[Vision2020] Nobel Libertarian Economist Friedman: Drug War As A Socialist Enterprise

[Ted Moffett]

Paul et. al.

The most commonly used physically addictive drug that induces more
disease than all other drug use combined is nicotine in tobacco,
available to under age users everywhere with very little effort.  I
see under age smokers on the streets of Moscow commonly.

And as far as drug use associated with the commission of crime,
alcohol use is associated with the commission of more crimes while
under the influence, than any other drug...More robberies, rape,
murder etc. are committed by someone using alcohol, than any other
drug, and when including drunk driving crime, the numbers are
staggering.

Also, abuse of prescription pharmaceuticals has become far more
widespread, in part because of the aura of medical acceptance, and the
massive advertising campaigns of the pharmaceutical companies, who
have literally become profiteering drug pushers encouraging a degree
of use of pharmaceuticals that is not justified by the objective
approach of treatment or prevention of illness or disease.
Prescription drugs are now commonly used as modifiers of emotion,
consciousness, and behavior, that has more to do with adjusting an
individual to the demands of modern life, than treating or preventing
objective medically diagnosed illness or disease.  The age of Soma
from Huxley's "Brave New World," perhaps like the "happy drug" Prozac,
is now upon us.

Of course much of the "crime" associated with illegal drug use is
created by the fact of illegality.  Legalize cannabis, for example,
and a huge segment of drug crime for those producing, transporting
selling, using or possessing cannabis would disappear.

Nobel prize economist Milton Friedman's arguments opposing the "War on
Drugs" are compelling:

http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/socialist.htm

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/337.html

http://www.fff.org/freedom/0490e.asp

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett


On 12/28/07, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've always thought that if you take the money out of the illegal drug
> trade, you take away the crime as well.  Just make marijuana legally
> available wherever cigarettes are sold.  Make the harder stuff available
> through  some kind of system with some controls in place to ensure that
> people don't get a lethal dose.  Addicts won't have to take up a life of
> crime to get their fix, there will be little to no reason for gangland
> turf wars over this stuff, because there will be little profit in it.
> Plus, our prison population will decrease, saving more money.
>
> It means that if you really want to try some highly-addictive drug
> you'll be able to much more easily.  Many people will, and their lives
> will not be pretty.  If they combine this with a voluntary system that
> will decrease the doses over time in order to quit, it might be a
> mistake that can be undone in some cases.
>
> I still think that's better than the crime-ridden situation we have now.
>
> Paul
>
> lfalen wrote:
> > Ted
> > You are correct in that the war on drugs is a joke.
> > Roger
> > -----Original message-----
> > From: "Ted Moffett" starbliss at gmail.com
> > Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:42:46 -0800
> > To: "Paul Rumelhart" godshatter at yahoo.com
> > Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Why are Pocatello's on-line respondents so civil?
> >
> >
> >> Paul et. al.
> >>
> >> Of course, chemical devil's advocates are numerous, wealthy, and on
> >> the move...Your efforts are a mere speck of sand on an infinite
> >> shore...
> >>
> >> The "War On Drugs" is a joke, an oppressive draconian ruse against a
> >> policy (promotion of drug use as a solution to the human condition)
> >> that is widely adopted as mainstream, promoted by the medical and
> >> psychiatric profit oriented clergy, even more incredibly by the
> >> alcohol and tobacco dealers who are associated with more death and
> >> disease than all illegal drugs combined many times over.
> >>
> >> A quick survey of the advertising landscape reveals just how much the
> >> pharmaceutical gurus think we must have soporific drugs (Ambien),
> >> drugs to improve our social relations (anti-anxiety, Paxil), drugs for
> >> enhanced sexuality (Cialis, Viagra, as if human sexual impulses need
> >> encouragement?), drugs to suppress the normal impulses of children to
> >> express their animality, their impulses to play and be physical
> >> (Ritalin), to keep them contained in their seats while bored to death
> >> in classrooms.  Millions is spent to convince you that alcohol will
> >> enhance your image in the marketplace of human social relations, and
> >> the insidious addiction to tobacco (nicotine), well, this can be
> >> satisfied at your local supermarket, as though they were dispensing
> >> heroin.
> >>
> >> And now, on to the drug induced horror of interrogation of a rendered
> >> detainee in some God forsaken hidden torture chamber, to keep us safe
> >> in the "War On Terror," which makes the "War On Drugs" look like a
> >> kindergarten propaganda and law enforcement effort...
> >>
> >> Habeas Corpus?
> >>
> >> Ted Moffett
> >>
> >> On 12/22/07, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Alright.  I admit it.  It's me.  I've been dumping low levels of
> >>> anabolic steroids into the water supply for months.  Not enough to turn
> >>> you all into Arnold Schwarzeneggers, but just enough to raise the
> >>> inherent aggressiveness caused by long-term exposure to that particular
> >>> drug.
> >>>
> >>> I thought it would be fun.  I'd just kick back, guzzle Diet Mountain Dew
> >>> out of sealed bottles, and watch the fireworks.  Maybe throw in an
> >>> innocent-sounding post or two that was calculated to push some people's
> >>> buttons.  Nothing too crazy, just something small to, you know, shake
> >>> things up a little bit.  Maybe mention Doug Wilson in an off-hand sort
> >>> of way.  Or global warming.  And it was fun.  For a while.  But then it
> >>> just kept going, and going, and going long after I ran out of
> >>> water-soluble steroid pills.  Apparently, some of the mood swings
> >>> associated with steroids take a long time to dissipate.  Who knew?
> >>>
> >>> Just be glad I didn't go with my first idea.  Yup, that's right.  Viagra.
> >>>
> >>> Paul
> >>>
> >>