Posted on 01/02/2004 10:07:44 AM PST by Fred Kevlin
December is the season for giving, and no one gives more generous gifts than the U.S. Congress. Of course, Congress has the advantage of doing its last-minute holiday shopping at someone else’s expense, namely yours and mine.
For example, on Dec. 8, the House of Representatives passed a bill that gives the White House drug czar’s office $145,000,000 of taxpayer money to run anti-marijuana propaganda ads. My personal favorite in this genre is a television ad in which police rough up a high school student when arresting him in the school’s marijuana-smoke-filled bathroom. This is followed by a caption reading, “Marijuana: Harmless? Think again.” (And no, I did not make that up).
Yet this bill contains something far more obnoxious than pots of money for another round of clueless anti-marijuana propaganda. A section of the bill prohibits any local transit system that receives federal funding from running privately funded ads that call for marijuana policy reform.
In other words, at the same time that the federal government is forcing you to spend your money to publicize its willingness to engage in storm trooper tactics to persecute the tens of millions Americans who smoke or have smoked marijuana, it is trying to prohibit you from having the freedom to spend your money to protest these same tactics.
If this bill becomes law, it will be illegal to buy advertising space on a city bus or in a subway station, advocating that doctors be given the right to prescribe marijuana as a painkiller for their terminally ill patients.
Two words that are thrown around far too loosely in political debate are “fascism” and “unconstitutional.” Nevertheless, this sort of thing has a distinctly fascist tinge. And if the First Amendment means anything, it ought to mean that the government cannot take away the right of citizens to engage in public political protest.
Anyone who has doubts that the drug war is wrong ought to consider what it tells us when our federal government tries to make it illegal to protest that war. Fence sitters might also want to view a the video from the surveillance tape at a Goose Creek, S.C., high school, which on Nov. 5 was raided by police looking for drugs. (A photo from the tape can be viewed at www.mpp.org).
After a search, the police found no drugs, but they did terrorize more than 100 students (two-thirds of whom were black, even though less than 25 percent of the school’s student body is black). With guns pointed at their heads, students were handcuffed and forced to lie on the floor.
One student said he assumed the police “were trying to protect us, that it was like Columbine, that somebody got in the school that was crazy or dangerous. But then a police officer pointed a gun at me. It was really scary.”
What’s really scary is that incidents such as this seem to stir so little outrage. What level of government persecution will put a dent in public apathy about the madness that is the war on drugs?
If the police at the Goose Creek high school had inadvertently shot a student or two in their zealous search for marijuana cigarettes, would that be enough to distract people from holiday shopping and channel surfing? Or would such an incident be shrugged off as another regrettable accident of the sort that is inevitable in wartime? Take a look at that photograph, and consider: This is your government on drugs.
Any trollism here would be you, and your sad, tired attempt to drag the Constitution into legitimizing illegal drugs.
I'be always been amazed that so many people, who swear they don't use drugs and never would, can become so consumed over a single issue. Reminds me of Churchill's Battle of Britain quote...in a bastard sort of way.
"Never have so few..."
The day YOU are banned, sir, is the day I will consider once again donating.
No, but I bet he can sing, I got plenty of nuthin'.
Say did you see the reference to Soros on his or her fr home page?
I do like you. You're in my top 10 "FReeper friends". However, you and the Chief have both admitted to showing up on the drug threads for your own amusement and not to contribute to the debate. That doesn't mean that y'all are both useless. Jackson is very knowledgable on military threads, and I enjoy discussing certain shows with you. I just have issues with you guys on the drug threads, that's all.
I hooked up with a college chick on New Year's Eve. Angst is at an all time low for me.
Not really. It's been how long now? 3 months? I'm over it.
You're an excellent troll---you should be quite proud of yourself. You manage to souse up every W.o.D. thread you can find---your sole interest in this area is to see that every W.o.D. thread finds its way to the Smokey Backroom, where it's effectively killed. Every single time you show up on one of these threads, it's only a matter of time until it gets sent to the Smokey Backroom. You've obviously got the ear of an Admin Moderator or you are one yourself.
Honestly, be proud of your accomplishments. You're providing a vital cheerleading service to your party. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with regards to this particular issue, but nevertheless, you're providing a valuable "legbreaking" service for the GOP.
I can say with reasonable confidence that Jackson does not have any kind of special stroke around here. Otherwise his buddy Palpatine would be back by now.
I'm flattered that you and your buddies think I'm so all powerful that I am the reason your threads end up here and that "you are" loosing your war on the WOD. Thanks.
I don't think there are very many of us that were sorry to see "Palp" leave us (who knows, he may already be back).
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