Questions Drug Warriors Avoid
2. Current and past prisoners say there is a thriving drug trade within prisons, as guards and civilian employees respond to the same economic incentives as everyone else. If we cannot keep drugs out of prisons, under the most rigid controls possible, what does this say about prohibition producing a drug-free country?
3. If the Drug War is successful, what will victory be like and how will the war end?
4. If we were able to instantaneously jail all people now selling illegal drugs, how long would it be before an equal number of new dealers would be in business?
5. Some people claim there were more alcoholics during Prohibition than after repeal, and suggest drug addictions would likewise decrease if drug prohibitions were replaced with regulated distribution systems. If an impeccable scientific study reached that conclusion, would you accept it, or would you reject it as you have rejected studies showing medical value of marijuana and benefits of needle exchange programs?
6. If tobacco were prohibited, would a smuggling industry arise, would tobacco usage go up or down, and how would that prohibition differ from current marijuana prohibition?
7. Some State and Federal laws are considered “drug exceptions to the Bill Of Rights.” Which do you think is more important, drug prohibition or the Bill of Rights?
8. Noam Chomsky suggested that blaming drug-related violence on the influence of drugs was like saying Al Capone ordered the Valentines Day Massacre because he was drunk. How do you respond?
9. It’s not clear who the “enemy” is in this Drug War, but there is special concern about people who advocate repealing drug prohibition. In Congressional hearings on June 16, 1999, Representative Bob Barr suggested that anyone supporting drug legalization was equivalent to a pedophile or rapist and should be subjected to intense investigation or prosecution. In general, do you support such proposals to suppress opposition to government policies, and in particular, do you agree with Representative Barr that prohibition opponents are criminally motivated?
10. Suppose the federal government concluded it was impossible to eradicate all natural and synthetic intoxicants and re-defined our drug policy objective from eradicating drugs themselves to eradicating the black market in drugs. Further suppose you were put in charge of eliminating, not the substances, but the illegal market. What would you do to accomplish that goal?
11. When you say “legalize,” are you thinking of legalize like morphine, like whiskey, or like aspirin, and what do you think reformers mean when they use the term?
12. The American economy is built on a theory that profit motives control enterprise, regardless of government actions. Prohibition theory holds that harsh punishments will cause people to abandon highly profitable activities and be content with low incomes. These are mutually exclusive theories. One may be true and the other false, or both may be false, but it is impossible that both are true. Where do you think the error lies, prohibition theory, free enterprise economic theory, or both of them?
13. Workplace accident statistics are labeled “Drug or Alcohol Related” instead of being divided into “Drug Related” and “Alcohol Related,” because there almost no accidents due solely to the influence of drugs. How do you respond to those who claim there is no justification for employers drug testing employees and job applicants?
14. If hard drugs were available
with no restrictions at all, I personally would not take them, even if
they were free, and I doubt that you would either. It is widely assumed
that usage would jump if drugs were “legalized,” and sold under a closely
regulated distribution system. It is not clear where these new users
would come from, when anyone who wants drugs now can easily get them.
Assuming that you would not become a new user, do you agree there would
be a proliferation of new users?
15. It has been said
that we could start at the Rio Grande and scorch every inch of land all
the way to the Straits of Magellan, leaving not a person, animal, tree,
or blade of grass alive, and the United States would still have a drug
problem.
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Anyone uncertain about how to answer the above questions should contact:
Drug Policy Forum of Texas
PO Box 420687
Houston, TX 77242-0687
713-784-2637
877-667-1888 (Toll Free)
info@dpft.org
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Latest Revision 28-Dec-03