Like Ann Coulter said, I have no problem with drug legalization, but before I discuss it, abolish the Nanny State. Drug legalization is so unimportant relative to federal intrusions.
Now that statement is going to cause some brain farts from those who worship Coulter but want to legalize dope.
Ann Coulter sometimes writes stunningly stupid things...like this. Drug criminalization was one of the earliest pillars of the Nanny state; and the War on Drugs today is a major driver of expansionist Federal power; and it has been used over many decades to erode the liberties that our ancestors thought they had secured for us in the American Revolution. Federal agencies, state-level agencies and private organizations sucking at the government teat are attempting, successfully, to leverage WOD panic about "substance abuse" to bring about incremental prohibition of tobacco and alcohol. The WOD serves as a gigantic welfare program for a multitude of Federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies and prison systems, and hosts of private "non-profit" agencies and commercial businesses who supply consultants, products and services for the WOD. The police agencies, their unions, the "non-profits," and the commerical businesses all give political money to both sides of the aise and lobby heavily to prevent any cut-back in WOD spending, and to expand expand the WOD by criminalizing new substances (such as GHB which you used be able to buy in health food stores)and by expanding the scope, for example the DEA prosecuting physicians who prescribe scheduled pain medications.
by GovernmentShrinker: This libertarian would be happy to see the "war" on drugs ended, immediately after the welfare state is dismantled. I'd rather finance the war on drugs than finance the colossal medical and "rehab" bills, and all the cost of crime, incurred by people who freely choose to destroy their own (and sometimes other people's) lives with drugs (including alcohol), and then present themselves to the taxpayer, over and over again, with the plea "I need help". 67 posted on 02/15/2006 6:14:57 PM EST
If you consider yourself in any sense a libertarian, how do you condone the violence of the "War on Drugs" against drug users who have committed no acts of aggression against others? As I pointed out above, the WOD is a part of the welfare state,its a big part, its welfare for cops, social workers, corrections officers, government agencies and unions, and a multitude of parasitic non-profits and commercial enterprises, as well as mostly foreign-controlled criminal gangs whose enormous profits and power would evaporate with drug legalization.
The reality is that most consumers of illicit drugs support themselves, even addicts would not have to resort to robbery if they didn't have to purchase their drugs at high black-market prices. Right now you are paying very high rates for the incarceration of drug users, you are paying for their medical costs, and for their mandatory rehab programs.
by DakotaRed:Since we can't win the war on murder, maybe that should be legalized too? What about robbery? Can't stop it, legalize it. While we are at it, why not just legalize terrorism as well. It's sure been around and we are having a hard time stopping it. Funny we never had to resort to "war" to police robbery and murder...when the state governments used their proper police powers to arrest robbers and murderers we didn't have to give up our Constitutional rights, and we didn't need to give extra-Consitutional police powers to the Federal government.
Perhaps you don't understand, acts of robbery, murder, and terrorism are acts of violence against peaceful people, if a gang of thugs breaks into a room where people are peacefully enjoying their pipes and brandy,kidnapping and robbing them, that is a highly anti-social, criminal act. But if a SWAT team breaks into a similar room where people are peacefully smoking hemp, and arrests them and conficates thier property, there is morally no difference.
Many people understand that and while people will coorpoerate to bring about the arrests of robbers and murderers the War on Drugs will never have that cooperation. As long as people refuse to face life and need their "crutch" in the form of drugs to escape reality, we will have illegal drugs. Legalizing them will do nothing to get people to face reality and see they are responsible for their own life and don't need escapes from reality. 119 posted on 02/15/2006 8:20:53 PM EST
Many people use drugs for pleasure...like others might enjoy wine, others fine cigars, etc...and use them in moderation so that they enhance rather than hurt their lives. The WODers trumpeted success the '80s that "casual" drug use was down; as a result of harsh new laws...some of these people's reward/risk calculus resulting in them reducing or abandoning some old pleasures, perhaps substituting increased alcohol.
For some people illicit drug use is a "crutch;" many people have "crutches," some use legal prescription drugs, some use alcohol, some people's "crutches" are religious sects or obsessions, other people use cigarettes, excess food consumption, sex, the Internet...perhaps even Free Republic. Why should drug consumers have to face your version of "reality," ie a concrete prison cell?