Let's End Drug Prohibition

[Joanne98]

Today is the 75th anniversary of that blessed day in 1933 when Utah became the 36th and deciding state to ratify the 21st amendment, thereby repealing the 18th amendment. This ended the nation's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition.

Celebrating the end of alcohol prohibition, Dec. 5, 1933.
It's already shaping up as a day of celebration, with parties planned, bars prepping for recession-defying rounds of drinks, and newspapers set to publish cocktail recipes concocted especially for the day.

But let's hope it also serves as a day of reflection. We should consider why our forebears rejoiced at the relegalization of a powerful drug long associated with bountiful pleasure and pain, and consider too the lessons for our time.

The Americans who voted in 1933 to repeal prohibition differed greatly in their reasons for overturning the system. But almost all agreed that the evils of failed suppression far outweighed the evils of alcohol consumption.

The change from just 15 years earlier, when most Americans saw alcohol as the root of the problem and voted to ban it, was dramatic. Prohibition's failure to create an Alcohol Free Society sank in quickly. Booze flowed as readily as before, but now it was illicit, filling criminal coffers at taxpayer expense.

Continued>>>
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122843683581681375.html

I'm all for this but I have to ask the question, WHY is the WSJ editoral page saying this?
The "war on drugs" was started by Richard Nixon. The "war on drugs" has been the way big business Republicans have put through their secret agendas. Like a POLICE STATE. Like MONEY LAUDERING by US banks. Like building the biggest prison system in the world. Like destroying civil rights. etc.
If the WSJ wants to do something useful in this area, why don't they investigate Iran Contra part two. You know the part where Ronald Reagan and BUSH invented CRACK cocaine and then had their buddies dump it in housing projects so they could pay for their dirty wars in Latin America? That part two!
We have to assume that the "war on drugs" is no longer USEFUL for Republicans and their secret agendas. Not surprising since it's been replace with the "war on terror" that serves the same purpose.

[Hugin]

1. Murdoch must have acquired some prime hemp farmland and would like to put in a cash crop.

I've heard overall News Corp's ratings are tanking and he wants to go back to the earth.

I wonder if they'll have BillO pulling a plow.

[Joanne98]

2. LOL. Billo pulling a plow. Great visual.

[Hugin]

3. Ah, I can see it now... Coasting into a Fox Toke-o-mat and ordering up a 1/4 lb. Rupert.

No seeds and easy on the stems.

However, I am leary of any involvement by Monsanto. Remember, this -is- the WSJ we're talking about. :scared:

[ixion]

4. yes, let's

it should have been ended decades ago, or never started in the first place.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Damn strange of the WSJ. I'll have to think about this. Monsanto wants in on

medical marijuana, maybe?

Or maybe it's the prisons. They want to loot that $35,000/year we pay to keep small time drug dealers and users in jail for ten years and more. It's costing too much to feed, clothe and medicate the masses in the prisons, and they have other plans for that money: deeper bailouts, bailouts to the 7th, 8th, 9th generation, bailouts without end. Let the prisoners fend for themselves in this 'sweet' job market, and scrounge for their own food and medical care. Why should we be supporting these scofflaws when there are more golden parachutes to be opened, and more of our risks to be paid for by the poor? Empty the prisons! Make whatever we had them in there for legal--and tax it. Renige on the billions and billions to the fascists and militarists in Colombia and Mexico, and whoever else likes our guns. Problem of additional liquidity needs solved.

It is quite shocking to see the WSJ propose something that is actually a good idea. There's got to be bailout money (more looting) in it somewhere.

[yurbud]

9. like Terminator 2, when the T1000 fell into the vat of molten steel and morphed into all his faces

before being consumed, we are seeing every ugly face of the financial elite as they are sucked into the tarpit of their own greed and moral squalor.

That they want to make their off the books business legal is a sign of desperation.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Joanne.

[yurbud]

7. kick

[yurbud]

8. as long as we put same advertising and sales restrictions on it we do drugs and alcohol...