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How Do We Deal with the Drug Problem?
1.
Drugs
It
is
possible
to
stop
most
drug
addiction
in
the
United
States
within
a
very
short
time.
Simply
make all drugs
available and sell them at cost. Label each drug
with a precise description of what
effect the drug will have on the taker.
This will require heroic honesty.
Don’t
say that marijuana is
addictive
and
dangerous
when
it
is
neither----unlike
“
speed,
”
which
kills
most
unpleasantly,
or
heroin, which is addictive and
difficult to kick.
For the
record, I have tried almost every drug and liked
none, disproving the popular theory that
a whiff of opium will enslave the mind.
Nevertheless many drugs are bad and they should be
told
why in a sensible way.
Along with exhortation and warning,
it might
be good for
our citizens to recall that the United
States was the creation of men who
believed that each man has the right to
do what he wants
with his
own life as long as he does not interfere with his
neighbor
’
s pursuit of
happiness.
Now one can hear the warning
rumble begin: If everyone is allowed to take drugs
everyone will
and we shall end
up a race of Zombies. Alarming thought.
Yet, it seems most
unlikely that any
reasonably sane person will become a
drug addict if he knows in advance what addiction
is going
to be like.
Is
everyone
reasonably
sane?
No.
some
people
will
always
become
drug
addicts
just
as
some
people
will always become alcoholics, and it is just too
band. Every man, however, has the power
(and
should
have
the
legal
right
) to
kill
himself
if
he
chooses.
But
since
most
men
don
’
t,
they
won
’
t be
mainliners either. Nevertheless, forbidding
people things they like
or
think they might
enjoy
only
makes
them
want
those
things
all
the
more.
This
psychological
insight
is,
for
some
mysterious reason, always denied our
governors.
It
is
a
lucky
thing
for
the
American
moralist
that
we
have
no
public
memory
of
anything
that
happened
last
Tuesday.
No
one
in
Washington
today
recalls
what
happened
during
the
years
alcohol was forbidden to the people by
a Congress that thought it had a divine mission to
stamp
out
Demon
Rum---launching,
in
the
process,
the
greatest
crime
wave
in
the
country
’
s
history,
causing thousands
of deaths from bad alcohol, and creating a general
( and persisting ) contempt
among the
citizenry for laws of the United States.
The same thing is happening today. But
the government has learned nothing from past
attempts
at prohibition.
Last year when the supply of marijuana
was slightly reduced by the Feds, the pushers got
the kids
hooked on heroin and deaths
increased dramatically. Whose fault? I think the
Government of the
United States was
responsible for those deaths. The bureaucratic
machine has a vested interest in
playing cops and robbers. Both the
Bureau of Narcotics and the Mafia want strong laws
against
the
sale
and
use
of
drugs
because
if
drugs
are
sold
at
cost
there
would
be
no
money
in
it
for
anyone.
If
there was no money in it for the Mafia, there
would be no friendly
playground
pushers.
And
addicts would
not commit crimes to pay for the next fix.
Finally, if there was no money in it, the
Bureau of Narcotics would wither away,
something they are not about to do without a
struggle.
Will anything
sensible be
done? Of course not. The
American people are as devoted to the idea
of
sin
and
its
punishment
as
they
are
to
making
money----and
fighting
drugs
is
nearly
as
big
a