Like Communism and McCarthyism in the 1950s, the government has used propaganda and boogimen to gain support in order to trample American civil liberties for the preceding generations as well.
The Republicans have their War On Drugs and War On Terror and use them to infringe on 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights. Witness the increase in no-knock warrants and the increasing ease of electronic surveillance due to the PATRIOT Act.
The Democrats, of course, have made it their mission to attack the 2nd Amendment.
In each case, the threat it exaggerated or made up completely, safety is promised, in return for individual liberty. And, as history has taught us, in each case, the promises are broken, the government offers only the illusion of safety, and their failure is self-fulfilling and requires you to forfeit yet more of your liberties. Like Prohibition, the problems created turn out to be far greater than the original threat, and individual freedoms are rarely restored to full, even if the policy is abandoned.
It's amazing how many have selective hearing with these issues. I simply do not understand how this trend can be so blatantly obvious to the vast majority of members here concerning the issue of gun control, but many of these same members fail to see how the same trend applies to drugs, or how the Red Scare of my grandfather's generation has turned into the War On Terror.
Maybe if some would take off the blinders that force them to ignore blunders related to party affiliation, we could acknowledge the mistakes of the present, as well as the past. And maybe in doing so, we could actually learn from these mistakes and prevent the next generation from repeating them?
Or we could hide behind labels and various lies, point fingers, put those same fingers in our ears, and "la-la" the opposing arguments out, ignoring the fact that while some of you proudly claim the title "Republican" or "Democrat," others of us just want to be free and live our own lives.
To me, that means if I want to carry a .45 on my hip, I should be able to until such a time as it can be proven by the State that I have injured another, and in doing so, abused my right. And if my neighbor wants to toke up or snort an 8-ball, he should be able to until such a time as it can be proven by the State that he has injured another, and in doing so, abused his right. Live and let live is simple. Live your life, let others do the same. Combine this with the Golden Rule, and it is amazing what you can accomplish.
Okay...wow, just wow. I posted the above then started to read through the other posts. I made it about two pages, and that was all the quixotic, naivety and B.S. I could stand.
First off, robbery and murder would still be illegal, even if drugs were legalized. Those are activities almost universally recognized in every culture as unacceptable behaviors. Recreational drug use, on the other hand, is almost universally accepted, on some level. It is here, so don't kid yourself.
Secondly, people are using the very negative effects of the War on Drugs and blaming them on the drugs to support the war. People break into houses for meth money because meth is illegal. This doesn't decrease the demand so much as control, or at least attempt to control, the supply, which as any ECON101 student can tell you, artifically inflates the price. Think about how much the price of alcohol increases during Prohibition. Prohibition didn't stop the demand. The demand was met by an underground market, with huge profits for those willing to accept the risk. Now days alcohol is legal, so the crime associated with its trade as an illegal substance has almost completely evaporated. Moonshine stills have been replaced with meth labs and pot fields, though, and these substances are still illegal enough to have a good deal of crime associated with their distribution.
Thirdly, alcohol is legal. That doesn't mean a doctor can preform surgery drunk. That doesn't mean it is legal to drive under the influence. Alcohol is still abused--lives are still ruined, crimes are still associated with its use--but drive-bys carried out by competing alcohol distributors are no longer prevalent. Since its legalization, as hostile as the alcohol trade has gotten is Super Bowl commercials. And I've never been able to drive up to a drive through and request a Jack and Coke (super sized, of course) with my Big Mac, and I doubt seriously if legalizing drugs would allow me to order a side order of coke, a Coke, large fries, and double quarter pounder with cheese.
Some of you people have bitten government Drug War propaganda hook line and sinker. But it's not too late. You can still think for yourself. Common sense applies to this issue as much as it does to gun control.
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