Thanks for that link. I watched it and found it to be effective and even-handed. It didn’t glorify drugs, and the scene where the rave girl overdoses was appropriate. As the pro-legalization people said, drugs are dangerous, which is precisely why we should not leave this market in the hands of gangsters. If properly regulated, for health and safety of the consumer, this could drastically improve our society’s response to drugs. Francis Wilkinson, by the way, if a retired police officer and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), one of the most exciting anti-prohibition organizations out there.

To answer the question posed by the officer you know, I would only say, this will be better for the profession if we end this ugly phase of law enforcement history ASAP. Don’t let a protectionist mindset cloud your judgement on this. Think about this as a citizen, not just a police officer. I think the former Police Chief in New Haven, CT (I believe his name is Dean Esserman) said it best: “We don’t need more police, we need to police better.”
If the police weren’t dealing with the pathologies spawned by open drug markets, they could be much more creative and much more responsive to the communities they serve. Also, as crime rates drop (and they will), agencies could be more selective when searching for recruits. Recruits with significant life experience and solid educations may replace action junkies and trigger happy douche bags. Those guys might not find the new style of policing exciting enough, after all. There will be more emphasis on problem-solving and less on robotic enforcement measures. I would encourage Agitator readers who want to learn more about what law enforcement could do in a post-prohibtion world to read “Cop in the Hood” by Peter Moskos.

My experience with libertarianism suggest that, with occasional exceptions, encounters between women and men @ libertarian events are rather like those between women and men @ science fiction conventions. 9 times out of 10, it goes like this:

Guy: Wo-man pretty.

(Woman looks for nearest exit, sees it, beats hasty retreat.)

As I say, there are exceptions to the rule. Otherwise, libertarians (and SF fans) would never reproduce. And, obviously, they do.

I would expect a similar thing to happen with local law enforcement and the DEA. And, that’s assuming that those groups don’t pool their power to prevent any meaningful reform of criminal drug laws. There is some irony in that the biggest beneficiaries from drug criminalization are police and drug dealers. The biggest victims are – oh, that’s right, everyone reading this is already at TheAgitator.com.

Canadians are taking to the streets, we just put up with it. Sad.

I was talking last year with a police officer that I know, and he’s pretty much against the drug war. And he actually brought this point up. He said, and I’m paraphrasing, “a lot of us think this needs to stop, but there’s this feeling of what would we do then?”

The fact is that if we quit the drug war, our police forces would be overstaffed. I still believe that 50% of the people who are now arrested for drug offenses would find something else stupid and illegal to do, but at least we could quit acting like some dried plant leaves are enough of an emergency that it requires knocking doors in and shooting dogs to make sure they’re not flushed down the toilet.

I’m sorry I missed it.

Fixed it for ya.

Uh-oh. How long before the SWAT team breaks down HIS door for those great “drugs” he’s got now?

So, how do you tell if the heavily armed masked men crashing through your door in the wee hours of the morning are thieves disguised as police, or real police executing a completely legal “no-knock” search warrant?

It’s a rather important question. If they are thieves, you have every right to grab your gun and defend your family. But if they are police, and you do the same, then you are quite likely to be pronounced dead at the scene.

Oh, and you only have a few seconds to make the right call…

Here’s a hint….

If the home invaders immediately shoot your dogs, they probably aren’t criminals.

Might have something to do with the fact that libertarian men generally act like morons around women.

Speak for yourself, Radley. I do just fine with the ladies of all stripes (my current girlfriend is a European socialist).

That guy needs a sense of humor though.

Funny how as one gets older, recklessly risking life and limb is less appealing. Seems like it should be the other way around. After having lived the bulk of your life, you have less to lose.