Post by seattle420 on Aug 2, 2006 18:46:29 GMT -5
Drugs are here to stay and it's time we recognized that. The time has
come to abandon the concept of a "drug-free society." We need to focus on
learning to live with drugs in such a way that they do the least possible
harm.
Prohibition is no way to run a drug policy. We learned that with
alcohol during the first third of this century.
America's indiscriminate drug prohibition is responsible for too much
crime, disease and death to qualify as a sensible policy. These are not
problems that are merely tangential to the war on drugs. These are problems
caused, or made substantially worse, by the war on drugs.
After hundreds of billions of dollars spent trying to stop the supply
and demand for drugs, after the breakup of thousand of families because of
the arrest of a nonviolent drug offender, after eight decades of failure, we
have to wonder what its purposes really are.
If its purpose is to create one of the highest crime rates in the world
- and thus provide permanent fodder for demagogues who deny its purpose is
the repeal of the Bill of Rights, victory is well in sight.
If its purpose is to transfer individual freedom to the central
government, it is carrying that off as well as any of our real wars did.
If its purpose is to destroy our inner cities by making them war zones,
triumph is near.
come to abandon the concept of a "drug-free society." We need to focus on
learning to live with drugs in such a way that they do the least possible
harm.
Prohibition is no way to run a drug policy. We learned that with
alcohol during the first third of this century.
America's indiscriminate drug prohibition is responsible for too much
crime, disease and death to qualify as a sensible policy. These are not
problems that are merely tangential to the war on drugs. These are problems
caused, or made substantially worse, by the war on drugs.
After hundreds of billions of dollars spent trying to stop the supply
and demand for drugs, after the breakup of thousand of families because of
the arrest of a nonviolent drug offender, after eight decades of failure, we
have to wonder what its purposes really are.
If its purpose is to create one of the highest crime rates in the world
- and thus provide permanent fodder for demagogues who deny its purpose is
the repeal of the Bill of Rights, victory is well in sight.
If its purpose is to transfer individual freedom to the central
government, it is carrying that off as well as any of our real wars did.
If its purpose is to destroy our inner cities by making them war zones,
triumph is near.
