🚀 go-pugleaf

Jon wrote:
> 
> Francis A. Ney, Jr. wrote:
> >
> > In article <33EA68E3.4DA5@internetwis.com> die_spammer@internetwis.com
> > writes:
> >
> > >    I watched an A&E special on Prohibition last weekend.  If they
> > show
> > > it again,  I *highly* suggest that everyone watch it.  The parallels
> > > between then and now-- crime, corruption, public cynicism toward the
> > > law, etc. are so close to today that it is truly sickening to
> > realize
> > > how idiotic and clueless the "War" really is.  Prohibition should
> > have
> > > been called "The Organized Crime Establishment and Beneficent Act."
> > > It's sole "accomplishment" was to take a popular, inexpensive,
> > easily
> > > produced consumer item and place its manufacture, distribution and
> > sale
> > > *entirely* into the hands of unregulated and untaxed (YES,
> > POLITICIANS,
> > > I SAID *UNTAXED*) criminals.
> > >
> > >    Anybody care to argue that drug prohibition has accomplished
> > anything
> > > more or different?
> >
> > Nope.
> >
> > Not me.
> >
> Too many people have too much to lose by giving up the war on drugs.
> 1) The war on drugs serves to keep the price of illicit drugs high,
> thereby increasing the profits of everyone involved in the trade. This
> would include: drug lords, politicians, customs agents, law enforcement,
> lawyers (who can charge higher fees to richer drug lords), all of the
> wholesalers and dealers.
> 2) The war on drugs provides politicians, bureaucrats, law enforcement
> officials, etc. with a wonderful source of tax free income.
> 3) There are already too damn many lawyers, but the war on drugs
> provides hordes of them with lucrative employment.
> 4) Contractors, vendors, and Correctional Officers unions love the war
> on drugs: more prisons, more jobs, more contracts, mo' money.
> 5) And last but not least: The illicit drug trade provides an excellent
> way for covert operations to raise funds. If the stuff were legal, the
> CIA would have about as much luck selling drugs as they would if they
> attempted to sell bootleg whiskey.
> The war on drugs is not about to end.

   The smug cynic in me agrees with you, Jon.  The bloody and bruised
idealist says you're wrong.  The increasingly annoyed realist says that
drugs will be legalized when somebody in Washington says "Christ, do you
realize how much we could make by TAXING this stuff?"

   Note that the simple common-sense principle of allowing individuals
to decide for themselves what substances will be ingested into their
private and personal bodies and minds won't mean a damn.

   I think the cynic is winning.
-- 
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   mmoran@internetwis.com