If people choose to destroy their own lives with drug abuse, that is their right. The War on Politically Incorrect Drugs is often "justified" by the fact that drug abusers don't just destroy their own lives, but the lives of innocent people around them, too.
Well, guess what- so does the War on Politically Incorrect Drugs.
People who were doing nothing wrong are murdered in their homes by drug enforcers showing up at the wrong address. Or the "right" address when no one there is even accused of initiating force or violating private property in any way.
If those in favor of prohibition were honest they would have to see that those deaths cancel out any supposed benefit of the War on Politically Incorrect Drugs saving the innocent victims of drug abusers. If. But they aren't honest.
Nope. They'll start pulling out numbers and statistics. None of those numbers matter to an innocent baby or grandmother who just happens to be unfortunate enough to become one more number or statistic.
Drug abuse isn't smart. Using your addiction or habit as an excuse for violating people or their property is wrong. Harming an innocent is tragic and incurs a debt you probably can't afford. But the drug war is even worse. In that case innocent people are harmed and it's just "Oh, well. That's the world we live in. It's worth it to fight this plague." No, it isn't.
Support for prohibition is wrong. It's evil. It's disgusting.
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The argument of (presently illegal) drug use/abuse harming those around you, can be applied even more to the narcotic drug alcohol, and the dangerous and addictive substance tobacco. Alcohol is the only drug that causes violent behavior merely from its use, sometimes in just one use. Alcohol and tobacco together cause death, disease, family disruption, and financial ruin several times greater than the illegal drugs. (I had a stone-cold alcoholic uncle who left behind him the wrecks of two families before he died.) Yet the anti-rightists, anti-drug warriors, almost to a person, are imbibers of alcohol and, I would bet, many of them are smokers on top of it. If it is the legitimate moral imperative for the government to save us from ourselves--which it most definitely is not--then logic would dictate that alcohol and tobacco, the two worst, most deadly substances be banned first. But, of course, it isn't about protecting Joe Citizen, it's about the Prison-Industrial Complex and bigger, badder government to keep the sheep in the herd.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the War on Drugs claiming innocent victims. Here is an egregious case:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2014/06/24/a_swat_team_blew_a_hole_in_my_2_year_old_son/