Spend some time at the Market Ticker and read Denninger's latest missive.
Lives have been ruined, criminal enterprises have boomed, and now violence is increasing at a geometric rate on our border...whether the current administration wishes to admit it or not. Simple minds see all this and say, "It's because of drugs!" People who can see the big picture have known for years that "It's because of drug laws."
Folks, it's long, long, LONG past time to face the facts. Drug prohibition is an absolute, unConstitutional, life-destroying, crime-enabling failure. It's accomplishing the same things alcohol prohibition did, with the added bonus of being entirely outside the Federal government's Constitutional authority to enforce. And too damn many 'Conservatives' continue to willfully refuse to get the point.
The same people who will--rightly--point to history to demonstrate the failures of statism, will ignore that selfsame history regarding the inevitable outcome of prohibition. It goes beyond simple failure--it actually expands the same things it was meant to curtail. This is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of indisputable, demonstrable, historical fact.
Whether you or I 'approve' of others' use of drugs is entirely and completely irrelevant. In a free country, no one else's life is subject to your approval. If someone steals to buy drugs, or drives under the influence, or attacks another person while high, it's the same as someone doing these things in regards to alcohol. In each case, it is the theft, the risk to others' lives, the assault that constitute the criminal behavior, not the possession and use of intoxicants, 'approved' or not.
If you Conservatives are going to claim to stand for liberty, you need to realize that liberty is all-inclusive. It means freedom for everybody. Not just you. Not just those who think like you. Not just those you approve of. You either stand for the right of every single peaceful person* to go about their lives the way they see fit, or you cannot logically claim to be an advocate of liberty. What you want is a tyranny you agree with.
I've been saying this for years, but it's never been more important that you drug-warriors start listening. Your decades of attempting to legislate morality have now brought open warfare to our very doorstep. I'm telling you the same things we tell the socialists: your policies have utterly and completely failed, and that's all they can do. They do not work, they cannot work, and all they result in is loss, suffering, violence and misery. Prove yourselves smarter than the socialists, recognize reality, and let's get to work cutting the financial legs from under these cartels.
Fast.
* For the purposes of this post, "peaceful person" is defined as someone whose actions are not causing direct, proveable harm to another person or their property.
Well said. Growing up where and how I did I was exposed to a lot of narcotics. Had a cousin who was a heroin addict. I also spent a number of years on the front line of drug and illegal alien interdiction on the high seas. My experiences formed my stand on the matter, which is:
ReplyDeleteI really don't a damn what someone does in the privacy of their home. It really is none of my business unless, and until, said behavior begins to affect others. You get high and beat the wife - we have a problem. You get high and drive on the roadways - we have a problem. You get high and stay home and enjoy your buzz - no problem at all.