From: strat@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Steve Davis)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.individualism
Subject: Drug Legalization.  Was: College Was: Perot
Date: 6 Apr 1992 14:23:12 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

sike@athena.mit.edu (Michael G Sheldon) writes:

I write:

>|> ...  Drugs should be legalized.  The illegality of drugs
>|> creates crime, not the drugs.

And then Mike says:

[By this reasoning, the illegality of murder]
>creates crime, not the murder.


Absolutely NOT.  My reasoning does not say that the illegality of murder
creates the crime.  Murder, in and of itself, would still be a crime
even if there wasn't a law against it.

The reason why the illegality of drugs causes drug violences include 1)
Because of prohabition, drug prices are artificially high.  To satisfy
their addictions, many drug users resort to theft (or robbery) to find
money to pay for their high. 2) Because of prohabition, there is no
government control on the movement or sale of drugs (except drug
busts...), which means that anyone can try to push drugs on a street
corner.  Consequently, the quality of the merchandise is not as high as
it would be if these drugs were part of government regulated industry.
3) Today we have mafia organizations controlling drug rings the same
way Al Capone sold illegal alcohol earlier in this century.  Just like
in old Chicago, this (lack of a) system results in bloody turf wars.
Some of gang violence can be attributed to this.  4) The right wing's
"war on some drugs" has forced police forces around the world to think
up new and different ways of skirting constitutional law so that it is
"more cost effective" to perpetuate this government controlled invasion
into our lives.  What's more, the taxpayer is told to pay more taxes so
that the police can barge into their houses or apartments and arrest
everyone in sight as potential drug redistributers, and then just
cause.

Now, if these drugs were legalized, and a regulated industry was
established to distribute these drugs, the following things would
happen.  1) The price would drop, negating problem one in the first
paragraph.  Because our government can easily undersell the mafia (when
it wants too), people will buy drugs from the government INSTEAD of the
mafia.  What's more, these government "clinics" would be full of
medical personell, pamphlets, instructional videos, and so on... all
designed to help people break their dependency on these drugs.  If drug
use is treated as a disease, rather than a crime, there is a better
chance of reducing it!  2) Because our government would be providing
the drugs (or at least regulating the industry), there would be quality
safeguards.  The drug-related deaths in this country could be almost
eliminated in a few short months.  This eliminates problem number 2
from the above paragraph.  3)  Because the sale of drugs would be
institutionalized, there would be no place for mafia-style drug lords.
They would just dissapear!  Since bad drugs are a big business in this
country, what would be easier than simply removing the profit
incentive?  Do you think Al Capone would have been involved in the
mafia if he knew he couldn't make a dollar at it?  4)  I believe that
the "war on some drugs" has caused more harm than good.  By eliminating
it, we eliminate part of the sociatal problem!

This is my reasoning.  This is why I feel our country's drug problem
can be solved through the legalization and institutionalization of
their sale.

Stratocaster
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Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.individualism