End the Drug war

1 in 32 adults in the US is in prison. That is not a sustainable number. The stigma with being a convicted felon follows you for life. You are radioactive as far as employers are concerned. Your credit rating is shot and that's just the good part.

A great many of these people are felons for the possession, transport and sale of illegal drugs. Many of those same people are non-violent users. They get wrapped up as part of a drug bust and people with petty criminal records (shoplifting, auto theft) are nailed by the three strikes rule which sends you down for a long time.

Look at this picture:



Does this make any sense whatsoever to you?

I found that picture here.

The post goes on to detail the perfidity and abuse heaped upon the citizens of North Carolina in the name of drug prevention. Some of you reading this are likely shaking your head saying that the people who's homes were raided were probably guilty. Not so. Living in a poor neighborhood, or even a drug infested one, doesn't mean the cops get to sweep an entire neighborhood with house to house raids. Some of the people were probably doing things that were illegal and some of them may be hardened felons but that doesn't mean anything to me. The increased militarization and over use of no knock raids is very hazardous to liberty and democracy.

Drugs are a poison and a scourge!

Maybe. Maybe they are because we've made them so. How many of you are not doing drugs only because its against the law and you don't want to get in trouble? OK, maybe DonViti but the rest of you, I didn't think so. You don't do drugs because you have no interest in it. Neither do I. I never have and never will. I don't even like taking strong pain meds that the doctor proscribes for me. (I injured my back in a car accident and took one of the recommended two pill proscribed for pain and I felt like I was in the song Comfortably Numb. No thank you.

Casual use is a gateway to hard drugs and addiction!

Could be. I've been pounded with the Marijuanna is a gateway drug since Nancy Reagan was in the White House. Nobody ever tells you that alcohol is the gateway to marijuanna though. That is, after all, legal so there's no possible connection there. Right.

Bottom line: education is going to keep some people away from drugs. Some others will be casual users and still others will be addicts, junkies and criminals. Some of them can be rehabilitated. Others cannot. No amount of enforcement and punishment changes the numbers. Over ten years of studies and the number of users is flat.

Legalize it, tax it, control it. Bring it out into the open where we can keep an eye on it. When I was in high school, I knew where to get mj, crack, coke and steroids but I couldn't get beer. What does that tell you?

If we can't bring ourselves to legalize it, decriminalize if for personal use. England did a few years ago and they didn't fall apart at the seams. I am required, by law, to mention Amsterdam any time the topic of drug legalization comes up. I've been there. Didn't take any drugs nor did I avail myself of the scantily clad ladies in the doors with the red lights on over them. We have actual crime we should be focusing on. The problem with the drug war is that it is self financing. Unless or until the seizure laws are repealed this is not going anywhere.

Comments

The Last Ephor said…
Well, what we're doing now clearly isn't working.

Plus, if we legalize weed, stoners will finally shut the hell up. They'd have nothing to talk about.

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