| HappySqurriel said:
Not everyone who dislikes big government supports government intervention to prevent drug usage ... Beyond that, the insane level or partisanship in our political system forces people to take a lot of inconsistent positions on a lot of issues. Many people (like myself) see the war on drugs and gun control to be fairly similar issues, and think that it is amazing that so many people will argue that making one illegal won't prevent people from having access to it while promoting more (and more strict) laws on the other. |
You are right. That is the Jeffersonian style conservatism that I am much more comfortable with than the military hawkish form of modern conservatism that has overwhelmed the Republican Party.
I am not advocating making guns illegal, but I am for strict regulations on them. Even most police officers are pro-gun control. They get shot at by people armed with automatic weapons and modified guns that are more dangerous than the original. I am sorry, but there is no need for people to have automatic weapons to hunt or even to protect yourself. The average person would shoot up their own home and likely kill a family member if they tried to use an automatic weapon to stop an intruder.
There is strong statistical evidence that even the presence of a gun in a home increases the likelihood of a death in the home significantly. People have the right to bear arms, but that right isn't unlimited. I'm not for banning guns, but having guns around is much more dangerous than having marijuana around.
Hell, violent crime would probably go DOWN if marijuana was legalized. 1) People would substitute it for some of the drugs that directly cause criminal behavior, like alcohol, cocaine, meth, heroin, etc. 2) Organized crime and drug cartels would lose a MAJOR source of their income. The effect of outlawing marijuana has really been no different than the effect of Prohibition. It encourages a general disregard for the law and creates a thriving black market for something that has a huge demand.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
