On Thursday, April 28, 2005, at 08:12 AM, gemgram wrote:
Clearly the problem is with the criminalization of marijuana, not the herb itself.
The dealers are no different from the bootleggers Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Legs Diamond and the other Italian and Jewish Mafia, and their wars with the Irish gangsters. How did they attack that crime? They repealed prohibition and aggressively went after the criminals.
A note and then a comment. The enactment of prohibition was part of a larger, anti-Catholic political movement in similar fashion as anti-abortion is a political movement wrapped in religious garb. The distance of history has a way of revealing more about why this country found prohibiting things so enticing, i.e., it was usually for reasons other than what appeared on the surface. Now we are into prohibiting access to the Internet in the guise of "protecting children."
That the local distribution and street sales of marijuana should result in death by violent means can't be denied. The subrosa cash economies that function when law enforcement cannot do its job because the scope of the problem is too large and the public is engaging in the subterfuge to keep it underground, are only enhanced by a refusal to see the problem. Any drug dealers who are reading this discussion must be highly amused. There are more in the seller and user group than in the law enforcement group.
This is one large reason why I cannot understand the police chief's recommendation that the city license beggars. If this were Calcutta, the idea would be absurd. But we have so few beggars the idea seems feasible, or worse, reasonable. We can't control the traffic in marijuana and thus prevent the deaths, but we can hang some plastic around the necks of those few who beg in the streets. I've not heard of beggar deaths, except those who freeze to death in the winter. What the heck is our police chief thinking?
All I can say is logic fails.
Best,
Laura Waterman Wittstock Minneapolis, MN 612-387-4915 www.laurawatermanwittstock.com http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.com/
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