Here at the Rustbelt Radical we favor the decriminalization of all drugs. From plenty of real life experience I can say that some drugs are evil, some are potentially dangerous and some are a lovely way to spend an evening with friends. Lives are ruined by some drugs no doubt. But this is an issue of health and should not be a moral or legal one. Prohibition, history screams at us, never works.
738, 916 people in the States were arrested for possession of marijuana In 2006. That number should shock you. Those are political arrests. They have nothing to do with “protecting the public” or any other such nonsense. It has often been said that the most dangerous part of smoking weed is that it is illegal. I guarantee that getting popped for some herb is much more damaging to your life than actually smoking it.
Recently the EU completed a 700 page study on the use of weed on the continent. The upshot was that Europe has 13 million regular users (I believe that number to be quite low– I have almost never responded accurately to such questionnaires), that the “new potency” used to by Brown to reclassify cannabis was a myth and that the variance in laws across the EU was a disaster. It’s also quite a bit safer than booze. No surprise there.
Black folks are also way more likely to do time than white folks for simple possession. This is a war on the dangerous classes; this is an issue that effects all of us whether you are a user or not. 700,000 people arrested each year in the states for what are essentially political reasons should make the entire left stand up and shout; “No more! End the Drug war!”.
The Scottish Socialist Youth will be sponsoring a demonstration later this month in Edinburgh. Good for them for taking a lead on this. Ending the drug war is urgent. Each day it ruins more and more lives of the most precarious.
Legalize It
Here at the Rustbelt Radical we favor the decriminalization of all drugs. From plenty of real life experience I can say that some drugs are evil, some are potentially dangerous and some are a lovely way to spend an evening with friends. Lives are ruined by some drugs no doubt. But this is an issue of health and should not be a moral or legal one. Prohibition, history screams at us, never works.
738, 916 people in the States were arrested for possession of marijuana In 2006. That number should shock you. Those are political arrests. They have nothing to do with “protecting the public” or any other such nonsense. It has often been said that the most dangerous part of smoking weed is that it is illegal. I guarantee that getting popped for some herb is much more damaging to your life than actually smoking it.
Recently the EU completed a 700 page study on the use of weed on the continent. The upshot was that Europe has 13 million regular users (I believe that number to be quite low– I have almost never responded accurately to such questionnaires), that the “new potency” used to by Brown to reclassify cannabis was a myth and that the variance in laws across the EU was a disaster. It’s also quite a bit safer than booze. No surprise there.
Black folks are also way more likely to do time than white folks for simple possession. This is a war on the dangerous classes; this is an issue that effects all of us whether you are a user or not. 700,000 people arrested each year in the states for what are essentially political reasons should make the entire left stand up and shout; “No more! End the Drug war!”.
The Scottish Socialist Youth will be sponsoring a demonstration later this month in Edinburgh. Good for them for taking a lead on this. Ending the drug war is urgent. Each day it ruins more and more lives of the most precarious.
This entry was posted on July 3, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Comment, News with tags legalize marijuana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.