[Preechr]

Y'know... Operating a 3,000 pound vehicle at 70 miles per hour five feet away from someone else doing the same thing in the opposite direction is also very dangerous. That's why we get our government to enforce requirements on folks in trade for the priveledge of using the roads we share. We have to take tests and carry a license, which needs to be renewed regularly and can be taken away at the state's option for any reason.

If the War on Some Drugs stretches out another 10 years, we'll have likely spent another $600 Billion with no more results than we have to show for the hundreds of Billions of dollars we've spent on it so far. Any person that reads this could find and purchase just about any illegal drug they wanted within 48 hours of now if they set out to, without having to actually know a "dealer" ahead of time. How are we any safer from prohibition?

The Some Drug War folks know they're fighting a losing battle. They've hidden the true costs of fighting the war by excluding the costs of incarceration and rehab for the violent potheads, etc... their dragnet snares. We're not to question the costs. We're only supposed to believe the myth that the evil drugs must be fought. With the money we spend fighting the good fight, we could buy most if not all of the world's drugs at the source and dump them in the ocean if we wanted. The goal is decidedly NOT to eleiminate drugs here, folks. They have to lie about the costs of their war, as well as the effects of pot and their goals in the war, to keep us from forcing them to "think of the chiddren" in a more responsible fashion.

Yes, yes... Drug legalization could only mean that at midnight all the heart surgeons and judges... even the president probably... would become crack addicts, and the moon would surely crash into to earth and we'd all die, right? Why does no one consider the option of responsibly legalizing and licensing drug use and sales?

Instead of "cracking down" on every single resident of this country (and most others, actually,) we could focus on enforcement for only those wishing to sell drugs to the public. All that energy being wasted on everyone could be focused on only the "dealers." If drugs were sold to an unlicensed or improperly licensed individual, the dealer would be subject to revocation of their seller's license, fines and jail, with no action taken toward the purchaser.

We already have laws against using alcohol while doing anything you shouldn't do while intoxicated. I promise you that if you left your office right now and were caught raging on PCP, driving down the freeway, ramming into random cars, you'd go to jail. Why would that change after the end of the WOSD? If you commit a crime, you pay the penalty. If you are high when you do it, you face a stiffer sentence. All forms of negligence are already subject to laws. The state of a perp's intoxication is only a sentencing factor.

Want to smoke pot legally? Take a class, pass a test and receive a one-year license subject to monthly visits to or by a counselor. Wanna be a junkie? Herion is a much more dangerous drug, so the license requirements would be higher and the term shorter... and I'd assume you'd have to pre-pay for the rehab you'll need with the license fee as well. If the FDA could figure out a recipe for "safe" methamphetamines, I suppose you could get a tweaker license, too, subject to responsible regulation just like the rest.

None of this is to say employers would be barred from testing for drug use, but I'd bet they'd develop policies for weekend usage. Ricky would likely be in the same position if drugs were legalized. I'm also not suggesting total legalization happen overnight. I don't want the moon to crash into NYC any more than you do... All I'm saying is that the WOSD is simply not working and it never will, so to not consider other options is stupid. Is the best thing we can think of to correct a problem declaring war on it? If so, we might as well all get and stay high now.

In case you're wondering, I don't do drugs and wouldn't if they were legal... Well... maybe the occasional bowl or trip. Not every day, anyways... I just don't appreciate the idea that being in the general area of a pot seed should land me in jail, as if pure-evil radiated from drugs somehow, infecting everything within a certain distance. How can we hope to ever live in a responsible free society when the basis for removing anyone's freedom is that there are things you can be near or touch that we are terrified of? We don't prosecute everyone found near a murdered person, do we? It's not yet even a crime to hold a tool capable of ending someone's life. To make effective laws we can't be too scared to look at crime objectively. The War on Some Drugs is running away from the problem, and I worry that it's main goal is to profit from the suffering of others.