Forum Post: Change the Drug Laws! - An appeal to OWS to organize to change public policy
Posted 13 years ago on Dec. 1, 2011, 8:46 p.m. EST by Redbirds4
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Anyone who has studied U.S. history knows what a disaster Alcohol Prohibition was. That it directly led to an increase in Organized Crime, Government corruption, an increase in the Police powers of the state, and actually increased deaths by alcohol due to the unregulated product quality.
The above issues can be seen today with the U.S. drug policy. No one can deny that as a general rule, the vast majority of society, all races, all incomes, believe drugs to be harmful. But to enact a law like this outlawing a vice is causing more problems then it's solving. The parallels with Alcohol prohibition is amazing when you examine it closely.
To me, the biggest benefits would be:
--Increase in Tax revenues and job growth from this new industry --Decrease in violent crime due because of decrease in power of organized crime, jail cells available for violent criminals instead of addicts
Anyways, do your own research, come to your own conclusions, but this is something that many Americans ACROSS multiple demographics and political leanings will come together on.
That saying sums it up "Either we must enforce the law or we must change the law".
I don't care what someone's background is, they've probably had some kind of life situation where a potential solution to a problem could've or did end up causing more trouble then the problem itself. The drug laws are one of those things.
The 45,000 dead in Mexico since 2006 in the war on drugs is an amazing and gruesome stat. Violence in this country and in Mexico would plummet if drugs were legalized, as the organized crime power would be significantly reduced and all the manpower that went into enforcing drug laws instead went into actually making the country safer for it's citizens (and commerce.)
I've been saying for years now:
Either we must enforce the law
or we must change the law
there are over 45,000 dead in Mexico since 2006 in the war on drugs. That's ten times the number of U.S. service men killed in Iraq - in half the time.