Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Time to end Prohibition again.
The radio said 13 degrees. It's cold enough that the cats have left taking turns curling up on my lap, and have parked themselves on radiators. We're fortunate that we can afford to heat this 125 year old house, at least enough to keep us warm if we wear layers.
And the news is as cold as the weather: 533,000 jobs cut last month, over one and a quarter million in just the last three months. Take a look on how Yahoo! news titled that link - it's very telling. As I have written previously, I think we're in for a long haul, something akin to a true depression rather than just a bad recession. All the elements are in place, many are already playing out just as they did during the Great Depression. And, as bad as it is, I think this is also a time of potential - potential to make some changes which would normally be resisted by entrenched interests: reregulation (intelligent reregulation) of the financial sector; revamping transportation to create an infrastructure supporting mass transit; introduction of single-payer health insurance; elimination of our insane War on (Some) Drugs.
75 years ago today, during the great Depression, Prohibition ended. It is time to do the same thing again, but with marijuana. Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it. Treat it like alcohol. Pardon or commute the sentences of everyone in prison for using it or selling small amounts. Quit funding para-military squads in local police departments in the name of "stopping drugs". It's a waste of people and resources to fight this pointless war.
It's been well over 20 years since I last used pot. If it was legalized tomorrow, I'm not sure I'd ever use it again. I don't have a dog in this fight, from that perspective. But as someone who loves liberty, who hates to see government empowered through fear-mongering, who thinks that we will need all of our resources to deal with *real* problems rather than artificial ones, the time has come to end Prohibition again. And I hope that the new president will have the balls to do so.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to my blog and Daily Kos.)
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I wonder if alcohol (under
I wonder if alcohol (under prohibition) was subject to the same propaganda barrage that marijuana is today. I mean, one of the main reasons why marijuana will likely never be legalized is because there's such a strong association with "bad" in people's minds. Why? Could it have something to do with decades of PSAs telling us that? Something tells me that without the mass media back then like we have today, the campaign to demonize alcohol did reach the same level of entrenchment, which is why it didn't stick.
its good
very good article...
Medicinal Marijuana
I know an old pothead who recently had his house busted into by a swat team. The guy has a bunch of medical problems, so it would cost the taxpayers a fortune to keep him in prison. Maybe one silver lining of state budget crises is that more states will see the wisdom of at least legalizing medicinal marijuana. Its almost as good as full decriminalization, since people can find doctors who'll write a marijuana prescription for almost anything. The states could then tax the weed, and quit paying a fortune for imprisoning potheads.
these folks totally agree with you.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
Agreed, but why stop at
Agreed, but why stop at marijuana?
One step at a time.
I tend to agree. Not sure it would be politically viable, initially.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Cocaine and Heroin? Really?
I agree with Jim - marijuana is a big enough step on its own. But for sake of argument, you guys are suggesting you'd want drugs like cocaine and heroin legalized? I'd love to hear your arguments for this.
Like I said, I agree with Jim and I'm all for legalizing marijuana. But none of the best arguments you can make for marijuana - naturally occurring, medicinal and other uses, no more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes, no overdosing - none of these apply to cocaine or heroin.
So let me have it. :)
Rebuttal
Good responses so far...I'll address some of them.
"Why would they be different from the arguments for legalizing marijuana?"
I laid out the common reasons for marijuana because I don't feel cocaine/heroin benefit from those arguments at all. Neither are naturally occurring in the same sense as marijuana. The medicinal uses are not nearly as extent. They are EXTREMELY more addictive and dangerous than marijuana, and a single dose can get you addicted and/or killed.
Hedera, you bring up good points, but conservatives, and I'll agree with them here, would say you'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater by basically creating a society of drug anarchy just to cripple a few enemies that could be dealt with by other means.
Jim, you're right, people will do stupid things. That doesn't mean that we should just lift the safety restrictions off everything. I'm all for freedom, but the fact of the matter is that people are stupid and need to be protected from themselves. In my opinion that is part of a government's role. There has to be some measure of regulation in place for potentially harmful items - guns, alcohol, drugs, even chainsaws. The issue I see with cocaine/heroin is that because of their very nature, you can't really regulate these. What do you do, legalize a very specific kind of heroin/cocaine that is in a low dosage form and/or has some of its addictive properties removed? Can you even do that?
Again let me re-iterate; I'm am FOR the legalization of marijuana. I love the stuff :)! It's just that it would need to be done with certain restrictions/regulations in place like anything else.
Thanks for the replies - I'll check back later.
You really don’t see that prohibition is the problem, do you?
Brian E
Meaningless
So what?
So is tobacco. More so, actually
Pure fantasy
Only with illegal drugs where the dose is not regulated. Unlikely to happen by accident with legalized and controlled drugs. But thanks for restating the problems with prohibition.
Yes, because it worked so well with alcohol. And is working so well now with other drugs.
You really don’t see that prohibition is the problem, do you?
I don’t think anyone is saying don’t regulate. We are saying don’t push it underground.
You’re not making any sense.
True
At the moment one of the bigger problems is ODing on over the counter stuff. Or mixing your medications with alcohol (it says something that my high school health class felt it was necessary to explain why that's a stupid thing to do). Unfortunately overdosing on supposedly "safe" medications does cause death or other permanent afflictions, but because the drugs are completely unregulated kids assume they are "safe". Well, I suppose that's the fault of the health classes (what are they teaching these days?). So no, legalizing currently illegal drugs will do nothing to stop people from dying of them. On the other hand, it will stop people from dying in drug raids and from gang fights which are primarily fueled by drug dealers. It will also allow people to legitimately use drugs without being prosecuted for doing so. Like did you know there are Native American cultures in which some "illegal" drugs have an accepted use, but they aren't necessarily allowed to practice their religion if it involves illegal drugs.
Prohibition is the problem
Why would they be different from the arguments for legalizing marijuana?
Yes, really, all of it
First of all, as someone said in a recent newspaper article on the end of Prohibition, "You can't legislate morality." You just can't. The difference between marijuana and cocaine/heroin/etc. are matters of degree, not of kind.
Second, I think you could sell it with the right arguments. I've blogged on this a couple of times. Legalizing cocaine would (a) cut the financial knees out from under the FARC in Colombia, (b) eliminate a drug trade that is ravaging Mexico, and (c) remove Evo Morales' justification for saying that the U.S. is out to get him. Legalizing heroin and the opiates would cut the financial knees out from under Al Qaeda and the Taliban; wouldn't that be nice? The only reason the Bush administration hasn't tried this is that they actually believe their own propaganda on drugs.
Not to mention that the State of California might actually be able to spend more money on education than on prisons again, if we legalized all of it; and law enforcement could concentrate on people who commit really damaging crimes, murder and rape and burglary, instead of spending all their time on people with 3 ounces of something.
hedera
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Nature bats last.
Yeah, really.
Did you see my post yesterday? That sums it up for me.
People will do stupid things, if allowed. They do so now. With fireworks. With guns. With cars. With food. With chainsaws. Hell, *I've* done stupid things with all of the above. It is quite literally impossible to make the world safe, and would be counter-productive to try to do so. Yeah, sure, put some reasonable warnings and controls on the most dangerous stuff - stuff that can hurt a lot of people, for instance - but what an individual wants to do with their own life ought to be largely up to them. Powerful drugs are the same, far as I am concerned.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.