POST SCRIPTS

Jeff I think you make a very strong argument. Very well thought out.

However, as I have mentioned in my discussions with Mike, there area number of issues where Conservative Republicans and Libertarians agree (Welfare reform, general entitlement reform) that must be solved before we can even think about legalization of drugs.

You are correct when other parties tend to jump on that portion of your platform in an attempt to discredit you, but you must form the debate. I have seen to many Libertarians (Mike is an exception) get caught up in defending this issue to death, and in the process letting the opposition define you.

There is a strong principled argument for the legalization of drugs, but the method that many Libertarians have used for conveying it are faulty, and until the national party learns to prioritize their platform, you will continually be painted in a negative light by your opponents.

I would also like to point out, that my main contentions with the Libertarian party do not concern drug legalization, but the parties apparent stance on the war in Iraq and abortion.

I actually took the online political poll from the link at the Libertarian party web site. Apparently I am a "Conservative, Libertarian" my score landing smack dab between the two political spectrum's.

There is a strong principled argument for the legalization of drugs

I agree with Nick, in fact there are several good arguments for legalizing drugs. We do spend a lot on drug enforcement both in money and in lives of officers, our crowded jails could be used for more dangerous criminals, etc.

I imagine if we were living in America c. 1950 it would be fairly easy to change the law with little immediate consequence. There were strong moral and self-preserving attitudes among the people and people were also personally responsible for family members who fell into debilitating activities. Today we have welfare programs and health care programs and disability programs that make it all too easy for users to spend my dime and yours for their recreational activities and the consequences of partying too hearty. Today our society excuses and babies "the lost" to a rediculous degree
making it nearly impossible for them to make other choices. Parents, teachers, the police, and others "in authority" are not given power behind their authority rendering them less effective in guiding and disciplining young people.

I don't know how old you are so this could be a bit unfair; if it is I apologize. You asked that we substitute guns for drug use in the example:

while exaggerating the dangers of them.

I have watched people embrace with abandon the whole sex, drugs and R&R lifestyle...and I have watched it ruin their own lives and the lives of poeple around them. I have seen grandparents raising their grandchildren because their kids are drugging or dead from drugs. I have seen people in their forties still living "at hoime" because they are incapable of taking care of themselves. We hve crack babies and unwed mothers and HIV and other diseases associated with drug use. This was unheard of in the past and the reason was we were a nation that expected people to take care of themselves. The shame is that we have let this happen and I wish there was an easy way back. Putting baskets of candy within reach of the two year olds just doesn't make sense unless society decides it's also ok to let them die in the streets if family won't take them in. I can't see this happening. I like the idea but I'm not convinced the cultural atmosphere would support it.

There is one other thing that every party must face; not everyone in the party agrees on every issue of the platform. I imagine there are those who label themselves libertarian who do advocate for drug use. They are the "I can do what I want and you can't stop me" types. If your party has an image problem, it might be, in part, because of these very verbal people.

If it means anything to you I don't automatically think of libertarians as pro drug use types and none of the republicans I know do either.

Jeff has made some interesting points about the drug and I can't really disagree with him, but I can ad a new perspective...

I was a real drug warrior in combat for many years and so I hope I my words would speak with some authority on this subject that I know only too well.

Our drug enforcement system is seriously broken and it is most broken on our border with Mexico where the illegal drugs flow into the USA freely. What we are doing and have been doing for years is so outrageously expensive and ineffective it is an abomination on the integrity of the White House and Congress who have long known the seriousness of this situation and the many failures along the way.

Currently up to 96% of all drug shipments make it across the Mexican border. That's not my statistic, this comes from the agency that I was trained by and worked with, the DEA! This is the unpublished, confidential statistic for in house use only. But, don't fault the DEA, Border Patrol or Customs or the many narcotic task forces...the deck is stacked against them, so much so that they can't make a dent in this problem no matter how hard they try.

Blame Congress and the President, because that is truly where the blame belongs. And Congress and the Presidents for well over 30 years have known about this growing threat and they have repeated failed to do their duty to intervene!

What good Libertarian would not agree it is the duty of the federal government to secure and protect our borders? If there were only 3 things important to preserving the nation, control over our borders must be one of them.

Once these illegal drugs enter this country via our open border the damage begins and it spreads like wildfire. The average shipment of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, meth, etc., usually gets stepped on (cut, diluted and resold) anywhere from 5 to 8 times before it reaches the end user. How many times it stepped on depends on the drug and the original purity. That means there is a lot of hands that touch that drug shipment and each hand takes a chunk of profit.

That one shipment becomes part of in a massive distribution system involving all sorts of crime and tons of untaxed, illegal money. Once the drug shipment is into the USA it's almost impossible to stop simply because of the mass logistics it requires to track down on the distributors at all sorts of levels. But, IF WE CAN stop one shipment at the border, WE CAN can stop thousands of people from being involved in illegal selling and using and all that goes along with it.

Now consider that substance abuse is not just substance abuse where what one person does to himself is his own business. Because it's never about one person's choice to use illegal drugs and just abuse their own body. People outside the drug world never really stop to think about the other included parts of the drug abuse scene.

It can easily involve rape, murder, armed robbery, stolen property, burglary, spousal abuse, child endangerment, child abuse...you name the crime and I can find you somebody involved in substance abuse that committed it. Drugs are the one BIG COMMON denominator underlying crime in America and if you don't believe that you are out of touch.

These are provable facts, I'm not just talking to hear myself talk. It's one sick, sick situation that Congress and the President have avoided and yet they clearly have the sworn duty and the ability to greatly diminish this importation of illegal drugs across an open border, but they have failed to act in any meaningful way for decades.

Having secure border means the direct savings cost to the American society in terms of medical care, psychiatric care, prison costs, enforcement and investigation costs, court costs, law suits, accidents, lost work hours, low productivity, broken families, child endangerment,counseling, birth defects, unwanted pregnancies, lost income and so much more... would more than justify the spending to finally secure our border with Mexico!

My personal guess is the comparative cost, border v crime, would justify this move many times over, not to mention the value to national security in our fight against terrorism.

These are the issues:

1. Unchecked illegal human migration
2. Illegal narcotic shipments and the corruption it spreads
3. Organized crime involvement
4. National security risks and terrorism
5. Massive drain on economic resources
6. Generalized influence on rising crime
7. American families/children more at risk
8. Rising medical costs
10. Lower educational and economic output
11. Increased abortions and out-of-wedlock child births and the drain this places on society.
12. And there are many more I could name...

If these issues don't mean enough for our Congress and the President to take firm action, what issues do?

How serious or competent can they be about anything that threatens the American population, if they can't even address these issues right in front of their face?

It's an outrage, an absolute scandal and its about time you people woke up!