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For over a half century, since Harry Anslinger tricked the world into making mind altering drugs illegal in the thirties in order to preserve his job and that of his band of merry perverts...who had been Alcohol Warriors until alcohol prohibition was ended...the USA has been engaged in a costly, futile and totally amoral War on Drugs.
There have been numerous rationales advanced to support this meaningless and stupid effort, usually "supported" by totally spurious "scientific" proof. Over time, people have caught on to a lot of the chicanery being practiced by these disgusting assholes, but they keep coming up with new approaches to maintain their multi-BILLION dollar "crime fighting" empires. And why not? It's a good scam. Invent a crime...namely "unauthorized pleasure"...then build an agency to prevent this basically unpreventable behavior.
One of the latest pieces of "evidence" in this bloated and obscene effort, is the notion that the majority of crimes committed in this country are related to the use or abuse of alcohol and other drugs. The numbers here, which I do not remember exactly, have to do with what percentage of incarcerated prisoners have drug or alcohol "problems." You could expect, given who is collecting these figures and what their stated objectives are in doing so...to increase funding for the prevention of drug use...that is, the prevention of unauthorized pleasure...that the figures are quite substantial.
My question is, "So what?"
What if every locked up person in the world were to "admit" that he or she used drugs before, after or during the commission of some crime? What exactly would this prove? That drug use causes crime? Not at all. An equally sound...or unsound...conclusion, depending upon your point of view, is that crime causes drug use. In fact, I could give some very persuasive arguments (and have, in print), based upon the "Rap Brown Principle" (see: Save the children!) that there is indeed a certain amount of truth to the latter assertion. My experiences in prison (see: Stranger in a strange land...) further reinforce this notion.
The mere fact that one event is highly correlated with another says nothing whatsoever about cause and effect...merely association. Otherwise, we could rightly conclude that breathing causes crime, since ALL criminals breath!
Bullshit peddlers would next assert that the temporal relationship...the use of drugs preceded the criminal acts...establishes causation. Indeed? Then it must be true that being born, or eating baby food, or attending grade school cause criminal behavior. For these acts, in most people, surely precede most crimes committed by the same people.
Anybody who has ever done serious scientific research knows the simple rule that correlation does not equal causation. But CEBBTO's, those who would Control Everybody's Behavior But Their Own, repeatedly deluge us with arguments assuming this very error. I think however, that people are starting to catch on. There are simply too many "causes" for cancer, for drug use, for hair loss, for heart attacks...for whatever somebody wants to sell you something for...to remain plausible much longer. It is time we "just say no" to this nonsense, once and for all...and more and more people are with each passing day.
Why then are the Drug Warriors hauling out such malarkey to set before the public? The conclusion that I draw is that these bozos are running out of any other excuses for the enormous amount of money they routinely spend to no good effect trying to control the behavior of people they have no business trying to control. Having failed to either effectively control crime OR drug use, they are running out of gas. All the arguments for TRYING to control the latter have been or are being exhausted. So why not link them together for one last shot at respectability?
It is still true that many people accept the "leads to" arguments about supposed effects of drug use. But, then again, most of these same people also know of others...their children or their friends...whose drug use has led to nothing more serious than more drug use and often not even that. And, these people are starting to question just why this is anyone's business but the person involved, especially that of heavily armed and dangerous government sponsored (read: taxpayer sponsored) Drug Warriors...who, by the way, seem to make quite a few "mistakes." They often do "kill Kenny" in their efforts to control uncertified pleasure.
But, the DEA raids are not always "mistakes." The most recent issue of Liberty Magazine has an article by Peter McWilliams about a recent raid by the DEA of his house in California, called The DEA Wishes Me a Nice Day. Mr. McWilliams has cancer and AIDS, is a user of medical marijuana, owns a publishing company (Prelude Press) and is the author of a book and many articles advocating the legalization of drugs. None of these are crimes, at least in the state of California, but I strongly urge you to read this article if you wish to get an insight on just how fascistic our federal police have become behind the War on Drugs.
Similarly, there are still those who feel that others need to be "protected" from the dangers of "addiction." Especially children. The recent hoo-rah about cigarette smoking depends heavily on this rationale. Yet, so many people have, by their own choice and effort, chosen to un-addict themselves to tobacco, that the argument for outside intervention is starting to wear quite thin. Also, it is easy to note that children often do things precisely because their elders tell them it is bad for them and dangerous. How then are we "protecting" them by telling them it's SO GOOD they hadn't ought to try it...even once?
After more than fifty years of drug prohibition, we are finally waking up to reality. We have neither the right nor the responsibility to try to control the pleasure seeking behavior of any adult. Our responsibility toward children is to teach them the hazards of IRRESPONSIBLE pleasure seeking (see: USE Marijuana -- Responsibly)...and then, stand aside and hope that we have taught them well. For, they are just adults in the making. "Forbidding" them from doing it has not in the past prevented them from doing it...either as children or as adults...and will not prevent them from doing it in the future. All it will do is cause fear, anxiety and doubt; fear of Gestapo tactics to control us; anxiety about things neither they nor we CAN control; doubt about the sanity of our government. These remain the BIG lessons of prohibition.
So, let's not let the hokum hustlers lead us down yet another primrose path in this grossly stupid endeavor. Refuse to vote for or support anyone who will not immediately call a halt to his or her participation in this hoax. End drug prohibition immediately. Find other ways to control REAL criminal behavior...those actions we ALL find objectionable and quit wasting our time, money and psychic energy on ANYTHING having to do with pleasure. In this hectic world, we can all use as much relief as we can get. Let's not let the baloney barkers steal ours any more. Let them restrict their OWN behavior if that's what they think is right!
Talk to you later...
Willy Chaplin is a man who calls himself a libertarian and thinks he has something to say to us all. This rant was previously published on How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?
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