Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!
View past Libertarian pings here
Posted on 09/14/2010 9:05:09 AM PDT by eyeamok
Right. Just like Prohibition did nothing to curb the people's desire to take a drink, but it sure did provide lots of money for Capone and his pals to run around shooting up Chicago and other cities with Tommy Guns.
(Excerpt) Read more at market-ticker.org ...
Give it time. I’m sure drugs will be legalized soon just so they can be taxed. Then come the “sin taxes” like they have on tobacco.
Nonetheless that's never going to happen, hence the "War on Drugs(TM)", instituted under Richard Nixon. This is the single biggest issue I have with Republicans and there is little if anything to choose between demmy and pubby pols on the issue. The "war on drugs" leads to
It is that final item which some would use as a pretext to eviscerate the second amendment, which is the link pin of the entire bill of rights. Consider the following from the former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the Bush administration no less:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/weapons-ban-urged-to-rein-in-mexican-drug-war/
The former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection called Monday for the U.S. to reinstitute the ban on assault weapons and take other measures to rein in the war between Mexico and its drug cartels, saying the violence has the potential to bring down legitimate rule in that country.Former CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner also called for the United States to more aggressively investigate U.S. gun sellers and tighten security along its side of the border, describing the situation as "critical" to the safety of people in both countries, whether they live near the border or not.
Mexico, for its part, needs to reduce official corruption and organize its forces along the lines the U.S. does, such as a specialized border patrol and a customs agency with a broader mandate than monitoring trade, Mr. Bonner said in an exchange of e-mails.
"Border security is especially important to breaking the power and influence of the Mexican-based trafficking organizations," Mr. Bonner said. "Despite vigorous efforts by both governments, huge volumes of illegal drugs still cross from Mexico..."
The problem here clearly is not guns and it is clearly a problem of economics. The drugs one of these idiots would use in a day under rational circumstances would cost a dollar; that would simply present no scope for crime or criminals. Under present circumstances that dollar's worth of drugs is costing the user $300 a day and since that guy is dealing with a 10% fence, he's having to commit $3000 worth of crime to buy that dollar's worth of drugs. In other words, a dollar's worth of chemicals has been converted into $3000 worth of crime, times the number of those idiots out there, times 365 days per year, all through the magic of stupid laws. No nation on Earth could afford that forever.
A rational set of drug laws would:
Do all of that, and the drug problem and 70% of all urban crime will vanish within two years. That would be an optimal solution; but you could simply legalize it all and still be vastly better off than we are now. 150 Years ago, there were no drug laws in America and there were no overwhelming drug problems. How bright do you really need to be to figure that one out?
But the flipside of this needs to kept in mind: A Nanny state which feels obligated to care for those who are "down and out" is likely to have a very serious burden if these drugs are legalized. As you say, 150 years ago there were no drug laws -- and life expectancies were much shorter (for a great many reasons!) and people really did die in alleys. We don't tolerate that anymore -- which could be a very big financial problem.
I want the entitlements ended. Make people responsible for their bad choices, and they will hopefully make fewer bad choices. For those who insist on making bad choices, we must all accept the fact that they will die ugly deaths.
I'm willing to listen on a new approach to the Drug War.
I think the order of these changes matters a great deal.
A Modest Proposal:
How about we take every child of a Congressional Politician who is convicted of a drug offence and hang them - publically! When they have all gone, we move down the political chain until the users and pushers get the message. Just a suggestion folks.
That being said I'm sick and tired of paying to clean up after these idiots. Let addicts die in the street so long as they pay market prices for their stupid addictions.
No 'free' stuff for anyone anymore.
Too bad we didn’t use your proposal many years ago. I was thinking of all the Kennedys and the MSM going ape over them.
And a pretty dopey one at that.
I agree very much with the spirit of your post, but I think it's disingenuous to suggest that there were no drug problems 150 years ago. I'd venture to guess that there were plenty of problems with drugs, just not the institutionalized criminal problems we experience today.
Give it time. I’m sure it will be legalized. Guess they don’t make moon shine any more?.
That sounds logical as medical-crack.
What’s up with you - read Swift!
Only an ignorant person could compare alcohol’s role in Western Civilization and our culture and daily life with any new drug that comes along.
Trying to ban alcohol was a truly bizarre idea for America, more akin to banning religion, or voting, or the family unit, it was the denial of thousands of years of culture and routine and diet and community and celebration, and entertainment, and conviviality.
If someone wants to push mainstreaming of drugs, they need to do it without using the short lived Prohibition experiment as part of the argument.
You say alcohol has been around a lot longer...probably true. But so what?
Read the post again, I said a lot more than that alcohol has been around a long time.
So what?
That is the point, for thousands of years Western civilization has been in all ways an alcohol based culture, even much more so than the filthy, third world, navel gazing, stoner hell holes like the Arab world, have been immersed in a cannabis culture.
Trying to unravel Alcohol from Western Civilization, is beyond bizarre and is hopeless.
Why?
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.