Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!spdcc!kaos!hilda 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