TheAgitator.com
How ‘Bout Some Good News?
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Argentina has decriminalized the consumption of illicit drugs. That seems like good news.
And Alaska’s appeals court says it will no longer tolerate “implicitly coercive” searches during traffic stops. That’s good news, too.
Both places, by the way, are marvelous vacation destinations.
See, if there were an honest debate going on about the necessity (or lack there of) about the drug war, this action by Argentina would be the perfect experiment to draw solid conclusions from. I doubt any will be.
Maybe after a few years, as Argentina spends millions and millions less every year in court fees, prison costs, and police expenses (not to mention that crime rates will automatically drop), someone will be able to use those figures, at least percentage-wise, to justify a similar move here in the US.
I have a feeling it will be Barney Frank and the bill will stall before it gets to the floor, but at least it will be out in the public domain.
This is great news for Argentina, but to me there’s no question that O’Reilly, Hannity, and the rest of the troglodytic right wing chattering class will just use this as further evidence that all advocates of legalization are communists/socialists/leftists, “like the ones in Argentina.”
LOLLOL… wait until the states’ rights Repubs find out they are being thwarted by a State court iterpeting its state’s privacy laws. They’ll quickly find a way to argue that the Federal government supercedes it just like they are arguing in medical marijuana, emissions control, etc.
Edmund,
Don’t blame repubs for this, harassing citizens during traffic stops for drugs is a bi-partisan effort.
BTW, Good for Alaska for just saying “no”
It’s embarassing to say that we in Alaska were so concerned that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights may be subverted so easily and had to write our own right to privacy. It’s encouraging that several times over the years our courts have found the strength to defy the feds in it’s attempts to subvert true federalism.
I’m not blaming them for it alone. I’m just jumping the gun on what will be their predictable reaction. Suddenly the people that claim states rights left and right will suddenly find themselves arguing for Federal supremacy just like they did on emissions control, medical marijuana, etc…
There’s another reason why Argentina is doing this, and it’s purely economic: a DrugWar, any DrugWar, is essentially a net loss for the citizens who pay for it. Only after government costs for basic issues of infrastructure maintenance, defense, etc. have been satisfied can a government engage in the kind of wastefulness that a DrugWar is symptomatic of. In essence, a DrugWar is the equivalent of a ‘rich man’s hobby’, like yachting.
So…when a country isn’t rich enough to afford that DrugWar anymore, well, that country has few choices but to bow to the inevitable. As Argentina has today, and the US will have to tomorrow, for we are no longer so rich, not when we have to borrow money from former enemies whose future regional plans don’t include US interference. A sure sign of this has been the slow, steady change in rhetoric, from from wide-eyed, spittle-flecking, fire-breathing talk about being “Tough on drugs!” to the less belligerant “Smart on drugs”. The reality of impending fiscal collapse is slowly seeping in, and the rhetoric is mirroring that. But it may take that collapse, as it did the last time this kind of thing happened, to finally put a stake through the heart of drug prohibition.
what will be do with all the empty prisons?
Well, where I live, the prisons are horribly overcrowded, and the new ones are being built by private firms. So, my guess is we’ll have a little more room than necessary for the real criminals, and we’ll put those poor, hardworking prison companies out of business. The rest of the prisons we can make into historical monuments to the barbarity of many of this country’s policies, like Alcatraz or infamous mental institutions.
I thought you all would enjoy something I just found at work — a National Institutes of Health grant to study “Cannabis Related Disorders”. From the RFP:
“They include the Cannabis Use Disorders (CUDs) such cannabis abuse and dependence, the Cannabis Induced Disorders (CIDs) such as intoxication, psychosis, and anxiety, as well as the comorbidity of these disorders with other medical and psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression). Cannabis use includes marijuana, hashish, and other tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) containing substances. NIDA is encouraging research in this area because there is a high prevalence of marijuana use in the general population accompanied with an increasing misperception that its use poses low health risk, there is limited research in this area, and there are no effective pharmacological treatments available for these disorders.”
I don’t even know how to comment…so many things wrong with this…
Verify at: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=LS3VNRCHjfZQTJbHB0CPSvRW1hLWXMvWtPHt2R7wdVFpsNd18nzp!1967646422?oppId=13635&flag2006=true&mode=VIEW
The link is busted…just go to grants.gov and search “cannabis”; you’ll find it.