give it up already! No April Fool here...

The economic crisis, the shortfall of money and the increased criminal violence on the Mexican-U.S. border being reported daily, hourly now on the news – the crisis for the day is the “Drug War”. And it has driven me to this… because in parallel are the reports of the thousands, thousands – of people who have lost their life savings in the stock market or Madoff swindle, or lost their jobs – the numbers reported daily are staggering and nothing less of tragic. This is a BAD THING.

Why, why, why, why do we not legalize drugs? And right behind it please prostitution? Count the millions, billions of dollars. What federal deficit? What crime wave? Make the criminal element have to really work for their money by coming up with new ideas to make money that don’t target a certain populace.

If we can gently, not ignore, but side step for the sake of this post, the “moral” not ethical, but moral objections – let us look at this. Here is a medical view...

People who want to use drugs be they prescription or not, will find them. They will. If we can recall the loud failure called prohibition we can draw some parallels. I love this opinion from the former chief of police of Seattle usa. "I've witnessed the devastating effects of open-air drug markets in residential neighborhoods: children recruited as runners, mules and lookouts; drug dealers and innocent citizens shot dead in firefights between rival traffickers bent on protecting or expanding their markets; dedicated narcotics officers tortured and killed in the line of duty; prisons filled with nonviolent drug offenders; and drug-related foreign policies that foster political instability, wreak health and environmental disasters, and make life even tougher for indigenous subsistence farmers in places such as Latin America and Afghanistan. All because we like our drugs — and can't have them without breaking the law."

The drugs are coming, pouring actually, into the U.S. - as I understand it we, the United States, are the biggest customers of all drug providers. Just as the criminal element of the day provided illegal liquor during prohibition, the criminal element of today provides whatever substance is in demand and makes killing people just part of business. Here is a great article from The Economist.

Name me a time in history when prostitution was not a part of any culture? Would it be such a shame were it legalized and the pimps were out of a job, and the women who choose or see no other choice for income, could pay taxes, get health insurance, get protection from venereal disease (the ones that annoy and the ones that kill) and physical abuse. Again – deficient? What deficient? Mandate yearly health check ups and the use of condoms. Let the bureaucracy go nutty with joy coming up with new rules to turn prostitution into a huge return for the IRS. I think I can guarantee there will be no request from the Prostitution Industry or Union for federal subsidies.

If the U.S. legalized drugs and prostitution (using all that man power, hundreds of federal agents, from the DEA, the ATF, local constabulary, and now the National Guard that is being requested to help control the flow of drugs over the Mexican border into the U.S.) there would be no national deficit, and the crime rate would plummet! And no, in this particular case (I know, I know, normally I do but I’m just talking today) I don’t have statistics to back me up on each point, but come on the logic of the situation is self-apparent no? And I’ve given you loads of links and those people do have statistics. . I’ve had just enough semesters of statistics to know one can slant them in any direction as well – so some of the papers I have linked for you are also opinion.

Just one benefit would be the freeing up of prison space (the U.S. and most western nations are full up) to house sex offenders and murders. Gods they could actually sell San Quentin and set up a walking park… I’m just saying….

There would then be no need to deprive young men in Columbia of jobs to feed their families. Let them grow the heroin, the marijuana, cook up the meth – whatever – and export it, again legally – bringing up the Gross National Income of several, no doubt, Central American countries. We could even boycott the opium from Afghanistan that is presently funding terrorism if we like. Making the product legal would give them no market in the U.S. if we are getting it from Columbia and other well behaved countries. (just a little sarcasm, just a wee bit on the side)

The moral and ethical issues… Well, I have to tell you I just think that if a person is bound and determined to ingest “drugs” (be they bought with a prescription or on the ‘street’) they will do so. No law ever stopped an addict from getting his/her fix – delayed it maybe, but not stopped. And if we want to be ethical is it not better that these people would be purchasing drugs that have been approved by the FDA – instead of the street drugs that can contain lethal contaminants and undetermined potency that can kill? "Although purer heroin is becoming more common, most street heroin is “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Street heroin can also be cut with strychnine, fentanyl or other poisons. Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at risk of overdose or death." Regulate the hell out of it, tax them, and clean up the streets of drug runners I say. You would have an entire criminal element populace out of a job. Now there are some unemployment statistics I could get happy about.

I know this is a volatile subject and there is no simple solution, so sound off…what do you think?

Ciao.