ea80e3fb   
   XPost: talk.politics.libertarian, alt.drugs, alt.politics.libertarian   
   From: okamuraj005@hawaii.rr.com   
      
   "Brother Nate"  wrote in message   
   news:135b09fd-bc8a-4d2c-8d09-416c09dff501@q14g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...   
   On Sep 15, 12:56 pm, "Jerry Okamura"    
   wrote:   
   > I am generally in favor of legalizing what are now illegal drugs. But   
   > before we do that, if we ever do that, I would like to spend the time to   
   > learn all of the advantages and disadvantages, before making a final   
   > decision.   
      
   I'm in favor of investing time on study of important policy   
   decisions, but, no disrespect intended, empirical data   
   about the issue has been in the public domain for decades.   
      
   It's fair for the realm of science to have it's say about the   
   numbers we can observe: the costs of keeping so many   
   people, the amount of revenue that illegal drug trade   
   feeds to cartels.  Yet dollar values we can see are only   
   half of the debate, and the flip side is rooted in what we   
   can't predict, or even ethically calculate.   
      
   Without legal barriers and high cost, how many people   
   would experiment with drugs and suffer health effects   
   from unfettered addictions?  It just isn't possible to know   
   that ahead of time, and trying to assess a dollar value   
   on human suffering is just somewhere nobody needs to   
   go.  But there are similar human costs in the present   
   system, and I'm not comfortable leaving this question   
   where it's been stalled out for the last 40 years, in the   
   hands of "WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN??" fear   
   mongering.   
      
   I know there are a lot of people, myself included, who   
   get nervous at the words "We're the government and   
   we're here to Help", but I do know that I prefer government   
   should at least TRY to act with compassion instead of   
   just being a bully who threatens to beat people up if   
   they light a stinking joint.   
      
   My attitude about these kinds of issues, come down to a simple question.   
   Has any country been successful at stopping people from doing what they want   
   to do?  If you cannot stop people from doing what they want to do, perhaps   
   we should just allow them the freedom to make their own stupid mistakes, as   
   long as they do not hurt someeone else.  And if they do hurt someone else,   
   which some will do, then punish them when they hurt someone else.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)