Paul pot

Ron Paul says, "...prohibition of anything doesn't work. The only thing we should prohibit is violence."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHS6tk0IBdQ&feature=player_embedded

part I: utilitarian
part II: peacenik

I do not respect libertarianism, it is mere license of self-interest [a Christian can not be a libertarian]. The second sentence might suggest that Paul sees some deficiencies in that programme. It is also possible, that, he just stumbled into the right.

Yes, there are several social justice issues concerning black market dope. Yes on the demand side punishments, but on the supply side too. There is a criminalisation of society. The drug bandit lords cheapen life through violence focused, sporadic, and demonically gleeful. There is blood on the dope.

Here in America, it is apparent in the courts and prisons, too much time and money is spent on this. Enforcement is weighted on the urban, non-white poor. As with everything here, the richer, and more socially respected the class, and ethnic markers of the user and/or suspect are, the less of the weight of the system comes down on him. The burden of guilt is not weighed on the same scale. The police and the courts have taken the power given to them, and expanded upon them, and in direct proportion have reduced freedoms of the citizenry.

Much of the drugs are imported. In the 1970s, the herbicide, paraquat, was sprayed in Mexico by the US on marijuana fields. Paraquat is toxic to people, and a fear developed in potential users of marijuana of smoking this added chemical. Domestic cultivation avoided this dread. Agricultural, and horticultural study and experimentation produced stronger dope.

The smuggled dope trade, cocaine and marijuana prominently, has recovered in Mexico, Columbia and other countries. The bandits have escalated in their criminality and power, becoming murderous terrorists. With their dope profits, they can buy American arms and ammunition, which they use freely. They have become more fearsome. They have destabilised governments. There is a growing death count.

Émigré Latinos involved in drug gangs, in the United States, have returned to their homelands as more dangerous individuals. The criminal brutality they have engaged in, they employ back home.

Of course, with different drugs of choice, there are different pathologies, different levels desperation and their corresponding ravages to the user, and society. Morphine and the opiates derived from the opium poppy are a great cash crop in Afghanistan. That money buys many deaths too. A jonesing addict in America may commit any number of crimes to procure his fix. Not every manufacturer is a careful chemist.

Those pushing for legalisation are interested in their recreation, not agrarian peace abroad, or urban stability at home. That joyful puff of smoke the enthusiast inhales, or the powder one snorts may have caused someone's torturous death, while enriching a monster. A moral dope imbiber would abstain from these blood products. The person who would see this in this light is quite rare.

Now, the black market is a free market; unless one considers economic justice. The United States enjoys free market dope. Such dope legalised, is governable, therefore regulated. Such a market would decrease prices, murders, crimes, terrorism, corruption, and other injustices and tragedies. It would increase legal employment (outside the arms industry), and taxation in the US. It would be beneficial for peace abroad. The world caters to the American market in these commodities, as in others.

Those wanting legalisation are interested in their convenience. They want to be free in using (some in marketing) these products. It should be remembered, that these products once were unrestricted, and therefore legal. Their re-legalisation, even for the selfish reasons [there are medicinal usages for marijuana, at least], will be an exercise in justice.