And on the subject of drugs: Nancy Reagan urged everyone to "Just say no" while taking who knows how many perscription drugs. The "war on drugs" is over. It didn't work. Yet we still have campaigns like DARE in our schools teaching kids lies about the evils of drug use.
The plain fact of the matter is that the jails in the US are filled almost two thirds with drug offenders. So that tells me that there's something wrong with the laws. And hey, you from Edmonton! Our jails here at home are not much better. There must be a better solution to the problem than just telling our children boogie-man stories of the boy who was "hepped up on goofballs" and hoping the problem will go away. After all it costs billions annually to enforce the Cannibis laws, and frankly, that's too much.
Now. I won't get into a long-winded history of the most recent prohibition era, but I will say that it didn't work then, either, and after a few years the governments of Canada and the US repealed it. I might interject here to point out that Canada was first to see the error of it's ways. Maybe the cold freshens our sense of freedom or something, I don't know.
What did come out of the prohibition era, however, was the scourge known as organized crime. The Mafia. These guys have always been around, but by making liquor illegal, the government opened up the door for these clowns to reap staggering profits, all tax free. After the law was repealed the mafia moved onto the next available cash cow, drugs.
And now we have to deal with a whole rats-nest of grief from Mafia, Triads, Bikers, the CIA...
In 1938 the lobbyists argued sucessfully that Cannibis caused people to become "wastrels, vagrants, thieves, and murderers". The proof, they argued, was the fact that all Mexicans, for the most part, fell into one of these categories. And they all smoked the stuff. (That's why it is commonly known as "Marijuana"). And therefore must be made illegal. Congress agreed and made it so.
In the early 1940's, during the war, it was actually illegal to grow hemp, but for the war effort the Feds were willing to overlook that little snag.
In 1948 the law came up for review, and the lobbyists argued that "Marijuana" must stay illegal because it makes people who smoke it too mellow and peaceful, and, "As we know, the dirty Russians are at our doorstep, and we have to stay vigilant, with a cohesive fighting force not all strung-out on that peace pipe shit like those greasy Beatnics". Congress agreed, and ratified the law.
OK I guess I did ramble a bit.
Anyway heres my point: The Government should heed the advice of their own addictions experts, police officers, and judges, (Not to mention the citizens) and legalize the stuff. Or at least de-criminalize it, and the law enforcement money that we save could be spent with addictions counselling, or maybe it would just free the police to do their job, arresting real criminals.
-Skuncle