Drug Laws

Incarcerating the People

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Law Enforcement Libertarianism US Politics on by

Undeterred by the success of the war on drugs which led to the arrest of 951,027 people in 2003 with no apparent reduction in drug use or availibility congress and the executive branch stay the course:

President Bush signed a law on Friday banning certain steroid-like drugs, used by some athletes as performance enhancers.
The new law adds 18 substances to the list of banned anabolic steroids,
Ignoring reality senator biden exclaims:
“This new law sends a strong message about andro and other steroid precursors. We are calling them what they really are: drugs, performance enhancing drugs,” the Democrat from Delaware said.
I suspect folks who want to use this stuff will pay just about as much attention to these federal laws as any other drug user.
As Doctor Recommended notes:
It is one thing for a league, competition, team, venue, etc. to ban a set of drugs (such as the Olympics or MLB), as these are organizations that you voluntarily join and can leave if so desired, but the State is an entity which you are required to submit to (i.e., you are not given the opportunity to leave or say �no� � you must comply or else�).
If you want people to respect the law then you must write into law only what is just, necessary, and proper.

LEAP

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Drug Laws Federal Government Libertarianism on by

I haven’t thoroughly investigated Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) but their byline suggests that they have taken a step in the right direction:

Current and former members of law enforcement who support drug regulation rather than prohibition.

I’d rather see outright freedom but if we have to go through a regulatory stage on the way that is better then the current morass.
At first look this organization looks to be worth of support and they have a flyer you can print and hand out to your local law enforcement folks.
There is a lot of written material linked on their site and I’m sure I’ll have more to say as I read through it.
Via …muttered the ogre.

Debate Question

This entry was posted in bush Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Election 2004 kerry on by

Lots of folks have posed potential questions for bush and kerry. Here’s one from Say Uncle:

So, the drug war costs billions and billions and billions of dollars. Many innocent, peaceable citizens have been needlessly killed by a police force that has been essentially militarized. People are not secure in their homes because of no knock warrants and search warrants issued based on the frequently false testimony of criminals. Property is taken and lives are destroyed over a few minuscule amounts of drugs. Is it worth that price to confiscate an infinitesimally small fraction of a percent of the drug supply in this country?
Both candidates will, though, say similar BS. Something like: “Yes, it is worth it..followed by a bunch of babble with an emphasis on being tougher then the other guy.” And, most of the brainwashed public will nod knowingly and forget the question was even asked.
I suspect that it will take more direct action than a question at a debate to bring an end to this long reign of domestic and foreign terrorism.

Government Failure…

This entry was posted in Capitalism Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Economics Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Radley Balko summarizes a set of statistics about the government’s efforts to suppress the market for recreational drugs:

By nearly every metric — drug use, spending, availability, purity, price — the drug war has failed. Throughly. And that’s before considering the trespasses on our civil liberties our government has undertaken to achieve that failure.
Read the rest. The magnitude of the failure is really quite astounding.
So, who is benefitting from the $60 billion being spent annually by local, state and federal governments?

A Stitch of Protection

This entry was posted in Capitalism Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Economics Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Adrian doesn’t tell us where he found this:

“Many Chechens have sewn their pockets up in order to prevent anything being planted on them if stopped by police. One young Chechen exclaimed: “This is how we live, thanks to the Department on Fighting Organized Crime. First we were bandits, then became terrorists, and now we are becoming seamstresses.”
This would be good advice for many victems of the drug thugs (many, many more examples available).
Via Pharyngula and Bitch. PH.D.