[cyclotic]

legalize heroin? are you insane?

[Robert DeLong]

It used to be legal, but one thing is certain, the war on drugs is not being won. The war on drugs has been successful on eroding freedoms though. I do not advocate legalization, but I do think we need to try something different for sure.

Prior to 1890, laws concerning opiates were strictly imposed on a local city or state-by-state basis. One of the first was in San Francisco in 1875 where it became illegal to smoke opium only in opium dens. It did not ban the sale, import or use otherwise. In the next 25 years different states enacted opium laws ranging from outlawing opium dens altogether to making possession of opium, morphine and heroin without a physician’s prescription illegal.

The first Congressional Act took place in 1890 that levied taxes on morphine and opium. From that time on the Federal Government has had a series of laws and acts directly aimed at opiate use, abuse and control.

A History of Opiate Laws in the United States

[nathanbedford]

Are you insane?

I thought the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again in the expectation of getting a different result. You can wage for the next fifty years the war against drugs which you have waged for the last fifty years, but you will get the same result.

In 2066 perhaps you will be around, I will not, but you can tell the world how another half-century of creating a market, indeed, creating the world's biggest multilevel marketing scheme has worked. You can explain to the world how the war on drugs continues to your surprise. You can explain to the world why your government persists in creating a market, why your government persists in subsidizing the price in an inelastic commodity?

You can explain to those who will listen why you have seen their government, their police, their judges, their jailers, their border agents, their bankers, become ever more and more corrupt. While you're at it you might apologize for the bodies piling up from drive-bys and turf wars.

You can explain to them how insane I was back in 2016.