Posted on 04/09/2011 7:27:52 AM PDT by AustralianConservative
My surname is a giveaway. But in case you don’t know, I’m from a Dutch background and have a genuine interest in what Larry Collins described as “Holland’s Half-Baked Dutch Experiment” (Foreign Affairs May/June 1999).
For sure, the worst kept secret has been out for decades. “Our liberal drug policy has been a failure, but its advocates are so rooted in their convictions they can’t bring themselves to admit it,” explained Dr. Franz Koopman, director of De Hoop drug rehabilitation center in Dordecht. “First, we banalized cannabis use. We have left our kids with the idea that it’s perfectly all right to smoke it, and from there it was an easy step for them to move to the notion that it’s also okay to use mind-altering substances like ecstasy.”
Today, Holland is still a drug capital.
It’s no coincidence either that European socialists are open to embracing mind-destroying drugs, as opposed to, say, open debates on “manmade” global warming.
The unromantic truth: I’ve witnessed the drug revolution, and it’s an Orwellian lie. If you want more government in your lives, then go soft on drugs. Decriminalizing rape will never reduce rape crimes, so what motivates elites to mother society’s brain-raping sellers?
I also have an intellectual ally in Dr. Theodore Dalrymple. The British author of Our Culture, What’s Left of It reasons (p. 232), “If the war against drugs is lost, then so are the wars against theft, fraud, rape, murder, arson, and illegal parking. Few, if any, such wars are winnable. So let us all do anything we choose.”
(Excerpt) Read more at weekendlibertarian.blogspot.com ...
Yes, it would be lovely if pot users paid for themselves. Not going to happen. They’re choking our overburdened hospitals across the West (thank you taxpayers). They’re turning up to work late (and screaming discrimination when held to account). I’ve noticed too that many of these so-called libertarians and their enablers are very conspiratorial and/or legalistic. They have a real problem with free speech. It’s all about their drug-first rights and to hell with the rest of the community’s rights
Great point about immigration. It’s funny you know how so-called libertarians are so soft on illegal immigrants but someone has to do their drug runs. They’re crowding out American hospitals.
Interesting perspective. Drugs and prostitution are good for the Dutch - but have you checked out their tax bills? Ever wondered why so many people are fleeing the nation? I know Dutch people myself. The nation is messed up but drugs or an adults-only libertarian mindset will blind the faithful to the obvious.
Even the New York Times admits that their crime waves are shocking. By the way, I also read there is a huge political backlash in the Netherlands against soft-on-drug laws, meaning that living with the mess is different than glamorizing the mess from across the pond.
“Do you want a War on Rape and a War on Murder run by fedgov?”
No. But I do want judges to stop patting criminals on the hands when they trash free-market businesses. I do want potheads prevented from choking up taxpayer-funded medical services. I do want us to learn from social experiment failures in socialist drugs-first Europe. I do want people to stop pretending that there is a war on drugs when your borders are wide open. In short: I want accountability. And it would be really nice if “free speech” libertarians stopped censoring anti-drug arguments. But that’s a dream.
The Netherlands is an odd place. They are considering apartment-pyramids for their food animals, because land is so scarce.
But do not confuse the popularity of Geert Wilders with a moralistic, anti-drug and prostitution stance, which is mostly municipal in character. The two have different agendas.
Using your logic from above, then the State should regulate everything, because everything you do affects other people in some way. The State could easily use this justification to ban religion, for example.
Just to see if you are willing to be consistent in your arguments, then we should go back to prohibition, shouldn't we?
Post link to that. I don't believe you.
You don’t have to believe me buddy. From the Times London:
Claiming that this evidence is new is less than flattering to the pharmacologists and the psychiatrists who have been giving warnings of the hazards since the 1970s. This evidence would have been available to Blair since his schooldays. When he was at Oxford, the then Professor of Pharmacology was Sir William Paton. He was one of the world’s experts on cannabis. In the 1970s Paton and his colleagues published many papers describing their observations, which had led him to conclude that even regular social cannabis smoking could induce schizophreniform symptoms. He listed these symptoms and they would have made worrying reading for any parent. Paton also drew attention to cases in which schizophrenia seemed to have been precipitated by taking cannabis in people who had previously been apparently unaffected by any form of psychiatric or psychological problems, and in whom there was no evidence that they were carrying a genetic burden that might make them liable to schizophrenic breakdown.
In one series of cases Paton and his colleagues found that there were several instances in which for some reason the person had had a psychiatric assessment, although without at the time evidence of psychological problems. Later they used cannabis and this had coincided with a psychotic breakdown.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article767214.ece
That is garbage. It isn’t based on any real study, it gives no figures and it is from the ruminations of a psychiatrist from over forty years ago. Thanks, I knew you didn’t have anything of substance.
Okay, you sound paranoid – I’ll leave with your hippy health books. What would an Oxford University genius know anyway?
You have no basis for that statement.
– I’ll leave with your hippy health books.
You have no basis for that statement either other than uninformed ignorance.
What would an Oxford University genius know anyway?
What would a Harvard University lawyer, former Senator and sitting President know?
You sure know how to make a fool of yourself.
You want to hang or kill somebody who smokes pot? Hmm that seems a bit over the top to me. I see people do more evil & harm when they drink then smoke pot. And jail sentences are not short, we have people in jail for years for pot while other crooks get soft sentences. Most people I know & I am 53 have at least tried pot & I wouldn’t want to see them all executed. As the parent of a former drug addict who is clean & sober it saddens me to think you would want my daughter dead. People do make mistakes & they can change their lives. Granted not all will get clean & sober. Who here has not made mistakes? I made many in my life & learned from them.
Glad your daughter is clean and sober.
What I’ve said over and over and over again on these pro-stoner threads is that any use of drugs should be treated thusly: first offense is rehabilitation and a year of community service; second offense is “cold turkey” and five years in prison; third strike and you’re dead.
Drug trafficking would be punishable as a capital crime, period.
I believe people should be given a chance to go straight. But from experience, due to a front row seat at my sister and BIL’s adventure as professional musicians, the life of drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll isn’t easy to quit. (I reared their son, witnessed his pain of abandonment, and accompanied him to therapists for years. He’s doing OK now.)
There is growing clinical evidence of a connection between using marijuana and the development of schizophrenia. Remember that young man, name of Loughner, who shot a bunch of people in Tucson, Arizona, just a couple months ago? He was using marijuana, not alcohol.
For information see: What doubles the risk of developing psychosis?
http://www.amenclinics.com/blog/tag/marijuana/
Thankfully you were able to take care of your nephew. I too took in 2 boys & had other toss away kids living with us over the years. It is harder in my town to adopt a dog yet any woman can have a child. Thanks for the link.
There is a common thread that runs among all pro-drug war posters. They’re kooks. It’s shouldn’t be surprising that they have homicidal tendencies.
You’re welcome to the link and good luck with all you’ve undertaken.
You notice they never link to the actual study just an article that references one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.