ded@aplvax.UUCP (02/07/84)
The following was recently submitted to the net by a prohibitionist: >> I just love the simplistic answers to major problems... >> We are just now getting around to attempting to get the >> drinkers off the roads and someone wants to legalize pot >> so we can add that problem... >> Legalize pot and you can cut school budgets in >> half. You can just send those students home that are sitting >> in their classrooms staring glassy-eyed at the wall. Enough >> of them do it now, why add to the problem?... >> Grow up. Try getting your highs some other way. >> We already have millions of alcohol abusers >> out there, we don't need to double that problem by legalizing pot. Wow. I can't convey to you how overwhelmed I was by this submission. Ah, the brilliance of it! The clever indirection. Don't be fooled by that first sentence, the submittor really DOES love simplistic answers to major problems. He wants to keep it as simple as possible -- just declare drugs illegal and the problem is solved. What could be simpler than that? He's convinced me, by golly. Now I'm a prohibitionist, too. How about you? Won't you join us in our simplistic world? Not convinced, eh? Well, let's take a look at some of the calm rational arguments our leader has offered. Maybe that will help. Oooh, will you look at that last sentence! My goodness, there are millions of people out there just waiting to become drug abusers. And there's only one thing stopping them...the LAW. Isn't that amazing? You probably thought that people who didn't use alcohol or drugs were people of strength and character; but really they're just a bunch of mindless sops who will do anything if the government doesn't say nay. What weaklings they are (and how nasty of them to keep our school budget twice as high as it needs to be). What gets me, though, is the rest of the people who aren't mindless sops, namely alcoholics and pot smokers. I don't want to say anything bad about alcoholics; they are decent law-abiding citizens who deserve our respect. Those pot smokers though, I just don't know about them. We stare haughtily down at them over our proud beer bellies, with a cigarette in one hand and a gin fizz in the other, and demand they cease using drugs or ELSE!!!...and still they continue. What's wrong with these people? Don't they worship us? Don't they want to grovel at our feet? One would almost get the impression that our policy has back-fired, that in our arrogance we have created an underground society which encourages the use of drugs, rather than quenches it. But no, that couldn't be true. There aren't millions of pot smokers out there. No. Prohibition works. We've proved that many times. And our leader has shown us the way. There are penalties for people who don't obey us, yes sirree. We can break into their homes, beat 'em up a little, and throw them in jail. Only...let's not get too carried away with this little game. We don't really want to enforce this law, afterall. I mean, just suppose there ARE millions of them reefer varmits out there like all the government reports have been saying. If we arrested them all at one time and put a stop to this nonsense, our entire economy would collapse. Shucks, that wouldn't be any fun. Might drive a feller to drink, or worse: the collapse of society has been shown to lead to heroin abuse. Some people might think there's something wrong with a law that, if it were enforced, would result in the destruction of society. Such people don't have a sense of humor. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe society wouldn't collapse. Nazi Germany incarcerated millions of people without collapsing (at least, not right away), perhaps we could do it too. Of course, there might be a few scars... Look above. Our leader has spoken. Sentence two: "We are just now getting around to attempting to get the drinkers off the roads and someone wants to legalize pot so we can add that problem." I think this is an astounding fact. Consider: pot smokers don't drive now, but if we legalize the stuff, they will. Who would have guessed? Not me, certainly. I would have guessed that we presently teach contempt for the LAW by using it so coarsely. I would have guessed that pot smokers would be more inclined to hit the roads under present circumstances. Afterall, no one's gonna raid you when you're going 55 mph. I would have guessed that what made sense back in 1935 when it was a limited phenomena does not make sense anymore... and I would have guessed that we are now enmeshed in a 1920's deja vu. I would have guessed many sad things, and would never have been so certain as our leader. But I'm new to the prohibitionist cause, and haven't been fully illuminated. Perhaps the leader will deign to share more of his wisdom with us. Perhaps he can explain why 60 years of highly publicized and useless "drug wars" have served only to increase crime rather than lessen it. Maybe he can defend us against those who hold that his cure is part of the disease. Don Davis JHU/APL ...decvax!harpo!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!ded ...rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!aplvax!ded -- Don Davis JHU/APL ...decvax!harpo!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!ded ...rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!aplvax!ded