Libertarians Advocate Drug Legalization: Recipe For Escalating Societal Decay

GOPUSA.COM ^ | May.16,2002 | Carol Devine-Molin

[Aedammair]

"I admire your family's willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of their children. However that has nothing to do with the government robbing your parents (and everyone else's) blind, forcing them to make sacrifices they shouldn't have to make.

My parents along with millions of other families would have had to still sacrifice with or without the tax burden you refer to as stealing. Sacrifice has always been part and parcel of the lower middle classes. To invert your assertion: Their sacrifice bore no relationship to the levy of taxes mandated by the feds.

Stealing is ALWAYS wrong, not just when it's from people we like and that's what government does.

In a system of government where every bloody citizen has the right to elect or not elect their rulers; there is no such thing as theft.

You make it sound like the problem is just selfish, materialistic parents

Bingo!

...when it's actually relentless government thievery

Again, you cannot steal from those free to elect their legislators. If you think it is theft; refuse to pay the levy and take whatever consequences befall that choice. That's how a person who thinks he's been robbed by the feds stands for principle. The founders sacrificed for their principles, and no less is required of you, if you truly believe you've been robbed and view yourself as oppressed.

[cruiserman]

I don't know if it's a lie or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if drug use went up with legalization. Is the problem drug use, or is the problem breaking other laws not related to possession or use?

Lots of folks use drugs and live productive lives. I'd like the option of legally using drugs, which would bring the price of drugs down and reduce crime.

[wardaddy]

The number of folks on this forum who advocate drug legalization astounds me. I agree that decriminalizing marijuana to a large degree is reasonable but having a legal free open market on any intoxicant one wishes is just plain foolish. The problem with the drug war is that true enough, it's more ineffective than we would like it to be and some of the sentencing (Federal) and confiscatory statutes are draconian but the proposed alternative is scarier....at least to me. As much as I hate to admit it, and this sounds like liberal tripe.....the social and cultural issues leading to drug use and abuse are the real issue. Problem is...those are long term perhaps unresolvable problems and we are left with no choice but some kind of prohibition.

I would agree with some of the Randian/Objectivist/Libertarian crowd on the particular issues surrounding property confiscation and mandatory sentencing and gun enhancements. I do NOT think the drug war is puposely racist but it's certainly easy for anti-WOD folks to make that argument when they base their argument strictly on arrests and convictions. Again, the underlying social and cultural predispositions come into play. It's quite a complicated issue and has acquired an inter-generational life of it's own. Restoring some type of moral fabric back into our culture and society will cure exponentially more than the WOD. I know....Libertarians want drug legalization but abhor the societal morality issue....LOL.

[steve-b]

Congress can legislate under the Commerce Clause.

Have the honesty to change your name to Daschle Man.

[Beenliedto]

That's all the further I got, have to say this: A free Republic cannot be maintained if its citizens are stoned or drunk.

All of that 19th century cocaine-laced snake oil and cola drinks really held us back!

[f.Christian]

Mind... altering---psychopaths?

[sheltonmac]

Two points:

1. The prohibition of alcohol, a substance arguably more problematic than illicit drugs, was a miserable failure.
2. Repeal federal drug laws and turn the issue of legalization over to the states where it belongs.

[steve-b]

But I'm not tired of paying to lock up murderers. That I'm willing to pay for.

Really, it's quite simple. Do you, or do you not, favor diverting what little we have in the way of border security away from watching out for the next al-Qaeda attack?

[tacticalogic]

I think to a degree they are interchangable, at least when you apply politics to them both. Politics runs throughout our society and since government is an offshoot of civilized society, the two can be viewed as one in many many aspects.

To a degree, yes. As an absolute, no. Actions that are taken by self-serving bureaucrats that have no, or very little basis in societal concerns do not deserve support. Marijuana prhoibition was the creation of government, and support for it within society was artificially created by the government. Government is a creation of civilized society. Civilized society is not a creation of government.

From FDR's heavy handed manipulation of the USSC, to Harry Anslinger's lies to Congress, to Richard Nixon's commissioning research and then burying it when it didn't turn out like he wanted, marijuana prohibition has been a seedy (no pun intended) chapter in American politics and no amount of moral rationalizing will make it right.

[BikerNYC]

I don't know if it's a lie or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if drug use went up with legalization.

Yes, I think it might go up too, at least at first; just like when a new casino opens, the number of people who gamble goes up. However, the number of smokers is going down, and nicotine is certainly quite an addictive substance.

[Reagan Man]

Have the honesty to change your name to Daschle Man.

I'll stick with Reagan Man. Honestly, it's me.

I suggest, you find something better to do with your time then personally attacking me.

Your asinine rhetoric isn't necessary.

[Liberal Classic]

"Restoring some type of moral fabric back into our culture and society will cure exponentially more than the WOD."

Well said.

[SunStar]

You're sarcasm is missed by many here. Makes me wonder who is really stoned here.

Yep. Common sense works.

[truenospinzone]

Care to read and respond to #55 yet?

[Aedammair]

I don't see in any of your replies to me a forthright delineation of the America libertarianism will produce. What will it's economic plank be? How will libertarianism provide for military defense of our nation? If there is an epidemic of terrorism, disease, anarchy, what will be their philosophy or course of action? Are they for nuclear disarmament or against it? Are they willing to regulate disposal of hazardous materials or will they leave that to business and the states to iron out? Should that prove to be ineffectual how would they deal with inter-state issues? I'm really not asking for line by line specifics; generalities with some illustrations will do.

[steve-b]

I would have thought that eight years of Clowntoon would have pounded the absurdity of looking to government for moral leadership into even the densest head, but evidently not.

[wardaddy]

Thanks.....have they disabled image posting for now? All my jpegs are now (x)s....

[CJ Wolf]

yep I agree total proof of the dumb WOD: If that poor mental case of a soul wasn't accosted for smoking pot by the drug nazis last year, he wouldn't have been looking for that soapbox err mailbox and attention like that...

[SunStar]

I guess you didn't get the sarcasm.

Try applying your comments to the prohibition of alcohol. You may see how inane your comments really are.

[steve-b]

Nah, draping that elastic commerce clause around yourself has compressed your spine to the point where you can't be dinstinguished from Dashcle, not a bit.