policy arguments do people make in favor of legalizing marijuana?
When something is made illegal it is then automatically pushed underground and then there is crime to commit. The problem is that making such a product illegal doesn't remove the demand for it, and ...
- 151
14
votes
Accepted
Is there any evidence that Filipino president Duterte's war on drugs has been successful?
As indicated by comments, it is very hard to evaluate the effectiveness of the fight against war on drugs. The official data is presented on Wikipedia, but they are challenged by other sources:
...
- 52.6k
14
votes
Accepted
How to know if increases in self-reported marijuana usage are real?
This is a good question, and you should look at the methodology of the specific survey you have in mind (which hopefully should be detailed in their report) to find out how they address that and ...
- 407
13
votes
Why was the prohibition of intoxicating liquor enacted through a constitutional amendment?
In the early 1900s, many American Protestants strongly supported Prohibition, but in order to outlaw alcohol (or anything), the only option Congress had was to wait for the States to amend the ...
- 688
13
votes
Why does decriminalisation/legalisation not reduce the cost of drugs?
In addition to what has already been stated, in some areas decriminalization has coincided with lower prices and higher quality. For example, I live in Arizona where recreational cannabis was ...
- 131
13
votes
Accepted
What is the libertarian solution to the antibiotic resistance caused by massive use of antibiotics in agriculture?
So, what do libertarians think about that problem?
Most libertarians hold nuanced views and don't see the world as entirely black-and-white, just like moderate members of most other ideological ...
- 52.6k
12
votes
Why is Medicare/Medicaid prohibited from bargaining for price in US?
Medicaid is not prohibited from negotiating drug prices. Medicare technically is, but does so in a roundabout way.
More specifically, Medicaid (a government-provided program for low-income ...
- 12k
12
votes
Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
From the 2016 (US) Republican Platform, page 40:
Combatting Drug Abuse
The progress made over the last three decades
against drug abuse is eroding, whether for cultural
reasons or for lack ...
- 825
12
votes
Why are passengers inspected so thoroughly for drugs when most drugs enter through ports and the majority of shipping containers aren't controlled?
Why are passengers inspected so thoroughly for drugs when most drugs enter through ports and the majority of shipping containers aren't controlled?
This question is a bit like asking "why are ...
- 17.4k
11
votes
Accepted
Why are many safe narcotics illegal?
Tradition.
The state tries to protect its citizens from taking drugs because they don't want them to become addicted. Drug addiction can cause people to stop working efficiently, consume resources in ...
- 74.8k
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