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From: hilda@kaos.UUCP (Hilda Marshall)
Newsgroups: alt.flame,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Hey, you anti-legalization dudes got an answer yet?
Message-ID: <320@kaos.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 6-Dec-87 10:57:10 EST
Article-I.D.: kaos.320
Posted: Sun Dec  6 10:57:10 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Dec-87 06:22:01 EST
References: <26903COK@PSUVMA>
Reply-To: hilda@kaos.UUCP (Hilda Marshall)
Organization: Deus Ex Machina
Lines: 43
Xref: mnetor alt.flame:765 misc.legal:4197

In article <26903COK@PSUVMA> COK@PSUVMA.BITNET (R. W. Clark to the masses) writes:
>For several months, I've been posting and reposting an article concerning
>mescaline: a drug even the DoJ admits is harmless.  There are NO known cases
>of it harming ANYONE, period.  Despite this, people have continued arguing
>against legalization of drugs and such.  Not a single person EVER responded
>to my argument on this ground.  Is this because giving ground on ONE
>illegal drug and admitting that perhaps the government isn't always right
>would undermine all your arguments against legalization?

and, later,
     
>If it IS a convincing argument, and you continue arguing against legalization,
>the only thing you are is clever villains engaging in sophistry of epic
>proportions.

Well, I'm not an "anti-legalization dude", but I'll have my say here.

Firstly, the government's strategy in whipping up anti-recreational-drug
hysteria is dependent upon suppressing or downplaying facts such as the one
you cite.  LACK OF INFORMATION (which is much worse than lack of workable
italics!:-)) is the fastest and most reliable method of cooking up a boogeyman,
second even to the mysterious conjuring of stuff like "Marijuana use has been
proven to lead to heroin use".  For a thing to inspire irrational terror, it
must LURK, not parade down the street with printouts flying.

When the boogeyman's name is "drugs", it's not too hard for the average
American to remember or spell (despite all the "durgs" that have been turning
up in net.news).  It's a hell of a lot easier to exclude the commercially
profitable ones from the category entirely (e. g. alcohol) than to try to 
explain that some of this monster's scales, when properly prepared and
used, can weaken potentially harmful barriers and provide hours of exciting
fun for young and old.

And if legalization is as slippery a slope as the anti-legalization folks
seem to think it is, what would widespread legalization do to the profit
margin of a trade currently consisting largely of hazardous-duty pay?
Why, they'll be clamoring for even MORE taxes!  Another fine mess that
bumbling bigmouth Ollie got us into.

So these villains are not indulging in sophistry.  They are simply applying
the principles of mass psychology and economics.

-Hilda