On Apr 24, 5:39?am, "Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute"


Who cares if someone is hurting themselves?

1. Spouse
2. kids
3. parents
4. friends
5. employer
6. employees
7. creditors
8. innocent drivers encountered in traffic

etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc


"My drug use (which includes the drug alcohol, btw) doesn't affect
anybody but me!" has to be one of the most selfish and shortsighted
statements of the modern era.

We all use drugs or chemicals of some kind for recreational purposes.
Maybe we enjoy the stimulation of a cup of coffee, the relaxation of a
bowl of pot, the rush of a sugar cookie, the taste of a good cigar,
the sweet semi-consciousness of heroin, or the general unwind
associated with the consumption of a few beers. Nearly any of those
vices can ruin your life and profoundly affect the lives of people who
love and depend on you. Some of them can so alter your motor and
perceptions skills that you should not be allowed behind the wheel of
a car or a boat. Some (like tobacco and other substances) so
profoundly alter the user's physiology that the body soon feels
abnormal when not being dosed with a specific poison.

I always find it particularly alarming when I am out on the boat and I
encounter a boatload of drunks (either out on the water or staggering
around a marina). There are so many additional hazards associated with
the marine environment that it's important to have your wits about
you. How many times a year do we see people operating a boat, often at
high speeds, with a bottle of beer in one hand and a steering wheel in
the other? Alcohol is the most abused drug in America and a factor in
an alarming number of boating accidents, deaths, and injuries each
year.

People will use most of these addictive products whether they are
legal or illegal. It's legal to buy rat posion, but few people are
going to run out and buy a box of it and start shoving it into their
mouth with a spoon as a result. Simply legalizing something doesn't
automatically increase consumption- and legalization could help reduce
the allure of various controlled substances among rebellious
youngsters.

We should legalize it all, tax it, and control it. Most of the crime
and violence associated with drug use doesn't occur because the drugs
make people criminal and violent (well, meth maybe) but is present
because we force addicts to do business with violent criminals who are
the current suppliers of many of our perferred addictive substances.

Most of the criminal activity and gang violence associated with the
distribution of liquor ceased when Prohibiton was repealed. The same
would likely prove true for cocaine, marijuana, opiates, etc.

A progressive country would supply addicted individuals as much
substance as needed while at the same time work with these individuals
to help them break the habit. That would be hideously expensive, but
at least a few people would be cured and we wouldn't be dealing with
the billions of dollars each year in social costs and incarcerations
associated with the use or illegal distribution of drugs. As it is, we
are paying all of the social costs without really curing anybody- all
the while maintaining an atmosphere where some of the most vicious
criminal elements in the world can wrack up billions of dollars in
profits. Some of this profit finds it way to Al Qaida and the Taliban-
particularly from heroin.

So hurrah for the USCG's interdiction of this coke shipment. Until we
change our failed policies associated with the "war on drugs",
treating drug addiction like a crime rather than a disease is the only
tool we have to work with. Darn poor tool it is, but it's the only one
in the box.

Meanwhile, boat sober.

It can be important to

Spouse
kids
parents
friends
employer
employees
creditors
innocent boaters encountered on the water

etc, etc, etc,

:-)