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I just finished reading a book entitled "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do". The book covers consensual crimes. I covers prostitution, drugs, adultery, suicide, etc.
It is an excellent book. The writer provided historical background on most issues, he event interpreted the Bible on the issue. That part may be a little controversial to some people but to me some of the points made sense, he covered different laws and how they were enacted, he made a good point on how the Constitution applies on these issues and he also covered how morality is the root of many of these laws. Morality being the result of religious views imposed on people.
I highly recommend this book.
He also covered how in many instances the economy does benefit by legalizing many of those behaviors. If protitution was legal women that decide to follow that profession would be better protected by the law and would protect them from diseases by having health laws requirements.
He covered heroin and made some good point on why it should also be legal.
He shows how many of the deaths due to drugs are not so much of the drug use itself but due to drug lords and the uncontrolled production of the drug in very unsanitary conditions.
Alcohol is a legal drug. By being legal it is a control substance that protects the customer from drinking it being unhealthy. People do not go to the pharmacy and by pure alcohol because they know it will kill them. The same principle applies to any other drug. When people use produced drugs under control circumstances, it is safer.
Also, drug addiction is not a addictive and as widespread as believed. It varies as to why someone may use it and become addicted. However, he presented case studies people used drugs at some time in their lives and once situations changed, they stopped using them with no problem.
Spain, Italy, and Luxembourg decriminalized most drugs, and their crime rates dropped. Portugal and Holland effectively decriminalized all drugs, and their crime rates dropped also. Most of the crime is caused by the traffic--the supply--not the use.
The hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, the millions of Americans imprisoned, and thousands of innocent bystanders killed by this insane war on drugs have all been lost for nothing. Addiction rates have remained constant, and use has increased.
Only the drug cartels want to keep the traffic in a state of criminality, since that artificially drives prices through the roof.
Spain, Italy, and Luxembourg decriminalized most drugs, and their crime rates dropped. Portugal and Holland effectively decriminalized all drugs, and their crime rates dropped also. Most of the crime is caused by the traffic--the supply--not the use.
The hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, the millions of Americans imprisoned, and thousands of innocent bystanders killed by this insane war on drugs have all been lost for nothing. Addiction rates have remained constant, and use has increased.
Only the drug cartels want to keep the traffic in a state of criminality, since that artificially drives prices through the roof.
I, for one, would like to keep our prison cells open for the wife-beaters, rapists and carjackers, not for some guy who sits harmlessly in front of the TV with a bong in his lap and potato-chip crumbs down his sweatshirt.
The only problem with that is you have innocent people who are going to be victims of that behavior. Let's say a train conductor is high on LSD, because he had a right to buy it, use it and pay the consequences if he screws up. Only problem is, when he screws up, hundreds of people lose their lives. Laws are put into place to protect people from themselves and others. We have enough problems with people getting killed from stuff that is legal, like alcohol and prescription meds, no need to further enable the weak to inflict careless injury or death to others.
That being said, the people like you who just don't understand what legalization means are still trying to cling to this idea that legalization means more people would suddenly ignore their responsibilities and become brainless drug addicts. The brainless drug addicts are already addicted and it's illegal for them to buy their drugs now. So the result is junkies sending their money to the Mexican drug cartels that operate 10 miles from my front door.
Remember (reading about) when Alcohol was illegal? Remember the influence the bootleggers had on our nation and its crime rates? Remember what happened when alcohol was legalized and billions of dollars went to building up Denver, St Louis and Milwaukee?
Do we have sting operations to catch people driving drunk? Do we have numerous laws that make it so people cannot be drunk while operating machinery or vehicles? So WHY would legalizing drugs lead to a train conductor tripping on LSD when it would mean his job and possibly his life? All legalization does is put the money into the hands of the tax-payers and not the criminals. If I buy $100 of cocaine right now (something I could easily do, cocaine is very easy to get) all $100 of that money goes to criminals. If I bought that same $100 of Cocaine from the corner store, it would go to a legitimate business owner and be taxed by the government.
How can any person with half a brain have any argument against that?
It wasn't long ago that it was perfectly legal to carry a knife onto an airplane too...look how that turned out.
Um, if you knew ANYTHING about 9/11, you'd know that the terrorists had their weapons already stashed on board before they got on the planes. And if more of the passengers had weapons, maybe those terrorists wouldn't have succeeded.
But then again, you are clearly one of those people who doesn't understand the logic behind these issues. It's not a difficult concept to understand, that making something illegal does not prevent it in any way. After all, it may have been legal to have a box cutter on a plane, but it wasn't legal to hijack it. Do you understand that?
Plus, the gang culture only exists because of the prohibition of drugs and the resulting money that flows to criminals. If legalized, thugs wouldn't be slinging cocaine because there'd be nobody buying ghetto coke when they could get it at 7-11. And "Hollywood" has never said it was cool to be a junkie with no ambition. Even stoner movies promote some kind of business or dream that they are trying to pursue. Half Baked was about raising money to get a friend out of jail. Friday was about life in the ghetto and trying to keep a gangster off their butts. Pineapple Express is about being a witness to a murder and the resulting chase. American Gangster is about one of the most notorious drug dealers in American History and his resulting fall from grace. See the picture? None of these famous "drug" movies promotes being a junkie on the street corner, even the slacker ones. I fail to see your point.
Finally, the market for bootleg alcohol and cigarettes is miniscule compared to the market for bootleg alcohol when it was illegal. I've never met a person who bought moonshine or bootleg cigarettes, but I've known plenty to pay the $5 (converted from pounds) a pack tax they have on Cigarettes in England or the standard alcohol taxes. Simply put, a legal corporation producing a drug, operating within the law and being readily available through legal means will always be the first choice of a user instead of some shady dealer who may or may not be on the DEA's RADAR.
Last edited by Pug Life; 03-24-2009 at 12:39 PM..
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