Re: Off Topic: The Insane War on Drugs

["Laura Walker" <LJW6626@worldnet.att.net>]

>Just legalize drugs and be done with it. These do-gooders need to just
leave people the hell alone to live their own lives, and quit trying to tell
everybody what they can eat, drink or inject. Let people be responsible for
themselves. Let parents be responsible for their children. Most of them are.

Drug suppliers and dealers are nothing more than capitalists creating a need
and filling it, period.
>
>LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH in the USA in 1996 (unless marked otherwise).
>
>According to the Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health
Statistics, and the Journal of American Medical Association (for adverse
drug reactions death numbers; April 14, 1998 issue of JAMA; 279: 1200-1205,
1998).
>                                   **********
>
>LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH in the USA in 1996:
>(unless year marked otherwise)
>Total deaths...........................................   2,322,265
>           ____________________________________________
>
>  1.  Heart Disease.......................................   733,834
>  2.  Cancer..............................................   544,278
>  3.  Stroke..............................................   160,431
>  4.  Adverse Drug Reactions (1994) from legal drugs at doses used for
>       prevention, diagnosis, or therapy....        106,000*
>        * (see table below)
>  5.  Pulmonary disease................................      106,146
>  6.  Accidents............................................   93,874
>  7.  Pneumonia/influenza...............................      82,579
>  8.  Diabetes.............................................   61,559
>  9.  HIV/AIDS............................................    32,665
> 10.  Suicide..............................................   30,862
> 11.  Liver disease........................................   25,135
> 14.  Homicide.............................................   20,738
>
>ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE.............................3,800 to 5,200
>(Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs.
>
Well, I guess this does pretty much say it all, doesn't it?  More people are
killed in car accidents each year than through illegal drug overdoses.

But, Greg, think of all those bureaucrats, consultants, advertisers and PR
people who'd be out of jobs if they didn't have the "drug problem" to fan
into flames!  ;-).

>I want to ask you this simple question:  Are illegal drugs difficult to
>obtain today?  And are illegal drugs more difficult to obtain now than
>they were when the War On Drugs commenced?  The answer is a resounding NO.

Well, this war on drugs came out of Ronald Reagan's smoke and mirrors show.
IMO, it's just more of the right-wing, Christian fundamentalist crap being
pushed, the way witchcraft was used as a weapon against strong,
independent-thinking women in the 17th century.  I'm not paranoid, but I've
my suspicions that at the bottom (or top) of the drug business are more than
a few corporate executives and probably a few white supremacists, neo-Nazi
types.
>
>
>Illegal drug dealing is a success only because it is illegal:  Did you
>ever consider that possibility?
>
>The very same people who support the WOD are the same geniuses who will
admit that Prohibition was a mistake, but that the WOD is not.  What's the
diff?  You ban something, and you open up a black market for it; and a
lucrative black market, at that.  You ban guns, and a black market will open
for them.  You ban aspirin, and a black market opens for aspirin.  What in
the hell is the matter with the minds of Americans?

I'm reminded of what abortions were like before abortion became legal...
Same principle, IMO.
>
>If you want to kill something, you'd better know from whence it derives
it's life, isn't that true?  And if something derives it's life from the
fact it has been branded as illegal, what is the next logical step?
>
>No!  You do not pull law-enforcers off the illegal drug dealers and let
>them have their way.  We all know that would be stupid.  What you do, is
you make the illegal drug business unprofitable.  You put these street
hustlers out of business.  And how do you do that?  You allow the legal
sales of these substances through licensed pharmacies at 15% over cost.

Greg!  I think we might actually have found an issue on which we agree!
Actually, this is an excellent way to legalize them.  In addition, it
ensures that, if people want to inject or snort heroin or cocaine, that it
will probably be pure and not cut with angel dust or other lethal poisons.
Mind you, I'm not of the opinion that drugs are GOOD for people to take --
I've had my years of experience (and recovery) from such substances, and am
damned glad to be alive today to have another go at life, but we'd probably
cut down on the gang-gun battles in urban areas, make it a "cleaner" habit,
and eliminate the profit motive and culture associated with
supplying/selling drugs.


>No advertising allowed.

Yup.  Too bad we can't do the same friggin thing for alcohol.  That's half
the problem -- the advertising that makes it "cool" to drink (you know, it's
sexy, sensual, powerful to drink...)
>
>And what is the outcome?  You have a society of people who consider illegal
drug use to be about as bright as legal cyanide use.
>
>Few people recognize the fact there are no "self-starters" in drug
>abuse.  Illegal dealers, motivated by a profit motive, get others to try
>their wares through free samples, often at social gatherings where
>alcohol dims judgment and where peer pressure completely wipes out the
influence of government sponsored programs like "Just Say No".  If the same
pigeon knows he can purchase purer substances from the local pharmacy, why
would he buy lesser quality substances from this predator at the party?
That's how you kill the illegal drug trade, my friends.

I do have to disagree with you on one point, here:  although peer pressure
might drop under your legalization scenario, there's still the problem of
the poor urban folk -- mostly young, mostly Black (although increasingly
Latino) -- who STILL won't have the $$ to buy it legally, so will probably
resort to robbery, murder to get it, especially if they're already hooked
into the habit, of either taking or the rush/thrill of selling/pandering it.
It's hard to eliminate the profit motive (and associated violence) in areas
like this, because $$ is the crucial factor (or lack of, as the case may
be).

Laura

>
>On Monday, February 22, 1999 1:40 PM, Laura Walker
>[SMTP:LJW6626@worldnet.att.net] wrote:
>> Margaret --
>>
>> I read that NYC was going to institute this law beginning in January; I
>> wondered, at the time, about how far we are moving to a police state.
> Given
>> some of the recent articles I've read (e.g., cops in Florida are adding
>> sophisticated "James Bond" like technology to their state patrol cars to
>> apprehend automobiles and drivers suspected of running drug rings).
>> Apparently, drug thugs are using this new tech-nology to alert/signal
>their
>> dealers on the highway, in order to transfer the product, so cops are
>> stepping up their efforts in this regard.
>>
>> I've also read and heard about new driver's license laws (D.C. for one)
>that
>> require every person who must take the written and driver's exam to
>answer
>> specific questions about a) their previous history of mental health
>(e.g.,
>> do they take antidepressants or other such drugs), and b) questions about
>> former problems with alcohol and/or drugs.  That people just go along
>with
>> this -- either lying or answering without questioning -- boggles the
>mind!
>>
>> I said to a friend the other day that the biggest challenge we are facing
>> well into the next century is the entire magilla of privacy.  Every-time
>I
>> turn around, there are new technologies being developed (e.g., the
>cop/drug
>> thugs "Bond" cars) that have the potential for such abuse by the
>> companies/agencies developing and using it, that it's truly Orwellian  in
>> nature.
>>
>> My feeling is that what we read and hear about is simply the tip of a
>VERY
>> BIG iceberg.  My guess is that corporations and government agencies have
>> been involved in developing such technology for years (witness the CIA's
>> covert use of national driver's license registration programs).
>>
>> I hope to spend more time on some of these issues soon, especially since
>> they just keep cropping up -- like bushels of bad apples...
>>
>> Laura
>