Saturday, October 27, 2012

As if We Needed Another Reason to Vote for this Guy

I think that the data is sufficient, people. The "war on drugs" has been an unmitigated, abject, and costly (in terms of law enforcement being diverted, in terms of civilian casualties, in terms of it being a drain on the treasury, etc.) failure. And it seems to be getting even worse the more that we spend on it. Look, I'm not saying that we should make all drugs illegal tomorrow morning. That wouldn't at all be feasible. But we have to reassess. We have to. Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s and it isn't working now.......And, yes, this blog post was brought to you by the independent super-pac, Moderates for Johnson 2012.

15 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

"Look, I'm not saying that we should make all drugs illegal tomorrow morning."

I assume you mean legal.

dmarks said...

Careful calling yourself a Superpac. The Dems might look your way and try to deny you your basic First Amendment rights to speak out on issues of the day.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Thanks, Jerry, I'll change it.......Thanks for the warning, dmarks. I guess that I should probably lawyer up now, huh?

Rusty Shackelford said...



Which drugs would you legalize....the hippie lettuce?Cocaine?Heroin?Meth?Crack?LSD?All of the above,some of the above....one or two of the above? If legal,should there be a minium age for access......should it be 21? 18? 16? 14?.....Should it be legal for a family to gather around the fireplace light up the crack pipe and make Smores?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I would legalize marijuana immediately and probably the rest of it, too, eventually (regulated and controlled by the state, just like with alcohol). And it wasn't the left that convinced me on this one, Russ. It was conservatives like Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley, and George Schultz.

Jerry Critter said...

Interesting. What conservative arguments that the liberals were not making also convince you?

dmarks said...

I suspect I am probably with Rusty in not wanting to increase drug abuse. And I'm not so sure that the failure of the drug war is worse than the alternative: more dope fiends running about or worse yet driving Amtrak trains off the rails.

This being said, I am strongly in favor of the medical marijuana initiatives, although the pushers and advocates of recreational substances abuse have disingenuously used these as a back door to promote widespread drug abuse for any reason.

Jerry Critter said...

"...more dope fiends running about or worse yet driving Amtrak trains off the rails."

This is the RESULT of a failed drug war, not the alternative to a failed drug war.

dmarks said...

There's fewer running around now than if we had the alternative: nothing to restrict drug abuse.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I'm not sure what the effect of legalization would be on drug usage but I'm pretty sure that the body-count would go down.......And I forgot to mention Thomas Sowell. He wrote an essay in 1984 that advocated legalization.

Les Carpenter said...

Gary Johnson hopefully will run again in 2016, and hopefully there will be a stronger more vibrant Libertarian party in four years.

Cause the parties of "O" and "R" sure as hell ain't cutting it.

dmarks said...

RN: The libertarians better get their act together. It's like they are running Ron Paul, from the bumper stickers and signs I see.

Jerry Critter said...

dmarks,
Would you say there are more alcoholics running around now, than if booze was illegal? Alfter all, we are talking about similar treatment for alcohol and drugs. Alcohol, while legal, still has restrictions on alcohol abuse.

dmarks said...

Yeah, of course you get more of anyone running around doing something if you remove restrictions on it. Good point on how it is similar to alcohol. But I am reluctant to release the crackheads genie.

Les Carpenter said...

Biggest disappoint this year... Ron Paul not switching parties and running Libertarian dmarks.

But yeah, you're right. The Libertarian party needs a strong, qualified, and charismatic chairman or candidate to unite it in a common goal. Maintaining maximum individual liberty for ALL LAW ABIDING citizens of a free society..