[Rhodes22-list] Which list is this.

[stan]

Dave,

that other war - the war on drugs, has been being waged even longer that all 
our other misadventures put together - and it has not worked.    So not so 
sure that you are correct about the success of making drugs legal being 
worse than failure.

Besides, the new scale today should be the weighing of the total costs of 
our current war vs. the good, bad and evil of ideas like making drugs legal.

For example: they would not hate us half as much for not buying their crop 
as they now hate us for wiping out their hard worked for crop.

ss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <DCLewis1 at aol.com>
To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Which list is this.


>
> Stan,
>
> Re drugs:  I presume we’re talking about what are loosely called
> recreational drugs, right?  Some of those drugs may be over regulated - I 
> don’t know.
> Whether marijuana is worse for you than tobacco, I just don’t  know. 
> Clearly
> tobacco is not good for you.   But other drugs will ruin  whoever touches 
> them -
> crack, heroin, etc.  By ruin your life I mean there  is absolutely no 
> other
> focus in your life than the drug - all your earnings go  for that drug, 
> etc,
> whether it’s legal or illegal, the focus of your existence  is that drug. 
> If the
> drugs were made legal, their prices might go down -  and you'd just use 
> more
> until you died from a drug overdose.  If crack  were made legal, I’m sure 
> it
> would be wildly popular with the population -  especially young people,
> especially your grandchildren - very many would become  addicted and their 
> lives
> would be substantially ruined.  It takes some  focus to accomplish 
> anything in
> your life - you know that, you’ve designed,  built, marketed, and 
> supported the
> R22 and built and run General Boats - you  could never do that if your
> principal focus was your next crack hit.  And  heroin is no better.  And I’m 
> sure
> there are other drugs that our friendly  chemists can cook up that will be 
> even
> better.  I think you’re creating a  huge problem if you legalize hard 
> drugs.
>
> I suspect the libertarian in you would say that people should be free to
> make their choice, but the problem with drugs is that many people really 
> do not
> have “free will” to accept or decline the drug once they are addicted, 
> they
> can’t make a choice.  Their metabolism has changed and they are truly
> physically addicted.  Those people have to be withdrawn under medically 
> supervised
> conditions, it’s very unpleasant and a few die.  So I don’t see  this as a 
> “
> free to chose” issue, the addict doesn't really have a choice.
>
> Re oil: I’m with you.  Seems to me that most of the non-transportation
> energy issues could be dealt with via nuclear, wind, hydro, etc (the hydro
> resource is very finite).  It can be done, we just have to do it - the 
> biggest
> impediment is probably the "back to nature" movement supported by the 
> coal
> industry.  But then there is the transportation fuels issue.
>
> After decades of listening to the oil lobby  “prove” that ethanol  couldn’t
> be made in sufficient quantity to offset any of our national 
> transportation
> fuel needs we are confronted with Brazil - who have actually done  it and 
> made
> it work.  Now we’re being told that the only reason Brazil was  successful 
> was
> that the “special beets” that can grow in their climate - and  that’s BS.
> We can start by growing corn, maybe switch grass will work, but  I suspect 
> the
> not very long term solution is to hybridize plants that are  uniquely 
> capable
> of yielding ethanol, or whatever.  The key thing is to  finally break free 
> of
> the “big oil” lobby and turn our science and technology  resources to the
> issue - not very likely with the current Administration.
>
> As for terrorists being all about money, I’m not sure it is all about 
> money.
> It takes money to fund them, and for Islamic terrorists that money  comes
> from drugs and oil; but I think they are committed crackpots.  We  have 
> our own
> American crackpots - remember Oklahoma City.  I don’t think  the fruitcake
> problem is going to go away.  The bad news is that it doesn’t  really take 
> a lot
> of money to be a successful terrorist, or to run a successful  terrorist
> operation, so I don’t see terrorists money as a critical factor in 
> stopping
> terrorism.  I'd bet the entire 9/11 caper cost the terrorists  less than 
> $2M, maybe
> $1M.   I think we have to be careful to design  our technical and social
> systems so that one or a few committed individuals  can’t wreak undo 
> havoc - that’
> s a big change for us because we’ve never given  the matter any thought at 
> all.
>
> JMO
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
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