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iamareplicant
Concerned Citizen
Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 8:58 am Post subject: Pleasure police and culture |
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I am new to the board and enjoy reading the posts from all sides of the arguments re: Barry's stance on many issues.
I have some random thoughts after reading a lengthy post from an LEO and maybe they will be of interest.
First, sometimes, there are NOT two sides to the story. Sometimes, there is just the truth. That we still sit here in 2007 debating whether the drug war is a failed and counterproductive policy clearly illuminates the politics, profits, and employment benefits of yet another prohibition (after alcohol's in the '20's) gone wildly astray.
Our current drug prohibition is the perfect machine. It's waste products (violence, murder and corruption) are used as evidence that "drugs" are bad and therefore more support is needed for the drug war. Actually, it is the policies themselves that create the very mayhem that we are told are a result of "drugs." Each time another drug-turf war erupts, politicians and LEOs "crackdown" and make a lot of arrests and seizures that are a must-show on the nightly news. Ah, the Perfect Storm. With the temporary small void of people to sell the substances, and with the temporary small decrease in supply, a queue of people fight to fill the vacancies and obtain the ripe profits created by the "successes" of the crackdown. Often, murder will occur as folks kill one another (and often innocent bystanders) to gain the rights to 1), put themselves in the position of getting arrested for the very same "tough laws" that we are told will "solve" the "drug problem", and 2) grab the ripe profits created by the "successful crackdown" we watched on the news last night. As soon as the violence kicks in because of the above dymanics (and this happens every day), LEO’s respond with some acronym'd task force (C.R.A.S.H, H.E.A.T, etc.) to restore "order" in neighborhoods that resemble the wild west.
These paradigms are not opinion - they are fact.
We also need to look at another fact, which would normally send shock waves through our country, but because of propaganda and politics, have become invisible to the average citizen: our current drug laws make the arrest and incarceration of American citizens profitable. Urine testing, handcuffs, battering rams, prisons, dog trainers, drug detection devices, the DEA, task forces (with overtime), the list is endless; billions of drug-law dollars (and our tax dollars) are at stake every time a someone states that the drug war is wrong, failed, and counterproductive. That we ever got into this mess is, for the informed, worse than anything this country has ever experienced since slavery. The drug war has corrupted, destroyed, or maligned every in its path during its torturous 30-year tenure. Sadly, thousands of jobs and billions on profits are on the line should the government end the insanity. This is what anti-prohibitionists are up against, and this is why it will decades to undo the drug war complex in place today.
We also live in a very strange culture when it comes to pleasure and taste. In the United States, it is legal to box. Yes, box. Boxing is a “sport” where 2 people fight each other, each with the goal of knocking the other person unconscious by way of physical violence. Again, this is a “sport.” The participants are paid millions of dollars generated by the millions of Americans willing to pay to see the event. Not only is boxing legal, the most popular of contestants become American heroes and cultural icons.
Conversely, if two people engage in an act of physical PLEASURE for money, each with the goal to being the other person to sexual climax, they have engaged in criminal activity and can (and often are) sent to jail. Think about something. I can pay to have every single one of my basic needs met EXCEPT the one that brings me the most pleasure. I can pay for my food (a restaurant, for example) rather than having to make it myself. I can pay for my shelter (my home, for example) rather than having to build it myself. I can pay for my medical care(via a doctor) rather than having to take care of health myself. I can pay to have acupuncture, a massage, to have a manicure, a haircut and my teeth cleaned. All of these things are legal. But if I want to pay for one of the basic needs that I have that also happens to bring me the most pleasure, I get to go to jail for it
Prostitution is the polar opposite of boxing; in the former, two people agree to pleasure each other for profit, and in the latter, two people agree to assault each other for profit. Which should be illegal, if either? Better, think about the drug war vis a vis alcohol and tobacco. The former has to do with sending people to maximum security prisons for the rest of their lives for merely talking about the sales of demonized substances (conspiracy laws) , while the latter kills (by the direct use of the substances) more than 4 million people a year world wide (2.5 million die every year from tobacco alone).
OK, my soap box just caved in from my load of b.s., so it is time to go to work. Barry, if you have read this far, thank you for taking the heat that you are taking for merely pointing out the obvious. For those others that continue to support the drug war, I hope you keep reading the posts here and do some research on the net with an open mind.
Last edited by iamareplicant on Sun May 27, 2007 9:06 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Buck
Antiprohibitionist
Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 68
Location: Southern US
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The drug war has corrupted, destroyed, or maligned every in its path during its torturous 30-year tenure. Sadly, thousands of jobs and billions on profits are on the line should the government end the insanity. This is what anti-prohibitionists are up against, and this is why it will decades to undo the drug war complex in place today. |
Exactly! It's almost unfixable I feel sometimes. If you want to know why something is illegal still that shouldn't be just follow the money trail. |
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iamareplicant
Concerned Citizen
Joined: 27 May 2007
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 9:22 am Post subject: |
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I forgot to add one more thing that I wish someone here (that supports the drug war) would answer:
What would you accept as evidence, if anything, that the drug war has failed?
Some tidbits:
The demonized substances are in every town, city, school and prison (and even in the supermax prisons).
We have sent millions to jail, they are overflowing with drug-abstinence offenders, and more are sent everyday.
US drug policies have created the most well organized and violent gangs in the history of the world
The illicit drug market is valued at 150 billion to 400 billion dollars a year in pure profit. This year, that market will make more profit than GM, Microsoft, and Shell oil combined.
The pot grown in California is the number one cash crop
Almost every police dept on US soil has been corrupted to some degree buy illicit drug policies
And finally, with all of the above, I can, today, go to almost any town or city in the US and find any demonized substance I want within an hour of trying
The list goes on and on and on and on and on...
So, I would ask the drug war supporters: what evidence WOULD you take as evidence that the drug war has failed?
I with that someone would ask this in a debate, but alas, no one will debate this subject except those that wish the insanity to end. |
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dawsonspaw
anonymouse tipster
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 398
Location: Somewhere in the temporal space inside my mind
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 7:43 am Post subject: i agree |
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| Very good Debate material,Keep posting such good posts |
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Reauxsted
Antiprohibitionist
Joined: 21 Apr 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:37 am Post subject: |
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Great soapbox material! Too bad there can't be more folks like iamareplicant in charge of things in this nation.
I'd be interested to know how many politicians would even attempt to address such questions. |
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Barry
CEO/NeverGetBusted.Com
Joined: 03 Apr 2007
Posts: 640
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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Very good post and I did read it all. Your prostitution argument is correct. Thanks for taking the time to post logical arguments!!!
The reason debaters who are for the drug war are hard to find on this board is because the debate is over...The War on People has failed. This is the same reason police, judges and prosecutors WILL NOT debate in public on this issue. Why would they debate something that is impossible to win?
Barry |
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IwasArrested
Concerned Citizen
Joined: 06 Jun 2007
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Barry wrote: | | Why would they debate something that is impossible to win? |
The war on drugs is illogical and inhumane; politicians do not debate the issue because:
| iamareplicant wrote: | | our current drug laws make the arrest and incarceration of American citizens [very] profitable. |
The war on drugs (people) continues for one reason, money. $$ for the criminals, and $$ for the enforcers of the WoD. The average non-dealing citizen (user or not) foots the bill. |
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