>> It's hard to figure out what drug legalizers are really for. Portugal or pot in convenience stores?
I don't know what the "correct" solution is and don't purport to. I'm not for across-the-board "legalization", although, marijuana is a far more dangerous drug solely because it is illegal, and marijuana use among non-adults is clearly HIGHER as a result of its illegal status.. The parallel with Prohibition is unmistakeable. One could argue that we would be better off today had Prohibition not been repealed I suppose; however, no sane person would believe that.
I'm not in favor of the straight libertarian argument that all drugs should be legal; but marijuana clearly should be. And anyone who understands the problem will eventually come to that conclusion. It is a ridiculous, unwarranted intrusion on our individual freedom; but more importantly, it is counter-productive in the extreme.
Certain drugs are just so addictive that I believe the public needs to be protected from them. Unfortunately, many physicians do not understand this. As a result we have an absolute epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is destroying lives because we idiotically treat it as a criminal justice problem. One of the guys in my son's military unit had a severe leg injury; since then, he has lost his job and his family because an idiot physician doesn't know how to prescribe painkillers.
If we took even 10% of the money we spend on prosecuting and incarcerating drug offenders we could take people who are rotting on the streets and turn their lives around. We don't, because (a) the problem is not understood to be a medical, rather a legal, one; and (b) Nobody gives a shit about drug addicts.
Our people have been so indoctrinated that their minds are not subject to change on this. And the problem is essentially "out of sight, out of mind". But the number of people who are in jails or dying on the street because of drug addiction is staggering.
The way the US handles so-called "drug crimes" is, I believe, the most shameful, irresponsible act of our government I have seen in my ~60 years. We are quick to give food stamps and health care to the poor, but are totally blissful with a criminal justice system that operates like something you'd find in Peru.
I understand it. Drug users aren't you or me. They're worthless pieces of shit. Except they ARE humans and they DO need help. Not a jail cell. Because I've known a couple of these pieces of shit and seen what our government has done to their lives up close and personal, I understand the problem.
Brumar, I was sort of like you a few years ago. A conservative who thought the criminal justice system was the best solution to these problems. Only after I saw a couple of lives destroyed, not by drugs, but by the way we deal with drug offenders, I came to realize just how ignorant I was about it. And just what a moral outrage it is.
I challenge you and Ten to read the book by Judge James Gray. This book, more than any one thing, changed my entire thinking not only about the drug problem, but about the role of government in our lives. There is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats in this regard -- they want to control our private lives. The argument is about which particular items they want control of.
The same concepts apply to other such individual freedoms as the RIGHT a person has to be a prostitute. Clearly, laws against prostitution do great harm. Yet, society feels we have some kind of moral responsibility to protect prostitutes from their own decisions. It is stupid. |
