Posted on 07/25/2002 11:44:55 AM PDT by logician2u
There is no correlation between the "socialist medical system" and "the Dutch experiment with marijuana" besides the fact that they are ideas adopted by the Dutch.
Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes and is still illegal due to dirty politics and hysteria created by the soccer moms who think they are protecting their children from the devil.
These moms are the same people who smoked more marijuana in high school and college than the entire country of Holland will ever be able to
Law-enforcement against marijuana causes more harm to society in terms of expenses to jail, prosecute and remove marijuana users from society, whose only so-called crime was to get caught with some weed
Seems like hypocrisy and denial about marijuana only seems to drive us into a deeper hole, which seems harder and harder to get out of
Yup. I'd have no problems with that at all.
Okay. I agree that I think it's stupid to try to stop hermits like Ted kaczinski from taking drugs.
The rest of us, however, have spouses, children, and neighbors. We drive cars, and we work.
Let's see. Friday I saw a druggie who has been picked up for speeding three times. She's off her meth, but still smokes pot to calm the jitters. She's not harming anyone, except her poor parents who support her. She doesn't work, of course. And one of these days she'll either kill herself or someone else. Pray for her.
I saw a guy who was also shaking, wanting his pain pills. He's had two car wrecks in the last year. Luckily he didn't kill anyone. After the last car wreck, I gave him pain pills and told his mom to put him to bed. Three days later, he was out of a week's worth of pain pills, and his mom spilled the beans that he was putting on an act and had gone out and got high with his friends. He doesn't work, of course. So he's "only" harming himself. And his mom. And his uncle (he wrecked his uncles' car).
This guy's girlfriend is hyperventillating all the time. She's only an occassional user, and trying to go to rehab to break the cycle of her life, after fleeing life with a druggie father, she started living and being abused by druggie boyfriends. Her mom has her kid until she grows up. She's not harming anyone, but her child, her mom.
That's Friday.
Now multiply this by five days a week, and tell me that these druggies harm only themselves.
Can anybody reasonably argue against the premise that illegal drugs have been a major factor in the dissolution of many minority communities and families?
Give it up! The war has been lost for 30 years and we can't seem to come to grips with it.
Keep your fingers crossed that it will air as scheduled.
That's one of the major points John Stossel will make in tonight's special -- one that should resonate with the families of those whose lives have been ruined because of the WOD.
Here is a preview of what will be on tonight's program:
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 12:11:56 -0700 From: John Stossel <johnstossel@abc.go.com> Subject: Is the 'War on Drugs' Worse Than the Drugs? To: Stossel Letter <johnstossel-l@alist0.starwave.com> Reply-to: John Stossel <johnstossel@abcnews.go.com> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-johnstossel-l-898228Y@alist0.starwave.com> ABC has given me a full hour Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET for a show on the drug war. I use the time to raise the question: Does the "War on Drugs" do more harm than the drugs? I think it does. We know the terrible things drug abuse does, but we rarely consider the terrible things drug prohibition does. The government declaring drugs illegal doesn't mean people can't get them. (We cannot even keep the drugs out of prisons -- how could we keep them out of America?) It only means people get drugs on the black market, where they pay more for them. This creates the nasty, unintended consequences of the drug war: l. It sucks children into the underworld. Why should a kid from a poor neighborhood work at McDonald's, when he can make 10 times the money selling drugs? Those who resist the temptation are heroic. The neighborhood role models, the people with the best cars and the best clothing, are drug dealers. Who commands respect in the neighborhood? Criminals! Had I grown up there, I bet I would have succumbed. We interview the kids. 2. It corrupts cops. How many cops turn down a bribe that would double their pay? We'll show video of a police officer taking the money. 3. It corrupts entire countries. We go to Colombia, which now produces most of America's heroin and cocaine. I don't recommend vacationing there. Colombia is now the world leader in kidnappings. Murder is common. There have already been 15 attempts on the life of Colombia's next president; he's decided to stay in Europe until his inauguration next month. Drug money trumps law. 4. It creates crime. Films like "Reefer Madness" (we'll show you a clip) suggested people take drugs and go crazy. In reality, people rarely get violent because they're high on drugs. Most drugs users get high privately, live a reasonably normal life, and eventually quit. The violence we associate with drugs happens because warring dealers arm themselves to protect their turf, and because addict steal to pay the high prices for drugs. Nicotine is about as addictive as cocaine or heroin, but few people rob 7-11s to get Marlboros or Budweiser. Drugs hurt people, but it's the law that causes most of the crime. Alcohol prohibition gave rise to criminals like Al Capone; drug prohibition is making criminals even richer. The State Department says that's how Osama bin Laden got some of his money. So what should be done? I talk to a Bronx priest who argues that life would be better if drugs were legal. "Legal means control," says Father Joseph Kane. "Illegal means the bad guys have control." California Judge James Gray agrees. "Hold people accountable for what they do, not for what they put into their bodies," he says. The head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, calls these arguments "giving in." I go to Europe to look at the "Dutch experiment" which separated "hard" and "soft" drugs by legalizing the sale of marijuana in licensed "coffee shops." The menus offer marijuana joints, baggies, teas and chocolates. Despite legalization, fewer Dutch teens use marijuana than American teens. Today police in most of Europe ignore marijuana use. In Spain, Italy and Luxembourg, they've decriminalized most drug use, and in Portugal recently, all drug use. Switzerland and a few other countries now prescribe heroin to some addicts. I visit a Rotterdam priest who allows addicts to smoke and inject heroin in "user rooms" in the church basement. Rotterdam's local police superintendent says the problem is "bigger" when the police interfere. LEGAL drugs sounds frightening -- but the DRUG WAR is frightening too. Legal drugs might lead more Americans to experiment, but would it create a health crisis? I suspect use would go up, and then down, as it did with crack. People aren't endlessly foolish. In any case, don't we own our own bodies? Whose decision is it to control what we put in our own bodies? Ours? Or the state's? --- For more on this and the all the latest news, go to http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/2020/index.html?cmp=EM1388
(Not on cable.)
We have been dealing with drunks since the beginning of time...we can deal with addicts in the same manner.
Question: how many people do you personally know that would run out and do heroin or cocaine if it were legalized tomorrow?......I don't know anybody either.
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