The Democratic Party's drug problem.

[Anarchist420]

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/apr/27/two_gop_drug_war_critics_seek_pr

What's your take on the above linked article? As we know, the Clintons are vocal proponents of the War on Drugs, as is Obama. They're all Democrats.

Why do so many people who support drug legalization support the Democratic Party at the same time?

Starting with Wilson, the Democrats have moreso been the party of drug prohibition (RINOs like Rockefeller, Nixon, Bush, and Reagan don't count).

Are Republicans going to get votes from opponents of the drug war?

I've always thought the war on drugs has been socialistic fascism and an anti-capitalist economic disaster; however, as the vote in California last year proved, many users want it to be illegal, and by the government making the drug cartel so powerful, we may find those effects impossible to reverse. I also think that George HW Bush knew the effects of prohibition, and wanted to make the drug cartels more powerful because he's such an evil fuckass. Clinton also knew the effects of drug prohibition, but chose to keep the cartels in power anyway for reasons unknown to me.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

I would venture to guess it might have to do with whomever owns these private prisons.

 

[xj0hnx]

Making pot legal alone is useless. It will only satiate the pot smokers, it will not do what is needed to break the cartels grip on American drug culture, nor will it do anything to hamper the over crowded prison system, that is filled with meth, coke, and heroin addicts. Nor will it stifle the WoD to any meaningful degree.

 

[JSt0rm]

Making pot legal alone is useless. It will only satiate the pot smokers, it will not do what is needed to break the cartels grip on American drug culture, nor will it do anything to hamper the over crowded prison system, that is filled with meth, coke, and heroin addicts. Nor will it stifle the WoD to any meaningful degree.

Are you saying there are no positives to legalization of mj?

 

[xj0hnx]

Are you saying there are no positives to legalization of mj?

No, there are positives, but to run on it with an anti-prohibition angle is disingenuous at a minimum. I fully, 110% support the absolute legalization of all drugs.

 

[BoberFett]

Starting with Wilson, the Democrats have moreso been the party of drug prohibition (RINOs like Rockefeller, Nixon, Bush, and Reagan don't count).

Wrong. The Republican party as a whole is intensely anti-legalization. What better way to fund a police state than to fight an unwinnable war?

 

[fskimospy]

Remember guys, the Republican Party is more for the legalization of pot if you just forget all the Republican presidents.

Meanwhile, lets look at the Democratic presidents and... OMIGOD they are for the war on drugs!

The only logical conclusion is that it is based upon party affiliation. Anyone that were to conclude that it was the result of what you need to do in order to become president would only say that because they were deprived of a tier 4 education.

 

[xj0hnx]

Wrong. The Republican party as a whole is intensely anti-legalization. What better way to fund a police state than to fight an unwinnable war?

Maybe, but the democrats have paid absolutely nothing but lip service to anti-prohibition. There have been MANY republicans that have been pro-legalization, but the same reason they don't act is because little Timmy will be sucking dick for crack with a needle hanging out of his neck three months after smoking the devils weed, everyone knows this.

 

[BoberFett]

Maybe, but the democrats have paid absolutely nothing but lip service to anti-prohibition. There have been MANY republicans that have been pro-legalization, but the same reason they don't act is because little Timmy will be sucking dick for crack with a needle hanging out of his neck three months after smoking the devils weed.

Then we should legalize prostitution also, to make sure that little Timmy sucking dick is at least legal.

 

[xj0hnx]

Then we should legalize prostitution also, to make sure that little Timmy sucking dick is at least legal.

I wholly agree.

 

[Theb]

Why do so many people who support drug legalization support the Democratic Party at the same time?

The same reason fiscal conservatives vote for Republicans. Republicans love to spend, but not quite as much as Democrats. Democrats love the WoD, but they don't have as big of a hard-on for it as the Republicans do.

 

[PeshakJang]

Then we should legalize prostitution also, to make sure that little Timmy sucking dick is at least legal.

Ole' Harry Reid (Yeah, the one from Nevada, that grew up in a brothel) came out the other day saying it's time to make prostitution illegal there... on account that the voters of the counties in which it is legal pissed him off.

Why do progressives hate freedom so much?

 

[PeshakJang]

Screw the war on drugs...we need a war on the poor... I mean on poverty. War on... poverty...

:sneaky:

 

[CitizenKain]

Ole' Harry Reid (Yeah, the one from Nevada, that grew up in a brothel) came out the other day saying it's time to make prostitution illegal there... on account that the voters of the counties in which it is legal pissed him off.

Why do progressives hate freedom so much?

For the same exact reasons conservatives hate freedom so much. Because it gets them votes.

 

[catilley1092]

I believe that the "war on drugs" started with Nixon, if memory serves me well (I was only 12 years old at the time). The US went to great lengths to spray the pot fields with some kinda "Roundup" like substance to deliberately kill the plants.

The problem is on both sides, as I see it. Also, were it an election year, the law to make pot legal would have passed in CA. It was a mid-term election, and turnout was low.

But it will show on the ballot again, and I predict that CA will be once and for all, the land of the free. The taxes that will be generated will make the state's debts vanish within 3 years at the most. Unless someone decides to spend it on other projects, like always.

Cat

 

[wuliheron]

The war on drugs began when San Fransisco outlawed opium in 1875 and its been downhill ever since. Libertarians and others can claim we don't need drug laws and that they reverse all the drug laws, but they can't even tie their own shoes.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Starting with Wilson, the Democrats have moreso been the party of drug prohibition (RINOs like Rockefeller, Nixon, Bush, and Reagan don't count).

"Citation needed"

As a 420 you have a portfolio of links to hard evidence at your fingertips to back this assertion up, right?

Edit: That Dems in congress (since presidents don't count) and at the state level are more in favor of drug prohibition than Reps?

 

[woolfe9999]

Neither party has been especially in favor of drug legalization. Both parties have their odd exceptions. The difference is that liberalism naturally leans toward drug legalization. It's just that real world democrats usually don't get on board because they view it as unopular and something which will cost them votes. OTOH, republicans represent a socially conservative base who are vehemently opposed to legalization. They will never change that stance unless they suddenly start representing a different base. If I had to bet on where most of the initiative toward legalization will come in the future, I'd put my bet on the dems. That said, it's a slow process and you won't see much support in either party for legalizing anything outside pot. Even pot legalization was unpopular among the public until relatively recently, and hence was not a common position among candidates for office.

Anyway, it's a mistake to make it a matter of one party versus the other or one candidate versus the other. Ther American public will lead the way on this as we do with all these social issues.

 

[wuliheron]

As a 420 you have a portfolio of links to hard evidence at your fingertips to back this assertion up, right?

I'm sure he keeps it right next to his anti-psychotic drugs along with the literature on UFOs.

 

[CallMeJoe]

I'm sure he keeps it right next to his anti-psychotic drugs along with the literature on UFOs.

What would make you assume Anarchist has ever seen a mental health professional, much less been treated by one?

 

[Rainsford]

Why do so many people who support drug legalization support the Democratic Party at the same time?

Even if there was truth to your ridiculous premise that Republicans are more pro-drugs than Democrats (as long as you throw out all the Republican presidents other than Ford in the last 50 years), I see a simple explanation. Most people who favor more liberal drug laws probably aren't single issue voters, and they also tend to support a lot of other liberal social and economic positions...which the Republicans almost uniformly fight against.

 

[wuliheron]

What would make you assume Anarchist has ever seen a mental health professional, much less been treated by one?

The little green men told me.

 

[xj0hnx]

I believe that the "war on drugs" started with Nixon, if memory serves me well (I was only 12 years old at the time). The US went to great lengths to spray the pot fields with some kinda "Roundup" like substance to deliberately kill the plants.

The problem is on both sides, as I see it. Also, were it an election year, the law to make pot legal would have passed in CA. It was a mid-term election, and turnout was low.

But it will show on the ballot again, and I predict that CA will be once and for all, the land of the free. The taxes that will be generated will make the state's debts vanish within 3 years at the most. Unless someone decides to spend it on other projects, like always.

Cat

Technically it's Nixon and his DEA's baby, but as Wuliheron pointed out prohibitions have been in place for a long time, most as knee-jerk reactions to trying to solve one problem with a worse one, such as heroin as a cure for morphine addiction.

Anyone that tries to assign a partisan value to the War on Drugs is an idiot, it's a societal ill.

 

[hal2kilo]

Technically it's Nixon and his DEA's baby, but as Wuliheron pointed out prohibitions have been in place for a long time, most as knee-jerk reactions to trying to solve one problem with a worse one, such as heroin as a cure for morphine addiction.

Anyone that tries to assign a partisan value to the War on Drugs is an idiot, it's a societal ill.

Most recent drug illegalization in "recent history" was basically due to racism. Marijuana was made ilegal because those brown people were bringing it into the country when came to work in peoples fields. Cocaine was made illegal when those crazy negros were misbehaving down at the docks in New Orleans.

 

[CallMeJoe]

Most recent drug illegalization in "recent history" was basically due to racism. Marijuana was made ilegal because those brown people were bringing it into the country when came to work in peoples fields. Cocaine was made illegal when those crazy negros were misbehaving down at the docks in New Orleans.

An interesting read on the subject, including a detailed analysis of the history of drug legislation in the United States: The Consumers' Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs.