Reply #90: Conversely

[MrBenchley]

I think you'd find people who have childish, badly thought out and reckless attitudes about drugs and public safety, probably have much the same attitudes about guns and public safety.

And that the same people who want to pretend there isn't a serious gun violence problem in the US also want to pretend that the problems of substance abuse and crime would go away magically if "drugs were legalized."

By the way, it surely is not a coincidence that some of our most feeble-minded and coirrupt pro-gun politicians have also been gung-ho about letting dangerous substances like ephedrine get on the market unregulated.

"Scorin' with Orrin
How the gentleman from Utah made it easier for kids to buy steroids, speed, and Spanish fly.
Since DSHEA became law, substances as varied as paint stripper, bat shit, toad venom, and lamb placenta have all been imported from overseas, bottled up---often by people with no scientific or health backgrounds---and marketed as dietary supplements to unsuspecting American consumers. Many supplements have been tainted with salmonella, arsenic, lead, pesticides, unapproved foreign prescription drugs, as well as garden-variety carcinogens. And despite their New-Age health aura, a significant portion of these "natural supplements" are stimulants, depressants, and other mood-enhancers that some medical experts believe would be classified as drugs if they were synthetic. A surprising number of these products are addictive.
Thanks to Hatch, the U.S. now has standards as low as those in many Third World countries for the sale of many products with serious, pharmacological effects. The results have been deadly. Between 1993 and 1998, the FDA linked at least 184 deaths to dietary supplements, which are now suspected of contributing to the sudden deaths of three football players in August. "

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0109.mencimer2.html