From: doctor1@cbnewse.cb.att.com (patrick.b.hailey)
Subject: Re: Drug Legalization. Was: College Was: Perot
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 09:28:44 GMT

In article <1992Apr8.171329.10239@oakhill.sps.mot.com> dong@oakhill.sps
(Don M. Gibson) writes:
>Increased usage effects of legalization for alcohol and drugs will not be
>similar at all.

Alcohol IS a drug.  It is THE number one drug problem wherever it appears, I
believe.  Addiction, deaths, cost to society, whatever measure you want to
use.

>Drugs (except pot) are *extremely* addictive.

Don't flame him too hard, folks.  The government forces the media to
"donate" $1 million a DAY of advertising to the Partnership for a Drug
Free America ("this is your brain on drugs"), which is a PRIVATE
organization funded MOSTLY by alcohol, tobacco, and pharmeceutical (nuts to
the spelling) companies.

The govrnmnt continues to spend who-knows-how-much on study after study
keeping monkeys high for generations and throwing the data away because if
they stopped, they could no longer produce pamphlets saying marijuana *may*
do this or cocaine *is thought to* do that.

The govrnmnt no doubt knows the INCREDIBLE success that the Netherlands and
other places have had declaring peace instead of war.  Costs, crime,
addiction, even poverty all PLUMMET.  And they ignore all of it, because
this war is about taking power away from individuals, and it's
accomplishing that goal just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Don "knows" precisely what the govrnmnt and all those other nice drug
producing folks want him to "know" about drugs.  So let's not flame him,
let's see if we can help him.

>So addictive, in fact, that a one-time experiment can lead to a life-time
>addiction.  That cannot be said for alcohol and that is why they are
>different.

There is strong evidence that this is true for SOME people about one and
ONLY one drug: Alcohol.  It is absolutely, positively NOT true about any
other drug.

Don, if you *really* want to know the truth, e-mail me.  We'll talk.  I'll
snail-mail you an info packet.  We'll all be glad to point you towards REAL
information.

If you just need to find a group to bang on and blame the world's problems
on, and don't really care about the real causes of those problems, buzz
off.

>I believe that there is hope for winning the "war on drugs".

Don also "knows" exctly what he's supposed to "know" about the War on
(Some) Drugs.

Don, ALL drugs were legal prior to 1914.  Drug use started going down with the
liberalized drug laws of the 70's - a trend the current policies seem to
have finally reversed. Certainly the usage patterns have become much more
harsh.

The current War on (Some) Drugs started in 1982.  We've had a decade of
incredible increases in crime and drug problems.  We've seen the
development of crack.  We've seen the gangs change fundamentally from
groups of mostly fragmented street punks into the largest and most violent
criminal organization ever known.  All since the beginning of the War on
Drugs.

Nice of the government to declare a War on Crime/Drugs *just before* it was
about to become a problem, eh?  And how good of the govrnmnt (and the
courts, God love 'em) to pretty much destroy that nasty old Bill of Rights
so it would no longer prevent the gov from protecting us from these
problems.

85+% of those incarcerated for drug crimes have never been arrested for ANY
other crime.  Proof positive that the ratio of violent to non-violent
people on the street is changing in favor of the violent every day.

80+% of "civil seizure" victims are never even CHARGED with a crime.  80+%
of items seized are worth less than $20,000 - not the playthings of wealthy
drug lords, but the simple cars, homes, and bank accounts of ordinary
citizens. Almost NO accounting of seized assets is done.  If they make a
mistake and pick on the wrong person - someone who can still sue after
having everything seized - they settle out of court, giving back their
belongings in exchange for a signed promise not to sue or talk to the
press.

40 million Americans are peacfull, occasional users of some drug other than
deadly nicotine or alcohol.  Current policy is that every single one should
go to jail.

We have MORE than enough prison space for those who commit crimes against
people and property.  Yet we let *those* criminals out early to make room
for the kind of peacfull, responsable drug users who were left alone before
1914.  One day they're tax paying citiens, the next they're in prison and
their families are on welfare.  This is NOT a war on drugs, this is just
one front in a war on the American people.  It is madness.

If you really want to know what's going on, INVESTIGATE.  What you're being
spoon-fed is just plane propaganda.

  Thanks awfully,
             Patrick


Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc