quoted 34 lines The WoD is a different matter. It is ALL about ideas, Theirs vs.
> > The WoD is a different matter. It is ALL about ideas, Theirs vs.
> Mine.
> > *My idea is that it is a case of the medicine being worse than the
> > disease: drug addiction can often be cured and bodies can usually
> heal,
> > but there is no known remedy for decades in prison without parole.
> > *Their idea is that druggies should go to jail and rot for their sins.
> > Give me crack over the misguided vengeance of the US government any
> day--
> > it's more hopeful. Clear philosophical differences here!
>
> Actually, the most important factors in the WoD in the US are political
> and
> ecconomic, not the benefits/problems with the drugs themselves or how
> one
> should deal with an addict. If it actually was about the drugs then no
> inteligent
> person would want to criminalise drug use.
> All the evidence suggests that the problems caused by drug use stem from
> the fact that they are illegal (I dont have any figures to hand, but i'm
> mainly talking
> about studies on heroin use in the Netherlands) and also due to the fact
> that
> goverments cant run countries properly (class inequality/shit education
> etc..).
> The reason most drugs were criminalised in the first place is
> ecconomic/political.
> Cannabis was criminalsized in the US mainly because of the power of US
> paper
> and logging companies & the main reason for the US aid to Columbia is to
> fight
> the Columbian revolutionaries whose main source of income comes from
> drug
> traffiking.
Interesting stuff for me to mull over about the origins of crimnalization,
but you can't discount the moral roots of the anti-drug movement. To make
a sweeping generalization that I realize leaves huge gaps WRT the
government's attitudes towards drugs, America was founded by puritans and
the idea is still present in the unconscious of american popular culture
that fun is evil. Pleasurable things are described constantly as "sinful"
or "decadent." George Thorogood was "bad to the bone." It's all there in
front of us, shaping our attitudes and perceptions in this country, but
it's so ubiquitous that people generally don't notice it. And some people
beleive it much more strongly than others, and conservative politicians
(that is, all politicians that manage to get elected to major office),
tend to be those people. Sure we vote for the guys, but they make the
laws, and many of them sincerely believe that drugs are sinful. You might
even go so far as to say that, in the War on Drugs, the economic and
political considerations are merely justification for a post-religious
jihad of sorts. Or you might not go that far, I dunno. Why don't they
try to outlaw chocolate or sex? Because drugs really do hurt people, and
can destroy lives and families, and are, more importantly (said with
cynicism on 11), an easy political target in America 2001.
Whatever the Drug War Generals' intentions are, they certainly seem to
come accross as equally anti-drug and anti-user (-seller, -maker,
whatever). Both the product and the person are destroyed with impunity.
And, uh, how about that Confield, huh?
Lamely attempting to stay on-topic,
Zzb
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