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Subject: 
Re: Tony Martin case: You can't {make up} better criticism of Liberals!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Mon, 28 Jul 2003 14:58:58 GMT
Viewed: 
862 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Marchetti wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal wrote:
   You are naive!

Yeah, that’s the big problem -- my naïveté!

Interestingly, John -- legal pharmaceutical grade cocaine would cost as little as maybe $5 a gram. Heroin would have a similar price probably. Neither type of user is harmful to others -- not when they do not have to resort to theft or prostitution to get their fix! A $5 a day habit is no worse than a pack of cigarettes.

But right, I’m an idiot. What was I thinking?

I said you were naive, not an idiot. But anyway, if you think such powerfully addictive drugs were available to the GP at such low prices, what do you think would occur? How many 1,000s if not 10,000s of junkies would our society have? It would destroy an entire generation of our youth!

Look, I am not against personal drug use per se. If you can use pot or whatever “responsibly” then knock yourself out. The group that has the ability to do that is far overshadowed by the morons who will wreak havoc on our society with their irresponsible use. Look at alcohol consumption by comparison. Look at how many lives are ruined in this country by alcohol. It is legal, and we have a near epidemic of abuse as well. There is no reason to suspect that legalizing any other drug would be any different. All that said I acknowledge the millions who are able to drink alcohol responsibly-- heck, I am one of them.

Why doesn’t Europe have the same problems with drinking/driving that we do? We drive a lot more, sure, but I see two main reasons: harsh penalties for doing so, and early education that discourages such behavior.

If you legalized coke in the US tomorrow and the price dropped to $5 a day habit, I think you would find that crime would increase and incarceration levels increase due to driving related accidents/deaths. And I don’t see legalizing drugs without harsh Euro-style penalties for such offenses as snorting and driving.

So, yes, I believe you are naive if you think that people will be able to handle using drugs such as coke, XTC, whatever responsibily. We are in a time when the people in our country are having a difficult time taking responsibility for anything and I don’t see them starting with drugs. So while you, the potential responsible drug user is being penalized by having drugs be illegal, I think that the greater good is being served by preventing the hordes of idiots easy and cheap access to them. Even having said that, though, I could be persuaded otherwise if I saw a successful solution to our current alcohol problem implemented. Let our handling of that problem be the litmus test for legalizing drugs.

JOHN



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Tony Martin case: You can't {make up} better criticism of Liberals!
 
(...) Yeah, that's the big problem -- my naïveté! Growing prison populations challenge already cash-strapped states (URL) WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's prison population grew again in 2002 despite a declining crime rate, costing the federal (...) (21 years ago, 28-Jul-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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