Posted on 02/05/2015 7:18:20 PM PST by Kaslin
So criminalization is failing - if legalization isn't the answer, what is?
There are some very dangerous drugs out there and yes some deserve giving the sellers very severe sentences. For example METH. Cookers IMO should receive 30 years - life no parole. Meth Labs endanger the public and destroy innocents private property through contamination. Most METH Cookers use other persons property to manufacture the product. The War on METH hasn't slowed it down really it's just changed the source from which it comes. Meaning more foreign Cartels. Want METH Labs gone? Eliminate the need ans profit. Contract a Lab to make it and do like is done with Methadone. Those who wish to destroy themselves can have at it. But METH as a profit maker would be eliminated. The cost to taxpayers for METH Lab Clean Up Operations would disappear. And best of all Mr & Mrs Joe Doe could once again purchase allergy and cold medications without being placed on a criminal watch list or having to wait for a manager to unlock the medications etc.
The likely number one killer overall is alcohol consumption. The U.S. tried Prohibition and it created criminal enterprises. Did it stop consumption? It increased it. How can we know? It's simply the delivery method changed.
I used to collect old bottles. By old I mean 1800's and earlier bottles. The most reliable place to hunt them was old Cisterns in towns where around the early 1900's utility water became available. The business and homeowners then filled in the Cisterns with trash. Trash including old bottles :>}
Now I'm not an Anthropologist but I could tell you with about 90% accuracy what time frame I had reached digging by the type of bottle. Once you got past the medications and Tonics of the Prohibition Era the better bottles lied below that. LOL Yeah that's right people were buying Medicine that was as high as 90 proof LOL. The rest bought from bootleggers, at speakeasies, made their own, etc. The product except for the store bought Tonics could be deadly. Prohibition was repealed after government figured out a sure fired taxing system.
Criminalization should be based on actual risk. Our grandparents could go to the corner drug stores and buy what is prescription meds today. Soft Drinks came about via pharmacist tonics usually that they created themselves. I can remember when Vicks Formula 44 actually suppressed coughs & parents trusted it even for the kids. It had a considerable alcohol content. Today? A Hot Toddy used in moderation would likely provide work better. But that today used on a kid would also trigger a government inquisition into Crime Against The State.
Contract a Lab to make it and do like is done with Methadone. Those who wish to destroy themselves can have at it.
I don't get it - how is that different from legalization?
When was the last time a legitimate commercial pharmaceutical manufacturer blew up or created a massive toxic waste? METH by the illicit manufacturing process creates a far bigger danger to the public than the drug itself especially if made by a legit company.
It takes thousands of dollars or tens of thousands to clean up a typical METH Lab. The cookers often prey on the vulnerable such as the elderly by being live in caregivers or renting property or using empty houses or buildings.
I don't condone drug abuse especially the more potent and addictive and destructive ones. But the War On Drugs has become a greater risk to our rights and freedoms than the drugs are a danger. Forfeiture laws is the biggest reason the War On Drugs is still going.
Each year local and state law enforcement agencies go to lawmakers asking for more and more laws which like seat belt laws are passed on the understanding it is a warning offense so the public will accept it. Next year they come back and it is suddenly a punishable {by fines} offense and a citation violation of the law only if discovered in the course of a stop for other reasons. The next year they come back and it's an allowed offense to initiate a traffic stop.
Now Cops are playing Peek a Boo looking into peoples vehicles to see who is wearing them so they can innate a traffic stop with an offense which is a "TOOL" as they like to refer to them to look further into ones vehicle. A person today can't leave home and have a routine day that they don't likely break a law on the books.
It's kinda like what some say about Atlas Shrugged. They want you to break these laws so they can have cause to look for possible bigger violations. It's tyranny and in this case it's profit driven.
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.