From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Fri Feb 15 2002 - 08:02:54 MST
Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
> Michael M. Butler wrote:
>
> > Mike Lorrey wrote:
> >
> >>and don't say this is 'nonsense and inappropriate'. I've seen situations
> >>like this or exactly like this in the lives of many addicts.
> >>
> >
> > It's not nonsense or inappropriate.
> >
> > However, restitution, and putative "tough love/hitting bottom/you'll-thank-me-later" effects,
> > have just about nothing to do with modern day civil asset forfeiture as practiced in the USA.
> >
>
> AMEN. And again, there are many users of many different
> substance who are in no way "addicts", so using this language is
> negatively polarizing of issues of human freedom. Hell, you can
> have everything you own seized by forfeiture laws if one joint
> is found on the premises. I defy anyone to tell me how that
> makes any sense or how someone occassionally smoking pot (or
> firing up at the end of the workday for that matter) can be
> equated with being a junkie.
I have repeatedly said that a) I distinguish between users and addicts,
and b) I don't think that forfeiture laws are particularly well written
or executed to perform the job they are intended to do. So please don't
assume that I think otherwise. Nor do I think the way forfeiture is
practiced reflects very well with the way I've described it SHOULD work.
However, there is a very salient point to be made about indirect
consequences. I am reminded of the latest anti-drug public service ads
on tv these days, illustrating that drug profits are the largest source
of income for terrorist organizations. Whether you are dealing with left
or right wing terrorists in Columbia as well as the rest of latin
america, or with heroin profits funding al Qaeda and other islamist
groups, the money a drug user spends funds the violence directed at
innocent people.
Now, it's obvious that legalization would likely mitigate a good share
of this funneling, if only by the effects of reduced prices and taxation
of profits.
Be that as it may, given the current state of affairs in the world, the
best thing a drug user could do today to do their patriotic share is to
cut back or quit for the duration, to help deny these funds to the
enemy. If demand drops, prices and profits will too, and terrorist
groups will have to find other ways to fund their activities.
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