From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Mon Feb 11 2002 - 13:22:36 MST
I'm a little surprised to feel a need to say these things on the
extropians list. It's basic.
Mike Lorrey:
>While I am steadfastly opposed to the drug war, and support
>legalized/medicalized drug use, I am also distinctly aware, through
>extensive personal experience, that an individual addicted to drugs
>is not a sane, mature, consenting citizen in control of themselves
>(no matter whether the drug is alcohol, pot, coke, etc, even
tobacco).
[...]
>In this respect, civil forfeiture functions (admittedly poorly) as a
>means of treating those who act like children as children. I do not
>deny that it could be improved, in the form of making such seizures
>temporary, until the individual has gone through rehab and recovery,
>rather than just a get rich quick scheme for policemen and police
>departments.
What you're advocating here is that any Means is OK, as long as
*you* find the Ends *acceptable*.
Drug-use is a victimless crime. The State has no business being
involved with what one does with their own person and property as
long as they don't physically harm the person or property of
another.
I do not find your Means acceptable. Once you tell the government
that it's OK to throw someone in jail or take their property because
of some behavior that is not harming anyone else, but that you find
unacceptable, then what comes next? Firing them, evicting them,
denying them credit, stripping away their civil rights, and the list
goes on without end. If a person chooses to diminish their lives
by using some drugs, then they have every right to do so.
All drug use carries a risk, and the risks are varied. As an adult,
each makes his/her own decision as to whether to expose themself to
that drug, and one measures the potential good/harm against their
own personal form of measure. "Inform yourself, then choose". The
best way to remove the largest dangers regarding drug use is
education .. not throwing that person into jail !!
Drug use is just one of a long list of victimless crimes, that the
State has no business sticking their stinking noses into. I wonder
if anyone here finds any similarities in the rhetoric between the
'War on Drugs' and the 'War on Terrorism' ?
Amara
"Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search
for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it.
But no one has a right to coerce others to act according
to his own view of truth." -- Mohandas K. Gandhi
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an
open one." -- Malcolm S. Forbes
Larry King:
"Don't you think it would be better to legalize victimless
crimes like drugs and prostitution and divert the
resources to more important things like the rapes and
assaults and things like that?"
Senator Tom Harkin:
"No, I don't agree with that at all."
("Larry King Live' CNN, 1992)
"Drugs are murdering our children." --George Bush 1989
********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
********************************************************************
"Sometimes I think I understand everything. Then I regain
consciousness." --Ashleigh Brilliant
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