O'Reilly on John Stossel's Call to Legalize Drugs: 'I'd Decriminalize Marijuana...Prosecute Dealers'

[deathofsmokey]

I think we should legalize all drugs to the extent that the dealers are prosecuted, and not the users. Don't even fine the users. Marijuana should be legal and sold in stores.

[mogambo55]

O'Reilly just makes things up as he goes along. England never did legalized cannabis and then re-legalized it.

In 2004 cannabis was reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug.

In 2008, the government commissioned a study into the effects of downgrading cannabis from a class B to a class C.

In 2009 and against the advice of the government's own commissioned report on cannabis the government once again reclassifyed cannabis as a class B drug.

[darlinglittlemammy]

If you need a law to tell your children not to do drugs it is because you don't actually know if there is anything bad about them. If you see something inherently wrong with drugs, you can use that as your explanation to your children. I believe that recreational drug use is immoral and reprehensible but if I can't convince someone with my free speech not to use them I should not be able to use force through the law.

[deathofsmokey]

@darlinglittlemammy

The how do you parent this argument is bullshit - how do you parent alcohol? You start by parenting.

[glessnerdawg12]

Im for legalizing drugs, but Im okay with O reilly saying I would at least decriminalize drugs. Too many people I talk to want to interrogate everybody who takes drugs and throw them in jail for years. As a way to bridge the gap to people I could never convince to legalize drugs, I always say, at least be for de-criminalizing it. You have 18 year old kids going to jail for 5 years, and wasnt necessarily a bad person going into jail, turning into a thug coming out of jail.

[amindbody]

if you're telling you're kids not to do drugs because they're illegal, you're a fucking lazy parent. teach them responsibility, moderation, accountability. why is alcohol okay to use? because it's LEGAL!!!!!!!!!! i can text and drive because it's LEGAL!!!!!!!!!!! old ass republicans are pissing me off.

[tph2010]

Organized crime controls vice the world over??? Organize crime controls alcohol and cigarettes?

[getthepoooffmybum]

I am 100% straight edge and support the full legalization of drugs. Go libertarians!

[magicblanket]

These guys mention England and Switzerland........how about Portugal? They've legalized it since the turn of the millenium, and it's been pretty damn good in decreasing drug usage and drug related crimes.

The only thing better than a stigma to deter people from doing drugs is making it commonplace so people can directly witness the effects. That's what keeps me from smoking or drinking myself to hell

[LibertarianLion]

Every single one of these idiots' argument can be turned around against them by anyone educated on the subject. I wish Jeffrey Miron were there!

[jacobscrap96]

isnt beating up your kids kinda impossible when your stoned? I have NEVER got mad when im high.

[breakfastdaynight]

@jacobscrap96 True that. Maybe more parents should toke.

[CorpsmanUP87]

What bill doesn't understand is that it's hard to intimidate a man who got the shit knocked out of him by some steriod taking mongloid wrestler.

[dalesalsa]

These people are fucking retards....

[kingsilvers69]

england has neva legalized drugs this guy chats so much shit based on fiction,wot aload of bulshit

[playadominical]

2:00 my dealer hangs out in front of the 7/11 so i dont see how legalization would make it much different

[stantheman42069]

@playadominical store would sell it instead and it would be safer. like in the case of weed where street dealer put pesticides the drug which makes it dangerous. If companies sold marijuana they would sell it at the highest quality and i safe environments.

[Shmuel93]

how does bill o'prick even know what marijuana does? he probably never smoked it

[coturnix19]

@Shmuel93 hell, we don't need to know. I for one don't live in america, but i watch 'criminal news' sometimes, and they blab about seizing dealers and catching addicts all the time. But my god never have i heard potheads actually harmed anyone, evah. And yet, i they talk about alcohol induced murders and abuse all the time, fukin all the time. ALCOHOL IS BY FAR THE MOST DANGEROUS DRUG EVAH! It is worse than crack and by far worse than heroin, not to mention pot or extasy. AND IT IS LEGAL

[coturnix19]

@Shmuel93 adding to it barbiturates and benzodiazepines are also dangerous - simply cause they work like alcohol, but are much less fun to take (which makes them saafer than alcohol though). Crack and meth i guess are the only drugs that can pose problems if legalized..

[Shmuel93]

@coturnix19 ya im for treating physically addicted people like patients and not criminals. cannabis has very little to none physical addiction. and the part where the mom said "what do i tell my kids?" people need to just inform their kids with the facts and not opinions about the short term and long term effects of each drug. information over ignorance

[TheManInTheMasks]

The same argument can be used for anything that can be used to injure another person with, such as pencils. People "could" take sharpened pencils and stab someone with them therefore they should be illegal. And yet O'Reilly is in favor of legalizing guns (which are directly used to harm people as opposed to drugs, which can't directly hurt other people)? Very , very bad logic.......

[KripDrip]

we have a constitutional right to have guns. Nothing in the constitution says you have the right to sell drugs

[TheManInTheMasks]

@KripDrip Nothing says you can't. The very same argument that you use to ban drugs is only strengthened when used for gun ownership. Guns directly hurt people while drugs only hurt the user, unless someone runs around stabbing people with heroin needles. In reality, both should be legalized. Everything down to sharp objects should be banned under this argument, bad logic. Also this woman said organized crime moves in. Organized crime is there because it is illegal, how dumb is this woman...

[XanatharEye]

When did England legalize and recriminalize drugs?

[Ddstairclimber]

That hoover is a hypocrate lier, in the netherlands tehre is less crime, less murder, less drug related deaths than in america. Just because tehy closed a few pot places, doesnt mean the situation overall is is worse. I know of alchohol businesses that have had their licenses revoked here. does that mean alahol use is our of control???

[ZosoNC69]

all the fox women want to fuck oreilly

[BroodjeEend]

fuck all these lies about the netherlands; the amount of drug related crimes in the united states is A LOT higher

[jenn1ifer]

bill oreilly is right

[Verator]

@jenn1ifer

How? Got some supporting facts?

O'Reilly is dead wrong. History supports that.

[DestroyEvolveCreate]

Lol, lady at 3:00 insinuating that organized crime follows legalized drugs...

Yep, Al Capone sure made his cash once prohibition ended.

[Efferts]

Personally, it shouldn't make a difference now whether pot's legalized or not. We can get it as easily, faster, & possibly cheaper than if government regulated distribution.

And most users are under the radar.

[stratplayer13]

Pot doesn't go directly with violence often. I would be curious to see a study that relates pot smoking to violent behavior. It would be concluded with either "illegal drugs go with illegal crimes", or "people tend to act more mellow and stoned, while stoned"

Weed alters your hunger and energy. leading to food and chilling out IMO

[sac7000]

Deaths related to tobacco use number 400,000 a year and our government continues to subsidize tobacco farmers. Why is tobacco still legal?

[Ddstairclimber]

shes, wrong. in Holland there is much less drig related crime, 14 times less drug realted deaths, I dont know where she is getting the facts because its ilegal and its largley victimless, is what makes people want it more!!!!

[lonnie333]

The prison lobbyist won't allow the legalization of drugs, they're making too much money off it (among other groups).

[nemo12degraff]

does Bill 'O Reilly ever have any opposition on his show?

[MapleMeadows]

@nemo12degraff ummm, i think there are more videos of o'reilly arguing people on youtube than any other pundit

[combatleague]

child abuse is caused by the parents, nit the drugs. so they are trying to solve the symptom and not the disease.

[pistolpetethemeat]

As someone from England...

We have never legalised all drugs, and then revoked it because of the problems caused...

We have a heroin prescription system, which by any valid measurement is effective at reducing drug harm. Thats it...

[93msinclair]

If drugs are legalized we can start locking up the real criminals such as the murderous drug barrons we see today, rather than locking up the vunerable and weak people who have succumed to drug use and who have harmed nobody but themselves in the process.

[sttswede]

"the other part with legalizing drugs, as we've seen in Amsterdam, as we've seen in The Netherlands, and as we've seen in Rotterdam and other societies...."

hold the phone, pretty sure those societies are the same society

[Indigozek]

hahah "You tell them not to do pot because its illegal". "When its legal, what reason will you have to say no then??!?!"

BECAUSE THERE IS NO REAL REASON FOR THEM NOT TO DO IT.

[Indigozek]

What a moron. He said it himself, abuse is caused by alcohol. Yet alcohol is legal and Weed is illegal. Do these people honestly use their brains? Or are they being paid to spout bullshit.

[Kdragon5]

Well, Stossel was right about one thing; he does need to work on his answers. I wish it had been me sitting across from Billo that day, I would have smashed his shit up. That was nowhere near fair and balanced LOL

[sparkham1871]

when did england "try" legalization? Since drugs were first banned in 1971 more and more have become illegal, portugal has seen a decrease of drug use after decriminalisation (it is impossible to make it legal because of UN resolutions)

[Hurlman418]

Crime moves in after legalization??? What about the crime caused by prohibition?

[selfrealizedexile]

John Stossel doesn't seem to step up to the plate well in debates with O'Reilly which baffles me. There are guys out there like Milton Friedman who would eviscerate O'Reilly.

[selfrealizedexile]

Then Carlson says parents will be at a loss? How about parents be parents. You have the authority to raise you kids for the most part; how about you step up to the plate? Last I checked you can hang your hat on alcohol being illegal.

Then O'Reilly says it's a cop out legalize it. lol, irony, it's a cop out for these parents.

Women generally have irrational views on "rules and regulations of society." They're the ones who illegalized alcohol when the men we're off to war, afterall.

[selfrealizedexile]

God, this is super ironic.

Organized crime moves in when a substance is finally legalized? Are you fucking kidding me? Does Hoover not know about prohibition, does she not know about the drug cartels that run most of the south and latin america countries? The violence, kidnapping, and assassinations in that country aren't there by accident. When we illegalized these drugs we granted these powers monopoly rights to the drugs and their making massive profits on it.

[KripDrip]

prohibition of alcohol isnt the same thing. Alcohol was never illegal to drink. Alcohol is part of our culture and history and can be beneficial in moderation.

[gletbuub7]

@KripDrip if ur american u barley hav a history lol and wot r the benefits of alcohol seen as it kill 1000s of people each year. now i drink smoke pot hav done other drugs and i had a great time weed really should b legal seen as no deaths it makes no sense the killa drug is legal and the one where u cant die is illegal tell me u can see how stupid that is.

[Bpowderr]

@KripDrip alcohol was illegal.

[sheppo42]

Crime moves in?

Yeeeaaahhh..... Crime has nothing to do with drugs now...

[StarchildSF]

O'Reilly is clueless. He claims that "75% of "all the abuse" is caused by" people getting "wacked out", but correlation is not causation.

Carlson likewise. She thinks it would be a problem if marijuana were legal because "now you tell your kids don't do drugs" and what would you say then? But she forgets that alcohol, caffeine, ritalin, etc., are also drugs! So that "don't do drugs" message is already compromised!

[tomiscool243]

Bill O'Reilly has sincerely no idea or grasp on the topic he is debating over. Instead of researching just marijuana, he included all drugs, including alcohol in his debate? Thats bullshit when it is compared to cocaine, and other hard drugs, the ramifications of marijuana are so small that its virtually inneffective, when it all boils down it makes cancer patients feel good. If it makes someone dying, depressed, and stressed out feel good for 3 hours than there is no harm.

[Martial024]

They should research what they talk about before they talk about it.

Marijuana is not legal in the Netherlands, where Amsterdam is. They cant legalize it because of international law, which means the supply is still underground.

They need to legalize the growing to supply the coffeeshops then you would get rid of the underground market.

[LazyTuba]

Bill seems to think that intoxication = child abuse. He thinks that pot will make you just a violent as alcohol.

[cottagecheez]

wow first of all, o'reilly took stossel's words WAY out of context to his advantage, and said that he supported ALL drugs to be legalized. Second, although i dont smoke, i don't think legalizing marijuana would hurt society too much.

[StarchildSF]

Yes, O'Reilly clearly set the stage to his advantage. But Stossel *does* support making all drugs legal. And he's right! It's *your* body. What you put into it should be up to *you*, not controlled by government! If you hurt someone else, that's when government should get involved, but we shouldn't punish everyone, or restrict everyone's freedom, just because *some* people abuse their freedoms. Punishing the innocent is not justice.

[chinchonchinchon]

Alcohol was ligallized a long time ago yet...You'll see everyday in the paper people dying from cirrhosis of the liver, lives destroyed in drunk driving accidents, etc, etc.

The problem is still around, the thing is that it has gone underwater for us not to be concerned about it.

legllize drugs? What if a stoned kid destroys your family in an accident?

What if a kid who otherwise is ok, brings guns to a school and again columbine high school?

The problem is not making it legal

[mrtbass]

I believe in the legalization of all drugs. If a person wants to purchase and consume drugs from another for an agreed-upon price, both parties gain. Therefore, there is no victim. Let me ask, where are all the tobacco and wine cartels in the world? There are none because tobacco and wine are legal! Wake up, America!

[ndes0532]

legalizing pot would cause organized crime? like, what? factflash: prohibition of alcohol brought forth al capone.

also i think they are confusing cause and effect with the child neglect. good-for-nothing parents are more likely to neglect their children and take drugs. that's what's causing the correlation. not drugs causing child neglect.

[hanzo138]

"legalizing pot would cause organized crime? like, what?"

You don't know about the on going bloody Anheuser-Busch and Miller turff war?

[tomiscool243]

I love using the prohibition of alcohol as a source

[ndes0532]

What side of the argument are you representing with this?

[tomiscool243]

Pro Marijuana of course, obviously if the prohibition of alcohol brought Al Capone, and gang violence, imagine what unneeded crime is occurring with weed being illegal

[Kerkopes]

Alcohol and pot have the same affect and are NOT in the same league as cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. so those who choose to debate such things need to put separate the two categories. Anything else is pure ignorance.

[tomiscool243]

Alcohol and weed dont have the same effects. Being high on weed is much more manageable and easy to control than being drunk

[bricitybrac]

Canada seems to be doing fine.

[belchingdonkeyy]

i dont believe in legalization of all drugs, but weed should not be considered an illegal drug. it is not physically addictive, and is FAR less destructive than other drugs and alcohol.

it should be regulated like alcohol and cigarettes, where you need to be a certain age to buy it.

and it would still be illegal to sell to minors, and drive while impaired.

[Fredson78]

the only one's that don't want these drugs legalized are the criminals and law enforcement. the criminals have the black market in which they control the price(and they charge a lot). legalize it and the criminals can't compete in a open free market. the law enforcement has funding from both state and federal government to arrest drug dealers and users. if any of that gets cut, then jobs and wages get cut.

[hondojkb]

"Child abuse and neglect is caused by intoxication."

The family dynamic is the heart of the learning world for any human. Role modeling, reinforcement, punishment coupled with internal needs forming throughout childhood and into adulthood set the tone for any human's future actions. Child abuse and neglect was set into motion way before intoxication became a player in ever day life.The cause is in how we manipulate one another within the family unit and carry what we learn into the world.

[HyeDavMon]

You can't get kids not to try drugs because you say its illegal. you have to educate the kids on what drugs do. For example, I know it is safe to smoke pot and eat mushrooms but its not safe to smoke crack and inject heroin.

[fluff125]

If you legalize drugs, suddenly all of the drug cartels and gang violence would evaporate. I don't think it would increase violence, but massively decrease it.

[Vitaminous]

Government makes criminals. Haven't these people learned anything from prohibition?

[realdeal0083]

the crime rates in the usa are by far higher than they are in holland policy and control will save this country

[nevaseenamancry]

Casual users shouldn't be targeted. If grampa wants to smoke a joint, who cares? If pot is legalized it might be harder to get though. The government would regulate the shit out of it and tax it very high!

[ithinkronpaulissmart]

Crack wouldn't exist if drugs were legalized.