Posted by crepuscular on June 9, 2002, at 13:00:08
In reply to Re: Yes! To Super Liberal thinking , posted by Cisco on June 8, 2002, at 17:26:31
kids have an easier time buying marijuana than cigarettes. this has been shown in several studies and is a direct result of the concominant legalization & control of tobbaco.
what seems obvious on the surface of things is not always the underlying structure of a solution.
as a society we doubly punish addicts by not recognizing that some pre-existing vulnerability or situation is likely driving the addiction. we say they have "weak" character or whatever. i say lets decriminalize and move the entire issue into the public health area - where it belongs.
all the funds being spent on the specious "war on drugs" should be going to treatment & intervention. drug-based crime would plummet to zip, dealers would be out of a job, and the international cartels/laundering goons sent packing - literally overnight. this is the *only* weapon that will defuse the problem.
think of it - the dealers put out of business!!! farmers in Bolivia growing food! no money for the FARC in Columbia. yes!! the answer is right in front of us, but we lack the vision.
this solution is so obvious, such a no-brainer, that i feel a sense of enormous frustration with knee-jerk opinions ot the contrary.
by the way, my aunt, who is a Catholic nun experienced in counseling addicts, feels precisely the same way. but her opinion comes from a place of compassion. she feels that the economic lure & social reward of dealing drugs so overwhelms other alternatives in the inner city that it almost represents a rational choice on the part of users/dealers.
we must cut the nuts off the economic engine of this destructive force.
poster:crepuscular
thread:108590
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020609/msgs/109258.html