The majority of people, through the power of the government, have decided they don’t want me to choose to do drugs if I want, prostitute, gamble if I wanted to.
I am a grown man, yet they intend to protect me from myself by taking away the liberty to choose for myself; and If I don’t like it, then I should leave America?
…America was formed on the philosophy of liberty. I have a right to choose, and if I choose wrong then I suffer the consequences… yet many American people believe their tax dollars should go to my arrest, conviction and incarceration for smoking marijuana. So it is not I ‘suffering’ any longer, it is all of America.
The cost to put a single drug dealer in jail is about $450,000, composed of the following: The cost for arrest and conviction is about $150,000. The cost for an additional prison bed is about $50,000 to $150,000, depending upon the jurisdiction. It costs about $30,000 per year to house a prisoner. With an average sentence of 5 years, that adds up to another $150,000. The same $450,000 can provide treatment or education for about 200 people. In addition, putting a person in prison produces about fifteen dollars in related welfare costs, for every dollar spent on incarceration. Every dollar spent on treatment and education saves about five dollars in related welfare costs.
Thats good money the government could instead use to educate people of the United States on the bad effects of drugs, so why not legalize drugs, put them on the open market, and stop the homicides and theft created by drug wars? Or was Nobel-prize winning economist, Milton Friedman wrong?
“The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.” — Milton Friedman
“I’m in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my value system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.” — Milton Friedman
“If the government is to try and ban private consumption of alcohol and tobacco, it must surely ban such activities as hang-gliding, skiing, rock-climbing and so on. Where should it stop? Rugby? American Football? Ice Hockey? Insofar as the government has information not generally available about the merits or demerits of the items we ingest or the activities we engage in, let it give us the information. But let it leave us free to choose what chances we want to take with our own lives.” — Milton Friedman
Are these not the principles and philosophies of liberty that our nation was founded on?
latj, Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have
Yes, people will end up dead, but that is their choice, they are the owners of their lives, no one else
There are no violent gangs fighting over aspirin territories. There are no violent gangs fighting over whisky territories or computer territories or anything else that’s legal. There are only criminal gangs fighting over territories covering drugs, gambling, prostitution, and other victimless crimes. Making a non-violent activity a crime creates a black market, which attracts criminals and gangs, which turns what was once a relatively harmless activity affecting a small group of people into a widespread epidemic of drug use and gang warfare
I don’t want to live in a society without rules, I wan’t to live in a society without restrictions on how I should live my life. The government has one purpose; to protect the liberties of everyone from anyone else, not to protect ourselves from ourselves
#1 by G-gal on April 30, 2010 - 5:37 am
Oh it gets better, they want to tell you what to do with your money, that you have to have insurance and go to their doctor once a year. They would be only to happy to take you’re entire paycheck and at the end of the month feed you, and cloth you as they see fit, and also tell you how much money you can earn to then turn over to the government.
#2 by Becci on April 30, 2010 - 6:03 am
Because all those actions have consequences for other people too.
#3 by Semper Fi Reborn on April 30, 2010 - 6:29 am
If your choices go against the grain of what is law, what are the authorities to do? We can not govern by individual laws or anarchy. Sorry.
#4 by Freethinker on April 30, 2010 - 6:54 am
They are, and I totally agree with you. More and more of our freedoms are taken away every year, under the twin banners of ‘security’ and ‘the common good’.
“Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither”
-B. Franklin
#5 by eschewdefeat on April 30, 2010 - 7:52 am
The short answer is: They have no life of their own to be concerned with.
BTW: A very intelligent little essay went along with this question. I agree with you entirely! It seems America never learned the lesson of Prohibition. Making something as innocuous as drugs illegal only fattens the pocketbooks of organized crime.
#6 by Russell K on April 30, 2010 - 8:29 am
I agree with you, drugs should be legal, just like alcohol. People that cause problems due to drug use should be locked up.
#7 by latj on April 30, 2010 - 8:33 am
You are rambling and being not society oriented. Society needs rules and regulations or it would just be one big free for all and we’d all probably end up dead due to crime, drug use, alcoholism, diseases from prostitution and everything else negative.
I am confused as to why you would want to live in a society without rules. It would be a very dangerous place. The rules are to protect you from hurting or killing yourself.
Only my opinion of course.
Do you believe in God? God’s teachings also protect ourself from harming ourself.
Maybe you should move to a place where there is no law or rules. I can promise you it would not be what you think!!!
You should be thankful for the freedoms you do have. And, the protection the laws afford us.
#8 by t a m i l on April 30, 2010 - 9:07 am
Well. You have a right to choose to break the law. But the conscequences are there. You do illegal drugs, then you will get found out & suffer the conscequences. You pick up prostitutes & get found out & suffer the conscequences. Etc…
But the wages of sin is death. All wrongdoing is sin. So? The conscequenses of sin is death. Also, breathing smoke is hard on your lungs.
#9 by mamag on April 30, 2010 - 9:08 am
I totally agree! America is suppose to be the land of the free,what a joke! Every way the government can find to make the all mighty dollar is when another law is passed. If they legalized drugs they would miss out on millions per year.
We are becoming robots, they tell us what to do and we follow it. Feed us **** and keep us in the dark.
#10 by Breeze on April 30, 2010 - 9:10 am
All in one nut shell sweetie?…..It is those that do not practice the terms of “all good things in moderation” that sets the pace for us all. It is the way of everything that exist. It never ceases to amaze me how alcohol is legal, and the effects of it are that it could cost you your life, or the life of another, but the effects of smoking a joint is that the worst that will happen is you eating yourself out of house and home and then fall asleep.
#11 by James L on April 30, 2010 - 9:39 am
You know I used to pull my hair out every day screaming the same thing. Now I am Bald.
The majority of people out there I believe think the same way, It’s just to bad that those same people never vote, or only vote for president. Our youth does nothing. What happened to marching in the streets? I’ll continue to vote, and that vote won’t matter until the majority wants to get off their I-pods, PSP’s and demand that the government changes.
#12 by unibumgrl on April 30, 2010 - 10:23 am
To be honest, I thought america was an extremely free country – that’s what it always sprouts to us non-americans yet, Australia seems to be much more lacks on telling us how to be.
For example, we have over 21% of the pokermachines in the world, in our country – we promote gambling, yet, we offer services to those who don’t want to gamble anymore, so we don’t say either way that you can’t do it – we just give you the impression that it’s not the best thing in the world to be doing with your money, but we’re happy because you’re giving us money.
Drugs – In many australian states and territories Weed is decrimilised/accepted and it’s really up to the arresting officer if you’re charged or not (somewhat like a speeding ticket)
So my impression of Australia (being a recreational drug/alchol user and a non gambler) is that we are offered the services to stop doing what we’re doing and be a more pro-active part of our society and fit in with the ‘norm’ but we’re not forced to live the way we don’t wanna live.
I know a woman who has been on Methadone for 18 years, and every day she goes to the same clinic and collects her dose and then goes to her very high profile job and managers alot of people and her life. And this is accepted, people in her work know, they understand, and they accept it – the government accepts it – and it’s not like this in the US?
#13 by maej on April 30, 2010 - 10:29 am
Well, everyone was created by God wih their own free will… will to do what is right or wrong, if they want to destroy themselves, let them it’s their choice.
Bear in mind though, that every will comes with responsibility… responsibility to nurture life and be at peace with everybody else and yourself.
Also, in every action, there is always a reaction… how could we live in our dreamed perfect world if we just do everything our way?
Freedom is a very BIG responsibilty often misunderstood by people as a means of escape where in fact, freedom is far from it. It is doing something for the common good, to exercise your right freely without any bad consequence.
Hope that helped….
#14 by Neptune2bsure on April 30, 2010 - 11:19 am
I believe in most of what you say regarding the cost of keeping someone incarcerated for mere posession of a natural product that grows wild and does not have to be manipulated into a drug like most of our prescribef medications do, and God only knows what they put in the pills to make the medicine all hold together, and the “what” is something your body has to rid itself of, hence side effects.
This problem is not just in America but in Canada as well, time and money, huge amounts are spent on these investigations that we find out took 6 months sometimes a year to find out who is the one on top…I have nothing against society trying to get rid of the hard drugs, but marijuanna is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, and the governmets time and money could be better spent by going after and investigating harden criminals, that reoffend, child molestors, reevaluate the Youth Justice system to bring back shame to them, because in
Canada a youth is protected when he does a crime how awful, what kind of society are we bringing up when no one knows who did or is capable of murder even though they are youths they are old enough to do the crime therefore they should suffer the consequence of shame that comes with everyone in town knowing that you stole a car, stabbed a woman, raped and so on, a slap on the wrist is ok if the crime is minimal but many are literally getting away with murder, and not even a criminal record to show for because their criminal record begins once they turyn 18. This is just sad and we will pay the price for leniancy here.
I feel like you that more and more we are told where to stand and pee. I can’t stand to see people hooked on crack and cocaine and now the big H and they put everyone in the same kettle, when it isn’t the same thing at all.
And I agree America has not learned their lesson of prohibition, those were the days of Capone, and it was the same story as today only today we call them gangs, street turf, well Capone had a turf too, and prostitutes and drug dealers and bootleggers and booze runners, sound familiar, the attention shifted from booze to drugs once booze was leagalized. I can’t even start about tobacco. but we need to try and come together and make the self righteous people who are drunk every day of the week understand that what they are doing to their body, just because it is legal, is much much worst than smoking a joint, your liver will never be affected by it but it will be dying if you continue to drink.. Peace
#15 by Jack B, Aussie cowboy on April 30, 2010 - 12:04 pm
You sound like your political point of view fits in most accurately with the Libertarian Party; I have a number of friends who are Libertarians, and while we agree on personal liberty, I disagree with the complete privatization of the economy that the party endorses.
Here is their link for more information:
http://www.lp.org/