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Re: [OM] OT: Uruguay and WA State have something in common!

Subject: Re: [OM] OT: Uruguay and WA State have something in common!
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:12:52 -0600
> It's more than 60 years.  You should start counting with Prohibition.
> That should have been lesson enough not to do what we are doing.

Revisionist thinking has definitely shown that Prohibition was a
failure. However, that's not entirely true. Prohibition was the final
major attempt at changing the alcohol and drug based culture of North
America. This was a culture which predated the USA by a good 200
years. A good argument could be made that in the 19th Century, it was
very much out of control. The temperance movement took many years to
finally reach the ultimate success of implementing Prohibition and it
was something that was approved not by just a select few individuals
in Washington, but ratified by the majority of states.

Since Prohibition was repealed, the USA didn't necessarily fall off
the edge of the earth like some were predicting, but the ingrained
culture of substance abuse wasn't eliminated either. We're still one
of the biggest consumers of illicit drugs in the world. There are huge
expanses of our country where it isn't safe to walk down the street at
night because of crime. Since there are plenty of LEGAL drugs and
alcohol mood altering mechanisms available, legalizing another or all
of them isn't going to solve any problems. Frankly, in almost all
jurisdictions, the law-enforcement community generally ignores pot use
anyway, but just uses it as a means of busting chops for something
greater. It's like driving around with a burned out license plate
light. The police will ignore it until they want to pull you over for
something else.

As to putting "organized crime" out of business or the "gangs", that
isn't going to work either. They just move onto something else. Like
running Waste-Management.

-- 
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
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