Nannies worry about 'new' drugs
Welcome to the law of unintended consequences, Albuquerque authoritarians. Because of the disastrous "War on (some) Drugs", which only you support, some people are turning to things such as Salvia and Gonjah for thrills.
Don't act surprised by the entirely logical and predictable outcome of your control-freak behavior, and don't repeat your standard knee-jerk mistake of passing new "laws" to cover the "new" intoxicants. It has never, not in all of human history, worked, and it isn't going to work "next time" either.
If you (or others like you) make one thing "illegal" then those who, for one reason or another, still care about your ridiculous edicts will find something else, something you haven't yet criminalized, in order to get the same or similar effect. The next thing may not be as safe as Cannabis. In fact it may be as destructive when abused as alcohol.
The desire to "get high" is ingrained so deeply that it is just a part of being human. Even very young children spin endlessly until too dizzy to stand for the same exact sensation. This isn't "learned behavior". "Laws" and draconian punishments will never suppress that desire. A risk of damaged health or even death can't stop it, why do you think the threat of violence by the state's thugs will?
The "costs of drug use", if looked at with discernment, can be clearly seen to actually be costs of penalizing "drug use" in almost every instance. From aggression to "crime" to imprisonment, and even "impaired behavior" accidents; almost all can be traced back to the way "drug use" is dealt with by society and the state rather than as an inevitable consequence of using the substance. The people who use the substances without being caught suffer almost none of the societal ill-effects which are used to justify prohibition.
Even if a substance had a 50% or higher mortality rate, it is still out of reach of the legitimate authority of anyone to prohibit others from using it on themselves. Your favorite drug, "Government", has a very, very high mortality rate, and yet it is about the only thing still "legal".
Neither is the answer to "legalize" and tax "drugs", in spite of what some suggest. The state "needs" and deserves no money at all. I would rather see "drugs" kept "illegal" to keep the money out of the wrong hands than to allow government to profit from the sale and use of more substances.
It is long past time to once again get government out of our medicine cabinets. End the unethical "War on Drugs" and return to the sanity of treating the addicts who need help and leaving everyone else alone.
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A hearty "Welcome back to the world of blogging" to Claire Wolfe! You have been missed!
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Here is another review of Indy-Pindy, this time from The Price of Liberty.
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