#17212 by fisherman bob
Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:00 am
Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:00 am
You're exactly right on the pot issue. The hemp plant can be used for a large assortment of needs: clothing, medicine, heat, etc. Making it illegal had nothing to do with pot's "harmful" effects. As a matter of fact I believe all drugs should be made legal. The government could collect billions of dollars in revenue, they could set up a massive advertising campaign showing the negative effects of drugs to our children, and whatever monies are left over could be used to help us in many other ways. Legislating morality has been a miserable failure. Look at what happened during prohibition. Crime increased dramatically and MORE people were abusing alcohol during prohibition than before or after prohibition. I believe the proper way of having a war on drugs would be to do this: everybody who is convicted of a real crime (rape, murder, robbery, assault, etc.) should be tested for drugs. If they are on ANY drug including alcohol then whatever penalty they would have received for the crime should be DOUBLED with no chance for parole. This way all those people who are responsibly using pot or other drugs would not be sent to prison. All those people selling drugs would not go to prison. ONLY CRIMINALS who COMMIT CRIMES should be in prison. It's utterly ridiculous the number of prisoners who absolutely should not be there. We could go on and on about this and other political subjects and issues. Even though I'm conservative on some issues I'm also liberal on others. I believe solutions should be based on PRACTICALITY, not on ethics or religion. Maybe we could start a new political party, call it the Practical Party. Anyway we need to get back to musical issues. I can get carried away sometimes and get sidetracked easily (can you tell?). Later...