Quote:
Let us consider the first argument. It will stop the reign of drug dealers, smugglers, and traffickers. People in the drug trade don’t just commit drug crimes, they are involved in any and all crimes that they can possibly make money at. They will continue their criminal behavior. They will not disappear. They surely will not dismantle their organizations in America. They will just move to another lucrative enterprise.
You can't keep all the ants out of your house, but you can clean up your kitchen. What other 'lucrative enterprise' could possibly sustain all of these people when the billions and billions of dollars of the illegal drug trade is suddenly gone? The author makes it sound like all of the dealers are mobsters and gangsters. A large portion of dealers are nonviolent risk takers that like the easy money. They aren't suddenly going to become pimps and burglars and hitmen. Sure some will, but the market for all this is already pretty saturated.
The primary criminal activity most could gravitate toward would be robbery, and they will quickly find out that there's just not much money in it for the risk and time involved. Most people would earn more working at McDonalds.
Quote:
The drugs will be decriminalized so there will be a large reduction of the prison population, saving government costs, and making room for violent prisoners. This is a large part of the argument made by advocates for legalizing drugs. Yes, there is a large percentage of the prison population that is drug related. There may be a reduction of prisoners related to the drug trade, but I doubt it. As I argued earlier, the Government will drive the price of the drugs up to the point where a black market will continue to flourish. There will still be street dealers and all the crimes associated with them. The one point that advocates always miss is that the legalization of these drugs will cause the use of them to explode upward exponentially in this country. That means the numbers of addicts and abusers will also go up exponentially. The prisoners that were in for drug related offenses will now be replaced by a surge in arrests for property crimes, robberies, and other violent crimes committed by the newly increased population of addicts and abusers who cannot exist in the legitimate job market.
This guy LOOOOOVES to assume his conclusions. Governmental taxes and regulations WILL be so high as to keep a thriving black market, and normal, hard working americans WOULD suddenly turn into a bunch of drugged out, jobless wife beaters. Pack your bags boys, argument's over.
Quote:
I have spent a lot of time writing about marijuana because it is the one drug that has the most push for legalization. There are other illegal drugs that will be the next in line if marijuana is successfully legalized: cocaine, heroin, LSD, PCP, methamphetamine, to name a few.
So when they say that marijuana is a gateway drug, they mean it opens the door for legalizing harder drugs. That, cardio problems and the laziness factor are the only reason I've seen him give to keep MJ illegal. Two of the three also apply to Big Macs.
On the bright side, at least this guy does mention some of the arguments for legalization instead of pretending like no argument exists.