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Free Drugs for Everybody!

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No, the title does not imply a position I support, it is sarcastic...
You have to pay for your drugs like everything else in this world.


The subject comes from CSA Leader Stephen Flanagan mocking me, the
Libertarian Party, Campaign for Liberty, and Ron Paul, outside a Mitt
Romney Book signing tonight in Huntington.


We were simply handing out literature, and informing (with a bullhorn)
people as they came and went that Mitt Romney supported the assault
weapons ban, and the Brady Bill, as well as state gun controls during
his time as Governor of Massachusetts, not to mention his signing into
law of "Romney Care" which is basically Obama care at the state level.
None of these things mattered much to the Neocons there to make
kissyface with the former governor, but that isn't really the point of
this article...


In any case, Stephen, as he walked away, chanted in a mocking tone
"Free Drugs for Everybody", to which I answered "No, you have to pay
for your drugs like everything else". Free drugs for everybody is
frankly a lot closer to Governor Romney's platform than my own, I don't
even want people to have free Tylenol, much less heroin, but the
Governor seems to think Health Care is a basic human right, provided by
government through the violence and coercion of the tax code, and
people have a right to antibiotics, surgery, and yes, vicodin and
oxycontin.


I think drugs should be legal, yes, anyone who believes in free markets
and limited government has to believe so. I don't think people should
use drugs, I've been to too many funerals of too many young people to
not know the evils of drugs. But I also know enough about government to
know the evils of that scourge also.


If I could push a button and end drugs, I would push that button, but
that button does not exist, so what in all reality can we do?


"Make them illegal you stupid libertarian!" Well, we tried that, how's
that workin out for ya? Kids in Long Island High Schools are dropping
like flies from heroin overdoses, and thats not some new fad that just
started happening. I've known about junior high and high school
dopefiends since I was in elementary school, the media just used to try
and ignore it and pretend we live in a happy place.


The war on drugs is a complete and utter failure and nobody in their
right mind would deny that. There is not one person out there who says
"Gee I'd really like to be a heroin addict, too bad it's illegal"


The reason most people don't use drugs is simple free market
principles, drugs are bad product. Most rational human beings don't
want to eat, smoke, inhale, or inject something that they know from
education is likely to ruin or end their lives, it's common sense that
keeps the average citizen away from drugs, not force of law.


Still there are people who are attracted to the seductive nature of the
drug world, and much of that is driven by the fact that it is illegal.
The war on drugs has made criminals "cool" in many circles, just turn
on any hip hop music station and you'll learn that lesson within 3
songs, not that rock and other music are exempt from the same things,
but it is clearly more prevalent in the hip hop world.


None of this should come as a surprise to any of us, many still
romanticize Al Capone, and other prohibition era mobsters. They
provided a product that was in high demand while a Republic attempted
to behave like a Democracy, succumbing to the will of the majority
instead of ignoring the fundamental right of the individual to eat and
drink as they saw fit.


Few in their right mind would argue that prohibition of alcohol was not
a complete and total failure looking back on the history. But since
human beings have short life spans, and even shorter attention spans
for the most part, and most of us have been raised in the era of drug
prohibition, we don't know what it's like to live in a world where
drugs are legal, the war on drugs is all we know. But the simple fact
of the matter is, when prohibition was passed, some towns were so
convinced it would end all crime, that they sold their jails. History
teaches us, that quite the opposite occurred, the crime rate
skyrocketed, and when the 21st amendment was passed and prohibition was
ended, crime went down. Simple cause and effect.


Same with guns, more gun control, more crime, more guns, less crime.
These are not complicated things that are difficult to figure out, they
are just simple facts of how things work.


More important than any other thing I will point out here in this
article, is just a simple fact of human rights that is the basis for
all of my political philosophy. ALL Rights derive from property, and
people own themselves. Only the owner of the property can exercise
control over property. It doesn't matter how many people vote to take
away my ownership of myself, I still own myself. It doesn't matter how
many people vote to control my life, they have no right to control my
life. Government cannot grant, or take away rights, it is incapable of
doing so, no matter how many people support it. Government can use
force to violate rights, but they cannot give or take away rights. You
have the right to live, an individual can smash your head in with a
brick and kill you, they will violate your right to life, but they have
not taken your right to live away. Then they will be prosecuted for
murder.


If you own yourself, if you own your body, it is your exclusive right
to decide what to do with your body so long as you do not violate the
rights of another. I don't only apply this principle to drugs, I also
apply this to mandatory vaccinations, which currently threaten our NY
State Health Care workers, I also apply this to taxes on juice drinks
and soda, I apply it to the trans fat ban in NY, I would apply it if
the government told you that you had to drink more milk or eat more
vegetables. It has absolutely nothing to do with drugs, government
simply has no proper authority to tell you what you may or may not eat,
drink, or breath.


To say anything less is to advocate big, intrusive, government. So
don't be surprised if you get big intrusive government when you vote
people into office who support such things.

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Chris Cantwell is a Libertarian Candidate for the US House of Representatives in the First District of New York, he is also Director of Outreach for his local Libertarian Chapter, an At Large Committeeman for the NY Libertarian Party, a Campaign for (more...)
 
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