I am a small government conservative. That means I want less government. The war on drugs has brought us nothing but big, intrusive, government and transitioned law enforcement into a gestapo organization that views all “citizens” as criminals.
Enough already.
Don’t pick and choose your biased articles. I live here; I even dare to work in Boulder county, the heart of the liberal movement in this state, and in many ways, the country. And guess what. My life has not changed one bit since marijuana was legalized. Crime happened before, people smoked pot before. Crime happens now, people smoke pot now.
But, I don’t have to worry about the “pot” dealer meeting his customers at the park across from my house anymore.
It’s not conservative to only care about what happens to YOUR life. That’s the liberal way.
The war on drugs has in no way made the government view all its citizens as criminals. That’s nothing but pure paranoia speaking. No law enforcement activity related to drugs has affected me one bit. The only thing that has affected me is random checkpoints for drunk drivers. Yet I’m not so selfish and extreme that I would suggest legalizing drunk driving.
If there’s a certain aspect of enforcement that you feel affects you, you can pass a law to change that without throwing out the whole law. No illegal activity gives the police carte blanche to enforce it in any way they choose. There’s a vast difference between rewriting the laws on enforcement powers vs. just legalizing everything that you think might’ve been enforced in a bad way at some point.
How nice for you...
There is a new station in the mid-Atlantic area that covers police activity 24 hours a day. A program I find particularly interesting is Alaska Highway Patrol. There MJ is illegal, but alcohol is also illegal in a lot of communities by community vote. While you see quite a lot of violent crime related to alcohol consumption, you mostly see stupid behavior related to pot consumption, and frequently to both pot and alcohol use by the same person. I wonder how Alaska would be if pot were legal, but alcohol was voted illegal in even more communities. They do have a problem with people brewing their own hootch, or bringing in bottled booze from out of town and selling it for a big markup which is also illegal. If they have that program in your area, check it out, lovely landscape shots, and also law enforcement of hunting and fishing regulations which I find interesting. They have a $10,000 fine for “wanton waste” of killed game animals.