Comments: The first time a “dispensary” blows up or the owner is gunned down,

Lest we "forget" about the dispensing of "free"
mind altering "behavior" drugs for school boys and soldiers, and the "free" procreation consequence abatement drugs and "medical choice" procedures for school girls....
Bread and circuses.

Posted by CaptDMO at September 20, 2014 5:57 AM

Brilliant (and don't miss the comment stream, either.)

The most amazing part of the recent/current "make it legal" uproar has been the assertion, by putatively-intelligent people, that legalization of marijuana would spell the end of the dope cartels. Just like the repeal of prohibition signaled the end of the Mafia, right? The mainstreaming of the drug culture over the last half-century has created whole new class of middle-class bad boys - "We're all outlaws on this bus, and if you find something wrong with that it's because you're just not hip enough."

And now, the argument goes, since we've gotten the government involved in the process, all that lowlife will just evaporate, like unicorn flatulence in the sweet breeze of peace and love.

One of the commenter's on Z's site put it best:

"The war on drugs has not been a failure, because it has never been fought. Where it has been fought it works. What we have in the West is a game that produces revenue and justification for the therapeutic managerial state, and an excuse to put problematic members of the lower orders in jail."

Posted by Rob De Witt at September 20, 2014 8:52 AM

Legalizing pot does nothing to put a dent into the pot trade, at least the way they're doing it in Colorado and Washington State. Charge that much for pot and people will still go to the local scumbag at the corner.

Posted by Christopher Taylor at September 20, 2014 12:42 PM

Do we need more lazy people or over-eaters?

Posted by tscottme at September 20, 2014 1:25 PM

A few things:

The Mafia existed before alcohol was made unlawful. The fact that it persists today has to do with it pursuing (naturally enough) its pre-Prohibition lines of business -- gambling, prostitution, protection rackets, and so on. If the Mafia seems bigger and badder than its usual activities would seemingly make it, it may be that Mafia is a bigger monster now than it would have been if its power and prestige hadn't been inflated by the huge amounts of money it took in during Prohibition.

(Yes, I write the darnedest sentences.)

Christopher hits the nail on the head -- you have to price the product properly to put the scumbags out of business. That the scumbags are making money selling at a lower price than the government-approved vendors means that the bureaucrats need a brain. But we all know that already.

Also, I do not like the "vibe" I'm getting from the comments from Rob, tscottme, and the commenter whom Rob quotes. Guys, do you own me? Do I own you? Do our neighbors down the street own any of us? No? Then maybe we should leave each other alone to work out our own damnations, and to suffer the consequences thereof. The last I knew, that was the price of freedom. That our present society is so dysfunctional is due to the modern "therapeutic state", which relieves people of the consequences of their mistakes in matters of finance, sexuality, employment, etc.


I think I quoted C.S. Lewis once here, on an unrelated topic, but it's still apropos:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

Yes, freedom is messy. It's going to produce some results that will displease all of us at one time or another. Guess what -- that's just too darn bad. If you want freedom for yourself, you have to allow it for others. I'm not an infant, an imbecile, or a domestic animal, and neither are you guys.

Yes, I'm feeling a bit tetchy today.

Hale Adams
Pikesville, People's Democratic Republic of Maryland

Posted by Hale Adams at September 20, 2014 7:40 PM

Man's got a point.

Posted by Van der Leun at September 20, 2014 7:52 PM

How about that, someone else understands the idea of self ownership that I mentioned a few days ago. I also mentioned the appalling amount of people running loose today that have no comprehension of such a thing. Take a look, they're all around you.

They think they own themselves but nobody else has the right to own themselves.

What do you call that?

I prefer the direct honesty of the admitted thief over that of the do gooder that is looking out for my best interests.

Posted by ghostsniper at September 20, 2014 8:50 PM

Yea, right. Show me a distillery, brewery or liquor store that has been blown up since the end of Prohibition and you may have a point. Once drugs are legalized and TAXED, the Feds will kill any and all illegal incursions on their golden goose. ATF will become ATFD.

Posted by Galway Boy at September 21, 2014 7:25 PM

Yeah, right.

There's never been an incursion on the legal liquor business by the Mafia since 1932. There's never been a legal distributor that's been taken over by mob guys. Ever since gambling was made legal in Nevada there's never been any Mafia corruption or politicians bought by the mob.

Yeah, right.

Posted by Rob De Witt at September 21, 2014 9:03 PM

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