it's just sickening to think that this kid might have
been substantially worsened by drugs which are
common on the black market (they say). -- j
.

And that's why certain drugs are illegal - because of the individual's refusal to take responsibility for their own choices regardless of the consequences to others.

Until people are willing to accept responsibility for their actions, the notion of decriminalizing drugs is not only a pipe dream, its a disaster waiting to happen and why I can't support it.

All of them. It is up to adult individuals to decide what to consume or not consume and only up to them. The only place for law in this is fraud and breach of contract. People are responsible for their own actions whether they have taken this drug or had a few drinks or not.

It is completely simple and nothing else is compatible with individual rights and liberty.

it's the officiousness of broad publication, imho.
I've seen it in action when working with a national
organization. . makes folks get puffed up and stupid
in their writing. -- j
.

I fear that most people just don't live life like that --
researching their choices responsibly. . if they did,
we would be a hell of a lot better off !!! -- j
.

I am aware of the methods available for change at the state level. I choose to make a living and support myself instead of making such a self sacrifice.

My definition of L-E-G-A-L is a lot different from the Emperor of Racism. Legal to me is like homebrewing and means anyone can grow enough for their own use regardless of how they use it. Easy cheap legal purchase of seeds, and growing accessories in homegrow stores. No restrictions to medicinal use, no tax on home grown unless sold. This is not being done anywhere... yet. Pot will be as cheap as good beer, when it is really legal.
Not free. Just reasonable. And it will replace the demand for a lot of pharma drugs.
It will knock crime down by at least 50%, and those 'crazy' shooters at schools will just be mellow people flipping burgers unless its against company policy and they test for pot.

The real question is that of education. Less than 1 person in 10,000 understands the basic reactions of any given drug enough to even suggest its use for another person, and even at that there are individual blood chemistry issues, etc., that mean that no drug - whether it is currently OTC or prescription - is a guarantee. So people who self-diagnose and self-proscribe are more likely than not by that same ratio to make poor decisions in that regard. On the other hand, seeing a doctor about every little thing is probably a bit absurd, too, so making everything a prescription drug is probably a little paranoid in that direction.

So maybe what people need (to avoid government interference) is simply a list of all drugs and their primary, secondary, and side-effects listed with a percentage of the people (and population size to present a good picture) affected by that effect. If you've got a background in pharmacology, I'm sure that you could classify and categorize similar drugs so that the site could suggest drugs for specific sets of symptoms or diagnoses based on the various risks of those effects and their severity. If you're truly entrepreneurial, maybe you could then tie that in to spot prices at local pharmacies for those drugs. I think the ones we have to be especially careful of (besides the obvious poisons) are the mind-altering drugs, however. Any drug which has a significant potential to affect reasoning should throw up huge red flags to the user. Another red flag should go up for any potentially addictive drug. And if both those flags go up, people should require a doctor's signature to obtain those drugs where the _doctor_ then becomes partially liable (legally) for the behavior of that individual while partaking of that substance.

It's all playing out in Colorado right now. Talk about a social experiment.

Sorry I forgot the (sarcasm) at the end.
But
Making pot legal would drop the price to compete with liquor imo, not free but very affordable.
Munchies will probably skyrocket in production to respond to demand, and price settle about where it is now after the period of adjustment.
All taxes on them should be local, none federal.
Make the feds work to earn anything they need to spend. Provide a service that I want to buy, dammit, otherwise shut up and go away.

I want all drugs to be legal. If you assume these deaths are related to drug use, then it's unfortunate but are you going to ban alcohol again because some people commit heinous acts under the influence of alcohol.

Week in and week out the illegal drug trade is responsible for many more deaths on a regular basis.

Is there one libertarian view of drug legality? I've met some that want all drugs to be legal, but others that only push marijuana.