The war on drugs is a failure
When I read this story
The real outrage is the draconian drug laws in this country rather than the hypocrisy of this guy in Florida. Is this really the kind of offense that somebody should be locked up? I'm sure he will not see any jail time because of his connections but many others will for something similar.
For the last 40 Years the strategy was to lock up everyone involved in drugs and it has not worked.
I don't know what the solution to the problem is. Maybe there isn't one.
Gort-
ReplyDeleteI'm 60 yrs old. Graduated HS in 1971 & went into the service. Got introduced to pot, hash, heroin & pills from people from other parts of the country. Came home on leave and my friends were trying pot & "beans" that came from the diet docs. I did not find pot to be any worse then alcohol- In fact people were more passive as pot heads where people that were drunk were more prone to violence. I would do pot now if it wasn't illegal. Coke, speed (Meth) & heroin are different animals that need to be dealt with as issues but pot is a lesser problem then alcohol in my view.....
We should make drugs legal and tax it...and tax it some more...and raise the taxes...and raise it some more...then black market takes over again and no one buys legal drugs.
ReplyDeleteAnon: 7:23:
ReplyDeleteTheory has some holes in it. Cigarettes are over taxed by over 100% and there is no black market, at least not to major criminal proportion.
Same w/alcohol.
There is no legitimate medical, sociological or scientific reason for marijuana to be illegal. The casualties of the war on drugs can be found in prison cells across America, where non-violent marijuana incidents land innocent people behind bars in prisons that make money off of each prisoner they take in; and it is no coincidence that the private prison industry is the leading lobbyist against any marijuana law reform effort.
ReplyDeleteIt does not make you dysfunctional. It does not kill brain cells. In fact, I'm smoking marijuana as I type this and - guess what - haven't gone crazy yet, nor have I lost my mental or cogitative faculties. I go to work every day, so I'm not "lazy", and I graduated Summa from university with my Bachelor's in economics, so (and I do not wish to brag, but) I am not what what one might describe as "dumb", either. So, unless I'm an anomaly in this situation, I'm living proof that all of the information people have been fed about marijuana from both public and private interest groups, who coincidentally have a vested financial interest in its continued illegality, is obviously and incontrovertibly false.
Is anyone truly surprised that groups like the pharmaceutical lobby, for instance, are dead set and opposed to marijuana legalization on any level? After all, they'd lose many customers if patients were able to grow a free plant on their own that would do the same (if not better) job at treating their ailments with few or zero side effects than their brand name, side effect laden pill would at $70+ per refill.
The war on drugs is an abject failure, marijuana in particular. The country needs to follow the lead of Colorado and Washington and legalize its use. Though since I do not live in either of those states, even though I am doing nothing wrong, am in the privacy of my own home, am enjoying myself and harming absolutely no one, on the only afternoon off that I have this week, I am a criminal, according to Pennsylvania law.
But am I really? You be the judge.