Support for the War on Drugs is one of the few things that (many) MAGA folks support that I do not.
It's your body, why do politicians have the right to tell you what to put in it? Yes, many drugs are BAD for you. So are many popular foods -- and people disagree about WHICH foods are the bad ones. For that matter, EVERYTHING we do or DON'T do has its dangers. Go outside and you could get mugged or hit by a car; stay home and you could slip in the shower and crack your skull (my wife knew someone whose 32-yr-old husband died exactly that way) or die in a house fire.
Choosing which dangers to expose yourself to is a part of life.
America banned alcohol throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. It took a Constitutional Amendment -- the 18th, ratified in January 1919 -- to do so.
Result?
Instantly turned anyone involved in "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" into a criminal, thus
Removing all consumer protections from the alcohol industry, causing death and blindness for thousands and
Quickly creating violent criminal gangs -- they'd be called "cartels" today -- sustained by the huge profits that only Prohibition could provide, and
Giving politicians a reason to create a nation-wide police state with armed agents, and
Almost instantly corrupting the political and judicial class even more deeply than before as big-money bribes and serious coercion motivated government employees from the local to the national levels to cooperate with gangsters, and
May have actually INCREASED alcohol consumption by the American public (this is disputed and there's probably no way to know precisely the effect on overall alcohol consumption, but the gangland profits, the speakeasies, and other data certainly proves that Prohibition failed to stop Americans from drinking).
Amendment 21, repealing Amendment 18, was ratified in December 1933.
Apparently, American politicians missed having the excuse for tyranny that Prohibition provided, because they soon began demonizing marijuana and not long after, other recreational drugs as well. Problem solved! The police state could be resurrected and even enlarged!
As before with Prohibition of alcohol, Prohibition of other drugs has created massive corruption, stunning levels of violence, harm to consumers from violence and from bad or tainted product, and has clearly failed at preventing drug use. The massive profits from illegal drugs incentivizes drug sellers to actively push drug use on Americans, and Hollywood has helped with the advertising.
Drug use isn't smart, but coercive drug PROHIBITION is outright stupid: it is literal tyranny and like all tyranny causes harm (and lots of it) instead of good.
Freedom! It's what our Founding generation fought for. I say we bring it back.
Support for the War on Drugs is one of the few things that (many) MAGA folks support that I do not.
It's your body, why do politicians have the right to tell you what to put in it? Yes, many drugs are BAD for you. So are many popular foods -- and people disagree about WHICH foods are the bad ones. For that matter, EVERYTHING we do or DON'T do has its dangers. Go outside and you could get mugged or hit by a car; stay home and you could slip in the shower and crack your skull (my wife knew someone whose 32-yr-old husband died exactly that way) or die in a house fire.
Choosing which dangers to expose yourself to is a part of life.
America banned alcohol throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. It took a Constitutional Amendment -- the 18th, ratified in January 1919 -- to do so.
Result?
Instantly turned anyone involved in "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" into a criminal, thus
Removing all consumer protections from the alcohol industry, causing death and blindness for thousands and
Quickly creating violent criminal gangs -- they'd be called "cartels" today -- sustained by the huge profits that only Prohibition could provide, and
Giving politicians a reason to create a nation-wide police state with armed agents, and
Almost instantly corrupting the political and judicial class even more deeply than before as big-money bribes and serious coercion motivated government employees from the local to the national levels to cooperate with gangsters, and
May have actually INCREASED alcohol consumption by the American public (this is disputed and there's probably no way to know precisely the effect on overall alcohol consumption, but the gangland profits, the speakeasies, and other data certainly proves that Prohibition failed to stop Americans from drinking).
Amendment 21, repealing Amendment 18, was ratified in December 1933.
Apparently, American politicians missed having the excuse for tyranny that Prohibition provided, because they soon began demonizing marijuana and not long after, other recreational drugs as well. Problem solved! The police state could be resurrected and even enlarged!
As before with Prohibition of alcohol, Prohibition of other drugs has created massive corruption, stunning levels of violence, harm to consumers from violence and from bad or tainted product, and has clearly failed at preventing drug use. The massive profits from illegal drugs incentivizes drug sellers to actively push drug use on Americans, and Hollywood has helped with the advertising.
Drug use isn't smart, but coercive drug PROHIBITION is outright stupid: it is literal tyranny and like all tyranny causes harm (and lots of it) instead of good.
Freedom! It's what our Founding generation fought for. I say we bring it back.