[geeks] OT: response to "small town"

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 @ 17:31 -0500, Jonathan C. Patschke said:

> On Fri, 7 Oct 2005, der Mouse wrote:
> 
> > None of this sounds like Montreal - the city I live in - except for
> > the drug deals, and (a) I don't see anything wrong with that (I hold
> > that drug laws are a perfect example malum prohibitum and, for the
> > most part, should be repealed)
> 
> I agree entirely; they're a waste of limited resources and an
> encroachment on the people's liberties.  If I didn't know our right/left
> political paradigm were complete fabricated, I'd be tempted to ask how
> so many of our "conservative" politicians can claim to be both
> pro-religion get so firmly against certain plants gifted to us by the
> Creator.  Either God made a mistake, or politicians are lying two-faced
> bastards.

God (or nature if you are an atheist) also made various poisons that
will kill you in seconds.

Not everything natural is necessarily good for us.

Didn't God make Earth-shattering meteors too? How about viruses,
bacteria, and gamma radiation?

I think the whole "it's natural therefore good" idea is pretty stupid,
personally.

As far as drug use goes, my problem with it isn't the idea of getting
high.  If that were all that happened, then I wouldn't really care.

Outside of a tiny minority, most drug users I have met are more than
just high. Their performance, ethics, loyalty, and behavior sucks,
causes me grief, and costs companies I work for a lot of money.

I'm sick of putting up with that and having people tell me it is
harmless.

Since society has pretty well stopped making people clean up their own
messes, the rest of us end up picking up the slack.

We are between two bad extremes... drug enforcement is a mess, but I'm
fairly sure the polar opposite isn't a good idea either.

To me the real issue is that we've abandoned personal responsibility. If
everyone were forced to be responsible, then those who can't handle drug
use (or anything else which might adversly affect them) would have to
modify their behavior to become responsible. We'd not tolerate anything
else.

IMHO, legalizing drugs can't be safely done in a society that lacks
personal responsibility.




-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["I wish life was not so short. Languages
take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about." - J.
R. R. Tolkien]