Big Drug War News (Congressman Dan Burton on the drug war)

The Agitator ^ | 17 December 2002 | Radley Balko

[MileHi]

HA! Now PROVE that me smoking crack doesn't violate my neighbor's rights. If you can do that, then you can also prove that me holding a loaded gun at my neighbor whilst standing on my property does not violate their right either.

Damn, you were doing ok up until then.

[Texaggie79]

Sorry to let you down :(

[Kerberos]

"We must turn America into one giant prison to get rid of the scourge of drugs! "

Only one problem with that. The drug warriors can't even keep drugs out of prison.

[orfisher]

>>It's much easier to turn down that fix when you must venture to some back alley, afraid for you life, spend more money, and risk getting a fake product, as opposed to walking into CVS pharmacy and grabbing one of the shelf.>......A true addict will never turn down a fix. That's why it's important to make it easier. By changing the environement where they can "get their medicine", there is a greater opportunity to change the person and perhaps help them be more productive. Remember, for every drunk you see curled up in a pool of vomit on the street, there is another functionl alcoholic pulling down a paycheck every day.

[Kerberos]

"Trust me, when your profit margins are in the billions, you have quite a bit of sway with the government. "

You got that right, as any of the drug cartels will tell you.

[MileHi]

I could take super small amout of cocaine, or the tiniest whiff of an 8ball...

An "8 ball" is a quantity of cocaine. You kind of sound like my dad telling me about "goofballs" and "reefer" when I was a kid. Little experience but loads of hysteria about the unfamiliar.

[MileHi]

Nice try, Tex. Actually, I was trying to give you a break. But since you insist, you posted:

Yes. The states are the will of the people.

So you agree with the South? If the "will of the people" champions slavery, so be it so long as the Fed stays out of it?

That covers your 2 wolves and a sheep idea of democracy.

Though you have been asked, you fail to explain how your neighbor snorting a line violates your rights. Can you? Lets assume he runs his 6 figure buisness all week, but does that line while he watches football on Sunday, what right of yours is violated?

BTW, tell me why my post to your commrade has no merit. How is the mindset different?

[Texaggie79]

D00d, I know what an 8ball is. The meaning was that I would just sniff in the general area of the 8ball of coke.

[Texaggie79]

Though you have been asked, you fail to explain how your neighbor snorting a line violates your rights. Can you?

If I choose to live in a community free from the risk of cocaine users, and my community fully accepts that standard, then you violate my right by endangering me and mine beyond that which my community (the same community in which you CHOOSE to live) has allowed.

We can expand the community all the way up to the state scale.

BTW, tell me why my post to your commrade has no merit. How is the mindset different?

Because, guns, being a KNOWN threat, are guaranteed by the USC to all citizens. Therefore, the need for guns outweighs the danger imposed by having them.

[MileHi]

D00d, I know what an 8ball is.

DOOOD, I am worried that you may be being honest here.

Remember, you posted:

I could take super small amout of cocaine, or the tiniest whiff of an 8ball...

Sounds like a distiction, one or the other.

Damn, Tex, you started off OK. You went south as the thread wore on. Beam or Jack?

[MileHi]

If I choose to live in a community free from the risk of cocaine users,

WHAT RISKS, damn it. Answer the question in the context of my post

and my community fully accepts that standard, then you violate my right

Please, what "right"

by endangering me and mine beyond that which my community (the same community in which you CHOOSE to live) has allowed.

Substitute "minority" and then tell me why that is acceptable.

Your "two wolves and a sheep" idea of democracy (really, we are a Republic, but I don't want to go too fast for you) is only good as long as you are a wolf.

[Texaggie79]

OMG, are we actually debating this?

I could take super small amout of cocaine, or the tiniest whiff of an 8ball and probably do the same. We are talking practicality here. If legalized, cocaine could not be used as casually and harmlessly as alcohol. Same for any hard drug.

Check out the second sentence. I am only addressing cocaine here. Therefore, it couldn't have been a distinction.

[Texaggie79]

Substitute "minority" and then tell me why that is acceptable.

Because if you disagree, you are free to move your milehi hiney to another state.

[MileHi]

Because if you disagree, you are free to move your milehi hiney to another state.

Thank you, massa. Could I be a whole person there?

If you addressed any of my points, I could perhaps respectfully disagree. You don't, and I conclude that is because even you realise how lame your assertions are.

Um, your rights, you still failed to elaborate. But I gather you fancy yourself a wolf. Good thing you don't live close by, I consider predators a threat.

[Texaggie79]

"Every society has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and to say to all individuals, that if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these principles and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease." --Thomas Jefferson to William H. Crawford, 1816. ME 15:28

[Wolfie]

Again?

From: Congressional Family Members Escape Mandatory Sentences

In January 1994, Dan Burton Jr., the son of U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), was arrested in Louisiana for transporting nearly eight pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his car. Rep.Burton is the chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Six months later, Burton was arrested again, this time at his Indianapolis apartment, where police found thirty marijuana plants and a shotgun with ammunition. Federal prosecutors declined to prosecute the case; Indiana prosecutors recommended dismissal of the charges against Burton; and a Louisiana judge sentenced him to community service (Associated Press, "Congressman's Son Arrested With 7 Pounds of Marijuana," Gary Post-Tribune, January 14, 1994, p. B5; Eric Schlosser, "More Reefer Madness," Atlantic Monthly, April 1997, pp. 90-102).

[kidd]

Listen, moron.

Gun ownership is a right.

Drug usage is not.

Go screw. Loser.

[sneakypete]

Federal prosecutors declined to prosecute the case; Indiana prosecutors recommended dismissal of the charges against Burton; and a Louisiana judge sentenced him to community service (Associated Press, "Congressman's Son Arrested With 7 Pounds of Marijuana,"

This is precisely the reason so much of this crap gets passed. It doesn't apply to the people who make it law. Ya just gotta wonder when was the last time a feral prosecutor refused to prosecute someobody busted with 7 lbs of pot,and didn't confiscate all their property and money.

[Wolfie]

And don't forget, Dan Burton is the man who introduced legislation to allow the death penalty for drug dealers. If his son had been convicted, the mandatory minimum for his crimes was 8 years in Federal Prison. I suggest that Burton would have changed his tune back then if his son hadn't gotten off light (I mean come on, the Feds refused to prosecute, and the locals wanted the charges dropped? Puh-leeze).