Quote Originally Posted by skeptic
Then the solution is to institute more courts and build more prisons, not let drug dealers and repeat offenders off the hook.

Tolerance for illegal drugs are crimes against people and lead to crimes against property when drug addicts commit burglaries and murder to steal money for their insatiable obsession.
Skeptic, while I agree with your position on cables, I do not believe you apply the same logic and reason with regard to drugs.

In the last 10 years, drug use has remained level yet the "War on Drugs" has received a 50% increase in funding. You know how to do math, don't you? Here are some salient points to consider.

1. Look at the origins of drug laws. It was based on race. Opium was outlawed in the late 19th century out of fear that the Chinese who were smoking it would lure white women. Cocaine was outlawed for a fear of black men going crazy and raping white women. And outlawing in the early 20th century meant you needed a license to sell drugs. And the big powerful white men found that they could set up a little empire going after people without licenses. And the less licenses they issued, the more enforcement they needed. I cannot see how this has changed in the last 100 years.

2. Look at the hazard of drugs. Tobacco kills more people in one year than prohibited drugs have killed people in the entire 20th century.

3. Let's look at drugs and violence. There is only one drug that clearing increases aggression when consumed and that drug is alcohol. The violence and crime associated with prohibited drugs are the result of the fact that they are illegal making them very expensive and that they are generally distributed by criminal organizations. Most authorities on drug use agree that the violence associated with drugs is due to the fact that they are illegal.

4. The myth of marijuana being a gateway drug has been convincingly debunked. It simply isn't true so the use of this arguement in defending the war on drugs is patently illogical.

5. Every scholarly drug study has recommended decriminalization of drugs. Yet, this recommendation has not ever been implemented or even accepted.

6. There is no common sense reason for tobacco, alochol and prescription drugs to be legal and other drugs to be illegal other than the fact that tobacco, alcohol and prescription drugs are a huge industry and the fight against all the other drugs are another huge industry.

So why haven't things changed? The easy answer is power. Marijuana is a gateway drug in one sense. It's a gateway for law enforcement agencies to break your shield of privacy. Oh yeah, don't forget those huge "industries".

Somebody please tell me why in my own home I can pickle my liver with Jack Daniels but I can't light up a joint?

There are about 900,000 people in prison in the US for drug-related offences. If you think the solution is to build more prisons and throw more people in jail well then sir, you are nuts.