Posted on 04/15/2008 6:36:59 AM PDT by mombyprofession
I think the amounts are way understated. This is the biggest cause of poverty and of crime.
Yea, they sold 3 grams of weed to an informant in college when they were 18 and got hit with a felony. Did 6 months, got expelled, couldn't get hired by anyone and became career criminals.
I personally know 3 productive citizens' lives ruined by the war on weed. And one life ended by it.
When examining any issue, a “stupid” leftist uses the reasoning ability of an 11 yr old girl.
Any position on any issue is either “nice” or “mean” -
not “workable”, “constitutional”, or “has long term negative consequences”.
Before my dog, Baron, died, I never, ever asked one single person to pay for his keep. So, why should I be asked — no, make that FORCED — to pay for other people’s children. To those who sneer, “Well, he was a dog, not a child,” I respond, “Yes, and he was a far better dog than most illegitimate little bas***ds I’ve seen.
“... they can make divorce more difficult.”
As long as government is involved in the marriage business, I would argue that getting married should be made more difficult and getting divorced made easier.
It’s a cost the government gladly incurs. Haven’t you noticed? Government encourages divorce and out-of-wedlock parenting so it can create a class dependant on government that will be devoted ballot box support for the “just” liberal causes. You have your cause and effect reversed.
You gotta love the subtleties of the MSM and the socialist. When they want to create more laws to intrude on liberties, they exclaim how certain behaviors cost taxpayers’ money. When they want to create a program, they tout how the legislator won’t spend the money. When a program faces cuts, they blast the executive for cutting the program.
thank you Hollywood,please send a check to cover this!
I've never seen any evidence showing that government sponsored programs to strengthen marriage work.
Instead they just waste tax dollars.
Quit encouraging the government to extend it's reach into areas that it usually does far more damage than good.
Instead of wasting tax dollars on worthless and often counterproductive programs, cut taxes. Cutting taxes helps the economy, and a good economy is far better for families than any government program like this one.
OTOH, I know at least two productive citizens who had similar convictions, and none whose lives where irretrievably ruined. One was in the military (I think, at least his use started while he was a cannon cocker in Vietnam). He worked his way back to Senior Engineer, for a defense company, with a security clearance, and eventually a TS-SCI clearance. (It was harder getting him read in to a specific program than getting the clearance). He was also smart enough to get out of that line of work before he got Clintonsized, as I did (I liked the work too much. :) )
The other is a used car salesman, same as before his conviction, who has raised a bunch of good kids, the youngest of which graduated from high school last year. The first of his kids graduated in about 1990 I think. He's also my first cousin, and always, always, maintained that he was railroaded and not guilty. But he didn't let that turn him bitter or to real crime. He supported his kids and his wives, including the one whose mother he never married, he helped that one's mother financially too, and would have married her if he could have. A hound dog, but an honorable one. His mother once called him a 60 year old hippie with a pony tail, but actually he's too old to have been a real hippy. :)
A little funny story goes with that. The family all decided "Not to tell Grandpa". Well sometime after my cousin got out of the *federal* pen, we had a family gathering. It was Easter of 1980 in fact. The men were all hanging around outside, including grandpa. Well, family was always a Big Deal to that cousin, so he went over see how Grandpa was doing (He was about 85 at that point, still living by himself, which he did until he was almost 90, and didn't get to meet his Maker and be reunited with Grandma until he was closer to 100 than to 99) The first words out of Grandpa's mouth were "So, XXXX, how was the federal pen". Couldn't fool Grandpa.
Grandpa did sometimes get us grandson's confused. But he'd been doing that for a long time before 1980. In fact he often called me by that same cousin's name. Both start with the same letter and both have one syllable, so I guess it's not so surprising.
But all that that said, I think I'd agree with your implied position on the War on (Some) Drugs, it causes more problems than it solves, and except for border interdiction, it's beyond the delegated powers of the federal government.
But weed or whatever, or even a conviction, is no excuse for robbery, armed or otherwise, nor being a pimp, nor any number of other "vocations" which too many figure are the "easy way".
Often they are not even real dealers or know anyone higher up so they have nobody to give up. Just college kids selling a bit of their own to a 'friend'. 3 of the people I know never sold to anyone except for the time they were set-up. The police use alumni as undercovers to go as a friend of a 'friend' and observe buys.
Right after they are busted, the police and papers in town label them as 'drug dealers' as if they are already convicted. The original article stays even if they are found not-guilty. If a company searches their name on google, it's the 1st article that comes up.
The police make the reports sound like the sale was directly to an undercover by a big-time dealer so the papers lap it up. What they do is get a 'friend' to buy with the police cash and then hand the drugs to the undercover. I've seen a controlled sale happen and the police report for it was 100% BS. I was so angry about how much BS was in it that I bailed the kid out.
He was supposed to start a six-figure job with an oil company the next month but they set him up a week before graduation. The only testimony that mattered was the cop's.
Here's the kicker: The police even put a false statement in the report so I looked like a druggie to the judge. I almost lost it when they were using that to discredit me so I called the cop a liar and demanded to be drug tested. Of course the judge didn't give two sh*** and that false statement is still attributed to me.
The police do more lying and double-crossing than these 'dealers' ever did. They even turn on their own informants to get a conviction. Of course the police lie only 'for the children'.
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