The simple fact is this: that the laws prohibiting the use of various drugs by consenting adults are overly-broad, and arbitrarily enforced legislation which violates the fundamental rights and liberties of individual citizens. Prohibition is a witch-hunt, pure and simple. What complicates the issue is public prejudice, which is fueled by widespread ignorance, and perpetuated by the fear which is dispensed to us daily by our illustrious leaders through the national and international media, in the form of a carefully engineered propaganda campaign. Its hidden purpose is to convince the gullible majority that they should:
1. Put their trust in our corporate-controlled government
and
2. Be suspicious of their next door neighbors.
Those who are wise, however, do well remember that all "Free" nations are founded upon the directly opposite principle.
=-=
"In 2004, a presidential initiative called the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health issued a report calling for forced mental health screening for all American children, beginning in preschool. . . .
Before considering just how outrageous this proposal is, let us consider the obvious beneficiary of such a program: the pharmaceutical industry. There can be little doubt that under such a program, millions more children would suddenly be discovered to be in need of psychotropic drugs. . . .
Is this a good thing? We have reason to be skeptical. We have no idea what the long-term side effects of the use of such drugs in children, whose brains are still developing, will be. Medical science has not even exhaustively identified every possible brain chemical, even as we alter youngsters' brains with drugs. Short-term side effects are already apparent in many children, yet parents have actually been threatened with child-abuse charges if they refuse to drug their children."
Ron Paul, M.D.
From, "The Revolution - A Manifesto"
Ken Pisanoof VA8:22PM August 16, 2008
Yes, it is not only the dealers, smugglers, and "drug kingpins", who profit from the illegal drug trade, but also many bankers, businessmen, corrupt investigators, enforcers, legislators, or other officials who may receive payoffs, kickbacks, protection money, or other favors for either laundering money, discreet neglections of duty, or by insuring the preservation of the present laws which, by their very nature insure that these high profits will continue.
Another group of profiteers includes those offices and officers who may not be corrupt, but whose jobs are related to, or directly dependent upon, the illegal drug trade and its primary operations. These people openly profit from the industry through their employment as investigators, enforcement officers, prosecutors, and others. Indeed, those who work in the DEA, public / private drug testing labs, and various narcotics bureaus, may stand to lose their jobs if drugs were legalized. Although I believe that a small few would readily forfeit their careers for the greater public good, I am sure that many of them would be saddened to do so.
kbman of OR, you must realize that what you & I see as the intolerable adverse effects of prohibition are, in reality, exactly what must be desired by prohibition's most powerful and vociferous proponents. For these effects only serve to give added impetus to their arguments for bigger budgets and "tougher" laws, which, in turn, translates into more power for them, more misery for the rest of us.
The threat to the public at large has no more to do with drug use per se than it does with the use of alcohol or tobacco, which are both highly addictive substances which can not only kill the user, but through his abuse, negligence, or recklessness, can also injure or kill others. Instead, the real public threat is caused by the "war on drugs" itself, when innocent people are caught in the crossfire between those who supply and use drugs, and the law enforcement agents who are sent to arrest them by overzealous legislators, executive officers, and others who are attempting to broadly apply the law to dictate morality, reap obscenely huge profits, and regulate the private behavior of individual citizens.
Ken Pisanoof VA8:17PM August 16, 2008
Dear Prohibitionists like Fatesrider of CA, and Common Sense of PA,
How about you guys show me all of the "victims" of drug use. Show me the oft' referred to "millions" of these "brain dead vegetables" of yours who are supposedly "filling" hospitals and graveyards with their "hideously depraved carcasses". Show me a large enough number of such poor souls that would adequately justify the turning of the Constitution on its ear, and making a police state out of what was previously supposed to be a "free" nation, but is now a nation where sick people have to hide away in dark corners to take their needed medicine, afraid of being beaten and arrested by those who are supposedly there "to protect and to serve"; where good honest people must be willing to drop their pants and urinate on command in order to make a simple living; where common citizens live behind locked doors in fear of their next door neighbors, and the building of prisons outpaces the construction of schools. Show me percentages that back up the claims of people like you who believe the "scourge" of drug use is so bad that we must consider declaring martial law, and calling out the military to attack the "problem". My God! The numbers must be staggering!
Where is the rank odor of decay that should be wafting through the streets and avenues of every corner of the country from this overwhelming calamity? Where are the hospital wards that should be filled to bursting with the participants of the "evil" trade? Where are we disposing of the blood and guts of such outrageous carnage? Show me the bodies! I want to see. Give me a hint; a clue; a link; where the photos and statistics may be found, so that I, and others, may review them, and thereby feel good about surrendering our precious fundamental rights, and those of our children, to the "greater good" of a "drug-free" world. Do this, because when I look around <<crickets chirping>> the "problem" your kind talks about just doesn't seem to be that bad!
Of course the above sarcasm was meant to imply that there is absolutely NO such crisis going on in the U.S. or elsewhere which justifies all of the hysteria surrounding the so-called, "war on drugs". It is a sham, and a phantasm, practically created out of thin air by politicians, organized crime, big business, and law enforcement, in order to reap a profit from prohibition. The war on drugs has always been based upon greed, apathy, sadism, ignorance, and hypocrisy. Real people WANT change. It is only the thoroughly entrenched, and powerful forces of government, backed by multinational corporate interests that are behind this unprecedented war against sanity and reason. This is clearly because those who are secretly profiting from the illegal drug trade would undoubtedly be some of the most fervent opponents of any suggestion to legalize these drugs, because it would quickly destroy their highly profitable underground industry.
Ken Pisanoof VA8:05PM August 16, 2008
It's not about the test...it's about a road of communication.
Solution - go to wwww.knowdrugtest.com. They have a drug test that sits on the fridge with a magnet...everyday my kids walk by it's a reminder. Everyday that they are approached with peer pressure that have an out. When their friends walk through our house they see it! It's very powerful! If they really look like they are high or drunk I WILL test them. You don't have to use the drug test to be effective. I KNOW that this company has the perfect solution!
Douglas Chincharof FL2:59PM August 15, 2008
I have already had this problem with 2 of my older children but I was naive then I know the signs now an Iwant to nip it in the bud now to be able to give him a chance in life his dad died when he was 4yrs old so I am on my own he knows that drugs are bad he seen the affects of what they can do to you from watching his brother and sister but he does not think pot is the same thing
Kathyof NJ7:50PM August 14, 2008
what some of the pro-drug users fail to see is the connection between crime and drugs. A majority of the crimes that happen are a result of drugs. That could be dealing, under the influence or money owed. So when Travis says there are REAL CRIMES going on right now, it most likely is a result of drugs. You want to face the heart of the problem to solve the issue. You don't continue to scrape the top of the issue.
As far as drug testing i feel you should leave that too the professionals but i feel that a parent could do a Pop-Urine test to check. A parent needs to be actively involved in their childs development, education and social aspects of their life. If they see warning signs it is time to have an assesment done. This could be done through the Student Assistance Program at their school.
As for bringing up the forefathers, i think if they could have seen what is taking place today i bet they would have incorporated a 'no drug us clause' into the constituion. The main reason is as a society we are getting dumber and dumber. Jobs are being outsourced to other countries because those kids are becoming smarter than the kids in the United States. It is a fact, and you can ask some corporate big wigs. Drugs are hindering are ability to thrive as a nation and that is just common sense. When you are 'high' you dont think or function properly to be able to do a job.
We were all born with 'common sense' why dont we start using it? Drugs also hinder or block the development of the adolescent brain. Research has shown that! Why argue for drug use when it has been proven to destroy one's brain and body. 'Common Sense', lets start using it!
Common Senseof PA9:37AM August 12, 2008
There are plenty of connected right wing types who are making a ton of money on these tests. It is highly ironic that it was the Republicans under Reagan - that champion of American freedom and liberty - who pushed through this horribly un-American abomination. If you had told one of the Founding Fathers that in the late 1900's it would become common for US citizens to be required to urinate under observation for the purpose of searching said urine for criminal evidence, they might have just given up and let the Brits retain control.
We as a nation have approximately 5% of the world's population. We also have approximately 25% of the world's imprisoned population. This is not because Americans are inherently evil, it is because this phony drug war is actually a war against people and nature. It is in people's nature to pursue methods of experiencing different states of mind and physical pleasure. What gives the government the ultimate authority to tell us we are not allowed to have these experiences? As long as our BEHAVIOR does not cause anyone else harm then it should be no business of the government's either.
And Fatesrider, what makes you assume that Travis' spelling and grammar "issues" are the result of drug use? For one, I would suggest that much of what he wrote is in text-message shorthand lingo. Regardless of your opinion of his opinions, he DID communicate the concept that drug tests lead kids to use more dangerous drugs than marijuana. And quite frankly, his apparent spelling and grammar problems are more likely the result of the American corporate approach to education - educate the commoners well enough to be productive workers, but not well enough to think for themselves and cause problems by challenging the status quo. Pushing drug testing goes along perfectly with this conditioning - keep reminding them that you have authority over them and their bodies and that resistance is useless.
Also Fatesrider, given your attack on Travis' writing I bet you that you triple checked your own post to make sure you didn't have any typos. Gee, wouldn't that have been embarrassing? I suspect Travis wasn't so concerned.
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dsel uikqbxlf of AL 7:23PM August 23, 2008
qvgdjcf towkqx of AL 7:23PM August 23, 2008
djscolzm qnrsvxme of AL 7:22PM August 23, 2008
Ken Pisano of VA 8:22PM August 16, 2008
Ken Pisano of VA 8:17PM August 16, 2008
Ken Pisano of VA 8:05PM August 16, 2008
Douglas Chinchar of FL 2:59PM August 15, 2008
Kathy of NJ 7:50PM August 14, 2008
Common Sense of PA 9:37AM August 12, 2008
kbman of OR 5:01PM August 08, 2008