Are Conservatives Addicted to the Drug War?

The Fountain of Truth ^ | May 19, 2002 | Douglas F. Newman

[RLK]

Are Conservatives Addicted to the Drug War?

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I'm not. I just happen to believe, as much as I believe anything, that America will not survive drug use or the mentality facilitated by drug use. Take it or leave it.

[Ronin]

Amen and a bump.

[StriperSniper]

If totalitarianism is the price you are willing to pay for a drug-free society, then move to such a country. Given the choice between a free America and a drug-free America, I will choose the former any day.

Great post.

[agitator]

I second that bump

[southern rock]

Well, if you raise your children properly you greatly reduce the chance that they will do drugs. The government cannot raise your children for you. 100 years ago, it was perfectly legal for a ten-year old to walk into the local drug store and buy heroin, and we had nowhere near the problems we have today. Why? Because raising kids was the duty of parents and churches. If you are really serious about keeping your kids off drugs, you have got to look somewhere - anywhere - besides the government.

Super-duper bumpty-bump, bump, bump!!

May I also add that 100 years ago, it was perfectly legal for a ten-year old to walk into school with a hunting rifle, but there were no school shootings. Prohibition and zero-tolerance are WORTHLESS!

[uncbob]

Resources that could be used to root out terrorists are wasted on this insane WOD

[al-andalus]

Wow, this guy must have culled every anti-WOD thread from FreeRepublic and condensed them all into one great cogent essay. Definitely a keeper.

[Washington_minuteman]

"Resources that could be used to root out terrorists are wasted on this insane WOD"

Both are excuses to justify expanding the size of government. Because of that, neither will ever go away (unless, of course, we sometime reach the point in history where freedom and liberty come to mean more than the acqusition of wealth and power, to the plutocrats, and largess to the People).

[headsonpikes]

The ritual abuse of Koolaid by the products of public education is the chief threat to the Republic, imho.

[edger]

Prohibition was repealed to reclaim the streets from the bandits, and when it was repealed, we discovered that almost everybody in government had been on the take.

Some of the bandit gangs that were formed during Prohibition are still intact and operating.

During prohibition, beer and wine virtually disappeared--there was a bigger markup on the hard stuff.

Several years ago, it was predicted that the Constitution would not survive the War on Drugs and, boy, was that right on!

[HDawg]

I'm not claiming to have any solutions here, but speaking from personal experience, I believe the WOD is the best thing to happen to marijuana. In the 1970s and early 80s, before the govenment started cracking down hard on marijuana growers, most pot was grown outdoors, in Mexico and the Corn Belt, having a THC level at 3-5% at best. The WOD forced the growers to move indoors, where they would have complete control over the 5 factors for growing optimum plants: water, soil nutrients, light, temperature, and carbon dioxide levels. Also, many of these growers, being talented botanists, could crossbread the older, now obsolete plants to produce marijuana plants genetically superior and a lot more potent to anything produced in the past, which can be cloned again and again. Now most marijuana sold has a THC level of 12-20%.

[Commie Basher]

Resources that could be used to root out terrorists are wasted on this insane WOD.

Conservatives are as eager for a nebulous and never-ending "war on terror" as they are for the WOD. As long as "there's a war on!" there's an excuse to tell dissenters that it's "unpatriotic" to criticize Bush. (NOT!)

The best way to fight drug use is education and health care (i.e., the same way we fight alcoholism). The best way to fight terror is foreign non-intervention. (There's a reason the Swiss have little problem with terrorism.)

[southern rock]

The best way to fight drug use is education and health care

Actually, I'm against both prison AND treatment for drug users and sellers. I say just leave people alone who are leaving others alone. If someone commits an actual crime while on drugs,fine, then arrest and prosecute them. But drugs in and of themselves should not be criminal, but they also should not "entitle" anyone to any free treatment.

[WaucondaguyamI]

Screw the DEA, put 'em to work guarding the borders or something useful, instead of narcing on their neighbors!

[Kevin Curry]

Actually, I'm against both prison AND treatment for drug users and sellers. I say just leave people alone who are leaving others alone.

What you have to say is about as useful as two boils on a butt cheek. Society will never leave drug abusers alone.

Our choice is: prison at one end of the spectrum, nanny government rehab and coddling at the other, with a combination of the two in between.

If my money is going to extorted from me and flushed down the toilet in the direction of these losers, I vote that prison be included in their future.

It's the least they could suffer for inconveniencing the rest of us.

[supercat]

IF, and to the extent that, anti-drug laws could be enforced without violating the Constitution, I might favor them. In practice, though, nearly all of the anti-drug statutes seem to by their nature require a weakening of constitutional safeguards to allow for even moderately-effective enforcement. And that I do not favor in the least.

To be sure, part of the problem is a government that would rather subvert the Constitution than use clever means to enforce anti-drug laws while still upholding it. For example, rather than using no-knock raids, I'd suggest another alternative: have a cop go to a suspected drug house and appear, in uniform, asking for information about some crime committed nearby. Allow plenty of time for any drug dealers inside to flush their stash, but don't actually bother to search the place. Repeat a few times. If the drug dealers haven't already been put out of commission by their 'higher-ups' for destroying millions of dollars' worth of product, then on the fifth or sixth time show up with a warrant and serve it. Odds are good the dealers wouldn't bother to destroy their stash, and so it should be easy to find and collect it.

[zeugma]

I'm amazed that the WOD crew haven't filled this thread with attacks on posters as being drug crazed libertarians yet. Good post, not that it will do any good, because the government truely is hooked on drugs and the alleged 'war' against it.

[southern rock]

Our choice is: prison at one end of the spectrum, nanny government rehab and coddling at the other, with a combination of the two in between.

Always great to hear from someone who has simply shrugged his shoulders and conceded that socialism is and will always be the status quo in the U.S.of A

Well guess what! Prison for someone who has not done anything wrong IS nanny state socialism. You are paying to feed, clothe, and house these people, who have not done a damn thing to harm you, me or society. The nanny state is alive and well either way.

You are supposed to be a member of FR to fight for principle, not to concede socialism. Personally, I will fight socialism, not drugs.

Anyone who chooses the "It ought to be illegal because I don't want to pay for the consequesces" argument is a colaborator in the commie takover of America.