Posted on 06/12/2011 5:07:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
Like pot? A plant that when smoked produces a mild calming effect on the brain....is a vaso- dialator...which means it opens up blood vessels....which produces "the munchies" by opening up the blood vessel in the stomach. This effect actually helps folks that have problems eating and nausea eat more healthy better than anything given. A drug that has never killed anyone.
That sounds just like caffiene...found in soda, coffee, tea, and the plethora of energy drinks on the market. Caffiene is a mild drug that has shown to cause some withdrawl symptoms in people it is suddenly taken away from. God help America if the coffee supply ever goes dry. Caffiene also has some long term health effects in some people, when paired with the poison in the soda America swills by the gallon and the junk fast food they eat, kill them in numbers far larger than pot.
Then there's nicotene in all tobacco products. Very addictive. And alcohol. And let's discuss "Legal Drugs". Drugs the government allows us to consume...
Like Viagra....There is a vast black market for Viagra and a large legal trade as well...While I guess holding a woody for hours on end is a genuine medical need...Most of the folks who take it do so because the want to.
Like Xanax...Another legal drug with a large black market following along with a legal clientel that take it because they like it...not because they actually need it. Most folks with a bottle full wouldn't hesitate to give a few to a friend having a bad time. Most folks don't realize that Xanax can easily kill and does so often at doses well within normal range but mixed with alcohol...also at normal levels. A good friend of my wife lost her star pupil, star wrestler 17 yo son after he came home from a party having had 2 beers, took one .5 xanax from the bottle bearing his name and he died. This has been a regular occurance over the years.
Now lets talk about Opoid pain relievers...Lortab, vicodin, Oxycontin, morphine etc...All these pain relievers come from the poppy plant, the same plant heroin and opium come from. Why does the goverment say it's ok to take these for pain when combat vets from Afghanistan, including author and SEAL Marcus Luttrel have said a paste made by locals from this plant was the best pain killer they ever had, and didn;t produce the sickness and reactions pills and morhine does. Hmmm.. Do you see the contradictions between what the gov says is legal, safe and legal and what's not? Seems the gov has problems with plants being used as medicine...but is totally ok once those plants have been turned into some form of medical compound that is less effective,less healthy, but has enabled a drug company to make a profit.
Personally, I don't think Fed.gov has any business telling me what medicines I should or should not take....no more than they can tell me what I can and cannot eat. It's not about concern for public health...it's about control. It's about divide and conquer.
It also destroys civil liberties, and lives. The Marine that was killed by SWAT team, was the victim of a (botched) drug sting. SWAT teams being used for ordinary arrests? Yours courtesy of the drug war.
If someone bothered to collate the laws restricting civil liberties with the War on Drugs, they'd get a pretty good match. The same goes with police overkill.
Other than that, what’s not to like?
If you shut down the Mexican border, the drugs will come in via Canada.
If you shut down both the Canadian and Mexican borders, the drugs will come in through our ports. (Remember the Jamaican drug gangs from the ‘80s bringing their cocaine in via Miami?)
If you shut down the Canadian/Mexican borders *AND* our ports, Americans will just make/grow it here. (Like all the marijuana growers with hidden plots in our national parks.)
You’d have to shut down all our borders, close our ports, and institute internal border controls to even make a dent. And in that case, how much different would that be compared to the bad old days of the Soviet Union?
That Amerika isn’t anything I want to live in.
Yeah... like Facebook and Twitter!
:-P
If you take away the federal money that the states receive in order to fight the drug war... how many states could afford to keep fighting it?
Some would try, other... more bankrupt states, would stop. And over time, if it worked out for the bankrupt states, others might be persuaded by the evidence.
If it doesn’t work out, then we’d finally have the necessary proof to back up the assertions that a War on Drugs (and it’s comitant loss of freedoms) is a necessity.
All of the ways of entry you mention have already been tried or are being tried.
The truth is, 95% of the drugs are coming across the Mexican border, so that is where the enforcement activities need to be focussed.
Are criminals resourceful—absolutely.
Either we fight this things, or decriminalize drugs, tax them and enforce grievous infractions,a la alcohol.
But the no knock warrantless entries by SWAT teams intoxicated with their power is not the Amerika I want to live in.
Have you ever wondered why mothers who let their little girls dress up like tarts demand that sex offenders be cracked down upon more? The two go together thanks to opportunism. "It's not my problem, it's the law's problem. Whut do I pay taxes for?"
Hedonism and immorality thrive in an overlawed society, one where laws are used as a substitute for conscience. Using the laws in that way is like going soft: it's a habit of dependence, easy to get into, and it's hard to break. One of the features of a corrupt society is: "if it's legal, then it's good." Hedonism, a kind of corruption, thrives on that attitude.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.