Don't forget that drug warriors oppose needle exchange programs too. They want druggies to spread AIDS, hepatitis, etc. amonst themselves.
We pay for the crime they commit looking for enough to get a fix.
That's true, but prices are inflated because of the drug war too. Cocaine costs something like $35/oz to produce. Addicts would have to steal a lot less to support their habit, if they must steal. Then again, a lot of them might be able to obtain jobs if felony drug convictions weren't on their records, another product of the drug war.
These people are generally committing suicide slowly and dragging everyone in their families down with them. Their choice. I have a hard time being sympathetic.
The same could be said of liberal voters, especially, say, in Detroit, the subject of several threads in the last week or two.
And before the hyperbolic comparisons continue, no, I would not include tobacco smokers, overeaters, or other lesser problems, which do not necessarily result in crime or death.
It isn't hyperbolic - far more people die of smoking-related causes, or obesity-related problems, than from all illegal drugs combined, as far as deaths rates go. And as for crime rates, as taxes on tobacco continue to rise, and as more places ban smoking, smuggling and smoking-related crimes have been on the increase. If things keep going as they have been, there might soon be an all-out War On Tobacco waged much in the spirit of the present War On Drugs. You might then think of Thomas Paine's quote "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." First, they come for the druggies, then, they came for the smokers.
At least the latter groups are productive and pay their own way.
There are productive drug users too.
No one is handing out free cigarettes or fast food at government expense.
No one is handing out free drugs at government expense either.
As far as gun grabbing liberals getting other liberals killed because they cannot defend themselves, that violent crime and murder just might be inflicted by someone with a habit.
Careful there - I'll bet a lot of criminals are smokers, too. Be careful with that broad brush, you might paint yourself.
Someone still has to do the crime.
The crime of voting for unconstitutional gun laws, or people who support them? Some pay for this with their lives. Many, in fact. Many more than die from tainted drugs. Though not as many as die from smoking.
What do you want to share the road with?
Who do you want flying the jumbo jet?
Who do you want driving your kid's school bus? Someone who might just have enough residual crap in their system to f*ck up and get people killed?
It isn't the addicts' felony drug convictions that keep them from having a lot of other jobs, either. It is that they are addicts. Period. Where performance counts, don't blame the law for people NOT getting a job. They made a choice. The law is no d@amned secret. Actions have consequences.
As a tobacco smoker, I pay higher taxes, higher insurance premiums, and I do pay for my health insurance. I am not asking anyone else to pay my way. Most tobacco smokers are not asking anyone else to pick up their tab, either. There are no free ashtray programs for me. NO free zippos, so let the druggies provide their own paraphenalia.
As for addicts having to steal a lot less if drugs were legal, I suppose just a little dogcrap in your soup is okay, as opposed to massive amounts of it. They are still stealing!
As for cigarette smuggling, that has been going on since trucks went up US 301 when I was a kid, taking $2 cartons of cigarettes from North Carolina (untaxed) to New York, where taxed cigarettes were selling for $7 a carton. Just the same mafia doing bidness.
I've had to deal with some f**ked up people in my time, and I'm not buying the legalize drugs song and dance one bit.