Maggie's Farm

Drug abuse is behind most of the violent and property crime in this country. The question is; if we end the war on drugs do we do nothing or replace it with something we think might be more effective? This IS NOT simply abut those poor souls who by choice or by chance are hoked on drugs. It is about the couple million new users every year who can only become hooked on drugs because it is available and pushed onto them. What do we do to stop the 15 year old girl or boy who today isn't hooked on drugs but will be tomorrow? Do we do nothing? Kind of a let people make their onw decisions and who are we to interfere. Can you really do that? I can't. Do we continue to spend billions perhaps exceeding a trillion every year to deal with the consequences of these drugs? We can no longer afford it. What about the children born to parents on drugs? We can see them everyday in the news; committing crimes, entering into prostitution, killing or being killed. Do we have any responsibility at all to stop this or are we content to simply spend a trillion on welfare every year to keep it going? If we agree that the war on drugs isn't perfectly successful what is your option and does it involve a white flag? Do you have children and if you do and one of them is killed tomorrow by a drug crazed robber is that simply the cost of a free society and burying our head in the sand. Perhaps you don't think it will happen to you or yours but it wil certainly hapen to somene. Everyday half a dozen kids and adults are killed in some drug fueled incident. Everyday children turn to prostitution to feed their newly acquired habit. Is the cost of being an ideological libertarian that we must allow these things to happen. Isn't there something we can do other then allowing the weak or unfortunate to simply follow their deadend choice to use hard drugs and the resultant choice to inflict violence on our population because of their drug use? Is giving up the ony option?

Drug abuse is behind most of the violent and property crime in this country. The question is; if we end the war on drugs do we do nothing or replace it with something we think might be more effective? This IS NOT simply abut those poor souls who by choice or by chance are hooked on drugs. It is about the couple million new users every year who can only become hooked on drugs because it is available and pushed onto them. What do we do to stop the 15 year old girl or boy who today isn't hooked on drugs but will be tomorrow? Do we do nothing? Kind of a let people make their own decisions and who are we to interfere. Can you really do that? I can't. Do we continue to spend billions perhaps exceeding a trillion every year to deal with the consequences of these drugs? We can no longer afford it. What about the children born to parents on drugs? We can see them everyday in the news; committing crimes, entering into prostitution, killing or being killed. Do we have any responsibility at all to stop this or are we content to simply spend a trillion on welfare every year to keep it going? If we agree that the war on drugs isn't perfectly successful what is your option and does it involve a white flag? Do you have children and if you do and one of them is killed tomorrow by a drug crazed robber is that simply the cost of a free society and burying our head in the sand. Perhaps you don't think it will happen to you or yours but it will certainly happen to someone. Everyday half a dozen kids and adults are killed in some drug fueled incident. Everyday children turn to prostitution to feed their newly acquired habit. Is the cost of being an ideological libertarian that we must allow these things to happen. Isn't there something we can do other then allowing the weak or unfortunate to simply follow their dead end choice to use hard drugs and the resultant choice to inflict violence on our population because of their drug use? Is giving up the only option?

Oops. It first responded that there was a serendipty error and when I tried again the post was duplicated... serendiptiously.

I think that avoids the issue. I am suggesting that I agree that the war on poverty has failed (at least the way we attempted it) but what then is our plan B? If we simply decriminalize it do we continue to spend billions to deal with the problems it creates? Hey if we simply stop wasting all the money AND end the war on poverty I just might go along with it. But I suspect everyone who is asking to end it wants to continue to spend untold billions dealing with it. Lets test all welfare recipients and if they test positive then they are off welfare forever. Let's end "treatment" since it doesn't work any better then the war on drugs did and simply let people stick needles in their arms till they overdose. Lets disband all the federal, state and local drug task forces and actually fire the people (again saving money). I am honestly thinking that you and others who want to stop the war on drugs are right but let's not do it by halves. So no war on drugs but if you used drugs you are forever unqualified for medical or welfare. This could cut the federal budget by about a trillion and cut the costs of medical by a couple hundred billion or so. Let's do it.

My father used to tell the story that he and a handful of other men were hired to off load cases of scotch from a small boat while standing waist deep in the ocean off a private beach in Marblehead. He swears this was Joe Kennedy's bootleg scotch. I don't know exactly when but it was during prohibition.