Tuesday, August 09, 2005

He Saved Me the Trouble: Michael Reynolds on the Drug War

You'll notice, dear readers, that I will intermittently fawn over Michael Reynolds. I love what he says (even when I disagree, which is typically rare), and I especially love how he says it.

Today, he offers his meat & potato, common sense take on the Drug War. Among my ever-growing list of topics to cover was this one, but I'll happily just refer you to his treatise and simply say, "Ditto".

People used drugs before the war on drugs, they use drugs today. They drank before, during, and after Prohibition. But only during Prohibition did they machine gun each other over a barrel of beer. Before Prohibition we had a big old bunch of drunks, and after Prohibition we had a big old bunch of drunks. During Prohibition we had a big old bunch of drunks, plus the Mafia, bootlegging, smuggling, massive bribery and corruption, swelling prisons, curtailing of civil liberties, and gang turf wars.

Prohibition is identical to the drug war. Identical stupidity. Same motives, same excuses, same failure, same horrendous side effects. There is no good reason to continue this insanity. None. It is, as I said earlier, stupid, self-defeating and un-American. We Americans used to know how to undo our mistakes. Somewhere along the road we lost that wisdom.

Enjoy.

2 comments:

Cantankerous Bitch said...

Well, you're Somebody here, Les. Whether or not this will be a pleasurable experience for you, remains to be seen. :)~ I trust you'll find the busier entries, and look forward to your contributions to future ones. Welcome.

Cantankerous Bitch said...

Well, I can promise you there's no "agreement", aside from his initial offer to list us in his blogroll and give a mention when the opportunity arose. That he's given us a nod beyond that is obviously due to the overwhelmingly sage commentary to be found here, of course. -wink-
Seriously, I'm grateful for the nod, regardless of reason. And I just really dig his perspective (feels comfy like an old pair of well-worn Levis). While the whole world reads Instapundit and Daily Kos, I figure, why not point some eyeballs Michael's way. :)