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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (3105)	6/16/1999 2:00:00 AM
From: Dan B.	Respond to of 13056

Right, I don't expect you to agree that Drug laws are a good target for nullification(I'd like you to. :)). Obviously in my view we'd all be Libertarians if we all had excellent common sense. Still, I don't have to abandon my trust in the common man in order to understand that most of us by far aren't Libertarians, and I'll accept all methods which can increase my view of appropriate justice. If jury nullification can be one of them that's fine with me. The problem with realizing that humans ALL are lacking in many ways is that you then realize you shouldn't trust any one or few of them to set hardened rules for all the others- this is why things like jury nullification had to be upheld. The more individual freedom we maintain, the less harm the few can do, even if unwittingly, to the many. Well-intentioned drug laws are unwittingly doing great harm. Here's another attempt. Repealing drug laws would very quickly make our innercity streets far safer again since the often even murderous quest for the money to purchase extremely overpriced drugs would quickly end due to much lowered prices. Assuming cheap drugs would create more users is not only contrary to the natural self-interest limits on self-destructive behavior, but since the pro-active encouragement to use drugs is GREATLY HEIGHTENED by the extremely inflated profit structure that results from criminalization(Econ. 101 stuff here- and it MUST be accounted for- why do you think Buckley changed his mind?), we can expect less drug use for that reason alone. Witness that high schools in every small town across this country have active encouragers of drug use who exist solely to provide for someones high profit margins(it's undeniable IMHO). Even with use by minors remaining illegal, the ready availability of cheap drugs all over would mean profit margins AND any impetus for the continuance of todays black market channels, would both necessarily shrink tremendously. In fact, following the money, I submit that the one element in society that has the greatest interest by far in keeping drugs illegal is the Mafia. It should be readily apparent that todays major illegal drug distributors can't want legalization. This is without question IMHO. Follow the money. The sums funneled to criminal hands in this country thanks to the failure to allow individuals to make free choices as to what they put in their bodies, is so great as to boggle the mind. The effort the criminal element is making to glamorize drugs is LARGE indeed. Witness that Rush Limbaugh has himself described the phenomenon of the new dude in a neighborhood- from out of town- who gives away drug samples to build or re-build a customer base- then perhaps leaves for another assignment after selling channels are established. I can't help it if Rush doesn't see the implicatons of this. Libertarians certainly do. We can end this game with legalization. I say legalize drugs for the children- we could save so many of them who would never otherwise abuse drugs if not for the encouragement inflated drug profits bring into our schools and onto our streets. Sorry about redundancies and length, I'm passionate about this as you can see. Freedom works better than Republicans think, Dan B