Jim-
I am so proud of these members for allowing such a potentially flame-ridden thread to actually be so civil! It's amazing what a difference a few years makes!
To briefly touch on the abortion debate, a friend of mine and I had a knock-down, drag-out 10 minute arguement about it the other day, and I was right; abortion is spelled with t-i-o-n.
I don't agree with the killing of babies, and I think that a woman who repeatedly uses abortion as a form of birth control should have her tubes cut. That being said, I don't think abortion should be illegal. It's a heavy topic, and I really don't want to get deeply into it, because I don't feel like either answer is right. I will say that I would be much quicker to agree with your argument if the world population wasn't exploding the way it is. Still though, that's no justification, on it's own.
As far as the drug issue, yes, it is quite complicated. There have been several who have come up with workable methods of legalization, but ever since Reefer Madness, the propaganda against "illegal" drugs has left unshakable visions in most peoples minds. I know that both extremes exist when it comes to users. I think you would be really surprised how many "users" never reach either one. I know several people who choose to get high occasionally, and lead perfect, "normal" lives. People who are well respected, and who hold high level, responsible jobs. It's been my experience that the percentage of people who I've met that drink, and have become alcoholics, is about the same as the percentage of those I've met that get high, and have become drug addicts. Maybe a little higher for alcoholics. Regardless, the laws need to change. While Jane Doe is filling her prescription for one of thousands of legal, mind altering, addictive drugs, her son gets arrested for buying a dime bag of pot. While she will go through withdrawls when she finally has to "kick" her habit, her son won't.
As I'm sure I've mentioned to you in the past, Jim, I have a personal reason why this is so disturbing to me. I can't vote because I am a convicted felon. My felony wasn't bank robbery, or rape, or murder. My felony conviction was for cultivation. I had 3 pot plants growing inside my condo. I wasn't a "dealer", and had never been accused of selling pot. I wasn't a trafficer, and had never been accused of transporting pot across state lines. In fact, I had never been accused of doing anything more than growing 3 plants inside my condo, for my personal use. Because someone else that I didn't really know knew I had 3 plants, he lied to officers when he was busted for something totally unrelated, and told them I was a "major operation" in order to get his own sentence reduced. Local law enforcement had me under surveillance for several weeks. They even spent the money to hire a thermal sensing helicopter to do night time fly-overs over my condo, reading the temp of the air leaving my attic vents, and comparing it to my neighbors. They served a search warrant at the local power company so that they could access my utillity bills, and my neighbors, for the past year. The utillity bills and the word of their informant was all they had to go on. All of their other attempts at gaining incriminating evidence failed. Still, it was enough. So, nearly ten years ago, 14 officers, wearing bullet-proof vests, and armed with fully automatic assault rifles, kicked in my front door, and spent 4 hours turning my place inside out. They were extremely disappointed to only find 3 plants, but wrote in their reports that I probably had gotten word of their raid, and had cleared out the rest. My attorney noted that their own surveillance didn't report any unusual activities, such as that, but it didn't matter. The bottom line was that they had spent a small fortune trying bust me, and I turned out to be nothing. They did what they could, to "make an example" of me, and I ended up serving a year in jail, and 5 years of formal, felony probation. Although that is behind me now, I am still a convicted felon. That means I still can not legally own or posses a firearm, and I can't vote. All because I had 3 pot plants in my home. I have been "clean" since then, and currently have no desire at all to get high, but I firmly believe the laws that got me here are wrong. Very wrong. My "crime" was a truly victimless crime, yet my punishment was harsher than punishments I've seen given to those who's crimes had victims. A few years after my conviction, California voters passed a proposition that made possession with a doctors prescription legal. The federal govt. has overrulled that law, but nonetheless, sentences for "crimes" such as mine have been reduced to little more than a ticket.
So yes, I do have a personal interest in the concept of decriminalizing drugs, and have done alot of research on the subject. I just find it amazing that some of the same people who feel that pot is so dangerous are crusing along just fine, as long as their Prozac prescription is filled. I wish there was a way to reach more people with the truth rather than the hype.
Take care,
-Chris