[Mr 5 0]

crazy horse gt:

Marty, you have a perfect right to both disagree with me - or anyone else here - and to express your opinion. No need to apologize for anything you've posted.

I sympathize with your medical problems resulting from your military service and I agree that you - and the other Gulf War vets - have been treated poorly. I understand your frustration with the government and especially the VA.
I suggest that you give the Bush Administration a chance to do the right thing for vets. We're coming off of eight years of a military-hating administration that cut defense budgets to the bone and it takes time to increase those budgets - as Bush is doing - and for the money to actually get to the the military, including the vets. Hopefully, this will happen soon and things will improve at the VA hospitals and for Gulf War vets like yourself, suffering with Gulf War Syndrome.

Marty, I know you realize that we live in the best country in the world in terms of freedom and opportunity.
Americas faults - and we have plenty - don't come close to equating to it's positive aspects.
You may not desire to 'wave the flag anymore' - and I can understand that based on your VA experiences - but I still wave that flag for the concept of liberty and the freedom it represents, not for the federal bureaucracy , a political party or a politician.


Chris:

I agree that the War on Drugs is an abject failure and many lives have been ruined due to this misguided attempt to stop drug use, especially among the younger members of our society. The War on Drugs has to end, soon.

Decriminalization is one way to go but the nagging problem is that as drugs (unlike alcohol) can be so addictive, so quickly that just allowing pot to be legal but keeping the hard stuff illegal may not work for some people. Like making beer and wine legal but keeping spirits illegal.
Worth considering though.

As for the states not being allowed to decriminalize some drugs; as I understand it, that stems in part from the DEA and FDA and federal laws that supercede state regulations regarding controlled substances.

I think there is real ambivalence in America when it comes to drug laws. We want our freedom to ingest what we decide pleases us and going to prison for smoking a joint is clearly unfair and wrong. However, when it comes to opening the Pandora's Box of legalizing drugs in any meaningful way, a lot of us pull back, as we've seen the total devastation drug use has caused...sometimes in our own families. No, not mine, thank God, but I've seen some good, smart, decent people turn into bums in a few years directly due to drug use. I know a young lady who has stolen from her (poor) family...everything they had to live on that week, gone...so she could buy crack. She leaves a ten-year-old child alone for days, rescued only but a disabled but caring grandmother.

I could go on but you know these stories as well as I do - we've all heard them, seen them on TV. It's tragic.

This is why, when some folks say "I have a right to get high" some of us say, "Go ahead, knock yourself out" but then, we see that the stereotypical middle-class person smoking a joint after dinner in his or her own home, bothering no one, minding their own business, is mostly a myth. Drug use usually has negative consequences at some point, for some people.

So, politicians avoid the subject, not wanting to appear 'pro-drugs' and a lot of people who don't do drugs are not very interested in addressing drug laws that don't affect them directly.

The fact is that we all know that drug use can be dangerous and while I support the right of people to ingest whatever garbage they choose (I drink a lot of coffee) I'm also at a loss as to how we handle legalizing drugs - but only some drugs? How do we deal with addicts? Etc, etc. Tough questions.

I believe that all the talk about 'treatment' belies the fact that drugs are addictive and make problems for users. If they didn't, why would we need all these 'treatment' centers?

It also seems reasonable to suggest that with all the problems alcohol causes (death, injuries, robberies, etc) why do we need more 'legal' intoxicants around to spur some people to commit criminal, maybe deadly acts that they probably wouldn't commit were they not high on drugs at the time. Granted, people will get the drugs illegally, but why hand it to them? Seems illogical to me.

I have serious reservations about the ability of the government - who can't even give us a correct answer to a tax problem when we call the IRS for help - to keep any real controls on harder drugs once that old favorite, marijuana, is made totally legal and readily available at the local government (taxpayer-subsidized, no doubt) 'drug' store. Miracles can happen but I don't see this working out for the best.

I also believe that the citizen or politician that does come up with a workable answer to the 'drug problem' in America and can find a generally constitutional and reasonable way to decriminalize but still control drug use to reasonable levels will be a national hero.

Good luck.