"Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong." Friedrich Nietzche

"Any and all non-violent, non-coercive, non-larcenous, consensual adult behavior that does not physically harm other people or their property or directly and immediately endangers same, that does not disturb the peace or create a public nuisance, and that is done in private, especially on private property, is the inalienable right of all adults. In a truly free and liberty-loving society, ruled by a secular government, no laws should be passed to prohibit such behavior. Any laws now existing that are contrary to the above definition of inalienable rights are violations of the rights of adults and should be made null and void." D. M. Mitchell (from The Myth of Inalienable Rights, at: http://dowehaverights.blogspot.com/)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Narcotic Drug Use Is Legal

If I were to ask you, is it legal to use a narcotic drug that was not prescribed by a medical doctor for legitimate medical reasons, you would probably answer, absolutely not. You would be wrong. Alcohol is a true narcotic drug. You merely have to be an adult with the desire to imbibe an alcoholic beverage and the money to purchase it, no doctor needed.

Cocaine is not a narcotic. The government's use of narcotic to describe nearly all drugs is Orwellian. They are trying to brand the presently illegal drugs as evil narcotics. In the meantime, the favorite narcotic drug of the police, politicians, and judges is alcohol. Alcohol is also the narcotic drug that causes the most violent crimes merely from its use. The violence related to the other "narcotics" is caused by the prohibition of those drugs.

This situation then begs the question: If I, as an adult, can legally use one narcotic drug, why is it illegal for me to use another one? That is, if it is wrong to use one narcotic drug isn't it wrong to use any or all such drugs? Obviously not. And I guess I shouldn't confuse the issue with logic.

How or why does anything get done? Because one or more people have the desire to do it and they also have the ability to do it. Let's not get things muddled up with concepts such as rights and non-violent, non-larcenous, consentual adult behavior. Laws are no different than anything else that gets done. If some people want a law passed and have the ability to do so, then the law gets enacted.

There was, and still are, a group of people who believe that some narcotic drug use is immoral and therefore should be illegal. They got the laws of the United States and of the several states to reflect their personal moral/religious beliefs and certain substances become illegal. Anyone who made, sold, or used them became evil, heinous criminals . . . regardless of the fact that when those substances were legally available there was no criminal justice problems associated with their manufacture, sales, or use.

Religion (which equates to emotion), not logic, rules the day when it comes to the drugs issue.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A Thought to Ponder: The Political Destruction of Mexico

As I state in my header, I write about rights. Among those rights (as consenting adults only) is the right to use mind-altering, possibly addictive, possibly dangerous drugs. Alcohol is the premier example of such a drug and it is legal to adults.

I want all of the presently illegal drugs to have the same status as alcohol and tobacco. Use it at your own risk. Do not violate the rights of others. You shouldn't be arrested for using, but you should be for violating the rights of others. (Statistically, alcohol is the drug that the mere use of it is most likely to cause rights-violating behavior.) I bash the government as an anti-rightist institution for making illegal behavior that is intrinsically honest and peaceful.

In other writings of mine I have listed many of the benefits of the re-legalization of the presently illegal drugs. Those drugs were once perfectly legal and there was no criminal justice problems associated with their use. I have also listed many of the detriments to legalization. Mostly, that would be the collapse of the "Prison-Industrial" complex and the loss of many government jobs and contracts to people whose very existence perpetuates the violation of the rights of otherwise honest, drug-using people, of which there are millions in the U.S.

One detriment that I didn't think of was the possible complete collapse of the Mexican economy. I have just finished reading Elizabeth Lowell's novel, The Wrong Hostage. I highly recommend it. It is a well-written, fast-paced story.

In it, her protagonist explains that the billions of U.S. dollars that flow into Mexico from the drug trade is necessary to that nation's economy and that if it were suddenly cut off, Mexico would implode economically, and become a "failed nation", like Afghanistan, only it is our immediate neighbor to the South, sharing over 1,000 miles of border with us. (If you think the illegal immigration problem is bad now, imagine what it might become under such a scenario, as well as revolution and civil war.)

The hero, in The Wrong Hostage, goes on to explain that the reason the U.S. doesn't actually want to stop the drug trade is fear of such a thing happening and the possible "aftershock" effects on the United States.

That could be true, the economic collapse of Mexico I mean, if, somehow, the U.S. Congress took their heads out of where the sun doesn't shine and gave us, "the people", back our full and complete adult inalienable rights.

In that event the government could always use billions of the dollars now wasted on the so-called "war on drugs" (90 years of failure and counting) to help Mexico until it could get back on its feet and develop new means of supporting itself.

Of the millions and millions of Americans who do use one or more of the presetly illegal drugs, the vast majority are honest, non-violent citizens. The violence related to the drug trade has been caused by their illegality and the fact that the proceeds cannot be legally protected. The illegality of drugs is also the reason that they are extremely expensive relative to their production and distribution.

I still believe that the net benefits of re-legalization would outweigh the net detriments, especially in the long run, even with the possible Mexican problem factored in. I am old-fashioned. I believe that all adults should be free to live their lives as they choose, regardless of the outcome, just so long as they do not violate the rights of others. That is what used to be called "inalienable rights."