From: jeff@frodo.b30.ingr.com (Jeffrey A. Johnson)
Subject: Re: drug legalization
Organization: myself
Distribution: hsv
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 22:28:45 GMT


A few points to ponder....


In article <1992Sep28.170331.11976@b8.b8.ingr.com>,
larry@b8.b8.ingr.com (Larry Billings) writes:

[ stuff deleted ]
>                           I just don't think increasing the availability
> is a good thing, and noone has yet given a good enough arguement to change
> my views.  I believe that legalization would merely help minors get access to
> the hard drugs.  I personally don't care one way or the other if pot were
> legal, I don't think of it as any worse than booze, maybe not as bad.

    Back in the early 80's, I remember reading a newspaper story about how
the federal government was putting the pressure on all the states to raise
the drinking age to 21.  Wyoming ( if I recall correctly ) at the time had
a minimum drinking age of 18.  So, the Feds threatened to cut off Wyoming's
federal road money, so Wyoming raised the drinking age to 21.  The article
was written about five years after this happened, and it described a study
done by someone in the state that showed that after drinking alcohol had been
made illegal for the 18-20 year olds, consumption of alcohol in this group
actually increased significantly.

    Perhaps, at least for often rebellious youth, the forbiddenness of
the fruit actually increases its appeal.

> I also think legalization would mean more people DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE.
> And, THAT is not a victimless crime.

    Cullman County, Alabama, is a "dry" county.  So, residents must leave
the county in order to purchase alcohol.  They typically get drunk while
outside the county, and attempt to drive home to their "dry" county,
and then get in a wreck.  Cullman County has one of the highest traffic
fatality totals in the state.

[ stuff deleted ]
 
> Larry Billings

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Jeffrey Adam Johnson              Internet:  jeff@frodo.b30.ingr.com
("I speak only for myself.")          UUCP:  uunet!ingr!b30!frodo!jeff
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[ WARNING, LONG QUOTE ALERT.... ]

"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government
of himself.  Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?"
 - Thomas Jefferson
	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty
when the government's purposes are beneficent.  Men born to freedom
are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded
rulers.  The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
 - Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"The sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect
the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when
the government assumes other functions, it is usurpation and oppression."
 - Alabama Constitution
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"After one year from the ratification of this article the
manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors ...
is hereby prohibited ...."
 - 18th Amendment, ratified January 16, 1919
"The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the
United States is hereby repealed ...."
 - 21st Amendment, ratified December 5, 1933

"Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed
to repeat them." 
 - Jorge Santayana
	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I have joined that group of people who believe that the use
and sale of controlled substances should be legalized."

"Alcohol didn't cause the high crime rates of the '20s and '30s,
Prohibition did.  And drugs do not cause today's alarming
crime rates, but drug prohibition does."

"Trying to wage war on 23 million Americans who are obviously very
committed to certain recreational activities is not going to be
any more successful than Prohibition was."

"Our society has had a lot of experience with legal dangerous drugs,
particularly alcohol and tobacco, and we can draw on that experience
when we legalize marijuana, cocaine, and heroin."

- US District Judge James C. Paine, addressing the
  Federal Bar Association in Miami, November, 1991
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"The casual user, if there is such a thing as a casual user, ought to
be taken out and shot, because he or she has no reason for using drugs."
 - Darryl F. Gates, Chief of Police, Los Angeles
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When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun.
When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs.
When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent.
Now they've come for the First Amendment, and I can't say anything at all.
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