http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/are-republicans-to-the-right-of-pat-robertson/
^This, Pat Robertson (yes that Pat Robertson) wants to decriminilize marijuana. If that’s not a good sign, I don’t know what is.
I have to remind you the US government (together with a few of their European stooges) is putting a lot of pressure on The Netherlands to close down their famed “coffee shops”, just as they did with Nepal back in the late '70s and how they did with France (relating to brothels and liquor stores) during WWI, something that had “Tiger” Clemenceau scratching his head and wondering why they Americans didn’t mind sending their young men to be killed in the trenches but were horrified of brothels and booze.
If they are ready to bully a peace loving country across the Atlantic on the issue of a few thousand Americans legally purchasing and smoking marijuana do you have any hope that something will change?
.Our war on drugs has resulted in 25,000 violent deaths in Mexico in the past 5 years. With this kind of success rate why wouldn’t they want to spread their well thought policy to the Netherlands. Maybe they should bring back prohibition on alcohol then we can watch the liquor salesmen shoot it out in front of the speak easys just like the old days.
I think the major difference now is that the states are bankrupt and want to get their hands on revenue from taxing marijuana.
Nelson Mandela claimed that he wanted Parliament to legalise marijuana when he was President here, but the foreign office dissuaded him on the grounds that it would upset the Americans.
You know when a country’s foreign office is setting policy, that it really matters very little what anyone outside the foreign office thinks…
So very true James. In fact many Dutch are upset by this. It’s not so much the progressive banning of marijuana but the fact that a foreign country is meddling with their internal affairs and their government is too weak to resist.
It’s also amazing how the US Foreign Office finds the time to “micromanage from the top” other countries’ internal policies while at the same time stirring up a colossal hornet nest in all of Asia, from the Sinai to the Sea of Japan. I have often wondered why a bureaucrat in Washington feels US interests are threatened by a bunch of Dutch eating hashish cake and drinking coffee. But the immortal word of H.L Mencken always come to the rescue “Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be having fun”.
He redacted his statement. He still wants it banned. Just the penalty less severe.
Decriminalizing marijuana and legalizing all drugs are two completely different things. Some of the biggest potheads I know wouldn’t dare decriminalize, let alone legalize, heroin.
^Agreed, but my op was to demonstrate the changing attitude towards the drug war from the right wing.
True that. I wrote a column about how the reasons behind the legalization should be the correct reasons. I’m all down for ending prohibition, of course, but it’s not going to be cool if we’re doing it (1) just until the government can pay back its debts or (2) because marijuana is ‘better’ than other drugs. For the latter, no one should decide that, and it’s basically giving government the right to decide what’s healthy for us. For the former, this is basically like saying, “It’s okay to do bad things (not saying distributing drugs is necessarily bad) if you don’t have a lot of money.” I’m hoping Ron Paul becomes President and can do some kind of executive order ending the drug war.
I don’t know that the drug war necessarily will bring the state down. The war-war is 20x more expensive on a yearly basis, and could easily be scaled back. Vaccines are as expensive as the drug war… There are a lot of ways they could go to balance the budget.
Balance the budget? I don’t understand why it matters if the state is bankrupt. Taxation/spending is just a game they play to appropriate resources. Fundamentally, there is no limit to their appropriation powers.
If the government defaults on the debt in its entirety, wouldn’t that be the end of the USD?
If so, and I’m not saying there aren’t other ways to end the USD like inflation and all, but it seems like most people don’t understand the concept of gold as “real” money, so they’d all lose their [USD] wealth (aside from assets). Since gold is still in existence though, government agencies/officials who have the gold right now would still have it after the USD collapse. I’m afraid there’d be riots due to that, and, if the majority misunderstands why the wealth is gone, they’d have an even bigger desire for government.
EDIT: Just curious, would you say it’s better to default on the debt or inflate the USD to its end?
Well… I’d have them reduce expenditures enormously. This is the best remedy for debt. I think the best incremental step for anarchism is to break the federal government. It is a cartel agreement between states (like the EU). I’ll be having a debate on this topic soon, so i’ll post it once the voting period is over if you want.
I think if existing debt was spread proportionately by population among states, and then each state adopted its own currency (or gold), the value of “USDs” would skyrocket
Definitely post it. That’d be interesting to read.
Drugs will be legalized soon because it’s in the best interest of the government.