Rising GOP support for the U.S. taking unilateral military action in Mexico against drug cartels is increasingly rattling people on both sides of the border who worry talk of an attack is getting normalized.

Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate featured high-stakes policy disagreements on a range of issues from abortion to the environment — but found near-unanimous consensus on the idea of using American military force to fight drug smuggling and migration.

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44 points

That’s completely out of the question in the Nanny States of America. The republicans want their “small government” to tell you what you’re allowed to put in or do to your own body, so free will would never be acceptable.

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-21 points

I’m sorry, but do you have the same position on gun laws (about nannies)?

Cause we are talking about heavy narcotics, that usually don’t give you a second chance. Guns don’t make you physically, medically dependent and unable to reconsider.

If that’s your point of view on narcotics, then in it one should also be able to own an Abrams tank with all the weaponry, legally.

Now, light drugs are fine, but Mexican cartels don’t deal in that.

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12 points

I think the difference is drugs do damage to mostly yourself while guns do damage to mostly others.

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-5 points

Under influence of drugs you can inflict any conceivable damage on others, which you wouldn’t without drugs.

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10 points

Taking a drug is a choice, getting shot is not. Stop being obtuse and conflating separate issues. Shame on you.

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-1 points

Yes, it’s a choice that you are going to possibly lose control of yourself and do various things you wouldn’t usually. If we are treating intoxication by cocaine or anything else as negligible while determining criminal responsibility for murders etc, that is, that every act under intoxication was intentional - then I’m fine with legalizing all drugs.

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9 points
*

Where I live (a red state), things like weed and mushrooms are still extremely illegal. I have a multiple AR’s that I built myself. And I respect those guns and would never use them in an irresponsible manner. But knowing how insanely stupid half the country is, it terrifies me that almost ANYBODY can legally own an AR. We need to have better control over who is allowed near these extremely dangerous weapons. And yes, they are extremely dangerous. If you’ve seen what high velocity rounds do to things, it’s understandable. But there’s no reason to restrict responsible gun owners from owning them. Ban AR’s and people will still have access to other weapons that are just as dangerous.

But telling people what they’re allowed to do with their own bodies, whether it be weed, mushrooms, abortions, etc is a complete distortion of the spirit of the constitution. If we made safer drugs legal, people would be far less likely to use more potent and deadly drugs. Sometimes people just want to get high, and if they can’t get weed they get so desperate that they are making soda bottle meth. Or buying who knows what from some shady dude on a corner somewhere. If you legalize something, then we can regulate it, and people feel safer seeking help with their addictions.

Put it this way. If there isn’t a victim, then it shouldn’t be a crime.

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-3 points

Yes, I meant that guns increase the damage from an irresponsible person, while drugs make them more irresponsible. So somewhat comparable as factors.

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6 points

Drugs you put into your body. Bullets you put into someone else’s. They are not the same.

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0 points

They are not the same, but they both affect the probability of bullets being put anywhere.

I’ll formulate this differently - if a person taking drugs is legally fully responsible for everything done under their effect, then I’m all for full legalization. No excuses, like what a mental health problem would be, because taking drugs is a choice.

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4 points

A) You should try to avoid fallacious arguments. Comparing drugs with guns is a terrible false equivalence. It’s also just flat out wrong.

B) You’re “guns don’t make you unable to reconsider” is one of the dumbest takes possible. If you use a gun for it’s sole intended purpose, you could kill yourself or someone else. That’s absolutely something you can’t reconsider. Dead is dead.

Drugs have the potential to kill ONE person, the person who made the decision to ingest them. Guns have the potential to kill many people.

There are SO many other arguments you could have made against relaxing drug policy, you chose poorly.

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2 points

It can be right or wrong depending on the set of criteria to compare them. Since I haven’t said anything as absolute as you did in your “A” statement, I’d say you’re the one to do fallacies here.

Drugs make your judgement impaired, so by extension they have the potential to make you do anything, including killing any amount of people.

I don’t think I choose my arguments poorly. Natural languages are fuzzy, and when you immediately start with dubious interpretations of what I wrote with a clear goal to prove that someone’s right and someone’s wrong and not reach the truth possibly by asking questions or having conditional logic in your answers, you just discredit yourself and not me.

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