Look At It This Way

Interesting article. It kind of goes with Max Weber's thinking in "The Protestant Ethic", for those not familiar with the book, his argument basically states (note: i am definitely NOT stating a view on any religion)

-Before the rise of Protestantism in Germany, there was little worker-bee lifestyles in Europe.
-Protestants believed that each person was either destined to go to Heaven or Hell, and if they were pre-destined for Heaven it could be seen in their work ethic. If they were destined for Hell, they will have a lazy personality.
-This caused a large movement of people trying to prove that they were destined for Heaven - and doing so by working as hard as they could
-The Industrial Revolution (which more or less began in Germany) was said to have been influenced by this new Protestant work ethic (protestantism was widespread in Germany and later England) Look at the lifestyle of those countries vs. the laid-back lifestyle of largely catholic Spain and Italy

What's interesting is that this attitude of a deeper judgement of a persons character through his work-ethic, and inversely having the need to prove yourself as a worth-while professional, still lingers in our society. and this can vividly be seen in the drug market. Most drugs that will INCREASE amount of work are allowed and borderline celebrated - like you said coffee, and also perscription drugs such as Adderral, anything that makes people increase their production. Most other drugs that will make people resist working 40 hour weeks are outlawed. Cocaine was originally legal and given to factory workers, but after some years they realized the addictive nature of the drug and how it ultimately decreases work production, so it was outlawed. just some thoughts

Debaters debate the two wars as if Nixon’s civil war on Woodstock Nation did not yet run amok. The witch-hunt against the half-a-million strong witches assembled in August 1969 hasn’t been and can’t be good for America, the world-leader in percentile behind bars. If we are all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance credibility.

America should stop throwing good money after bad. The witch-hunt doctor’s Rx is for every bust to numerate a bigger tax-load over a smaller denominator of payers. Spend more on prisons than on schools. My witch’s second opinion is to grow your own. More consumer discretionary dollars will stimulate the rest of the economy when they are not depleted by prohibition’s black market.

Only a clause about interstate commerce provides a shred of constitutionality. The policy on the number-one cash crop in the land is no taxation; yes eradication; but money to frustrate enforcement grows on trees. The authors of the Constitution never intended to divert tax revenue to outlaws. America rejected prohibition, but its back. Swat teams don’t seem to need no stinking amendment.

The demonized substances never had their day in court. Nixon promised to supply supporting evidence later. Later, the Commission evidence didn’t support, but no matter. The witch-hunt was on. No amendments can assure due-process under an anti-science law that never had any due-process itself. Science hailed LSD as a drug with breakthrough potential, until the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) halted all research. Marijuana has no medical use, period. Lives are flushed down expensive tubes.

The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) makes an exception to the CSA allowing the Native American Church to eat peyote. A specific church membership should not be prerequisite for Americans to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. Denial of entheogen sacrament to any American, for mediation of communion twixt the soul and the source of souls, violates the First Amendment.

Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate a governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? Politicians who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.

Common Law must hold that the people are the legal owners of their own bodies. Socrates advocates knowing your self. Mortal law should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Those who appreciate their own free choice of personal path in life should not deny self-exploration to seekers. The right to the pursuit of happiness is supposed to be inalienable by government.

Simple majorities in each house could put repeal of the CSA on the president’s desk. The books have ample law on them without the CSA. Americans are already liable for damages when they screw-up. The usual caveats remain in effect. Strong medicine requires prescription. Employees can be fired for poor job performance. No harm, no foul; and no excuse, either. Replace the war on drugs with a frugal, constitutional, science-based, drugs policy.

You're attributing to malice something which can be adequately explained by a combination of foolishness, the conservative villain-punishing urge, and political pandering. I find this explanation simpler and more plausible.

A central thread in conservative thought is the desire to solve all problems by identifying the bad guy and punishing him. Problems in the Middle East? Don't bother thinking about the politics of the area; just attack the bad guys. Don't like evolution? Attack scientists as elitist conspirators. Homelessness problems? Attack "welfare queens" and maybe it'll help the situation, somehow!

When the US first started criminalizing drugs, they always had another reason. Chinese people and their opium were scary, so laws were passed which forbade Chinese people to deal in opium. Cocaine was prohibited after a media sensation about the evil "Negro cocaine fiends" who were the new menace of the South. Marijuana was restricted. But drug prohibition didn't begin in earnest until about the time a troublesome counterculture started using them heavily. The hippies were a Problem, and they tended to use drugs like pot and LSD, so obviously those substances had to be banned. And soon they were.

Although the original impetus for banning drugs has faded, the War on Drugs is now a self-sustaining phenomenon. Drug prohibition has led to drug crime. The proper conservative answer to drug crime is to crack down harder on it, and try to find villains. Sometimes the villain is a most-fictional drug pusher, who offers the first one free. Sometimes the villain is a crack dealer, usually black, who is allegedly raking in the cash. Sometimes the villains are the foreign drug gangs providing the drugs (who, our leaders assure us, may also be terrorists).

And so the drug war perpetuates itself: it started out of reactions to other problems, and it continues because it is seen as the solution to the problems it creates. There's no need to invoke a conspiracy to explain it; this is just social politics at its most ugly.

yeah i used to think i was cool too. but then i realized that the end does not justify the means.

Your assessment of the War on Drugs is spot on. I wish to contribute some information about the associated War on Pain Doctors. I have intimate information, since I was a pain doctor and am now facing 23 bogus felony drug charges and life in prison, all for prescribing real pain medicine to pain patients who clearly needed it in order to be able to function, even to continue their life. The govt is desperately frightened that 600,000 doctors will commence prescribing effective pain meds to 100 of their patients who require them, providing legal relief to the estimated 50 million pain patients in this country. Most importantly, these 50 million chronic pain sufferers will not have to obtain pain pills from street venders controlled by the DEA, since they can get their meds from a pharmacy. Many pain patients spend up to $1000 per month buying street pills (for meds which would cost about $100 at a pharmacy), which adds up to a staggering $500 billion per year black market, serious money even by today's Wall Street bailout standards. This explains why the govt is willing to throw innocent doctors in jail for life, to end their threat to the cozy govt-controlled black market, and to terrorize all other doctors who might consider actually treating their pain patients with real medicine.