by J L Petriesan

Created on: August 08, 2007

The war on drugs is inane. The very concept of criminalizing what a person puts into their body is a violation of civil liberties of the most serious nature. What's next? Fat content, carbohydrates? Oh yeah, that is being discussed also.

I think the whole thing is puritanical. One definition of a puritan is someone who is deathly afraid that someone somewhere is having a good time.

What the "war on drugs" has done is to fill our prisons with non-violent offenders and clog the court system with things which should not be there at all. The cost of all this is mind-boggling.

One day, years ago, there were two headlines in the local paper. One was the sentence of a guy for 2nd degree homicide. Six years. Another poor slob got 25 years for holding an ounce of marijuana. Seemed upside down then. Still does.

De-criminalize drugs and tax them. Watch the usage decline as tax revenues increase and organized crime will have to search for something else to do.

Don't get me wrong. Selling or providing drugs to minors should be a criminal offense and harshly dealt with. But adults? It's their body and so long as they are not driving cars under the influence ( I think there are laws for this) or otherwise causing direct harm to others, they should be able to enjoy recreational pharmaceuticals.

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