Subject: Legalize Drugs, save our country.
I am going to say here what must be said in my own words. Although others
have said it better, more eloquently, and maybe more convincingly, I am
faced with choosing only one person's argument for drug legalization. There
are so many good arguments for it, and not a single valid argument for the
oppressive laws currently in place. Besides, you probably would not put a
great deal of faith in what just I say. Read alt.drugs and alt.hemp. ftp to
hemp.uwec.edu:/pub/drugs/war-on-drugs and read some, or all, of the files
there. Make an informed opinion. Don't just blindly sit back and believe
everything you hear from the people with the large advertising budgets.
Marijuana is harmless. Countless studies have proven that, in addition to
THOUSANDS of years of experience. Not one valid study has shown it to cause
any health problems.
Even if it did, do we need the government telling us what we should and
should not be doing, when it does not hurt anyone but ourselves?
Which brings me to a good point. I lied, here's something that's not mine:
End Drug Prohibition!
1) I own my body, you own your body, and we should be able to put anything
we want into them. Whether it is a hot dog, cocaine, or sand is no ones
business.
2) If we took the money we are spending on prisons, district attorneys,
courts, and police, and spent it on treating drugs as a medical problem
to the extent that it is a medical problem, our crime rate would
probably be cut in half, and we could actually fire many cops. Our
society would also save a fortune.
RAND Corporation, the conservative cold war think tank, recently
released a study showing that drug treatment is 22 times as effective as
interdiction in stemming the flow of drugs.
3) I want our police and prison resources used to get REAL predators off
the street (i.e., rapists, murderers, molesters, con artists). If we
were not concentrating on filling up our prisons with drug offenders, we
would capture FAR MORE of the real predators, and keep them in prison
FAR LONGER.
4) If drug contracts could be enforced in a court of law (for drugs that
are currently illegal), violence would decrease sharply. The only way to
enforce an illegal drug contract is through intimidation and violence.
5) The best way to stop people from dealing drugs in their neighborhoods is
to TAKE THE PROFIT OUT OF IT. How do we do this??? By decriminalizing it
and allowing free market forces to be unleashed under reasonable
regulation, ensuring quality, clean needles, etc. There is NO WAY that a
gang punk could compete with a pharmaceutical company in price,
distribution, or quality.
I would rather see profits go to a pharmaceutical company than to drug
cartels and other forms of organized crime. Legalization would BUST the
drug cartels just as surely as I am sitting here typing.
We would also be taxing the drug profits of the pharmaceutical
companies.
As long as there are TREMENDOUS PROFITS to be made in dealing drugs,
there will always be people to come in and fill the vacuum of someone
murdered or arrested for dealing drugs. The endless cat and mouse game
of cops and robbers that the government has set up with respect to drugs
only results in drug profits being kept high.
FBI and DEA personnel are not bright enough to comprehend the above
arguments. Nor are most members of congress. There is a huge investment
in the status quo. However, I am optimistic. If the Soviet Union can
collapse, so can our stupid and bankrupt policies.
