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

To: Neocon who wrote (296390)	9/13/2002 12:17:03 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Two very good questions, and at the heart of the debate. Re: "I guess the question hangs on two things: will penalizing people for inappropriate use be enough to combat the deleterious social effects..." >>> It doesn't seem to have been so far - considering both our world-leading incarceration rate and our world-leading drug use rate - which is why many people are leaning toward treating personal use as a medical and an educational problem... which seem to be the only approaches we haven't tried honestly.... >>> There are also 'deleterious social effects' from our current 'lock up the users and keep profits high for the dealers' policy, such as: loss of respect for Government and the law, corruption of government officials, diversion of law enforcement resources away from violent crimes, stigmatizing (with criminal records) non-violent substance users, and reducing their lifetime economic opportunities, massive economic costs (born by the taxpayers) entailed by supporting the hydra-like superstructure of federal and state anti-drug efforts, loss of property and privacy rights for the entire society, etc. >>> Basically, tens of $billions in annual costs for over half a century now... with no statistically significant progress and no end to the expenditures in sight.... Re: "...and will the "normalization" of drugs just increase the blackmarket aimed at juveniles?" >>> My guess is: that depends on if the policies are properly crafted ("the devil is in the details"). >>> It would be hard to actually increase availability for juveniles though - polling indicates that juveniles claim it is as easy, or easier, to purchase illegal drugs than it is to purchase tobacco. >>> In several European countries which have installed 'harm reduction' policies which de-criminalize and control some drugs while increasing resources to sound education and medical treatment, the percentages of drug use in both the adult, and in the juvenile populations, is orders of magnitude less than the US percentages. So, I guess, if properly done it can work.

To: Neocon who wrote (296390)	9/13/2002 3:57:08 PM
From: Andy Thomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

-inappropriate use be enough to combat the deleterious social effects,-- who defines 'inappropriate use?' who defines 'deleterious social effects?' --"normalization" of drugs just increase the blackmarket aimed at juveniles? -- did that happen with alcohol? kiddies - especially boys- already have their ritalin... can't you see the ridiculousness?... "oh you can't have this and you can't have that, but here, have some prozac or zoloft or whatever the heck and for your kiddies.. here... here's some ritalin.." i believe that the people who will suffer the most at repealing all drug laws are the pharmecutical companies, and the breweries and distilleries... certain drugs are illegal because they're so profitable that way... btw... you are a trip... like the ultimate, articulated statist-bot... you seem to know what is just the right amount of state regulation needed in every area of private and public life... i know... i'm simply insane...