However, apart from libertarian, anti-paternalistic considerations of letting people go to hell their own way, we've tried prohibition, and it doesn't work. We tried it with alcohol and got Capone and the Mafia -- biggest boon they ever had. We are trying it with coke, opiates, pot, etc., and we get large scale organized crime plus lots of street crime plus, an increase in the prison population that is nearly an order of magnitude in the last 25 years?
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
> >Did not I acknowledged that in my posting? I
> disagree
> >with you, however, that drugs - or alcohol - are
> >violence and social cost free. Cocaine often
> produces
> >violent outbursts. Opium derivatives (morphine,
> >heroine) are addictive, and addiction can have
> quite
> >adverse effect on the addict and his/her family,
> >including violent outbursts (esp. during
> withdrawal).
> > Even pot, which indeed is quite benign and
> soporific,
> >in some individuals it can produce paranoid
> reactions,
> >extreme agitation and irritability, which may
> trigger
> >violence.
>
> So if drugs cause criminal behavior, the crimes
> themselves can be
> punished. Why criminalize the drugs, which normally
> don't cause
> criminal behavior?
>
> Doug
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