-> SNETNEWS Mailing List >From the South Carolina Libertarian Party (SCLP) Post Office Box 50643 http://www.awod.com/sclp ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For Immediate Release: 03-29-99 SCLP Mourns the Death of Personal Responsibility The SCLP mourns the impending death of personal responsibility. The Drug Dealer Liability Act S.102 is following the trail blazed by recent tobacco and firearms lawsuits. Sadly, it too is a recipe for failure rife with unintended consequences. No single set of laws has had a more damaging effect on United States' criminal courts and penal systems than the War on Drugs declared by Richard Nixon in 1972. Criminal court dockets are clogged with drug cases. Millions of Americans bear the scarlet "D" of a drug conviction and minorities account for a disproportionate number of the incarcerated. The Drug Dealer Liability Act (the "Act") proposes to do the same to the civil courts while exacerbating the conditions in the criminal system. The Act's stated purpose is "... to provide a civil remedy for damages to persons in a community injured by an individual's use of illegal Controlled 1 substances." The Act also provides "... an incentive for individual users to identify illegal drug marketers and recover from them the costs of their own drug treatment." It takes little imagination to foresee the abuses that will come from such a system. Dealers unhappy with their competitors will use the law to attack their competition. Individuals dissatisfied with their purchases will use the law to reap monetary rewards from their suppliers. Like ambulance-chasing lawyers and their corrupt expert physicians in today's accident cases, the Act will no doubt create a new wave of victims seeking cash compensation for their suffering and a civil court to hear their tragic tale of pain. Libertarians urge a tough-love approach to drug use. We should abolish all existing laws which serve to place the responsibility on a substance or other people rather than the individual who chooses to use drugs. For more information contact: Timothy Moultrie, SCLP Press Secretary 803.252.1615 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -> Posted by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
