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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (8615)	1/10/2006 9:17:23 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541346

Maybe I am missing something, but you seem to frame the issue in terms of, legalization will cause hard drug abuse where none such exists today. Not quite.. But for those who are currently constrained by the crime/punishment equation (benefit to cost), they may feel that "it's okay now", and may be more susceptible to engaging in initial drug use. To be frank, one of the jokes a few of us used in Iraq was what we wanted to do when we retired.. A couple of joked about sitting on a Carribean beach getting "baked" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).. And I have to admit the concept appealed to me.. ;0) The prevalent (and I believe correct) opinion was that marijuana use was no worse than drinking alcohol. However, given the fact that we worked in a "zero-tolerance" environment, where even alcohol was forbidden, we obviously were not going to indulge and place our jobs and careers at risk. I think the same argument holds true for other drug use. Some argue, with some merit IMO, that legalizing hard drug use will de-stigmatize a very harmful act, and run the risk of more kids engaging in such behavior (either from peer pressure, emotional compensator, or mere curiosity). But since we haven't legitimized drugs, we really have no statistical data to rely upon. Again Dale.. I'm torn on the issue. I don't give a sh*t if people choose to tear up their bodies. I just don't want society to bear the inevitable cost. If we legalize hard drug use, we're going to need to revisit some of our social entitlements to determine how to compensate the rest of society who chooses NOT to engage in such behavior, but shares the cost of those who do. Kind of the same argument made about smoking. Although the excessive taxes they have applied to each pack of smokes is an approach to assign the society financial cost to the individual user. However, we know that money is never really used for that purpose. It's gets reallocated to funding someones pork-barrel project. All we need to do is look at how the Tobacco company settlement money has been mis-allocated by individual states. It certainly hasn't be set aside for demand reduction. cei.org Hawk