Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: Invade Colombia ?!?
From: ppugliese@pimacc.pima.edu
Date: 13 Apr 92 18:38:34 MST
Followup-To: alt.drugs, talk.politics.drugs
 <1992Apr10.153510.6603@pimacc.pima.edu> <1282@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>
Distribution: usa

In article <1282@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>, rjl+@pitt.edu (Richard J. Loether) writes:
> In article <1992Apr10.153510.6603@pimacc.pima.edu> ppugliese@pimacc.pima.edu writes:
>>In article <1278@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>, rjl+@pitt.edu (Richard J. Loether) writes:
>>> In article <1992Mar31.202638.2542@vax1.umkc.edu> molaughlin@vax1.umkc.edu writes:
>>>>
>>>>	Recently, I've been thinking that perhaps we could put some of this
>>>>military surplus and extra, dormant conventianal weaponary to some use. For,
>>>>example, a very major problem in the U.S. is drugs. Living in the inner-city, I
>>>>know drugs is the root of many social problems like crime, illiteracy, gangs,
>>>>etc. ----
>>> 
>>> Living in the inner-city, you've now doubt heard about the evils of
>>> drugs many times.  Surprise - you've been lied to.  We have major
>>> problems with exactly two drugs in this country, alcohol and tobacco.
>>> Everything else is small potatoes.  Alcohol causes the most social
>>> problems and tobacco the most medical problems.  And they're both legal.
>>> 
>>> Maybe you've heard that we tried to eliminate alcohol once.  Maybe you
>>> know the outcome of that experiment.
>>
>>Anyone who livs in the inner-city *knows* about the evils of drugs, no
>>matter what people who live elsewhere think. 
> 
> So what exactly do you know?  That people are getting shot in the
> streets?  That people are dying of overdoses?  That gangs are
> terrorizing the neighborhoods?  If you'll look, you will probably see
> that these are problems steming from prohibition rather than the drugs
> themselves.  It doesn't take too much to tell that the War on Some Drugs
> has been an utter failure in reducing drug availability but has been
> quite successful in keeping profits to merchandizers high, keeping
> purity iffy, and generally pumping lots of cash into criminal hands.
> 
> The people who use various drugs responsibly are no threat to you and

These drugs cannot be used responsibly IMHO. Who still has to pay when
the user needs medical treatment. For crack babies? For your information
the current violence in the drug scene goes back quite a ways before
prohibition. The 'drug-using' (any drugs) part of cities have been very
violent area for centuries if not millenia.

> the ones who get into crimes to pay for their supply can be adequately
> handled with laws against such things as robbery, theft, etc.  If the
> jails weren't full of "druggies" there would be lots of room for the
> truly dangerous people.  Look in your history books.  The "drug related"
> violence we see today has a direct counterpart in the violence we saw
> during prohibition.  The ODs are a modern day answer to the problems of
> people drinking bathtub gin.  The differences are those of technology.
> Today it's UZIs instead of Tommy guns.
> 

Pretending that the laws are the problem is like suggesting that all crime
be eliminated by rescinding all laws. Intoxicated people are dangerous &
making more drugs avail. in purer forms will just make the situatiom worse.

>>The major problems in the
>>inner-cities are quite different than the major problems elsewhere in
>>the country, as any inner-city resident knows also. 
> 
> A matter of the same problems distributed differently rather than
> different problems (IMHO).
> 

Inner-city residents would differ on this, IMHO.

>>Besides, I suspect
>>that if the other drugs were legalized the problems they would create
>>would rapidly dwarf the present ones. Making things worse is no solution
>>to me.
> 
> The current prohibition under the War on Some Drugs is the root of the
> problems you are seeing.  People want to buy various substances for
> their own reasons.  They want them badly enough that making them illegal
> just pushes the entire industry underground.  It is the underground
> nature of the recreational drug industry (except for alcohol and
> tobacco) that causes the problems.  
> 

yeah, we should get rid of all laws & then all crime would disappear too
wouldn't it? The problem is that when access to powerful drugs becomes
cheaper & easier the problem will get worse not better.

> Perhaps we should move this thread to alt.drugs or some other
> appropriate newsgroup

OK by me,

PHIL