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

To: PROLIFE who wrote (516188)	12/26/2003 9:13:51 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769669

Because ending the war on drugs and substituting the current criminal approach with a public health approach would cure a dozen or more of societies ills. Among them: * Shifting a very strong portion of the present black market economy into a taxable above ground economy; * Lessening international and political gun/drug trafficking; * Eliminate the inherent push of adult drug dealers to turn juveniles into drug dealers (since juvenile records get expunged, if juveniles get caught)--consider that every new kid that comes in brings with him all of his friends and they have friends and then think about how it all spreads from the "connections" and how cool and what it's really like to have "connections"; * Quality prisons (more harsh/less lenient), ones where sexual predators, murderers and the like don't get to mix their prison time up with the druggy prisoners (talk about hypocrisy, our society can't even keep drugs out of prisons, never mind the free society itself) * Too many drug-related deaths are a consequence of the 'cut' put into drugs. The cut dilutes the strength of the drug, increases the quantity. The folks doing this are not by any means pharmacists, but under the present system of illegality they are performing a similar fuction with profit instead of good health the primary goal. * Lessen the budgets of police departments, prisons and the courts. Drug forfeiture laws have made police departments rich. Ever wonder why the taxi cab fleets improved since drug forfeiture laws were enacted? Departments turn over the vehicles to auction much quicker these days, and the cab owners are always there for the next level down sweetheart deal. * Eliminate the corruption of those being asked to enforce the drug laws. * Enable not only parents but government also to become more honest in educating youth about the dangers of drugs. Were drugs legal the proceeds would pay for far greater, certainly more honest, drug education programs than what we have today. * Virtually every study has shown that laws do not cure drug addicts, only treatment can cure them. The money available today for society's best weapon, education, is pitifully small, especially compared what is allocated toward enforcement. * Relations in third world nations would improve as cultivating peasant workers would actually feel as though they're contributing something productive toward society, instead of a substance that'll just move on through an illicit and corrupt chain of distribution. * A tremendous reduction in property crimes, personal assaults, etc. With drugs available, and a public health system backing them up, there'd be no need to rob and steal in order to get money to pay for illicit drugs. * The Drug War disenfranchises a large and significant portion of our society. It makes them not participants; leaves them underground--they don't even vote, for example. This is a waste of human resource and productive contribution of which any good society would want. * Most people have considered opinions over their lives and don't want to do drugs. They could today, but don't. Not because they're illegal, but because it's their choice not to do them. A government attempting to legislate morality is fundamentally on par level to what the Taliban has been and is attempting to do. Won't work! PROLIFE--I could go on and on on this subject. Why do I bring it up a lot? Because your typical politican--probably every one that you support--has for decades been getting a free ticket issue--"I'm tough on crime, I'm tough on drugs; elect me!"--while postulating tougher, and ultimately counterproductive, standards upon a genuinely concerned society. The world won't become better until governments become more honest with those who are governed. And I can tell you, with the greatest sincerity I could possibly muster as a human, that the Bush administration is not honest. It's not honest not only with respect to the drug war but also on many, many other issues. Ironically, many of these are issues which I think could become solvable were drug problems approached from a public health model, rather than a criminal one. PROLIFE, this is just my opinion. And a strong part of this opinion is rooted in a clear and startling fact that drugs are available today to anyone who wants them and getting them, even though they're illegal, is not a problem and never has been a problem. So rather than waste all of the taxpayer money perpetrating a fraudulent policy historically proven, like alcholol prohibition, never to work why not let people make their own decisions. Yes, addictive personalities will have trouble--but these are the same ones we're dealing with today who'll be there tomorrow. Except they'll be less of them because more public health dollars will be available to assist them out of their addictions and the problems associated from such addiction. So why do I bring it up a lot? My friend, this needs to be brought up. A lot. Sometimes what works the best is what is least obvious. The way our society deals with drug problems is one example of this.