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U.S. Coast Guard Makes Biggest Cocaine Bust in U.S. History
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, :-) |
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