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Thread: legalize what?

  1. #1

    legalize what?

    the following is a response i wrote to an opinion piece in the wall street journal. i thought i'd share it as i'm telling three former latin american presidents to go f*ck themselves. if anything happens to me, you know who did it. lol
    In response to the February 23, 2009 WSJ opinion piece titled ‘The war on drugs is a failure’, I must state that the opinions of messrs. Cardoso, Gaviria, and Zedillo leave me little wonder why the state of Latin America is as it is. Point for point, their plan to create a ‘paradigm shift’ on drug policy would utterly fail in its prima facia goal, leading to a larger drug class and more organized crime. First and foremost, the corruption of the judiciary and political systems is due, not to drugs but, to a lack of character in the officials. If not corrupt due to drugs, they would be corrupt for another reason. Personal gain is the motivation, drugs are the easy conveyance.

    How narcotics policies are rooted in ‘prejudices and fears’ is beyond me. Drug laws are enacted to prevent societal collapse. Illegal drugs warp the mind, waste the youth, and create emotional and mental ills for a lifetime. If a youth can be prevented from partaking of these illicit substances until a maturity of the mind occurs, so much the better.

    Instead of ‘eradication and interdiction’, these men would have us present an educational program to describe the horrors of drug use to children. Someone please tell me how 30 second television ads, former users stories, or a speech given at a middle school could possibly be more compelling than the romanticization and continuous peer pressure exerted upon an individual to try it ‘just once’.

    Perhaps the fact should be brought to Messrs Cardoso, Gaviria, and Zedillo attention that drug use, and other behaviors such as theft, are such an intrinsic part of some group/gang cultures that any outside influence to stem their partaking of illegal drugs would be met with complete and immovable resistance. The use of drugs is an unfortunate symptom of a much larger problem, not the problem per se. No drug addict got their start happily sitting at the family kitchen table practicing their spelling words with Mom, Dad or sis. The drug user has a reality to escape, an inner fear seemingly unconfrontable, an emotional impediment for which the drugs provide the, oh so temporary, refuge.

    The comparison of the proposed anti-marijuana campaigns to the existent anti-tobacco smoking campaigns is laughable. Would we have to legalize the substance to eliminate it? Just as trafficking in (simply enough) lower taxed cigarettes is gaining popularity where they are highly taxed, so too would the trafficking and corruption start when the ‘no pot smoking’ campaigns would begin. Back to square one.

    The most appalling aspect of the messrs argument is that legalization of any of these substances would immediately create a legal trade in that substance and not surprisingly the beneficiaries of that trade would be Mexico, Brazil, and Columbia among others. Imagine unfettered, even encouraged, plantations of cannabis and coca across wide swaths of Latin America. Not only would more drugs find its way north but, with such an ample supply enough to addict Latin America too. I believe most businesses would gladly trade hard fought, high value individual sales for immense volume, lower unit price sales any day….so too would drug lords. When this happens the corruption will be complete.

    To me, the best analogy is the recent Pakistani truce with the Taliban. Maybe the war on drugs isn’t perfect but it’s the only game in town.

    Russ Robins

    Lynnfield, MA

  2. #2

    Re: legalize what?

    AMEN! I could not have said it any better. Dealing with addicts every night I can honestly say that the BS line of "its a victimless crime" is just that, BS. Every night it's another crackhead stealing someone elses property to feed their habit. What could possibly be accomplished by legalization? Nothing. Even if the substance is legal it still would not be free. Look at the heroin epidemic. Millions of heroin users are now methadone users. Methadone is now a street drug as well. Success in action. I will not even start on Methamphetamine. I may have to stay objective and politically correct at work but I can say openly here that losers are losers, legal or not, voted for or not.

    Russ thanks for the input! It's great to hear from someone who is more than just a sheep following the herd.
    People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.


    Dan B
    1963 34DC
    Last Year's Rent

  3. #3

    Re: legalize what?

    You guys are clueless. Weed doesn't harm anybody--it's safer than alchol and doesn't cause violence. Legalize it and tax it.

    Prohibition is STUPID. It took until the 1990's to finally bring down some of the large crime organizations that got all their power during alcohol prohibition. Conveniently for them, they just transferred over to weed.

    Don't tell people what they can/can't put in their body.

    Disclosure: I never have smoked pot.

  4. #4

    Re: legalize what?

    we are clueless? you sound like you've used to much of that stuff...

    no violence, yeah maybe but if affects judgment, like alcohol.

    dont' tell you what to put in your body? heck, you want to fry your own brain cells, be my guest... but since most poeple who do drugs or drink end up on the road, on the water or on a sidewalk... society has a right to decide what you can use...

    especially since it ends up affecting health care cost and insurance. are you saying that there should be no effort to curb smoking because nobody should tell you what you can do with your body?

    That is stupid.
    Pascal
    Miami, FL
    1970 53 MY #325 Cummins 6CTAs
    2014 26' gaff rigged sloop
    2007 Sandbarhopper 13
    12' Westphal Cat boat

  5. #5

    Re: legalize what?

    Really Krush? I guess we were messed up in the 1960's when we referred to joints as stupid sticks because of how the kids that smoked them acted?

  6. Re: legalize what?

    Ah how the new generation has all the answers...

    kinda like we thought
    Or our parents thought
    Or our grand parents thought..

    Difference now is, the new generation has access to all the facts thanks to the internet

    Am guessing Krush has watched too much "Mr Rogers" while growing up.
    Charlie Freeman
    "No Dial Tone"
    1973 43' DCMY
    Fernandina Beach, Fl
    www.yachtmoves.com

  7. #7

    Re: legalize what?

    I going to chime in with Krush on this; although I'm not going to say it is more or less harmful than alcohol, or whethere or not I have first hand knowledge. Most things that have the ability to DO something, can have positive or negative effects. Like change and luck, there is good and bad.

    IMO, the war on drugs has been a disaster and has empowered very bad and ruthless people and has done much to clog and corrupt the legal system. What percentage of the people we supporting in jail are there on drug charges? Are we using our resourses wisely? As I look out my window at the US Post Office under construction, I can comfortably say that government is a very inefficient way to get things done.

    Our criminal justice system should zealously guard the rights of citizens; however the exclusionary rule for example, has freed people it shouldn't. To my recollection it came into being at a time when people were being incarcerated for simple possession of pot, and good people and the sons and daughters of good people needed an escape hatch. Unpopular laws engender corrupted enforcement.

    There are substances around that no one should ingest. Crack and meth to name just two. But how does society EFFECTIVELY discourage the use/abuse of harmful substances, and at what cost? One anectodatl example, random drug tests by local industries here prompted many weekend pot smokers to swith to cocaine since pot stays in your blood system a lot longer and was less likely to cost them their jobs.

    Cholesterol is a killer, I'm told, but I do not want society regulating my use/abuse of steak, bacon and butter etc. The only thing "green" about my Hatteras is an accent stripe. I dislike smoking, but have no desire to make it illegal for others.

    Some 2000 years ago it was said very well, to be more concerned about the timber in your own eye than the speck in someone else's. There are an abundance of people with nothing better to do than try to regulate the private acts of others, and empowering that urge is a danger to our individual ability to live and enjoy our respective lives.

    I suspect you share my concern about a goverment that is in the process of taking over private enterprise to DO SOMETHING to fix the economic problems it created. Are there perhaps similarities in, the War on poverty, War on Drugs, and an "economic stimulus program" that prints money to give to people (perhaps discouraging them from working) so they can buy things made in China, Columbia, or Mexico.

    Whether you personally think "drugs, sex, or rock and roll" should be regulated, try to consider without emotion the effects that enforcement of perhaps ill concieved legal sanctions has had on our society. I suggest we consider the relative effectiveness of genuine morality, respect for God and his individual creations vs legislation.

    Whew, I have a day job and a boat on the hill. I do not need this kind of distraction.

    Regards,
    Vincent

  8. #8

    Re: legalize what?

    The crooks are winning. Crooks are the reason we are where we are with the economy. Same goes for illegal substance trade, they are winning and turning our country into sht. Does pot hurt anyone more than alcohol, most likely not. Making it leagal will it boost corruption in the trade to avoid tax, possibly but I will say that it is easier to grow pot on your own than make corn whisky. Dont you think most would just grow their own? You could argue that growing your own is "green".

    I will bet that if made legal that it would not cause many more to use it than already do, just cheeper for them to get it. This in turn will allow them to have more money to purchase chinese goods and will help stimulate the chinese economy.

  9. #9

    Re: legalize what?

    Let's start a poll...

  10. #10

    Re: legalize what?

    This is a subject that comes up on the dive boat once in a while. I have quite a few law enforcement types on the boat and they agree with my feelings. Legalize pot, tax it, sell it like cigaretes or booze. It'll take the illeagal profit out of it and free the cops to chase the truely bad drugs out there. As a child of the 60's we smoked it put it in brownies. I haven't done it in years especially with being on a radom drug test. I feel it's no worse then booze and cigarettes, and like helmets on motorcycles and seat belts, I object to the goverment getting in my face over issues I feel I should decide. Well have at it. Bill
    Bill Allen 1973 43 dc
    Brielle N.J.

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