From: n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush,soc.rights.human,alt.society.civil-liberties,alt.individualism,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: Legalizing drugs
Date: 10 Sep 92 18:29:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: henson.1992Sep10.182904.14067
Organization: Western Washington University


wag5@quads.uchicago.edu (john peter wagner) writes:

>	Drugs are addictive; you can get hooked; that is a fact.
>If we legalize drugs, then we must eliminate the better business bureau.
>After all, many scams are merely 'hooks' designed to take money
>much as drugs are 'hooks' and act to take money.  In the same sense,

Try this out:

>	Cigars are addictive; you can get hooked; that is a fact.
>If we legalize cigars, then we must eliminate the better business bureau.
>After all, many scams are merely 'hooks' designed to take money
>much as cigars are 'hooks' and act to take money.  In the same sense,

	You can get "hooked" on cigarettes, many people do, many others 
stay away from it.  You can get "hooked" on booze, many people do, many 
others stay away from it or use it in moderation.  You can get "hooked" on 
heroin or cocaine, many people do, many others stay away from it or use it 
in moderation.

	All of the above are true, and the legality or illegality of the
respective drugs, tobbacco, alcohol, heroin, or cocaine, does not change
those facts at all.  Regardless of their legal status, some people will
abuse them, some will use them in moderation, and some will not be inter-
ested.  The only thing inserting the government into the picture does is
create the gangster-subsidy, killings, and rampant crime that todays
drug prohibition brings us, and that alcohol prohibition brought us in
the past.   We wised up back then and got rid of the prohibition that 
was killing so many Americans.   When will we wise up now and end
prohibition for good.

	The following has been altered.

>	The argument for legalizing tobbacco revolves around the idea
>that people can choose for themselves not to use tobbacco.  But this idea
>ignores the fact that people are often carried away by emotion,
>sometimes make mistakes, and can easily be deceived or manipulated.
>Once any of those three things have happened the tobbacco suppliers basically
>have a guaranteed source of income.  Suppliers are faced with a market
>whose demand curve increases with use and consumtion, and thus are given
>an incentive to step up supply as much as possible, just short of killing
>the cow or making it incapable of getting money.
>	The real problem with the tobbacco business is not that it is illegal
>or frowned upon by society.  The real problem is that society itself,
>the individuals in society, do not in fact enforce those laws or beliefs.
>What they do is pay someone known as a 'cop' to follow those morals
>and beliefs.  In that sense, society accepts tobbacco, or tat least doesn't
>want to dirty its hands by them, and pays or gives the responsibility
>to a third party.  This third party, the police, are not everywhere;
>and they can only act justifiably within the bounds of the legal system.
>That is, a crime must have been committed, and there must be evidence.
>In that sense the tobbacco trade is protected, and goes on.  To follow the
>military strategy of Mao, it is the countryside, the people who one must
>have on one's side; not the government.  If people were legally capable
>of reacting and dealing with the presence of dangerously addictive tobbacco,
>then the society, the entire mass of people could rise to meet the problem
>and eliminate it.
>				J. Wagner

	Ah, Mr. Wagner, I see your point:  People are stupid and need 
to be taken care of by the government.  The free-market is bad.  Commerce 
and business are our enemy and our friend the government must protect us 
from them.  People are bad because they don't serve the government with 
all their hearts, choosing instead to pursue their own selfish paths.  
...but when the glorious reveloution comes, the workers will rise up, united 
and of one mind, to throw off the shackels imposed upon them by their evil
drug dealing masters.	

Spoken like a true socialist.    (^8'

Jim Del Vecchio
Xref: sparky alt.politics.clinton:4634 alt.news-media:1191 talk.politics.misc:44436