Posted on 02/15/2006 2:22:52 PM PST by MRMEAN
Conservatives never cease to fascinate me, given their professed devotion to “freedom, free enterprise, and limited government” and their ardent support of policies that violate that principle.
One of the most prominent examples is the drug war. In fact, if you’re ever wondering whether a person is a conservative or a libertarian, a good litmus-test question is, How do you feel about the war on drugs? The conservative will respond, “Even though I believe in freedom, free enterprise, and limited government, we’ve got to continue waging the war on drugs.” The libertarian will respond, “End it. It is an immoral and destructive violation of the principles of freedom, free enterprise, and limited government.”
The most recent example of conservative drug-war nonsense is an article entitled “Winning the Drug War,” by Jonathan V. Last in the current issue of The Weekly Standard, one of the premier conservative publications in the country.
In his article, Last cites statistics showing that drug usage among certain groups of Americans has diminished and that supplies of certain drugs have decreased. He says that all this is evidence that the war on drugs is finally succeeding and that we just need to keep waging it for some indeterminate time into the future, when presumably U.S. officials will finally be able to declare “victory.”
Of course, we’ve heard this type of “positive” drug-war nonsense for the past several decades, at least since Richard Nixon declared war on drugs back in the 1970s. What conservatives never tell us is how final “victory” will ultimately be measured. Like all other drug warriors for the past several decades, Last doesn’t say, “The statistics are so good that the drug war has now been won and therefore we can now end it,” but rather, “Victory is right around the corner. The statistics are getting better. Let’s keep going.”
Last failed to mention what is happening to the people of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where drug lords compete violently to export illegal drugs into the United States to reap the financial benefits of exorbitant black-market prices and profits that the drug war has produced.
Recently, drug gangs fired high-powered weapons and a grenade into the newsroom of La Manana, killing Jaime Orozco Tey, a 40-year-old father of three.
Several other journalists have been killed in retaliation for their stories on the drug war, and newspapers are now self-censoring in fear of the drug lords. There are also political killings in Nuevo Laredo arising out of the drug war, including the city's mayor after he had served the grand total of nine hours in office.
According to the New York Times, “In Nuevo Laredo, the federal police say average citizens live in terror of drug dealers. Drug-related killings have become commonplace.” The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that the U.S.-Mexico border region is now one of the world’s most dangerous places for reporters.
Not surprisingly, Last did not mention these statistics in his “We’re winning the drug war” article.
During Prohibition, there were undoubtedly people such as Last claiming, “Booze consumption is down. We’re winning the war on booze. Al Capone is in jail. We’ve got to keep on waging the war on booze until we can declare final victory.”
Fortunately, Americans living at that time finally saw through such nonsense, especially given the massive Prohibition-related violent crime that the war on booze had spawned. They were right to finally legalize the manufacture and sale of alcohol and treat alcohol consumption as a social issue, not a criminal-justice problem.
Both conservatives and liberals have waged their war on drugs for decades, and they have reaped nothing but drug gangs, drug lords, robberies, thefts, muggings, murders, dirty needles, overcrowded prisons, decimated families, record drug busts, government corruption, infringements on civil liberties, violations of financial privacy, massive federal spending, and, of course, ever-glowing statistics reflecting drug-war “progress.”
Americans would be wise to reject, once and for all, the war on drugs, and cast drug prohibition, like booze prohibition, into the ashcan of history.
a very realistic , informative post!
That's too funny for words of my own so I'll regurgitate this line for 'ya.
I agree that "big government" is not a good thing, is not a goal to have and to seek and to support. However,...
When someone qualifies their Conservative credentials with "However,...", you know you ain't speaking to a Conservative! You people crack me up. Blackbird.
Take a lesson from Prohibition...legalize alcohol, but monitor its abuse, ie, DUI's, under age drinking, etc.
If that was so core to President Reagan's admiration of libertarians I wonder why he never took up that issue in the eight years he was in office?
Has not history made clear that new drugs will be invented to replace the void left by any that become unavailable? Given that there are a nearly infinite number of mind-altering substances that can be produced, from a nearly infinite range of source products and materials, the only effect of stamping out one will be that another will take its place; there's no particular reason to believe the new product won't be more harmful than the old one.
A significant percentage, but unfortunately not a measurable one since such people have to avoid detection.
If we legalize drugs and control their sale and tax them we will save enough money on wasted WOD expenditures and create such incredible added tax revenues we can
a) afford treatment centers to create a phenomenal decline in drug abuse
b) pay for free medical care for every American
that's how much money we are losing!
We went through all this in the 60's and 70's...nothing has changed.
I've heard some horrible stories that have taken place, just in Southern Ca. Was Ashley Villareal's age a misprint? 14 and driving?
Federal agencies have carte blanche. Remember Ruby Ridge? Lon Horiguchi(sp?)got off with a slap on the wrist.
My opinions exactly. Well put.
Brilliantly summed up.
Who said the issue was "core to President Reagan's admiration of libertarians"?
Very excellant post. I wouldn't have had that much patience.
"The libertarianism that Reagan spoke of describes a philosophy of preserving individual liberty, with the idea that doing so is in the best long-term interest of the nation. Sadly, we're seeing an attempt to re-define it as being synonymous with anarchy simply to discredit the Libertarian party. The cost is the loss of the idea of libertarianism Reagan spoke, and leaving his words incoherent as a result."
Since you wrote that on a drug legalization thread, and that's the only kind of thread where I see this offered as a defense, I simply assumed that's what you were aiming at.
If someone is robbed, the victim wants police to go after the robber. If some people are sharing a joint but are not creating a disturbance, who is damaged by the activity so as to justify a complaint?
The term "victimless crime" does not imply that an activity is harmless, but rather with the fact that none of the participants are inclined to complain about it. Although it is good for the state to protect would-be complainants against intimidation, or sometimes for the state to intervene on behalf of those who are unable to file a complaint (e.g. murder victims), there is generally little basis for punishing people except when their specific actions subject others to involuntary harm (bodily, economic, or otherwise) or danger.
If people next door to me run a crack house, and such action interferes with my enjoyment of my property, I have a basis for complaint (since their actions cause me economic harm). But if the people smoke dope discretely in such a way that I wouldn't even know about it, I have no basis for demanding that the government ensure that they're not doing so.
As a defense of what?
So you think drugs should be sold legally?
That's exactly what I was wondering?
Don't ask me. I have no idea what you were thinking.
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