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

To: Neocon who wrote (253586)	5/8/2002 12:23:38 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

On the militarization model, we would make the commitment to contain our borders. It is universally acknowledged that we have made no such commitment. It would be very difficult and expensive to do this. Not only would there be large direct costs there would also be lost trade. Even if we did not shut down our borders to normal trade, the searches required to seriously reduce the amount of drugs smuggled in would cause a reduction in trade, and this would all have no effect on the drugs that can be produced in the US. Additionally, most are addictive after a short period of habitual use I'm not sure that most of them are more addictive then alcohol, although I guess it would be fair to say that some of them are. Since habitual drug use generally gets out of hand, and causes one to be delinquent in one's duties, not only on the job, but in parenting and dealing with friends and family as well, and since it is very destructive of the ability of teenagers to learn and mature properly, it seems to me that it is not something we want to rely on the discretion of adults to control. The social harm is too clear. Again alcohol does the same thing. Severe alcoholics are not generally good parents or workers, and teens who have drinking problems will find it more difficult to learn and mature. Also the illegal drugs still cause such damage even when they are illegal. I know you think that there would be an enormous increase in use if they where made legal but I disagree. Our main difference here might be the level od social harm required to take it out of the discretion of individual adults. I set my bar on that issue very high. Tim