Legalization, Liberty, and Incarceration

Unfortunately rational policy is anathema to the American electoral system. The upcoming opportunity for voters to approve the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010” might be a welcome exception to that rule. You can be sure that the prison guards union and most police departments will vehemently oppose it because it threatens their job security. We have too many serious social and economic problems in this state and nation to waste as much of our time and resources on this endless and apparently futile "war". Just because something is bad for you doesn't mean we have to make it illegal and arrest people for doing it or using it. If that were the case we'd all be criminals.

Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us.

Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation.

By its very nature, prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model - the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.

Many of us have now, finally, wised up to the fact that the best avenue towards realistically dealing with drug use and addiction is through proper regulation which is what we already do with alcohol & tobacco, clearly two of our most dangerous mood altering substances. But for those of you whose ignorant and irrational minds traverse a fantasy plane of existence, you will no doubt remain sorely upset with any type of solution that does not seem to lead to the absurd and unattainable utopia of a drug free society.

There is an irrefutable connection between drug prohibition and the crime, corruption, disease and death it causes. If you are not capable of understanding this connection then maybe you're using something far stronger than the rest of us. Anybody 'halfway bright', and who's not psychologically challenged, should be capable of understanding that it is not simply the demand for drugs that creates the mayhem, it is our refusal to allow legal businesses to meet that demand.

No amount of money, police powers, weaponry, diminution of rights and liberties, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safer, only an end to prohibition can do that. How much longer are you willing to foolishly risk your own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?

If you still support the kool aid mass suicide cult of prohibition, and erroneously believe that you can win a war without logic and practical solutions, then prepare yourself for even more death, corruption, terrorism, sickness, imprisonment, unemployment, foreclosed homes, and the complete loss of the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.

The only thing prohibition successfully does is prohibit regulation & taxation while turning even our schools and prisons into black markets for drugs. Regulation would mean the opposite!

Vote yes in November. Good event, great topic. BH

Good to hear that there are some individuals out there who are stepping away from the norm. The norm has gotten us where we are now, a new direction is needed.

Remember, America is the largest consumer of Illegal Narcotics in the World. We are a walking-Dead on dope society, but hey man....it's kool.

Charles

yes, seems to me there is a war on "certain drug" or on "certain subcultures" using drugs... but we are a drug crazed society, just by the amount of drugs we can get our hands on. I think there needs to just be more pre-emptive relational work done in our communities to offer other solutions, via a grass root network of relationships and communities. Much harder to do, much easier to pass laws and jail folks (though that is more expensive). We are a society lacking in wisdom as a whole....