At 11:08 PM 5/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
>
>You need a lot stronger reasons to deny all people individual liberties
>and rights of self-protection for the common good, than for letting them
>keep their freedom.
>
Unfortunately, this only applies to rational, intelligent beings - not politicians bent on reelection and catering to special interests.
>To decrease violence _and_ increase liberty, the government could legalize
>marijuana, MDMA and psychedelics. That would remove lots of reasons for
>offensive use of guns, and make people less likely to use any violence for
>any other reasons. Easier on the budget, too, than gun control.
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Sasha Chislenko <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html>
>Intelligenesis Corp. <http://intelligenesis.net>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
Someone giggling to himself in a drugged stupor is unlikely to cause problems to anyone, as long as he's not in control of dangerous machinery at the time. Beyond that, let 'em smoke whatever they want. I don't care. If the person endangers someone else, use existing laws to deal with it.
There's BIG MONEY in the 'war on drugs' and all it implies. I had a business associate try to get me to invest in his 'new, improved' home drug screening kit - he wants to sell it to schools, prisons, businesses, and you and me - and expects to make several hundred million dollars in the first two years. Big money == no change.
Chuck Kuecker