82 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
82 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
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Drugs Are De Facto Legal
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by
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Matt Giwer (c) 1994 2/19
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This is not another rapid drug discussion. I will not
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debate legalizing versus decriminalizing as the right term. I
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have only one observation to start off this discussion.
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If drugs were legalized I can not see any way I could tell
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the difference.
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Drugs are de facto legal. Drugs are de facto legal in the
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sense that the worst you have to do is drive further than the
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local drug store to get them. Of course after you arrive at the
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right street corner there is not much selection or quality
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control but it is available.
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Given the governments propensity for taxing sins I can not
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see the price of legal drugs would be that much less either.
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Certainly the ability to drive to closer locations would make
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some contribution to air quality but that is hard to notice these
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days unless one lives in Southern California.
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Every year the government announces it intercepts about 10%
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of the drugs headed for this country. Granted there are
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occasional shortages on the street but no one appears to be going
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without their drug of choice. If the best the government can do
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is a constant ten percent I do not see any progress to speak of.
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Drugs are as good as legal save we have a meandering prison
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population of the few small number that are convicted and
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actually serve time. It is not as though it takes more than a
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few days to replace those dealers on the streets. A few years
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back the District of Columbia shut down one person responsible
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for a quarter of the cocaine in the city. It took almost a week
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for the city to recover. It was quite traumatic.
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How would you tell between now and legal drugs? Please
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think about your answer. People high on ever street corner? We
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have drunk in public laws now that would certainly extend to
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"drugged-up" in public just as DUInfluence of anything has
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replaced DWIntoxicated.
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Our children will start using it? Why? What gives you the
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idea they can not get drugs now? If they can not they are
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certainly not very well connected.
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What is left? You will start using drugs? Are you so
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poorly connected that you can not get them right now?
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Face it. You want drugs you can get drugs. Anyone can get
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drugs. What is the point of maintaining the facade of illegality
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when there is no dirth of supply on the streets? When there is
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no question that anyone can get any drug with a little effort
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what is the possible justification for continuing to consider
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drugs illegal?
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Drugs are not legal in this country but they might as well
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be legal. What possibly possesses us to continue the frantic
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anti-drug crusade? What possible reason is there to continue
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this charade?
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The facts are obvious. There was a war on drugs and drugs
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won. Surrender? Hell no! Even in the face of overwhelming
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defeat and a market economy we shall continue on, valiantly.
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Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.
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It would be different were there a promise, a light at the
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end of the tunnel, trackable success. We have nothing but the
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prospect of continued failure promised us if we continue the same
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thing.
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Even if all the drug interdiction efforts were stopped we
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have no reason to believe there would be an increase in drugs.
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Consider we started a war on drugs nearly ten years ago and no
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change. Let us at least stop wasting money on that failed war
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and go back to what we had before.
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Going back to what we had before is also questionable as we
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have had almost everything before and whether we focus on dealers
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or users is only a question of what year it is. It is not a
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matter of either approach reducing drugs.
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Presuming we need not deal with the end of the world or end
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of civilization as we know it crowd we know of no reason to
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believe the free and easy access to drugs would change anything.
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If we have to deal with the doomsday types then we have no reason
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go any further in this discussion. Nothing can be changed else
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the end will come.
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As we have nothing but supposition to argue against legal
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drugs and as we have de facto legal drugs right now, there is no
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conceivable reason to continue this charade of catching ten
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percent of the drugs and dealers but not decreasing drug usage.
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If what we are doing will not decrease drug usage then it is hard
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to accept what we cease doing will increase drug usage.
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