Re: drug abuse among the homeless

The Prophet Brother Nate  known to the wise as [EMAIL PROTECTED], opened the Book of 
Words, and read unto the people:
>proffsl wrote:
>> Legalizing drugs would put an 'effectively-unlimited supply' of
>> completely legal adult customers, virtually eliminating any
>> predisposition to sell drugs to children.
>
>And that's why legal alcohol is our #1 under-aged drug abuse
>problem?  The actual facts of legal substances don't bear
>out your claims about what would happen to illegal ones after
>legalization.


*sigh* We've been through this mill many times before. Alcohol is, and
has been almost everywhere and almost always the most popular drug --
regardless of local laws. Add to that the fact that alcohol has, per
user, the greatest deleterious social and medical effect, for
pharmacological reasons alone (very few other drugs provide quite the
same blend of hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, aggression-induction,
judgment-clouding, and hand-eye coordination deterioration that
alcohol does), and we have a drug which is a major social problem any
time, anywhere. From 4th-century Rome to 12th-century BC Judea to
18th-century Europe to 20th-century America, one can find ample
evidence that alcohol presents a real and palpable social problem --
oddly, all these cultures knew about marijuana and opiates, and most
likely cultivated them, and many had knowledge of psychotropic fungi
as well; however, these drugs are so marginal both in usage and
societal effect as to warrant no mention.

Alcohol is a poor example to describe the effects of
legalization. History demonstrates that humanity at large is likely
not to be interested in drugs save alcohol, and usage of
currently-illegal substances would remain minimal. This is absolutely
nothing like the case with alcohol: the wave of mutilation you seem to
fear resulting from legalization simply doesn't exist.

>No, I am pointing out the fallacy in your assumption that
>"They're going to do it anyway".  The fact of the matter is
>that most are NOT going to do it, and less use illegal drugs
>than either of the 2 legal ones.

As to alcohol, see above. It would remain the most popular no matter
what legal framework is in place.

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|   D. Jacob Wildstrom -- Math monkey and freelance thinker   |
|   Graduate Student, University of California at San Diego   |
| "A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into        |
|  theorems."     -Alfred Renyi                               |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily endorsed by the
University of California or math department thereof.