[Snuffington]

I differ from a lot of libertarian posters in that I think a community as a whole has a right to examine certain behaviors and decide if a certain probability for harm threshhold is crossed. The classic example of this approach is drunk driving. Even though the vast majority of people who drive under the influence make it home without incident, the folks who do cause crashes create a level of mayhem and harm in gross disproporation to their numbers. So society prohibits ALL drunk driving. Some libertarians believe that we should wait for actual harm to happen before we act, for the drunk driver to hit another car, but I disagree.

That is an excellent point. I think you're the first libertarian I have heard who holds that position.

In my opinion, no on in favor of the "War on Drugs" is conservative. War as a domestic law enforcement model is about as radical and unconservative as you can get. That does not mean that I think all drug use is an inalienable right. Unfortunately in most "drug war" threads one quickly learns those are the only two opinions anyone wants to discuss.

We need more concentration on areas of agreement between conservatives and libertarians. I think we easily have a majority in the country opposed to the "War on Drugs," even if they are opposed to drug legalization. But if the radicals on both sides get to define the terms of the debate, we'll continue with the status quo unchanged.

[dirtboy]

But if the radicals on both sides get to define the terms of the debate, we'll continue with the status quo unchanged.

And that, sir, is an excellent point in return. I have noticed that, on drug threads, if the participants start making common ground and start honestly debating differences, the flame-throwers suddenly quit posting, and go find another thread where the food fight is in full swing. I, for one, am sick of that - of the sweeping, stupid generalizations, of beliefs so entrenched that they are impervious to reason. The drug war threads on FR too often become an intellectual Somme - a battlefield with no objective, other than inflicting carnage on both sides. Time to change that.