CreateDebate is a social debate community built around ideas, discussion and democracy.
If this is your first time checking out a debate, here are some quick tips to help get you started:
Arguments with the highest score are displayed first.
Argument replies (both in favor and in opposition) are displayed below the original argument.
To follow along, you may find it helpful to show and hide the replies displayed below each argument.
To vote for an argument, use these icons:
You have the power to cast exactly one vote (either up or down) for each argument.
Once you vote, the icon will become grayed out and the argument's score will change.
Yes, you can change your vote.
Debate scores, side scores and tag scores are automatically calculated by an algorithm that primarily takes argument scores into account.
All scores are updated in real-time.
To learn more about the CreateDebate scoring system, check out the FAQ.
When you are ready to voice your opinion, use the Add Argument button to create an argument.
If you would like to address an existing argument, use the Support and Dispute link within that argument to create a new reply.
I am sorry, this was hard to resist, but if you have any intelligence you would use spell check and spell "is" correctly. All crimes have a victim just as in nothing is ever free.
Well, you're an idiot. Nothing BUT "is" is spelled wrong and since "us" is a word spell checker wouldn't do much now would it?
As for your second "point"...
"All crimes have a victim just as in nothing is ever free."
As an analogy this doesn't even make sense. Are you equating victims to money or are you just implying that both statements are true because the other is true?
Secondly, crime is an arbitrary term. Any act can be labeled as a crime so I'm going to assume by "all crimes have a victim" you are saying that all actions have a victim.
Absolutely true. Every action you make will somehow lead to a loss in utility by someone else.
So, are you saying that every act should be illegal, since every action will lead to some form of victimization?
I'll say this, it's stupid to send people to jail for things that only cause harm to themselves. Think about the concept of prison, to separate people from society who are a danger to society. Why should a drug user be hiden from society? Now a drug dealer is a different story.
There are in the arguments against, there are crimes which are not purely victimless, like speeding, which is true it can end with victims, so not purely victimless, or at least not all the time.
Pure victimless crimes hurt no one and infringe upon no one.
For example seat belt, helmet, and other such safety crimes are victimless. If I crash into your car, it makes no difference to you, your car, or your insurance, whether or not I had a seat belt or not.
Other victimless crimes, such as "no loitering" or curfews are laws that persecute simply because you may or may not have been wanting to commit a crime, not because you have.
Speeding is a victimless crime, but it could possibly claim more victims than yourself. By making these actions illegal, it is to take extra precautions for those around you.
Almost everything can potentially have other victims besides yourself. If you use drugs, then your family will be affected by it or you could hurt someone because you were under the influence. If you commit suicide, again your family, or in the very odd case, if you jump off a building, then you could fall on someone:). The prostitute could carry some type of STD and you could pass it on to another person.
I see your point, but just because someone is affected by something does not necessarily make them 'victims'. And in regards to prostitution, places where it is legal, it is usually monitored by the state, meaning the prostitutes get checked for STDs regularly.
By using recreational drugs, it can cause you to do many things that can harm other people.
Suicide effects every taxpayer. The police officers have to go out to the scene and conduct an investigation. It doesn't physically hurt someone, but it can financially hurt an already cash strapped police department.
Just because something doesn't affect anyone other than yourself doesn't make it right.
And how did I know that? The only people who would think that Marijuana doesn't pacify are those who have never tried it themselves or haven't been around a lot of people who use it.
The reason there are laws in place is to protect people. There are no victim less crimes. If you are an adult and you have a kid and you decide to go at yourself with a knife or commit suicide or abuse drugs, your kid is a victim. They can't have a normal like and have to go through a lot of mental and emotional problems that are not easy to fix.
If someone wants to end their life, that is their right. If someone is in such agony, where they feel that suicide is the only way to relieve the pain they feel in their lives, who are you to tell them they can't? It is not against the law to make your family sad.
If suicide was legal do you realize how many people would go jumping off bridges?
And there is plenty of help for those who do have challenges in their lives. People who were rescued and helped have reported that they were glad to not have died.
If I were religious I would tell you that it is not right and God wouldn't want you to.
But because I am not I am going to say that I don't believe in killing myself because I have experienced bad in my life that has caused me to be unhappy. For many reasons that people try to commit suicide, are curable.
First of all, that people fear death is the reason people don't jump off bridges, not because of legality. If you commit suicide what are they gonna do, put your corpse in jail? Secondly, attempted suicide was illegal in only 2 states in the early 1990's. Today it is completely legal in all 50 states.
You've refuted your own argument. In the first sentence you say "There are no victimless crimes." and then in the very next sentence you say "I don't care if nobody gets hurt..."
If nobody gets hurt, then that would make it a victimless crime.
No, for the most part it wasn't and isn't. I'm not disputing all laws, a lot of them are good rules of thumb - but to say that all laws are there solely to protect us is insanity. Why is outlawing ganja for our protection? Yet at the same time a drug that causes literally hundreds of thousands deaths worldwide per year (alcohol) through violence, stupidity, poisoning, choking, sorosis etc., causes violence and cases of abuse both physical and sexual, sold to us at exuberantly high prices? Is that in our best interest?
The only harm and death that can be caused through marijuana is associated with inhaling hot smoke and carbon monoxide - you can't O.D on it, it is virtually never known to turn people irrationally violent etc. Yes it can cause psychosis in certain individuals, but so can alcohol - I'm not trying to sound like a blatant pro-doper I'm just proving a point in general by using a specific case.
Laws are there to keep us complacent, to control and take advantage of us - I can purchase products that are known to kill literally millions per year (cigarette) and most of the profit goes straight to the people making laws saying I can be locked up for smoking a different sort of plant - and if I want to quit smoking cigarette? Why of course I pay for another heavily taxed item such as nicotine gum or patches - if you truly think all laws are there to protect us you are naive to the facts.
Simply false. Just because we don't see the consequences of our actions doesn't make them right. There is the law of the harvest that must be remembered; what you sow today does not immediately sprout up, it takes time to see the harvest. The things we do today might not have immediate consequences because they could be hidden, not bearing fruit for many years. And then the direct correlation between cause and effect is difficult to trace. So we could say, hey nobody got hurt, but do we honestly know that to be the case? There are always consequences for our actions and we ought to weigh that carefully because there is always a cost involved. Sometimes on the front end and other times on the rear end (don't think like that :-) ) But always a cost, somebody has gotta pay.