hard heads soft hearts |
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a scratch pad for half-formed thoughts by a liberal political junkie who's nobody special. ''Hard Heads, Soft Hearts'' is the title of a book by Princeton economist Alan Blinder, and tends to be a favorite motto of neoliberals, especially liberal economists. mobile
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Friday, June 14, 2002
You seem to be saying that vehement opponents of the drug war believe that being a drug addict is just another, perfectly acceptable, lifestyle choice. That's not it at all. I believe that drug abuse is a sin, not a crime. And while I have no problem with active governmental efforts to reduce sin, I believe branding personal sins (as opposed to violence, stealing, etc.) as *crimes* on par with stealing and raping is a much more dangerous impulse to a freedom-loving people than sin itself. As for the moral distinction between dealing and using, I don't feel any moral distinction between some nice college students buying drugs and some inner city shlub selling them. Besides, I don't see many Drug War Proponents attacking tobacco and alchohol companies, even though their products kill many more people, including children, than hard drugs do. What should really boil the blood of any honest person is that the tobacco industry even blocked the development of a safer cigarette, because that would imply that, heaven forfend, their previous products may have been less-than-perfectly safe. Likewise, obesity and too much television and internet consumption, pornographic and otherwise, harm a lot more lives than drugs do. Imagine a War on Television, with Laurie Dhue as the seductive Television Dealer and Roger Ailes as the Television Lord! Whether on pragmatic or moral grounds, the War on (certain) Drugs has become a far greater threat to American interests and values than the drugs themselves. Read Eric Schosser's articles in the Atlantic. for an anti-Drug War take. Or if you want to read a perspective that is both Pro and Anti Drug War at the same time, read Vincent Bugliosi's "The Phoenix Solution: Getting Serious About Winning America's War on Drugs" |