Posted on 06/06/2006 4:32:38 AM PDT by LowCountryJoe
Meanwhile, politicians puff sanctimoniously about ``cleaning the streets" and ``ridding the projects of drug dealers
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
And yes, our founding fathers did throw off the shackles of an oppressive government, but they followed the accepted legal channels. The Declaration of Independence noted one by one all of the grievances the U.S. had towards Great Britain and then declared their intents, pledging life and property. I do not think that in any way the experience of our founding fathers relates to legalizing drugs so that some teenager will not be on the streets dealing illegally.
I do not feel sorry for the young man or his family. He made choices and now this author wants the consequences changed to be less punitive.
Your post makes it sound as if the drug enforcement officers are to blame. They are not. They are carrying out the law of the land. The criminal is always to blame. You and I may cringe at the results, but this young man had opportunities many have never had. He had access to schools, libraries, health care, food, and churches of his choice. He rejected good and chose evil. I do feel sorry for him, but only because he is a wasted life. Legalizing drugs will not and would not have rescued him.
You are probably right. Leave it to the powers that be to louse up a good money-making proposition by spending still more money. I should know better. :)
Yes, if one chooses to be a deviant, they have that right and privilege. But I balk at having the government being the supplier and distributer of hard core drugs.
However, we also have about 15,000 people a year killed by drunk drivers and over 100,000 alcohol-related deaths per year. So legalization takes one form of violence and replaces it with another.
IMO there is no good answer here - only bad and worse. Any approach that does not deal with the demand for this stuff is doomed for failure. I think the current drug war is crazy, but I'm not pretending that legalization would be a pancea.
But one thing we can do right away is to get the feds to decriminalize pot. Not legalize, but decriminalize. Pot is of an entire different nature than hard drugs such as meth, and IMO the feds should quit having such an issue with it and let the states try different approaches.
We've all known for quite some time how much you love your pot....
Hell yeah there's a culture around smoking cigarettes. My wife smoked for years . . . in many ways, her life revolved around them. She had to smoke first thing every day, she had to smoke whenever she got into a car, she always made sure she had enough cigarettes for the weekend, etc. There's a huge culture around smoking cigarettes---check out any smoking section outside of a place of business or a restaurant if you don't believe me.
I have to deal with a lot of gang stuff at my very rural high school here in SC. If pot and cocaine where legalized the Bloods, Crips, FolkNation, MS13, etc would dry up for lack of funds and a lack of a need to protect turf. The people of south central LA would be much safer and the inner cities might see a renewal as the crime gangs melt away.
That's the only reasonable, yet theoretical, argument you have.But this piece didn't present that argument---not in my opinion. This piece presented the "let's make Eddie a productive member of society" argument.
Deviant means differing from the norm.
In every society since the people found substances that could change their mental state, it has unfortunately been the norm.
Haven't touched the stuff in years, jerk. Don't drink any more, either. However, I can look at the relative impact of alcohol and pot and say that alcohol causes far more social problems and violence than pot.
So tell me, can you come up with a better debating point than to false accuse others of being potheads?
I'm with you on that.
My comment was solely about the right to be a deviant. I also consider income redistribution as a violation of individual rights so we're probably on the same side on this one.
My desire is for a free society where one is free to be a deviant, though preferably not, provided they are willing to face the consequence of their lifestyle without society being forced to support them.
I do find it dangerous to abridge individual rights for the reason that some actions cost society monetarily. The problem to me is not that the actions cost society money, the problem is that society is "forced" to pay for it by government.
Demcriminalizing is not the same as normalizing. There are all kinds of "deviant" activities that are legal. I don't have a lot of respect for drug users, but I wish we wouldn't have to let a muderer, rapist, pedophile etc. out after a too short a sentence because the prisons are overcrowded with drug offenders. Personally, I would rather have a violent criminal in prison for longer than to have someone with a cargo container full of pot.
If you no longer use it, then why do you still support it?
Pot has been proven to lead to harder addictive behavior by those who use it. There is no magical quality to pot that exists, where if it were legal, it would keep users off harder substances. In fact, the opposite is true.
Because the federal ban is stupid and counterproductive and also is used to justify federal intervention in what should be state affairs.
Pot has been proven to lead to harder addictive behavior by those who use it.
In some cases. In most cases, it doesn't, as reflected in the large gap between the number of people who have tried pot and those who have tried hard drugs.
There is no magical quality to pot that exists, where if it were legal, it would keep users off harder substances. In fact, the opposite is true.
You can say that about cigarettes and booze as well. Doesn't mean they should be banned.
I know a lot of regular users of pot who hold down day jobs just fine.
My gut tells me the drug dealer will go back to his former life quickly, but I've been wrong before.
Darwin will be a bit busy for a while. But once all those bent on destroying themselves have done so, the rest of us will be MUCH better off...
But drug use is not normal now. If hard drugs are made legal and then distributed by the government, it would be a very short hop to the government then providing "safe havens" for the druggie to get his/her fix. This type of situation is already happening in Canada.
Someone shooting up heroin is no where near the "norm" of society, but it would be legal then and then become accepted behavior. At that point a deviant behavior has the potential to become mainstream and "normal."
You can't be serious.
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