The reason #1 won’t work is because people under the age of 21 smoke too. They remain criminals in the proposed system. They don’t stop getting high because the problem has a different cause than availability and legality.
or
Alot of the kids I work with who use inhalants claim that they do so because they can’t get ahold of any pot. FWIW.
and don’t we need opiates to treat pain?
To address #2, opium poppies are grown legally to produce important medicines such as morphine. They also are the source of poppy seeds, and many garden varieties are actually Papaver somniferum. If you somehow prevented all heroin smuggling (which you couldn’t), then morphine, demorol, codeine etc. would be sold in its place. (Prescription opiates are available on the street of course - $0.75 for a T3 last I recall :))
Overall, what you suggest is the staus quo, apart from #1. It just doesn’t work.
Who cares if legalizing marijuana did cuts the bottom out of the alcohol industry? It’s a market economy, isn’t it? If Budweiser can’t compete with Humboldt Inc., that’s Budweiser’s problem, not the DEA’s.
Regarding the CIA bringing Crack into LA/targeting blacks.
Which sandbox is your head buried in Samarm? :smack:
Here’s the offical DOJ report. Take it for what it’s worth. Keep in mind who wrote it.
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/c4rpt/c4toc.htm
For a more anti-government view:
http://www.wbaifree.org/earthwatch/crackwatch.html
Google up ‘Crack Cocaine Contra CIA Los Angeles’ and read up.
Of course, the ‘official’ media found no link with the CIA. But that is the nature of the CIA y’know…
Dumbguy, the same reason that cars still use oil. The idea of a free market economy in a place as large, and as advanced as the US is a bit of a misnomer. For instance…Yesterday I saw on TV, an ad, sponsored by SBC decrying the evils of MCI and AT&T, and complaining that they’re being cut out of the competition. Think about that. SBC, whoseFull-year 2001 reported net income was $7.2 billion is bitching about competition. Clearly, the idea of a free market was lost in the drafting of the first articles of incorporation. For the most part though, this is a good thing. One company can employ hundreds, thousands, even tens or hundreds of thousands of people, and get cheap, yet effective medical coverage, and large groups of employees have tremendous buying and borrowing power, but what comes with the good in this case, is the need for a monopolistic approach to the reality of our delicate economy.
Re: Alcohol industry against legalization of pot
Any hard evidence of this? There have been numerous ballot propositions in various states to legalize marijuana, or at least medical marijuana. It would be very easy to see if Budweiser, Coors, et. al. contributed to the No campaigns on these propositions, like Vegas does for Indian gambling.