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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (48911)	10/19/2000 8:31:27 AM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

>>>That is certainly one BIG reason...in fact, so much so that I wonder just how many states have political party planks that want to "decriminalize marijuana"...if anyone thinks that isn't the start of a downhill fall into many more serious drugs probably should talk to both the person who is taking drugs, and their families.<<< One in 10 will become addicted. In the beginning, who knows who will be one of those 1 in 10.<<< I believe it's one in 10 who will have alcohol problems. Drug addiction is a much lower percentage, I think around five percent, however I'd have to confirm this figure. Anyone know? Anyway, the worst 'gateway' effect--in your example, one drug leading to another--is to put drug offenders in prison where they meet worse people, eventually getting out of jail with better drug connections, more hardened and less likely to make a turnaround in society. Bush cut treatment programs in Texas for drug offenders. And what did the drug user do? They made a moral decision to use drugs, got caught and sent away to an already overcrowded jail. Prisons are full of drug offenders. Consequently, they're not the quality prisons they could be, where the real criminals--serious crime offenders--get real punishment. The fact is that anyone who wants to use drugs will use them whether they're legal or not; and whether legal or not, they're readily available. We can't even keep drugs out of our jails, never mind a free society. It's time to let people make their own considered choices as to whether to use drugs or not. Rather than making people who are not criminals criminals, our society would be much to the better were prevention, education and harm reduction policies enacted. It's the only viable alternative. Drug use is a medical condition, not a criminal one. Our politicians--Bush and Gore included--have historically gotten a free ride on the drug issue, as tougher and tougher sanctions get passed by look-busy politicians postulating a get-tough approach before a genuininely concerned citizenry. Meanwhile, so much valuable and needed money has been wasted over the past 30 years (since Nixon) fighting an obviously unwinable war, governments and enforcement authorities have become corrupted in the process and the underground economy thrives as the bad guys get richer and richer. I could go on and on with this issue, but I won't. >>>Washington State Democratic Party platform has decriminalization of marijuana as one of their planks.<<< Although on the surface is sounds ludicrous, I think we've got to explore varying legalization strategies with all drugs, not just marijuana. That marijuana, a non-physically addicting substance, has gone illegal for so long, itself, is a criminal act given it's more beneign than the effects of achohol which is acceptable in our society.