Wednesday, December 14, 2005

What message are we sending to the children? Here's a request for input from all of you. One of the most annoying tricks used by drug prohibitionists is the old "What message would that send to the children?" used in opposition to any drug policy reform, usually when the facts are against them. I would like to put together a page of actual messages that we send to children by continuing prohibition as it exists. Things like... "Lying is OK when adults are talking about drugs." "Our interest in what's good for the family is less important than our desire to punish." "If you make a mistake regarding drug use, we'd rather have you die from it than have information that might save your life." "If you make a mistake regarding drug use, we're going to make sure that your friends are too afraid to get help that might save you." "If you're going to use drugs, we want to make sure that you get them from a criminal, with uncertain purity and dosage." "We're really hoping that heroin addicts will get HIV and hepatitus from shared needles and die. That's why we won't allow needle exchange." "You have no rights. We can come and test your blood or your urine or search you whenever we feel like it. You're property." "We use sick people as a tool for our political purposes. We don't care whether they are in pain or die from a lack of medicine." "We sit in Washington drinking martinis and thinking up ways to destroy the lives of kids who like to smoke pot." "We'll destroy the livelihoods of poor farmers and decimate their crops in order to make the drug dealers and drug warriors richer." In comments, add your own, or adjust the wording of some that I've given. 10:47:16 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Open Thread I've still got a few more days of craziness to finish up the semester with finals and a trip to Chicago with the Madrigal Singers for their 50th Anniversary (they'll be performing at the Chicago Cultural Center on Saturday Night and the Palmer House Restaurant on Sunday morning. So, sorry for the lack of posts, but you know what to do. Dare Generation Diary has been doing great, so read them regularly (and Libby at Last One Speaks and Jeralyn at TalkLeft). And of course Radley Balko's posts on Cory Maye have shaken up the entire blogosphere, from Atrios to Instapundit (it would be nice if more of them were discussing the issue of drug raids rather than focusing solely on home self-defense). The media has actually been reporting the fact that the government is being sued to allow additional marijuana growing for research purposes. Of course, that's something we've been talking about here for months. They trial was on hiatus and has started up again. The media is also, unusually, continuing to report the GAO's trashing of Plan Colombia. Could it be that it won't be swept under the rug this time? Discuss. 10:27:53 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []