I’ve had to deal with the afteraffects of drug abuse and addiction and I’m really starting to get tired of the folks who tell me that it’s all ok and they don’t have a problem when I have to clean up after them.
It would be nice to hear Ryan say that. It’s a victimless crime until you have to deal with drug addiction in your children. I don’t hear anyone out there saying this and it would be nice to hear it from Ryan. I’m certainly not going to get that from Obama...
“...I’m really starting to get tired of the folks who tell me that it’s all ok and they don’t have a problem when I have to clean up after them.”
Who cares! So you have to clean up after them. What about the runaway police state, who is going to pay for and clean up after the thousands upon thousands of officers, SWAT types busting down doors, snooping upon persons and property that are not even suspected? Take the worst of two evils, and who cares whether doing drugs is bad, we don’t want this police state, and the biggest supporters of the unwinnable drug war are the public union police officers and prison guards. There is a thing called freedom and personal responsibility. And in the Portugal case, where drugs were essentially legalized, arguably drug addiction was -reduced-. So there’s no real argument for continuing this insane prohibition.
As far as a cursory glance of these posts, you are about the only one here still parroting the old guard Authoritarian establishment Republican line. I hope you will reconsider, so we can really do something that will take the liberals off guard. Remember when Mary Katherine Ham & Bill O’Reilly clashed over mandatory drug sentences in FL. This hotair article shows virtual consensus -among conservatives- that the drug war is lost: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/07/video-mkh-and-oreilly-go-after-each-other-on-mandatory-sentencing. Plus, here’s some comments from a theblaze article covering the MK Ham / O’Reilly clash:
[HistoryGuy48:] One thing Chairman Mao did correctly was end China’s drug problem. He accomplished this in about a year. How did he do it? He simply shot everyone involved. Users, pushers, suppliers, it didn’t matter they were all given a single permanent cure, a bullet in the back of the head. Isn’t Communism wonderful? Aren’t you glad we are almost there?
[RonBo51:] Like many, Bill is removed from the scene on the ground. If his son was caught growing a pot plant(1) in his closet, depending on the state, he would be charged with felony cultivation, intent to distribute, possession of a schedule1 drug. He would very likely face mandatory minimums and do HARD time.
Also, I know of several people who became injured, were prescribed pain opiates, became addicted, spent all their money, got caught trying to score pills on the black market, and did HARD time. One was a respected school teacher. So Bill, go educate yourself, you elitist hack.
[JayLew:] The entire war on drugs has simply turned into just another huge failed federal policy. I get the creeps just looking at SWAT garbed men and women storming into apartments and houses… The issue of drug abuse or drug use is for sure serious….but the current approach is not only a flailing one… it has actually just created another monster worse than the one it was meant to slay in the first place…
Do I think we should have a society that walks around in a stupor or a stoned state? Well it doesn’t matter what I think on that subject because we already have such a society. The way a society leads it’s citizens away from drug use is to amplify and nurture the notion on how nice life can be while straight. For those who choose to remain stoned or addicted to drugs….they will do what they will.
[Resme:] Could we solve this problem with more freedom? The answer is YES.
[JohnJamison:] Did we learn nothing form the prohibition era….You can’t regulate morality all you do is create an under world and counterculture. Fact is alcohol is every bit as deadly as cocaine and has caused as much death as all illegal drugs put together. Here an idea Let the states decide.
[Midwh:] …incarceration is a multi billion dollar industry…now we know which side BO is on…big FEDGOV establishment republican…
I am in the same clean up club as you are - on the verge of inheriting a 6-year old son of my wife's drunk brother. As a former pharma sales rep, he has the ability to convince several psychiatrists to prescribe him any number of psycotropic medication. He then proceeds to OD on them.
That doesn't mean, though, I would advocate banning all those substances (including alcohol) that he abuses; nor would I ban guns because of the those who use them unlawfully, nor do I advocate helmet laws though I wouldn't even get on my bicycle without one.
Since teens report that they can get pot more easily than beer or cigarettes, it looks like the most effective way to keep pot out of teens' hands is to legalize it for adults - so sellers have an incentive not to sell to kids (namely, the loss of their legal adult sales).
It’s a victimless crime until you have to deal with drug addiction in your children.
Drug use of any kind by children, whether it be illegal or legal drugs, is a serious issue about which most people can probably agree. The legalization/decriminalization debate is about adults exercising their Freedom, absent any infringement on the rights of others.
Alcohol probably leads to far more victimization of children than all other drugs combined. It still shouldn't be illegal. People shouldn't go to prison for possessing it.
I don't think many people are saying "it's all OK" with respect to partying, it's just that the current way of handling things is not OK either. It's Tyrannical.
All of this arbitrary contraband law is brazenly unjust, and it's being used to rationalize and implement arbitrary and dangerous police power, and cause a virtual nullification of the Fourth Amendment.
Authoritarian government policy doesn't even begin to address the problem, and it's flat-out Unamerican. It's simply criminalization of people's behavior, and stuffing prisons with non-criminals, prisons which are better filled with violent criminals and people who commit actual crimes like fraud.
So let's not blur the distinction between children and adults with respect to legality. Alcohol and tobacco are legal for adults and illegal for children, and there's no reason any other drugs need to be treated any differently, except due to hypocrisy.
IMHO, and viewing the evidence, alcohol is the worst drug on the face of the earth by far. It's laughable and tragic that possessing marijuana (one of God's plants that grows right out of the ground) can get you prison time, and it's laughable that authoritarian "conservatives" can attempt to justify the breathtaking injustices which occur as a result of hysterical and Tyrannical law.
The Prohibition era was misguided, and created more problems than it solved. This is true for alcohol or any other drug. Prohibition is just wrong in both theory and practice.