[Mpls] Stop blaming marijuana for violence

[Michael Atherton]

Dennis Plante Responds:
 
>  Banning something which is good and usefull to society - 
>  books, and passing a law making the sale of a drug such 
>  as pot illegal, hardly seem like a relevant comparison to me.  
>  If an activity is illegal than yes, I believe that in order 
>  to be a responsible citizen, one should refrain from 
>  par-taking in it.

"Christianity is the True Path, therefore we should ban all other 
false religions." I've never been sure why it is so difficult to 
understand that the ability to force your values on others
justifies the same types of impositions on you.  The way out
of this circular authoritarianism is to set boundaries on governmental
power.  The simplest way to do this is to avoid basing authority
on one particular set of arbitrary values, (e.g., "drugs are bad, 
Christianity is good") and instead we should provide for a system 
that honors the values of as many people as possible.  You can do 
this by limiting governmental power to only those cases in which one
person's values conflicts directly with someone else's ability to 
pursue theirs.

So you believe that books are good and useful to society,
but many people and many governments have not shared this belief.
The Drug War is so hypocritical, irrational, and downright
stupid that calls into question the critical thinking abilities
of its creators.
1)  Drug use, or altered states of consciousness, have been
an aspect of human cultures for all of recorded history and
probably most of pre-recorded history.  In fact it's difficult to 
come up with examples of cultures that haven't had some way of
inducing altered states.  The desire to do so would seem to
an aspect of being human.
2)  An abhorrence of altered states, other than that of 
religious rapture, is a value that has been passed down
to us by our Puritan ancestors, but even then it was not a value
shared by all Americans.
3)  The outlawing of a particular set of drugs and the legalization
of others is nonsensical.  It's only familiarity that makes
us blind to the similarities between drugs.  There are currently three 
widely used additive drugs in American society: alcohol, nicotine, and
caffeine.  U.S. drugs laws allow the sale and use of caffeine, an
unhealthy additive drug, for small children; in fact it is widely
marketed to small children. There are alcohol and caffeine dens 
literally within walking distance of most Americans, we just call 
them bars and coffee shops.  If you take away all of the trendy 
marketing and classy interior design, Starbucks is really just 
in the caffeine delivery business.  I firmly believe
that if we were to make marijuana America's drug of choice, rather
than alcohol, the country would be a better place (well at least we
could avoid the hangovers).

I'm not really arguing for or against the evils of drug use. 
I'm arguing that selecting one particular set of drugs as acceptable
is hypocritical and that it is more rational to prohibit behaviors
that harmful to others, rather it is to regulate what choices
individuals make for themselves.  So it's fine with me if you
want to institute the death penalty for drunk driving, but I
don't think that governments should have the ability to ban
the use of alcohol.

I firmly believe that it is the Drug War, not drug use, that is
harming minority youth.  In my darker moments I suspect that
it is one of the intentions of the Drug War (when you
look at disparities in drug laws and sentencing) and it isn't
getting better, it's getting worse.  I think that we should
accept that a proportion of our society will always use drugs 
and we should rely on social standards, not criminal penalties, to
minimize the negative impact of drugs.  The Drug War is not
working: it's a self-perpetuating monster that consumes the
lives and futures of minority youth, while White middle class
youths go on to become mayors of major American cities.

Chris Johnson wrote:

> By all means, fight for marijuana legalization.  Just stop 
> buying it in gang-afflicted neighborhoods of Minneapolis.  
> Otherwise, you are part of the violence problem.

Yeah, let's move the drug trade to the suburbs! ;-)

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park