The lack of honesty in the pro legalization argument isn’t real helpful either. The “millions in prison for drugs” cannard is a good place to start. I’d like to see some hard data on how many people are in prison for drug possession alone. (excluding parolees, people who happened to have drugs on them when they were arrested for other crimes, and people arrested for crimes while using drugs)
I’m not even strictly opposed to marijuana legalization but think the utopian fantasy needs to be gone from the argument. After all, the guy who killed 7 people in Grand Rapids Michigan the other night was on drugs (coke or meth) and he wasn’t about to go seeking treatment regardless of whether it was legal or not.
I do find a certain poetic justice in the medical marijuana dispensers who quickly figure out that legal marijuana will put them out of business and act accordingly. There have also been a few stories about dispensary owners going to city councils in hopes of eliminating competition through restrictive ordinances.
I agree with you. By its nature, it is not a safe industry to work in. Yet, all these supply based strategies only go so far and are expensive, libertarians are correct that operations like Plan Colombia are not cheap. However, that doesn’t mean we just abdicate responsibility, we need to create a society that is hostile to drug abuse and its excesses so that demand plummets.
Anyone can look at Pop Culture today and see that this is clearly not the case, and in fact it just feeds into the drug culture. As someone under 30, I’ve encountered my fair share of drug users, a lot of them just simply have nothing to live for. They’re bored, nihilistic, have dysfunctional upbringings and it reflects on their behavior. Simply decriminalizing drugs or DEA funding isn’t going to solve a serious and complex social problem.