Speaking of B&T, I am actually visiting the NYC area this week and I can’t believe the insane tolls to traverse tunnels and bridges that were constructed, in some cases, nearly a century ago and have presumably been paid for many times over.
That's been forever. The tolls aren't about paying for what was built, they're about subsidizing mass transit and deterring people from driving into the city. And about endless rapacity of course.
Only a moment has passed and already there is evidence of nuisance value and comparisons with "other vices." I read of concerns over associated psychotic illness. I know you never imagined we were innocent of any self interest when first we ventured into the Let's Just Look the Other Way and Maybe Nothing Bad Will Happen business of putting the population on the toke. Did you think we'd be able to have our cake and eat it, too? The responsibility of society is to protect the whole from the excesses of the few. Legalizing pot was not a move in that direction.
Compared to what? The damage done by 80 years of prohibition?
The War on Drugs has cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. It has been responsible for untold billions of dollars flowing into the underground economy and out of the country. Millions have had their career and life prospects permanently wrecked due to possession convictions. Our constitutional rights have been shredded. Privacy has become a joke. Our police departments have been militarized. Our prisons have become industries and profit centers. Foreign governments have been destabilized. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. In inner cities, poor communities and many foreign lands, the drug trade is a career path that crowds out most others.
Despite the enormous effort and the horrifying toll, it remains that, even prior to legalization, anyone who wanted to could procure just about any drug he or she wishes, with very little effort and without much risk. And, those drugs are stronger and purer than ever.
Prohibition doesn't work. Never has, never will.
Government is supposed to protect individuals' rights from infringement by others. Someone smoking weed in his back yard infringes no one else's rights, just as someone drinking a tall boy on his porch bothers no one. It's important to remember - it's about individuals, not some "whole against the few" collectivization.
Excessive drinking is harmful. Tobacco is awful, killing far more people every year than all other drugs combined. Both remain legal.
Speaking of B&T, I am actually visiting the NYC area this week and I can’t believe the insane tolls to traverse tunnels and bridges that were constructed, in some cases, nearly a century ago and have presumably been paid for many times over.
That's been forever. The tolls aren't about paying for what was built, they're about subsidizing mass transit and deterring people from driving into the city. And about endless rapacity of course.
My precise thoughts on weed, alcohol and laws involving them.
Only a moment has passed and already there is evidence of nuisance value and comparisons with "other vices." I read of concerns over associated psychotic illness. I know you never imagined we were innocent of any self interest when first we ventured into the Let's Just Look the Other Way and Maybe Nothing Bad Will Happen business of putting the population on the toke. Did you think we'd be able to have our cake and eat it, too? The responsibility of society is to protect the whole from the excesses of the few. Legalizing pot was not a move in that direction.
Compared to what? The damage done by 80 years of prohibition?
The War on Drugs has cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. It has been responsible for untold billions of dollars flowing into the underground economy and out of the country. Millions have had their career and life prospects permanently wrecked due to possession convictions. Our constitutional rights have been shredded. Privacy has become a joke. Our police departments have been militarized. Our prisons have become industries and profit centers. Foreign governments have been destabilized. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. In inner cities, poor communities and many foreign lands, the drug trade is a career path that crowds out most others.
Despite the enormous effort and the horrifying toll, it remains that, even prior to legalization, anyone who wanted to could procure just about any drug he or she wishes, with very little effort and without much risk. And, those drugs are stronger and purer than ever.
Prohibition doesn't work. Never has, never will.
Government is supposed to protect individuals' rights from infringement by others. Someone smoking weed in his back yard infringes no one else's rights, just as someone drinking a tall boy on his porch bothers no one. It's important to remember - it's about individuals, not some "whole against the few" collectivization.
Excessive drinking is harmful. Tobacco is awful, killing far more people every year than all other drugs combined. Both remain legal.