I have often considered the wholesale legalization of drugs. However, the thing I can’t get past is who distributes them? Do we license manufacturers and distributors? Based on our experiences with prescription opioids, the drug companies can’t be trusted with this kind of power over addicts lives. Does the government distribute it? I certainly don’t want to give the government that kind of power over people’s lives. It is less trustworthy than the pharmaceutical companies. Plus, there will have to be some regulations on what can be manufactured and sold. What happens to things that are not legal? Do they continue on the black market? I am not opposed to legalizing drugs, but before we do we need to answer these and other questions. Thanks for helping to move the discussion forward.
Excellent. William F Buckley (someone I disagree with 95% of the time) intelligently made the point that it's not illegal to contract syphilis, but that doesn't mean society encourages contracting syphilis: criminalization is not the only tool to counteract out-of-control behavior. Criminalization is, in fact, the worst tool available, as it is always accompanied by corruption and uneven, arbitrary enforcement.
I think a lot of people are frightened that they themselves would succumb to addiction were it not criminalized. This is a reflection of the poor state of how children are raised nowadays, taught to be obedient automatons rather than mature, self-directed adults. But this problem still does not justify criminalizing drugs, as doing so still results in far worse pathologies than making them legal would.
I think people miss the point a lot of the time when it comes to drug prohibition or drug "liberation" for want of a better term. One has to look at the reasons why people choose to indulge in drug-taking in the first place. Something like alcohol is generally cultural and actually has health as the historic need (e.g. beer to purify water sources, red wine etc.) But, it's plain to see nowadays that people consume alcohol purely to be drunk, and thus it is like a drug when considered in that context.
The point, therefore, isn't whether alcohol should be legal or illegal; rather, we need to be asking: What has happened to the culture and morality of the people such that they all just want to consume substances to alter their state of mind?
Modernity has a lot to answer for in this regard. People's lives are ostensibly better, but only from a material point of view; modern man is spiritually bankrupt, and has no concept of anything higher than himself and the immediate satisfaction of his own needs and wants. One way of doing so is through drug use, evidently.
When morality is restored and people begin to follow God's law (or natural law) again, I'd expect you'd see a sharp downturn in the consumption of drugs - and this solves all the other problems connected thereto.
Actually the CIA is the world's largest (illegal) drug importer. They have the logistical infrastructure already in place along with the "get out of jail free" cards that none of us mere mundanes possesses. What better way to fund the "black projects" that they are so fond of perpetuating. This also keeps the hands of congress away from their budget.
So long as there are late baby boomers relegated to downward mobility & economic marginality raised very moralistically & seeing drugs as an at least initially enjoyable forbidden fruit consumed by people they deem socially inferior there will be plenty of support for an official war on drugs, the more expedient, brutal, peremptory & condign the better no matter the cost.
Nicotine hasn't been outlawed, but lots of laws have been made restricting its use. The result: Vaping was invented. This article makes one wonder, if nicotine were outlawed, what creative means entrepenuers would come up with to meet the demand that heavy smokers would create. Nicotine pills? IV nicotine?
Fascinating article. Strong journalism. Drug use is a symptom of other problems. Here's links to some other good reporting...
https://legal-forum.uchicago.edu/publication/would-%E2%80%9Chamsterdam%E2%80%9D-work-drug-depenalization-wire-and-real-life -- the last half gets into the specifics.
https://www.newportinstitute.com/resources/co-occurring-disorders/drug-legalization/
https://www.topteny.com/top-10-countries-drugs-legal/
And what happens when you go the California route? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/how-san-francisco-became-failed-city/661199/
Here's a good article on drug prohibition:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/01/doug-casey/the-war-on-some-drugs/
You made Zerohedge, congrats! Great article!
I have often considered the wholesale legalization of drugs. However, the thing I can’t get past is who distributes them? Do we license manufacturers and distributors? Based on our experiences with prescription opioids, the drug companies can’t be trusted with this kind of power over addicts lives. Does the government distribute it? I certainly don’t want to give the government that kind of power over people’s lives. It is less trustworthy than the pharmaceutical companies. Plus, there will have to be some regulations on what can be manufactured and sold. What happens to things that are not legal? Do they continue on the black market? I am not opposed to legalizing drugs, but before we do we need to answer these and other questions. Thanks for helping to move the discussion forward.
Excellent. William F Buckley (someone I disagree with 95% of the time) intelligently made the point that it's not illegal to contract syphilis, but that doesn't mean society encourages contracting syphilis: criminalization is not the only tool to counteract out-of-control behavior. Criminalization is, in fact, the worst tool available, as it is always accompanied by corruption and uneven, arbitrary enforcement.
I think a lot of people are frightened that they themselves would succumb to addiction were it not criminalized. This is a reflection of the poor state of how children are raised nowadays, taught to be obedient automatons rather than mature, self-directed adults. But this problem still does not justify criminalizing drugs, as doing so still results in far worse pathologies than making them legal would.
End the Drug War. Free its incarcerated victims, expunge their records, and compensate them.
I think people miss the point a lot of the time when it comes to drug prohibition or drug "liberation" for want of a better term. One has to look at the reasons why people choose to indulge in drug-taking in the first place. Something like alcohol is generally cultural and actually has health as the historic need (e.g. beer to purify water sources, red wine etc.) But, it's plain to see nowadays that people consume alcohol purely to be drunk, and thus it is like a drug when considered in that context.
The point, therefore, isn't whether alcohol should be legal or illegal; rather, we need to be asking: What has happened to the culture and morality of the people such that they all just want to consume substances to alter their state of mind?
Modernity has a lot to answer for in this regard. People's lives are ostensibly better, but only from a material point of view; modern man is spiritually bankrupt, and has no concept of anything higher than himself and the immediate satisfaction of his own needs and wants. One way of doing so is through drug use, evidently.
When morality is restored and people begin to follow God's law (or natural law) again, I'd expect you'd see a sharp downturn in the consumption of drugs - and this solves all the other problems connected thereto.
History repeats itself! Remember what the 'Bloody Brits the Rothschild Clan' done to the people of China in the19th century? OPIUM WARS!
The DEA will never admit that their interdiction of the CIA's massive drug smuggling is zero.
Actually the CIA is the world's largest (illegal) drug importer. They have the logistical infrastructure already in place along with the "get out of jail free" cards that none of us mere mundanes possesses. What better way to fund the "black projects" that they are so fond of perpetuating. This also keeps the hands of congress away from their budget.
So long as there are late baby boomers relegated to downward mobility & economic marginality raised very moralistically & seeing drugs as an at least initially enjoyable forbidden fruit consumed by people they deem socially inferior there will be plenty of support for an official war on drugs, the more expedient, brutal, peremptory & condign the better no matter the cost.
The lust for consciousness altering substances points to a foundational lack of happiness which relates to economic deprivation.
Nicotine hasn't been outlawed, but lots of laws have been made restricting its use. The result: Vaping was invented. This article makes one wonder, if nicotine were outlawed, what creative means entrepenuers would come up with to meet the demand that heavy smokers would create. Nicotine pills? IV nicotine?
The chart showing the increasing potencies of 5 different drugs is excellent. Makes the pattern very clear.
Families would take better care of their errant members without leaning on the prison bugaboo.