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#12
11-23-2007, 11:50 PM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
You're right. What makes the war on drugs completely sickening is the billions of dollars we spend on it, the tens of thousands of people we needlessly put in jail for it, the catalyst it has been for increasing the potency of the drugs on the street, the increases in gangs and general violence it has encouraged, and the fact that it HAS DONE NOTHING to decrease use or availability of drugs! If this is not a failure, there's never been one. And we keep. Doing. It. I once thought that the only way our government would ever start changing course would be if they declared "War on war on stuff." - but then I realized how terribly their wars on stuff turn out, so we'd probably end up with MORE wars on stuff. [/ QUOTE ] The War on Drugs has been a positive thing for certain businesses. For example, it feeds a thriving slave market in the U.S. I recently worked for 2 non profits. One that actually helps people - a food bank. I volunteered my time and the experience was gratifying, the people were fun to work with, and for a little labor I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. The other - a discount store. I was forced to work there as a result of a marijuana conviction. This experience was anything but pleasant. I was bruised and sore every day. The employers were jerks especially to the Mexican offenders. One rule that was strictly enforced was that I could never sit down during an eight hour period except for lunch. I had to squat down over and over to sort coat hangers, when pulling up a bench and sitting would have allowed me to do the work quicker. But as these people paid very few employees, they didn’t care how efficient the work was. As a former CPA, I did a lot of work for non-profits, that were very much profit oriented. Profits were simply siphoned off in the form of wages and contract labor, etc. Businesses opt for non-profit status for cheap labor and in some states, for the ability to provide gambling games. 
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#13
11-24-2007, 03:31 AM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
Somehow I believe that this case is pretty unusual, and the majority of the war on drugs are focused on stopping those who import/make/sell harder drugs like meth, coke, speed and so on which certainly is the target for the war on drugs, not people using medication for an illness. [/ QUOTE ] Then you're not paying attention. Also, coke is in the same tier as alcohol, a little worse but not a lot, not the same tier as meth.
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#14
11-24-2007, 04:36 AM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
It does seem like there's a very a high chance he had a crummy lawyer. [/ QUOTE ] Obviously, he shouldn't have even needed to have a lawyer in the first place. The bottom line is, the guy ended up in prison for having too many pain pills. It's not any of our business how many pain pills he's got. The drug war is ludicrous and these edge cases illustrate that (although he's not that much of an edge case. the drug war could almost be subtitled "the war on pain doctors" these days). I haven't even started ranting about how unnecessary and oppressive prescription laws are in the first place. They are simply an extension of the destructive drug war. natedogg
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#16
11-24-2007, 11:25 AM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
After staking out his house, law enforcement officials found no evidence of him selling drugs to anyone. He simply had possession of an un-prescribed bottle and a record of taking 18,000 pills, which amounted to just over 20 a day personal consumption over a two year period of time - an amount, authorities insisted provided proof that he was a seller. Paey explained that without these pills, he would have been bed bound and in extreme pain. The pills allowed him to lead an almost normal life. Because of mandatory sentencing laws, the Florida judge was compelled to sentence him for 25 years. [/ QUOTE ] Mandatory sentencing laws are criminal and should be removed from our legal code.
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#18
11-24-2007, 12:39 PM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
The independence of the judicial system is under attack by reactionaries that you support, john. [/ QUOTE ] I'm not sure what you mean, how is it under attack? And what reactionaries do I support? I can't think of any unless you might mean Ron Paul; I support Ron Paul. Do you consider him a reactionary?
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#19
11-24-2007, 04:06 PM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] It does seem like there's a very a high chance he had a crummy lawyer. [/ QUOTE ] Obviously, he shouldn't have even needed to have a lawyer in the first place. The bottom line is, the guy ended up in prison for having too many pain pills. It's not any of our business how many pain pills he's got. The drug war is ludicrous and these edge cases illustrate that (although he's not that much of an edge case. the drug war could almost be subtitled "the war on pain doctors" these days). I haven't even started ranting about how unnecessary and oppressive prescription laws are in the first place. They are simply an extension of the destructive drug war. natedogg [/ QUOTE ] First of all I'd like to hear the other side in this case. According to one of the posters in this thread he was picked up for forging Dr.'s signatures on prescriptions. I'm fairly certain he knew if he got caught he would be in trouble. I guess what you're saying is that anyone should be able to get any kind of drug/medication anytime they want at anytime. Ok. Haven't heard anything about what his doctor in NJ said. Haven't heard anything about what doctors in Florida said. Haven't heard or read anything about what came out at the trial. Sorry but I think this is a one sided report so I'm reserving judgement. But it sounds to me like this probably an unremarkable story most likely. If you were opposed to the conduct of the "war on drugs" you'd still be opposed and if you weren't opposed you still wouldn't be. I've heard of worse trangressions by the legal system. And as far as his shouldn't have had to go to trial. People go to trial all the time U.S. that probably shouldn't be in a trial. Part of deal with living here. Expecting perfection from the legal system is an expectation that is way to high IMO. BTW my wife had breast cancer in the late nineties and I was forced to break the law in obtaining pot to get her through chemo. I think that the government is totally screwed up with many drug laws. I wasn't into pot at all at the time either and neither was she.
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#20
11-24-2007, 04:51 PM
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Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
BTW my wife had breast cancer in the late nineties and I was forced to break the law in obtaining pot to get her through chemo. I think that the government is totally screwed up with many drug laws. I wasn't into pot at all at the time either and neither was she. [/ QUOTE ] When I was in high school, my mother wanted me to get her some pot for a friend of hers that had breast cancer. I'd never smoked it, and couldn't get any. Had it been two years later, I could've gotten her all she wanted - at dealer prices. These days, I couldn't get any again. Funny how the tide shifts.
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