From: Alex Le Heux <alexlh@xs4all.nl>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 04:04:30 +0800
To: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@amaranth.com>
Subject: Re: Welfare Solution #389
In-Reply-To: <34029a0f.55426630@smtp.xs4all.nl>
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19970826220410.007e1cd0@mail.xs4all.nl>
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At 06:32 8/26/97 -0400, you wrote:

[...]

>>It's this attitude that creates most of the drug 'problem' for 
society.
>>It's not the drugs. People can function fine while enjoying their 
hits of
>>beer, weed, coke or whatever. It's the ciminalisation of some drugs 
and
>>the attitude of people like William H. Geiger III that make the 
drug user
>>outcasts from society.
>
>You are making unfounded assumptions of my position on drug use.
>
I see that I did. No problem, plenty of new stuff here to keep the 
argument going...

>I really could care less about someone who uses drugs on a 
recreational
>basis and is able to buy his drugs with his/her/its *own* money. I 
think
>it is a total waste for those who prefer to spend their life 
drooling in a
>corner with a needle in their arm and/or crack pipe in their hand. 
Even so
>if they or their families are wealthy enough to support this 
behavior more
>power to them.
>
>What I strongly object to is my hard earned $$$ being stolen from me 
to
>support this behavior either in the form of taxes spent on Welfare & 
SS or
>(for the more ambitious junkie) stolen/robbed directly.
>
>As a Libertarian I am all for the legalization of drugs. Our current
>politicians seem incapable of learning from the past that 
prohibition
>never works and causes more problems than it solves (Econmics 101 
supply &
>demand).
>
I suppose you believe that a drug addict has no one to blame but 
himself, and that he should take _all_ of the blame. I don't. They 
certainly deserve some credit for the mess they're in, but not 
entirely. Bad luck has a lot to do with it as well. Just like getting 
blown off a cliff by the wind. You shouldn't have been there, you 
should have been strong enough not be blown off, etc....

Also, it being the druggie's fault or not, treating him as an outcast 
is not going to solve the problem. It'll only make it worse. For him, 
and for the rest of us.

What works much better is treating his addiction more like a disease. 
This is what we do in The Netherlands. We have few junkies living in 
the street, rarely does a granny get her head blown off for a nickle 
and a dime. Also the mortality rate under the junkies is very low, 
although I suspect you don't see that as a good thing.

The 'drug problem' as it exists in most places in this world is the 
result of the mindboggeling numbers of people living in tiny spaces. 
It is a problem of us all, so the bill ends up with us all.

Procecuting the addict only serves to drive up that bill. Killing him 
is certainly the cheap option, but a healthy society takes care of 
it's members, even if they mess up so spectacularly. Several 
programs, in The Netherlands and Switzerland and probably other 
places, have shown that by far the cheapest and least painful 
solution for all is just to give the man his drugs. In fact, 
Switzerland is doing just that with it's heroin addicts. As it turns 
out most of them get some sort of life back together, a lot even 
manage to get and hold jobs and thus become productive citizens 
dispite their addiction.
>I also believe, as a Libertarian, that I have the "GOD given right" 
to
>defend myself, my family, and my property, with deadly force if 
needed
>(and I am the one who gets to decide when such force is needed not 
some
>bureaucrat in DC).
>

Alex
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