dagblog - Comments for "Legalize Drugs, Gambling and Prostitution"

Raw Story has 'The Wire's'

we are stardust — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:49:17 +0000

In reply to Legalize Drugs, Gambling and Prostitution

Raw Story has 'The Wire's' David Simon telling Howard Sprague Eric Holder that they'll do another season of the show as Holder had begged them "if Holder ends the drug war". LOL!

I never even saw this blog,

we are stardust — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:35:15 +0000

In reply to Legalize Drugs, Gambling and Prostitution

I never even saw this blog, Destor; maybe it didn't make it into the center column? You should seriously take it up with Genghis; he may be hinting at your need to increase the bakshhesh you pay him.

I'm not confident enough that I know the differences between legalization and decriminalization, and I'm too lazy to google. But at the very least drugs should be decriminalized, IMO. It's often pointed out that we fund both sides of the drub war simultaneously, meaning equal amounts are spent by Americans to purchase them as are spent futilely battling them. Pretty silly. And The War has sadly become big business, and not just within the Prison-Industrial Complex and the war on minorities. This article breaks it down, and it's pretty sick reading.

There are likely facts and some science, good or bad, different 'studies' out there to dispute this, but I think people take drugs, both legal and prescription, to change how they feel. Recreational drugs are short-term; maybe you want a bit of the giggles or temporary freedom from pain from ganja, the intense brain-activity and feeling you're smarter of more productive from coke, or the nihilism of heroin (meth is one I know little about, and maybe it's scary as hell, but Reefer Madness told us that about pot at one time). I do know that no matter ow many studies prove that it is not a 'gateway drug', the government still calls it one.

I have been a believer in decriminalization for health reasons, but also because it would end the violence: too many innocents are being killed over it, and also because it would end the high profits associated with the risk. And it would seriously reduce the numbers of kids and others who are drug-runners in the poorest inner-city areas. Too many kids quit school to make some of those fees from dealers who don't give a shit about the kids' lives or educations or opportunities for some other work they might love.

Just last year this administration said, like Clinton, that the focus should change from interdiction and prosecution to enlightned health issues, but it spent 2/3 of its $15 budget on law enforcement, etc. And now its DoJ seems poised to bust people for pot in states (16) that have passed medical marijuana okays. Crazy.

So I wonder if the use of the nihilistic drugs is related to blotting out feelings and awareness to some great degree, how much better the trillions spent over 40 years in the War on Drugs might have been spent to make people's lives better may have made a difference. And how much less violence there would be in Mexico if their economy weren't so hugely based on drugs Americans want. Or poppies in Afghanistan, for that matter.

Anyway.

But would it be produced

What's interesting, Destor,

Peter Schwartz — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:22:04 +0000

In reply to Legalize Drugs, Gambling and Prostitution

What's interesting, Destor, is how some of your blogs draw huge responses and then this one draws ...none. Why?

Anyway...

Though I'm economically compassionate, I seek to maximize personal social freedoms.

I don't think this is a contrast as you indicate rhetorically. You are compassionate BOTH fiscally and socially, I would say.

Now, have I contributed anything here? No. This is one area where every opinion I formulate is contradicted by another opinion.

I think, ultimately, undergirding a libertarian view of, say, drugs is the ASSUMPTION that given the legalization of, say, heroin a DECREASE in heroin use and addiction will ensue. And this is based on some evidence, the reliability of which is unclear to me.

But what if the opposite were true? What if legalization led to an increase in heroin use and therefore addiction. Or meth. Ever see what meth users look like after a while? Legalizing meth won't change that. Do I want to be walking around with a whole bunch of meth users? I dunno.

Does smoking--already legalized--have only a minor social harm? What of the cost of cancer treatment? Forget smoking. What of all those cancer-causing substances in food and plastics and cell phones. Do I end up paying for your cell phone use? Maybe.

I think ultimately, if you take a libertian-ish view toward personal actions, you have to simultaneously accept the view that you're your brother's keeper and will take care of him once all of his non-harmful-to-others actions lead to major medical problems and being strung out in a variety of ways. Or, I guess you could just step over him on the sidewalk on your way to work.

Anyway, just noodling and asking questions.