Posted on 03/28/2006 10:51:21 PM PST by goldstategop
Getting high can be bad. Putting people in prison for it is worse. And doing the latter doesn't stop the former.
I was once among the majority who believe that drug use must be illegal. But then I noticed that when vice laws conflict with the law of supply and demand, the conflict is ugly, and the law of supply and demand generally wins.
The drug war costs taxpayers about $40 billion. "Up to three quarters of our budget can somehow be traced back to fighting this war on drugs," said Jerry Oliver, then chief of police in Detroit, told me. Yet the drugs are as available as ever.
Oliver was once a big believer in the war. Not anymore. "It's insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over again," he says. "If we did not have this drug war going on, we could spend more time going after robbers and rapists and burglars and murderers. That's what we really should be geared up to do. Clearly we're losing the war on drugs in this country."
No, we're "winning," according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which might get less money if people thought it was losing. Prosecutors hold news conferences announcing the "biggest seizure ever." But what they confiscate makes little difference. We can't even keep drugs out of prisons -- do we really think we can keep them out of all of America?
Even as the drug war fails to reduce the drug supply, many argue that there are still moral reasons to fight the war. "When we fight against drugs, we fight for the souls of our fellow Americans," said President Bush. But the war destroys American souls, too. America locks up a higher percentage of her people than almost any other country. Nearly 4,000 people are arrested every day for mere possession of drugs. That's more people than are arrested for aggravated assault, burglary, vandalism, forcible rape and murder combined.
Authorities say that warns people not to mess with drugs, and that's a critical message to send to America's children. "Protecting the children" has justified many intrusive expansions of government power. Who wants to argue against protecting children?
I have teenage kids. My first instinct is to be glad cocaine and heroin are illegal. It means my kids can't trot down to the local drugstore to buy something that gets them high. Maybe that would deter them.
Or maybe not. The law certainly doesn't prevent them from getting the drugs. Kids say illegal drugs are no harder to get than alcohol.
Perhaps a certain percentage of Americans will use or abuse drugs -- no matter what the law says.
I cannot know. What I do know now, however, are some of the unintended consequences of drug prohibition:
1. More crime. Rarely do people get high and then run out to commit crimes. Most "drug crime" happens because the product is illegal. Since drug sellers can't rely on the police to protect their property, they form gangs and arm themselves. Drug buyers steal to pay the high black market prices. The government says alcohol is as addictive as heroin, but no one is knocking over 7-Elevens to get Budweiser.
2. More terrorism. The profits of the drug trade fund terrorists from Afghanistan to Colombia. Our herbicide-spraying planes teach South American farmers to hate America.
3. Richer criminal gangs. Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone. The gangs drug prohibition is creating are even richer, probably rich enough to buy nuclear weapons. Osama bin Laden was funded partly by drug money.
Government's declaring drugs illegal doesn't mean people can't get them. It just creates a black market, where even nastier things happen. That's why I have come to think that although drug addiction is bad, the drug war is worse.
The issue of collectivist residue clinging to my psyche aside, do you argue, then, that implementing laws and public policies that either passively allow or publicly endorse destructive individual behaviors has no destructive effect on a given society?
You're going to have to do better than this, darling. This isn't even FR WoD Thread 101-level.
Maybe it is because Marijuana use dulls the mind and ambition, and makes everything groovy.
To paraphrase my friend Wolfie, time for this unambitious pothead to stand down for the day from his high-tech job, for which he is well-compensated, and hop into his luxury SUV for the drive home to the suburbs . . . !
Ideally? Yes.
But until this encouragement sinks in, what? Do we allow this destructive activity to continue, to grow over the years, to become a way of life?
Or do we make it illegal, therby minimizing that activity while sending a message that it will not be tolerated?
I don't like all the laws. I liked the simplicity of life in the 50's. On the other hand, I prefer the laws over the behavior.
Ugh, Helen Thomas!!
Help!! I've poisoned myself!!!
Opps!! False alert -- trolls don't qualify.
My bad.
www.leap.com is a search portal. Got the correct URL?
Government has no power to implement any law, except for the powers we, the people, specifically give to the government. If we don't give the government the power to legislate in a certain arena, government doesn't have the power to legislate in that arena---plain and simple. Only a statist believes government has a blanket power to make law provided it be for the "common good"---not a conservative.
Well, the $40B is federal and state. So, you're essentially saying that if we eliminated the DEA and the entire ONDCP department, and states and cities cut back law enforcement spending, and we opened the borders and legalized all drugs, use would not increase one iota.
Golly. Promise?
Please try to keep up with the class.
It takes time for a ship as large as ours to change course. Better to let her swing through when she will, rather than break her by turning her into something she's not supposed to be.
I don't give a rats a$$ if it does. Let the stupid kids die. Let the junkies die. It'll be noisy and messy for a few months but I'm tired of spending my money on a totally wasted effort. Drug use is self-correcting.
Try Alabama. "The average sentence for first-degree marijuana possession is 8.4 years, ... according to the Alabama Department of Corrections." "First degree" possession applies for any amount if you have a prior misdemeanor conviction.
ooops sorry this is www.leap.cc
Thanks for pointing me out!
peace
I happen to agree with this article....so shot me? ;-)
Your namesake was an advocate of common sense. Try exercising some.
Owning 'dangerous products' like drugs, guns, porn, - has never been constitutionally 'illegal', - and never will be.
Engaging in morally repugnant activities like gambling, pornography, prostitution, gay marriage, polygamy, bestiality, etc. -- In private, -- has never been constitutionally 'illegal', - and never will be.
You communitarian warriors simply cannot admit that you are engaged in an anti-constitutional 'war'. -- You are convinced that the moral majority can 'rule'.
--- do you argue, then, that implementing laws and public policies that either passively allow or publicly endorse destructive individual behaviors has no destructive effect on a given society?
Read our Constitution. It is very restrictive on governments at any level "implementing laws and public policies" that infringe on our individual rights to life, liberty, or property.
To bad you can't argue this issue squarely, on a Constitutional basis. FR has more that enough communitarians that simply insist that 'moral majority rule' trumps the clear words of our Law of the Land.
bump, great read
This is indeed an astute commentary by Stossel. A growing group of police, judges and others with long years of experience fighting the so-called "War on Drugs" within North America and elsewhere are speaking out against continuation of 21st century Prohibition.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) can place a speaker or a panel of speakers at your local civic clubs (Rotary, Lions etal), college classrooms and groups; and church groups. We can also, with your help, get LEAP-authored letters and OPEDs into your local print media. Finally we can, with your help, get a LEAP Speaker onto your local talk radio and/or television news programs. Feel welcome to contact me directly for more information....heath @ leap.cc and/or visit our non-profit educational org website and send me your questions and other feedback http://leap.cc
hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhaahhaha...thanks for this moment of profound laughter~!! Please tell me why a pilot would go driving a plane totally stoned??? It shows you never took drugs, and therefor is not totally clear between the 2 ears!!! Most of your post is total BS! a 7 year old getting stoned!! does a pilot take legal prescription drug before going on a plane???
you posted : Without Drugs being illegal and felonies, you cannot punish anyone...what the heck are you talking about>? if someone is totally drunk and drive we can arrest him right?? Okay i'll reveal a scoop...i ve been a really heavy user of pot for numerous years, and guess what i am only 19 and maybe paid better than you do because i am doing the work of other fat bastard are too lazy to do...also yes there are some addicted, and it's normal, but not everybody!! there is more people who do drugs than you think lil lady and most of the drug user are wise enough to shut them off! a lot of drug user are responsible...and i am making more fun of drunk people than stoned people because stoned people are more profound than most of sober people...they saw an angle of life that you don't even know because you are too afraid...you need help seriously...
oh and by the way i see more drunk people lying in thew middle of the street than any other kind of mind altered people!!!
please tell me, why are you guys so afraid of drugs? are you afraid to be weak? are you jealous because you would become addicted to the drug while some doesn't? do you really believe what the government tells you about the drugs?? i read all of 200 and something post and yet non of the arguments gives the right to throw somebody in prison for exploring other horizons...
if drugs were legal, the truth would finally come out and addicted would know better about the drugs and would gain a lil more confidence in the government, and then would seek "help"...they would know a lil more why they are addicted and they would feel a lil more understood, and than it would be easier to kick the health deterioring habit...what ever the dryg you take if you don't abuse, there is strickly no problem about it... i tried heroin but only because i was aware of the concequences, same with coke and a lot more...but my parents always were behind me, instead of telling me only their point of view, and i never had any problems! I was a heavy user of pot because, opposed to whatever belief, i could still fonction normally in society and i am still... being stoned on pot i could still drive (and even better because i knew i was driving stoned as opposed to drunk people who thinks they are still fine) i could still do my work totally baked and i have a really technical job that requires memorisation, i could still cook, play with children, play guitar, pay my rent, and on and on...
so give me a break with those stereotype and go read some post on http://www.erowid.org/ which is a site where people tell their experiences with different drugs...listen to addicts or stoner instead of bashing on them, some have already bashed on enough...it is a lot more soul satisfying to listen than to impose your own point of view...it will open your mind a lil more, unless your afraid to open it...or you don't have a clue of what a im talking about in reference to "mind"
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