A must read by Debra Saunders – Why our drug war is a failure

This is one place, and probably the only place where I’m likely to part ways with my fellow conservative friends. I know they agree with me that the war on drugs has been an utter failure but my views on drug legalization is more liberal than most other conservatives. My views on this are libertarian.

I know all the arguments about how drug addiction breaks up families, endangers children and ruins lives. Those are all righteous and laudable, as well as heartbreaking arguments and drugs, like tobacco, is a truly defenseless cause. But no one can say that our so-called war on drugs has been effective by any margin. We’ve failed to beat it back and we will continue to fail. It’s a lost cause as a war. The only winners are the addicts and the drug cartels: Mexican and American.

Debra Saunders at Rasmussen Reports has an excellent column today about this. I could parrot her here but that’s really a waste of time and I could never do justice to what she’s written. I hope you’ll go read it.  She makes excellent points about who is really paying for this bogus war and I’m sure you can guess – it’s you and me. She says “that if half of Americans who use pseudoephedrine drugs [otc cold and allergy medications] had to visit a doctor to get a prescription, it would cost $750 million per year. Meth addicts won’t be burdened by any new laws. It’s the law-abiding people who will pay.”

This is exactly why our drug war is non-winnable: those who don’t break laws are the ones who pay in dollars and loss of freedom, at the expense of the few who brew meth in their kitchens and blow up their homes and children in the process.

Another of those “What is he THINKING” headlines

“There are laws in place in Mexico that say that our agents should not be armed,” Obama said, describing the U.S. role south of the border as an “advisory” one. “We do not carry out law enforcement activities inside of Mexico.”

I guess that means that they can’t carry out defensive activities either. This article also goes on to say that we are increasing our aid to Mexico to fight their – THEIR – drug cartels.You know, the ones that are responsible for murdering ICE agents, American tourists and border farmers and ranchers.

Insert rolley eyed emoticon here, please.

My easy guide to the Arizona ballot questions. I’m in favor of legalizing pot.

There are 12 ballot questions on tomorrows ballot. I was sure how I was going to vote on most of them but a couple of them were new to me. I went through the little guide book and read the arguments for and against.

If there were comments by the Sierra Club, the Green party, or the NEA, I voted opposite their position.

It was so simple then.

I vote against card check, in favor of an amendment to not force health care on me, I’m opposed to affirmative action, opposed to anymore money going to early childhood education and in favor of the legalization of pot.

This doesn't need a caption.

That might be a controversial vote to most of my 6 readers but I have a good reason. If it will decrease the amount of illegal drugs coming over my Arizona border and therefore the amount of illegal aliens and crime, I’m in favor of that.  And I would rather American pot growers make money than crooks and terrorists from Mexico.

After 30 or 40 years of a war on drugs with no changes, it’s time to legalize what is basically a victimless crime. In Arizona, it’s being put on the ballot “for medical uses.” That’s a start to ending this stupid, expensive and lost war. Let people smoke it, in the privacy of their own homes. It’s less dangerous on society than alcohol has been. And there is no credible proof that its use leads to heroin addiction.

Legalize it and tax it. But if I can’t smoke a cigarette in a restaurant, then do not allow lighting up a joint at a baseball game or a concert. Smoking is smoking, no matter the content of the tobacco.

What needs to happen is a real crack (pardon the pun) down on Meth.