Russell Brand: Philip Seymour Hoffman is another victim of extremely stupid drug laws

[olde north church]

Well, take away the damage to other people, auto crashes, theft, murder, destruction of family unit, all around dickheadedness and addiction isn't all bad.

[aligncare]

It's a sad sight. Addicted smokers standing outside a club on a freezing midnight in Manhattan. Maybe in rain or snow. Personally hate cigarette smoke, but ban smoking in bars? Did planners not get the bar experience? Of course restaurants are different. A couple or family goes in, eats, gets out.

But going to a bar is an extended experience, and with hundreds within walking distance in Manhattan, bar owners (and ultimately customers), should be free to decide whether a club is smoking or non-smoking. I suspect the market would have made the decision for the owner either way.

[mountaineer]

Well, take away the damage to other people, auto crashes, theft, murder, destruction of family unit, all around dickheadedness and addiction isn't all bad.

[aligncare]

Well, take away the damage to other people, auto crashes, theft, murder, destruction of family unit, all around dickheadedness and addiction isn't all bad.

Chalk up theft and murder to prohibition, auto crashes and destruction of family unit to the legal drug, alcohol. All-around dickheadedness? Comes with being human.

[LambChop]

Sometimes locking them up for a year or two is the only way for them to truly detox and get it completely out of their system.

Now, I'd rather just see big fines for pot use instead of jail time since most pot users are not violent.  $500 fine the first time, and keep adding another $500 to the fine for each additional offense.

Drugs are widely available in jails and prisons. 

[Oceander]

You get a bad batch sometimes. It's not as if it is quality controlled! 

Here you can not smoke in pubs, bars, cafes or restaurants - full stop. It has pretty much killed the entire pub trade. We had 15 pubs in my neighborhood within a 20 minute walk, before the smoking ban. Now we have three.

NYC has had a ban on smoking in bars for a while now (smoking wasn't permitted in cafes for a lot longer) and that doesn't seem to have put a serious hamper on the number of bars in Gomorrah (or is it Sodom) nor the number of their patrons.  I'm sure it reduced them some, but it didn't kill them off.

[Oceander]

Well, take away the damage to other people, auto crashes, theft, murder, destruction of family unit, all around dickheadedness and addiction isn't all bad.

I wouldn't say that it isn't "all bad" but I would say that penal consequences should depend on actual or threatened harm to the public at large and that the rest is a matter of medical treatment or non-criminal governmental social policy (such as the Amsterdam program for alcoholics).