Monday, December 4, 2006

Why did Kathryn Johnston die? Let's take a look at it in basic terms. First -- essentially all the violence, from both the drug warriors and the drug traffickers, is a direct result of prohibition. It is a major side effect of the drug war. What is the purpose of the drug war? Well, theoretically, its purpose is to prevent people from using certain drugs. Marijuana, mostly, since that's the most popular illicit drug. And it's to prevent people from voluntarily using marijuana (marijuana isn't like rape or murder or theft -- it isn't done to a person by someone else -- it's a choice). [Now, forget for a moment the fact that it doesn't actually work. Assume it does.] So when you killed Kathryn Johnston, that was to prevent someone from voluntarily smoking marijuana. In other words, you cared more about the supposed harm to a drug user who was doing it to himself, than the life of an innocent person. How morally bankrupt do you have to be to make such a choice? How many people are you willing to kill to accomplish your goal? How many innocent deaths do you accept in order to stop someone from smoking pot and hanging out on Pete's couch? If one innocent person dies and 10 people stop smoking pot, is that a good trade-off? How many lives and families are you willing to destroy to stop someone from voluntarily taking heroin? And horror of horrors, what if (as most certainly is the case), all your killing of innocent people didn't really have a significant impact on drug use or abuse. When you realize that you have killed these people for nothing... what will you tell their children? 6:26:08 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Open Thread It seems that I'm seeing a lot of "Legalize It" articles (of differing approaches) in recent days. In addition to Cynthia Tucker's excellent piece, here's one in Sandusky, Ohio by Evan Goodenow (note the Kathryn Johnston mention). There's this one in the Cambridge Evening News. And there's one in the Edmonton Sun. Is it just me, or has there been a slight increase in the willingness of the media to give this idea coverage? Perhaps the education efforts of all the drug policy reformers are actually bearing fruit in this way? If you want an opportunity to write letters to an article that's less positive, you need look no further than the OpEd by former ONDCP speechwriter Kevin Sabet in the Washington Post today. He acts like he's being reasonable, yet the way he dismisses the discussion of legalization is dishonest. The Agitator has been covering Atlanta extremely well (of course) and discovered (gasp!) that there may have been other cases where the no-knock warrant was used without proper foundation. With the Kathryn Johnston (elderly lady killed in her home in Atlanta) and Sean Bell (unarmed bridegroom killed in New York with police firing 50 bullets) incidents fresh in the media, it seems to me there is an opportunity here to visit with your local city council member and ask what the policies are for SWAT or other military-style engagements by the local police and what safeguards are in place. 9:53:59 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []