hey! this should be a fun one!
well, obviously, drugs and alcohol are bad, right? hm? obviously... here's the deal. i don't think that they should be illegal. up until they started passing laws about this stuff, it was widely recognized that our government didn't have the authority to dictate to us what we could and could not consume. drugs were bought and sold legally. the drugs laws that were passed generally had to do with having a permit to sell and paying taxes and all that. a few laws were passed against opium dens, but they were targeting the chinese specifically. then came prohibition. we all know how that turned out. prohibition could probably get credit for single-handedly organizing crime. but we didn't learn our lesson there. a while later, nixon declared war on drugs. and guess what happened? a dangerous black market grew.
now, i'm not saying drugs are good, but i don't think marijuana can be classed with other drugs. i think we're wasting jail-space if we're making criminals of a bunch of dirty hippies laughing at cartoons and eating captain crunch or whatever. and i'm not saying you should go try some cocaine, or start a nice little heroine habit. not what i'm saying at all. i'm saying that making these things illegal hasn't stopped people from getting them, and now violent groups are smuggling them into our country. maybe we should be looking closer at our methods for eradicating drug use.
i drink. not very often, and not very much. and i don't think there's anything wrong with that. however, i have seen alcohol destroy lives. obviously we should be moderate with anything we consume, french fries as well as beer. and if you're not capable of being moderate, cut that temptation out of your life. i'm sure that, even if you don't recognize that you have a problem, someone who loves you has tried to tell you that they're worried.
i feel like i rambled alot with this post. oh well, you got the general idea.
I personally agree with you. For those who don't, let me share my version of "proof" with you. In our retail busines, we started carrying herbal incense. (Yes, I know, it's being banned. No, I have not a clue what it feels like, etc. Never used it.) Witing one month, the sales tax we pay to the federal and state government went up by at least 600%. Yes, 600. It's legal (until the 24th), it makes the government money, there is (or was) no black market, no violence associated with getting it.
ReplyDeleteImagine how much viloence we could do away with. Imagine how fast the national debt would be gone.