| </span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Scribbler1,)
Maybe I just missed it, but I haven't seen this topic around here. I'm wondering what everyone's take on this issue is?
Personally, I see our laughable "war on drugs" as not only unwinnable (didn't ANYONE learn anything from Americs'a prohibition experiment with alcohol?) and poorly thought out with no consideration of human nature or history. Just as Prohibition nurtured the mobs back then, drug prohibition is nurturing the more violent drug gangs today. The answer to drug-related crime seems clear. Legalize it, period. It takes away the easy money, profit motive away from the gangs and individual dealers, AND would support a new American industry, which can be regulated and taxed.
What's the difference between drugs and alcohol here? You can either suck down a couple of pints of Southern Comfort and get commode hugging drunk, or smoke a few joints and giggle all night with a mouthful of chips and playing Pink Floyd over and over. Either way, ain't nobody's buisness but yours, right?<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
Unwinnable? It has been lost, and we are the losers. We have more of our citizens in prison per capita than any other country, largely thanks to our 'war on drugs'; we are not secure in our homes nor is our property secure from confiscation, thanks to our war on drugs; and we do not distinguish dangerous drugs from those that get lumped with them, thanks to our war on drugs. We have the ludicrous situation in which our anti-marijuana laws outlaw an industry, hemp, that offers many lower-cost options in paper-making, clothing fabrics, and other areas. In fact, before our anti-drug laws, hemp WAS a major industry in the U.S.; and some argue that the anti-marijuana laws were actually an attempt to outlaw hemp as an alternative to forest products and cotton. Whatever the real motivations, lumping marijuana with opiates, cocaine, and other drugs is ludicrous, as many people realize. "This is your brain on drugs" is a lie that many see through, and unfortunately this delegitimizes accurate warnings about the effects of truly-dangerous drugs, such as cocaine. Among the worst effects of the anti-drug laws has been to create a lucrative source of income for organized crime. For example, in the 1970s, marijuana was a major cash crop in many rural counties in California, grown openly by citizens who could not bring in like incomes to their counties based on any other crop. But the feds insisted on a war on such growers, turning some of those counties into occupied territory. The end result? Pot growers tend to be criminals who use violence to protect their crops -- as some find out in being maimed or killed while hiking through state park lands. In sum, our war on drugs has been lost by we, the people. I don't know what would work to restict usage of truly dangerous drugs; but I do know that our war on drugs has done much more damage to our society, and our econmy, than legalized drugs could ever do, no matter how dangerous they might be. |