TWiG’s Joint

To quote Dan B from the site Change.org :

We have the highest non-violent incarceration rate in the world. We need to free up our police, jails and courts to deal with people who actually pose a clear and present danger to life and liberty. Stop persecuting non-violent drug users. Prefer regulation to prohibition and give up on this “war” that can never be won.

So here is how I see it. The war on drugs is nothing more than a war on our freedom. I personally feel that as a citizen of a free country, you and I should be able to put into your body what ever we want, harmful to ourselves or not. Users of cigarettes, coffee and alcohol are using “drugs” each day, as part of their own free will, and freedom to do so. Some people would argue that these drugs are as addicting and harmful, if not more, than other “drugs” that are deemed illegal. Yet they are legal to buy in almost any store, and commonly, are quite available to minors even though there are laws to try to prevent it.

A largely used argument against legalization of “drugs” is the violence and crime that, according to some, is only possible with use of these illegal drugs. My own personal anecdotal experience, as well as many studies, have demonstrated that alcohol, a legal and commonly available “drug” causes, what I perceive as, insane amounts of violence, crime and danger to others. Just look at bar fights, teen alcohol poisoning rates, DUI car accidents and random ass kickings down dark alleys. Clearly alcohol doesn’t have a clean record either, but it IS legal.

Now I am not saying that users of illegal drugs do not commit crimes or become violent, ANY human can commit a crime or become violent. But there are those laws on the books making those crimes illegal, and there are punishments for those crimes. A criminal with out drugs is still a criminal. A killer without drugs is still a killer. The drugs did NOT make them do the crime. The drug or the alcohol may have screwed up their perception of right and wrong, but they still picked their own crime and likely picked their victim. Yet when the only “Crime” a person commits is something as harmless as smoking a joint in the privacy of their own home, our country says they are “criminals that must be stopped”!!!

Take spray paint for a strange type of example. It is legal to have and use.. sold in many types of stores.. for personal or professional use.. for a whole list of great purposes, and in many places a state ID proving you are over 18 is required to purchase it. Now, once you use that paint to tag your name on a building wall, or all over your neighbors car.. then a crime has been committed. You are punished for the crime, not because you used spray paint, but because of what you did WITH the paint. The same should apply to drugs, as it sort of does with alcohol. Using the drug doesnt need to be a crime, your freedoms do not need to be taken away. Doing a crime, while on the drug or not, is what needs to be illegal and punished. I could use this metaphor with a ton of other laws that save “stupid people”, but thats another post in its own right, though it does move me to my next point in this current post.

I grew up subscribed to the “survival of the fittest” attitude in the world, and here is where some, if not most of you will think that I am the one thats friggin crazy. If drugs are legalized, and some of these people, often the really stupid ones, taking the “dangerous to self” drugs overdose.. and die.. did it harm you? Nope, you survived, and WON, this round of Survival of the Fittest. Some would gasp here and say “WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?!?!”.. Education dear parents Edu-frigin-cation!!!

Parents, you are responsible for what your kids learn. Teach them the truth, not propaganda, from start to finish. Information is almost always screwed up in one way or the other when it comes to drug education for the youth of this country. Usually with marijuana, kids are taught lies about pot use by people they were supposed to put trust in, the police, their teachers and even their parents. They are told about all the horrible things smoking just one toke off a joint will do to you, and how evil you will become. Then one day they take that toke, and none of those bad things happen. Thats when, kids, being smart yet not wise, believe that those adults must have lied about all drugs. If pot wasn’t the evil demon it was said to be.. then crack probably isn’t either. Youth that is informed with truth and accuracy would have stood a better chance in that test, and would still hold the trust of those adults whom gave them that truth.

I want to finish this off by saying I smoke pot. Plenty of it. I also smoke cigarettes and drink massive amounts of coffee. What keeps me from crime sprees, looting, raping and pillaging is not a fear of laws, a god or any other “idea”, but just simple morals, something true criminals lack.

Love of all humans, and want for them to be free, happy and content is all I need.

Lets stop this war on FREEDOM and get back to the real fight.. The WAR ON CRIME!!