Imagine tomorrow, just work with me on this one, imagine that every person smoking pot, doing cocaine, or some other variant of illegal drug usage was arrested.

Imagine ALL of those people.  Can you imagine them all?  How many people really have any idea how many people that would be?  The real estimation of how many people are caught and arrested in relation to illegal drug distribution and use is maybe 5-15%.  That estimation is really only among the lower income.  So what about everyone else?

Imagine 5-10%+ of the software industry employees are all of a sudden in jail.  Imagine tomorrow that hundreds of medical professionals are in jail.  Imagine hundreds and hundreds of doctors in jail for illegal prescriptions.  Imagine the thousands upon thousands of truckers, taxi drivers, and other professionals that would be thrown in jail because of off hours recreational use.  Imagine the service sector losing hundreds of thousands of employees that serve, prepare, deliver, and make the food that millions of Americans eat.  Imagine the stock market losing 50-80% of the traders (some estimates are even higher).  Imagine the number of police officers pulled off the street or firemen pull away and tossed in jail.

Imagine the well over trillions of dollars these people contribute to the economy gone, shoved into jail?

Yeah, keep saying to yourself that these people don’t do some type of illegal drug.  Keep telling yourself they don’t smoke pot or pop some pills to stay alert.  Just keep lying to yourself like that.  Keep imagining that these people aren’t really there or they aren’t that important.

Now imagine, all of those people, doing all of those jobs, critical or not are lost.  This current financial collapse, the great depression, all of it would pale in comparison.  Our entire society would come to a screeching halt within 24-48 hours, you can bet your ass on it.

So why do we perpetuate the idea we should arrest non-violent recreational users?  Why are these recreational uses not ok but alcohol, smoking, and other bad for you activities are ok now?  The laws need reviewed, and all those people that turn away and ignore this abhorrent ongoing action by the Government to enforce something that is impossible to do in the first place, desperately need to think.

In the past 30 years we’ve spent enough on the drug wars to do ALL of the following.

• The money spent on the drug war could have provided high speed rail of 200mph+ to every major city pair in the US; Seattle to Portland, San Francisco to Sacramento, LA to San Diego, Houston to Dallas, New Orleans to Mobile, Jacksonville to Tampa, Tampa to Miami, and dozens more.
• Every city could have expanded services to deal with drug issues for over 10 million people.
• We could have developed and supplied the needed electrical infrastructure for GMs electric car, in the mid-90s.  GM thus, most likely wouldn’t be hurting like they are and America would again be leading the world in something, instead of falling behind like it is now.
• Thousands of South Americans, US Citizens, Officers and others, would most likely still be alive.
• The increase in taxable product would be in the positive billions for the Government, and the industry could possibly employ over a hundred thousand Americans.  The drug lords of today would immediately lose power with the veil of illegality removed.
• The safety of these drugs could easily be monitored and increased, so that they do not cause the intense and drastic dangers that some of the heavier drugs cause.
• Freedom and choice of individual citizens is restored.  A choice that has been removed now for about 30-60 years.  A choice that hundreds of millions of Americans had not thought twice about until the last 30-60 years ago.

…and there would probably still be a couple dozen billion dollars left over still.  Maybe it could pay for our ever encroaching bailouts of today.

So maybe, someone should think a bit more about our dire and draconian drug laws.

It always impresses me when a judge slams down laws on parents that have been, well, simply, crappy parents.

In other News The French are as Whiney as Us Americans

In the article "A curiously French Complaint" the author points out the French's addiction to antibiotics.  Americans are on pain killers (which often do nothing but fill the pockets of biotech and such and only act as mere placebos) and Frenchies are on antibiotics because they're freaked about their health.

This brings up several questions.  I wonder how much waste and abuse is inherent in France's Health Care System, and could America even afford such a cluster?  The author went back to England and in short order went home empty handed with the simple analysis that she had a cold.

What's the dealio with the similarities between Americans and the French?  I seriously think that we dislike each other because we have so many similarities in our snobbish, aloof, the world owes us, nose in the air attitudes.  Technically we do owe each other, our country exists because they backed us in the Revolution (and many other times) and we went and saved them from that little plague of Europe called Nazism.  But in all seriousness, we ought to just drop those points, respect them, but drop em' and get on with life already.

...and of course quit being whiney fussy pansies that are hooked on antibiotics and pain killers.  Pathetic.