Some guy wants to ban everything that is mind-altering

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Here's hoping Trudeau keeps his promises to legalize it. Of course, if he over-regulates it and bans things like high THC strains or extracts, then I won't be nearly as impressed.

yeah, hitler really wasn't the teatotaller people like to portray him as... imagine his last days in the bunker: he's losing a world war AND coming off drugs.
he also basically srugged the whole army. the blitzkrieg was a basically "invasion on meth". days and nights of advancing through france without rest - .... much like today's army-pilots get drugged up on ritalin. not that different from meth.

anyway. a drug-free society would be an interesting experiment, as drugs have always allowed temporary transgression of social norms. even the stiff germans in munich get hammered on oktoberfest and grope women and... it's like it's permitted to do that there. I wonder if a society could function without ritualised excess like this, after which you have a hangover and don't feel like doing that again for a while.
even huxley's brave new world had its soma.

according to science, high THC strains are the cause for all of cannabis' side effects, like psychosis and addiction. to be precise, it's an excessive level of THC in relation to cannabinoids.
so... banning high THC strains would be not that bad, however, a minimum ratio of cannabinoids to thc would actually be the right thing.

here's a lecture on this from the UCL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FuwgMwJTu4

I don't see the point of banning any psychoactive drugs, no matter how nasty they may be. All it does is create an underground market for them, which leads to things like violence and crime. The whole drug prohibition movement has caused far more damage than it has solved. Usage of psychoactive drugs should be treated as a personal choice that one is responsible for. People are going to use drugs anyway, so you may as well keep criminals from profiting off of it.

in theory, I agree, practically, I think the consequences of one's actions are often poorly assessed by the individual.
so, I have problems with highly addictive drugs like opiates....

but what's wrong with legalizing a wide range of reasonably dangerous drugs, so you can choose- which should be enough for the majority....

In a scenario where opiates were legal and easily accessible, it would ultimately be the user's fault for not doing their research before becoming addicted to them. I mean, if they're smart enough to seek help afterwards, power to them, but even still.

yeah, but there's a whole lot of people who we don't consider responsible enough for themselves to do things like drive or if they're even younger, they're not even responsible for the damage they do. ... so... there needs to be some serious education, but still... humans are animals that follow the herd, esp. teens. and it might be cool to start doing h...
( I started smoking because my first girlfriend did... I wasn't the most responsible kid. If I had had access to heroin, who knows, I might have tried... today I regret having ever started smoking....)

and that's sort of why I theoretically agree: if age-restriction worked perfectly and people were perfectly informed and not victims of fashions and advertising, then full legalization would be the right thing. but I just see sooo many practical issues...

Good luck with that considering humans have been using mind altering things for thousands of years.

I need my caffeine in the morning or I'm like a grumpy and lethargic troll that just grunts and growls at being awake, however its not always in the form of coffee I quite like tea as well.

I agree with education, but I don't agree with prohibition because it's been found to be ineffective and in a lot of ways even detrimental. I honestly think drugs would lose a lot of their "cool factor" with rebellious teens if they were no longer considered forbidden fruit. With full legalization, there might be an uptick in overdose deaths, but there would also be a hell of a lot less people dying and getting arrested due to organized crime and the violence that surrounds it. Also, call me a social darwinist, but if a junkie in a full-legalization society doesn't seek help and ends up dying from an OD, then perhaps the gene pool would be better off without them.

Now, another thing I will say, I still think impaired driving should be treated as a serious offense, even if it's just under the influence of cannabis. I know a lot of people say they can toke and drive just fine, but people say the same about drinking and driving too. Needless to say, this should apply to other activities where lives are potentially in people's hands as well, like working with power tools or doing surgery. I couldn't care less if a bunch of guys doing menial office work are drunk and stoned off their asses, provided they don't drive to and from work, but I can definitely see why more physical professions would demand drug testing.

This line of discussion is risque, for how far do we go to defend our moral free agency.

I'm reasonably sure that Bin Laden was no libertine, but he did discuss social justice.

Well said, sir!

That's a false claim, Hitler was multiple substance abuser.

Fanatics and extremists always seem to be at it, esp the religious one whom want to force down others throats their own morals and values..

Take for instance, people whom will let their children die for lack of proper medication and the like thinking god will come save them or that its gods will.

And just recently in California, A Cristian church managed to wiggle its way into doing its thing in public schools, only to get pissed off because a satanist group was enabled to do the same thing because the Cristian group enabled them to legally do so. (they really should keep church and public schooling separate).

Its just those damned puritans needs to stay out of government offices, they are most always trying to infringe on others freedoms and rights.

Even the Puritans liked their beer. Sure, they banned "drunkenness", but their definition for that was so loose that it would exclude almost everyone at a house party who didn't pass out on the toilet with puke on their shirt.

This brings up another point --
He took meth for his health.

All illicit drugs began as socially-acceptable medicines.

Black markets begin with a tax regime.

Sugar, molasses, tea, and common kitchen seasonings have been contraband, when the duty isn't paid.

Tobacco and alcohol still result in melodramatic raids, including the choking death of Eric Garner.

So, for arbitrary, legal purposes, pumpkin pie and loose cigarettes could be examples of substance abuse,
because people said so -- forcibly.