From 1980 to 1985, cocaine use by high school seniors rose:
Posted on 11/06/2017 9:11:50 AM PST by Brian Griffin
I know this proposal will be met with strong opposition, but it is my firm belief that the 108-year old 'War on Drugs' needs to come to an end. It has turned into a decades-long war on millions of our young people.
It would be replaced with FDA-supervised quality control systems for supplies of comparatively safe recreational drug forms, probably reducing the number of overdose deaths by over 98% (~50,000/year -> ~1,000/year).
Manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers would have to get DEA licenses.
There would be three forms of customer DEA licenses: casual user, habitual cocaine user and habitual opiate user costing $100, $200 and $300 respectively and good for one year after issue.
The requirement for licenses, their cost and their annual form would greatly restrict the customer base.
The habitual user licenses would only be available to those with paid-up recreational drug medical (ER treatment and methadone taper) and burial/cremation expense coverage provided by DEA-licensed entities.
The customer DEA licenses would be only available to legal residents and citizens at least 21 years of age.
Application would be as for passports but the picture of the person must be three times the size.
The licenses would be similar to a passport. Each one would have an electronic chip enabling dispensers to pull up the licensee's picture and dispensing information quickly.
The habitual cocaine user license would only be good for cocaine beverages.
The habitual opiate user license would only be good for methadone or codeine beverages. These beverages would come in three colors:
a. yellow for concentrations unlikely to kill novice users
b. orange for concentrations that might kill novice users
c. red for concentrations that would likely kill novice users
The DEA would also manage a laboratory and prescribing system that habitual opiate users would have to use to buy concentrations other than yellow. Prescriber/laboratory pricing might be reasonably controlled by state law.
The beverages would come in two-liter bottles. There would be a $3/liter federal tax. The purchase of 365 two-liter bottles would mean federal tax revenue of $2,160 per year per habitual user. Retail pricing might be reasonably controlled by state law.
The DEA would run a system to ensure that within any thirty-day period no more than sixty liters of product could be bought by a habitual user license holder.
The DEA would run a system to ensure that within any five-day period no more than one liter of cocaine soda product and/or one ounce of marijuana could be bought by a casual user license holder.
There would be no additional replacement allowed for lost or stolen bottles or marijuana.
People might try to make crack from their cocaine soda by boiling or evaporation, but they might burn up their 30-day ration within about one week.
Retailers would have to print and attach a label with your picture (and the customer's maximum authorized concentration by color & shade) to each bottle sold.
Possession of a bottle without a label with the possessor's picture except by a retailer, distributor or manufacturer would be punishable with a $100 fine per bottle.
Customer license holders would be forbidden to sell or transfer any recreational drug product. Unlawful transfer would be punishable by license revocation. Any sale or any transfer to a person not properly licensed would be punishable by up to two years imprisonment and a five-year licensure bar.
A state may revoke, according to its law(s), any DEA license of any person found in possession of or driving a motor vehicle in the state, subject to judicial review and reinstatement for just cause.
A habitual opiate user with a revoked/suspended/cancelled license would have to seek out and get on buprenorphine/naloxone maintenance or a traditional methadone taper.
An employer in an industrial zone, possessing equipment required to emit backup noise or in the business of passenger transport may block/suspend employee and contract employee DEA licenses for a $100/employee annual fee. A person would have to pay $10 via a DEA website to send a reconfirmation letter to their (former) employer. Failure to reconfirm within 30 days of mailing would result in license reinstatement.
A person with a pilot's license or commercial or motorcycle driving license in effect shall be barred from getting a DEA license.
A person getting a pilot's license, commercial or motorcycle driving license shall have their DEA licenses cancelled.
“Do I, as a taxpayer, have to pay for the various medical conditions and treatments with which habitual drug-users routinely deal?”
As I wrote:
The habitual user licenses would only be available to those with paid-up recreational drug medical (ER treatment and methadone taper) and burial/cremation expense coverage provided by DEA-licensed entities.
This sounds like an idea 3 potsmokers came up with after melting an ice bong.
“I find no authority for the DEA nor FDA, let alone the ‘war on XYZ’.”
It’s the Article I, Section 8 commerce clause.
“you are suggesting some 20-30 new laws, rules, regulations and proposals to do just that?”
I’ve tried my best to have things work fairly well in a fairly simple matter.
It’s up to others to try to do better.
“launder and invest the billions of cartel dollars”
It’s very easy to overpay for a mansion around Miami or in many other places.
“banks who handle the cartel cash”
With 1% annual CD rates cartel cash might never see the inside of a bank.
The gov. runs most state lotteries also known as the old "numbers racket" and engages in the "protection racket" with an agency known as the IRS.
Certain state governments also "regulate" as a partner, the growing and distribution of marijuana products. The only thing left for government to take over is prostitution - which it already has in Nevada.
“Fed.gov taxes tobacco products, alcoholic beverages”
Excise taxes are authorized by our original Constitution.
George Washington personally led the march to put down the Whisky Rebellion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion
I will never understand this logic.... "Because of one stupid law...(society paying for drug addicts)...we need another stupid law." (locking people up for drug use)
Better idea. Give every druggie an overdose.
This nonsense directly impacts my quality of life and the quality of life of everyone in the nation. No country should allow negligent behavior that endangers the lives of innocent people.
And, who wants the government playing the role of drug kingpin? Who wants taxpayers paying for it?
There are good reasons why no nation has been stupid enough to legalize all recreational drugs.
Reagan was right. Libertarians are merely liberals on issues like this.
Incarcerating someone for merely possessing the wrong plant, liquid spirits, medicine, or chemical—in the total absence of infringing on others' rights—is the height of nanny-state Tyranny. Once such illegitimate law can be rationalized, there is no practical limit to government—Tyranny can be imposed by mobs or demagogues, whether on the Right or the Left, on an essentially arbitrary basis. And, of course, the ever-expanding police state necessary to enforce such laws must also come along with such thinking. No-knock warrants, searches without probable cause, asset forfeiture, destruction of the Fourth Amendment—all are to be expected once the Prohibitionist Mind gains ascendance in a society.
Nobody who claims to believe in limited government can legitimately support such law—for it has no practical check. Anything can be outlawed—justified on the basis of it being "for the People" or "for the Children".
This is why real law and actual crime must be based on the notion of there being an infringement on others' rights. Once that logical delineation is dispensed with, the "rule of law" becomes an absolute joke—simply a function of whatever the nearest mob or Tyrant says it is.
Anyone who supports contraband law, with all of its Tyrannical ramifications—Prohibition—fundamentally misunderstands the essence of Liberty.
An individual's "pursuit of happiness" isn't dependent on what someone else dictates—it comes from that individual's own heart, and as long as they're not committing crimes of force, fraud, or gross negligence and endangerment, every individual has the Unalienable Right to be left alone, and pursue his happiness as he or she sees fit.
Tyrannical shortcuts imposed by self-righteous nanny-staters lead to the "least common denominator" of Freedom—again, a concept that is antithetical to American Liberty.
I'll embrace actual Freedom—with all of its warts, challenges, inconveniences, and annoyances—over misguided and Tyrannical shortcuts every time.
Are you familiar with the Book of Genesis and the temptation in the garden?
Which role do you see yourself playing here?
But they weren't the same problem in an age with a moral underpinning which ostracized such usage. The societal taboos make recreational drug use effectively illegal.
From 1980 to 1985, cocaine use by high school seniors rose:
Assuming your chart is even correct, how quickly did you expect to see an effect for a policy change? Did you think they happened instantaneously? Doesn't it take some time for a crack down to start effecting behavior?
Your chart shows a decline right after 1980. I can argue that without the crack down, the *NORMAL* and usual increase in drug addiction would have kept rising, just as it did in China.
I can argue that it was Reagan's policies that caused a reversal of an upward trend.
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It’s the Article I, Section 8 commerce clause.
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Right, right. EVERYTHING points to the commerce clause.
Gun ‘control’ *laws’ via the commerce clause
Growing ones own FOOD...the commerce clause
Where’s the ‘Princess Bride’ meme re: ‘Regulate’.
Need to add it right next to the “It’s not Fascism when WE do it”
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