The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Politics & RKBA => Topic started by: tombogan03884 on August 29, 2012, 10:52:40 AM
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I've been saying this for decades .
A classic example of a worthless Govt money pit that accomplishes nothing positive and serves only to employ lawyers and serve as a vehicle to undermine our rights.
A Commentary By John Stossel
Forty years ago, the United States locked up fewer than 200 of every 100,000 Americans. Then President Nixon declared war on drugs. Now we lock up more of our people than any other country -- more even than the authoritarian regimes in Russia and China.
A war on drugs -- on people, that is -- is unworthy of a country that claims to be free.
Unfortunately, this outrage probably won't be discussed in Tampa or Charlotte.
The media (including Fox News) run frightening stories about Mexican cocaine cartels and marijuana gangs. Few of my colleagues stop to think that this is a consequence of the war, that decriminalization would end the violence. There are no wine "cartels" or beer "gangs." No one "smuggles" liquor. Liquor dealers are called "businesses," not gangs, and they "ship" products instead of "smuggling" them. They settle disputes with lawyers rather than guns.
Everything can be abused, but that doesn't mean government can stop it. Government runs amok when it tries to protect us from ourselves.
Drug-related crime occurs because the drugs are available only through the artificially expensive black market. Drug users steal not because drugs drive them to steal. Our government says heroin and nicotine are similarly addictive, but no one robs convenience stores to get Marlboros. (That could change with confiscatory tobacco taxes.)
Are defenders of the drug war aware of the consequences? I don't think so.
John McWhorter, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, indicts the drug war for "destroying black America." McWhorter, by the way, is black.
McWhorter sees prohibition as the saboteur of black families. "Enduring prison time is seen as a badge of strength. It's regarded (with some justification) as an unjust punishment for selling people something they want. The ex-con is a hero rather than someone who went the wrong way."
He enumerates the positive results from ending prohibition. "No more gang wars over turf, no more kids shooting each other. ... Men get jobs, as they did in the old days, even in the worst ghettos, because they have to."
Would cheaper and freely available drugs bring their own catastrophe? "Our discomfort with the idea of heroin available at drugstores is similar to that of a Prohibitionist shuddering at the thought of bourbon at the corner store. We'll get over it."
The media tell us that some drugs are so powerful that one "hit" or "snort" will hook the user forever. But the government's own statistics disprove that. The National Institutes of Health found that 36 million Americans have tried crack. But only 12 percent have used it in the previous year, and fewer than 6 percent have used it in the previous month. If crack is so addictive, how did 88 percent of the users quit?
If drugs were legal, I suppose that at first more people would try them. But most would give them up. Eventually, drug use would diminish, as it has in Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs, and the Netherlands, which allows legal marijuana. More young men would find real jobs; police could focus on real crime.
When the public is this divided about an issue, it's best left to voluntary social pressure instead of legal enforcement. That's how most Americans decide whether to drink alcohol or go to church every week. Private voluntary social networks have their own ways of punishing bad behavior and send more nuanced messages about what's unacceptable. Government's one-size-fits-all rules don't improve on that.
"Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness," economist Ludwig von Mises wrote, "why not prevent him from reading bad books and bad plays ... ? The mischief done by bad ideologies is more pernicious ... than that done by narcotic drugs."
If we adults own our own bodies, we ought to get to control what we put in them. It's legitimate for government to protect me from reckless drivers and drunken airline pilots -- but not to protect me from myself.
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I'm in agreement to Johns cogent, thoughful and quite accurate assesment of the situation.
Nothing is going to change in my lifetime though...at least I doubt it will!
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I'm in agreement to Johns cogent, thoughful and quite accurate assesment of the situation.
Nothing is going to change in my lifetime though...at least I doubt it will!
When Reagan told Gorby, "Tear down this wall." I said the same thing.
Now I say " We'll see". ;D
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The War on Drugs is another place that allows .gov to bury billions of dollars in waste, patronage, and backslapping good old boy politics.
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Let the druggies mangle their minds. Make the junk legal. Tax it. Use the proceeds to help those who want to quit.
Just stay away from my bourbon.
Crusader
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Let the druggies mangle their minds. Make the junk legal. Tax it. Use the proceeds to help those who want to quit.
Just stay away from my bourbon.
Crusader
Et tu NIMBY ?
Thing to remember is that there have been people who will abuse a substance as long as there have been people, and substances.
They did not lead to major crime waves until Govt got into the act. If it had not been for Prohibition Al Capone would have never been anything more than a Chicago pimp.
If it were not for the "War on some drugs" Pablo Escobar never would have been anything but a Colombian car thief.
It is Govt prohibition that generates the profit margin that attracts criminal involvement.
Any one who wants to do the research will find that just like with gun laws most drug laws are based in racist discrimination.
Opium is a perfect example since it was the first one banned as a method of keeping the Chinese in line.
The War on Drugs is another place that allows .gov to bury billions of dollars in waste, patronage, and backslapping good old boy politics.
The only "good" thing about the "war on some drugs" is that it also provides a place to hide funding for needed "black projects" so the media don't advertize them to our enemies.
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I'm in agreement to Johns cogent, thoughful and quite accurate assesment of the situation.
Nothing is going to change in my lifetime though...at least I doubt it will!
Oh, it could change in your lifetime....but you'll have to vote for politicians who will end the WOSD...there are probably a couple who have that as a plank in their platform. For some it might be the only plank.
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Oh, it could change in your lifetime....but you'll have to vote for politicians who will end the WOSD...there are probably a couple who have that as a plank in their platform. For some it might be the only plank.
After 80+ years of propaganda any politician who really wants to get elected should say nothing about it and just do it.
Like abortion it is a hot button topic and more evidence that Ron Paul had no intention of actually winning an election.
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The main issue with drugs is not the selling end of it, its the buyer. The buyer is the one that commits crimes in order to fund thier addiction. I have heard numbers in the 70-90% range for property crimes that can be traced back to meth. to make that figure all but go away, you would have to drop the price to a fraction of current costs. thats not something making it legal will do. look at pot in ca, I don't smoke it, but my understanding is prices have actually gone up since it became legal.
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The main issue with drugs is not the selling end of it, its the buyer. The buyer is the one that commits crimes in order to fund thier addiction. I have heard numbers in the 70-90% range for property crimes that can be traced back to meth. to make that figure all but go away, you would have to drop the price to a fraction of current costs. thats not something making it legal will do. look at pot in ca, I don't smoke it, but my understanding is prices have actually gone up since it became legal.
The same argument has been made, and rejected, about guns .
I do not know for a fact, but I strongly suspect based on past performance the the increase in weed prices in Ca have far more to do with economic factors than with supply/demand.
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But my point is, they made it legal( any one can get a card) taxed it, a whole industry formed around it, yet prices did not drop, they went up. I doubt the number of people that smoke it has changed. I do know it has cost us $$ in trying to enforce the rules.