Illegal Drugs

You some people out there - go around saying stupid things - Just say no to drugs.

And they actually expect that to work. Do they not realize that a certain percentage of the population will do what they are told not to do - just to see what happens?

Do they not realize that Just Say No - is just like answering questions with the word because? And that because is never a sufficient reason to do (or not do) anything?

And people are brainwashed in to thinking that governments always thought drugs were bad - it is the kind of religious absolutism - constriction of thought that many people find abhorrent.

Ok, so there are a couple of reasons, my son should know - why you should not use illegal drugs.

1. Illegal drugs are unhealthy. There is a broad spectrum that illegal drugs cover in terms of how unhealthy they are. Illegal drugs like Marijuana - it is questionable if they are any more or less detrimental to your health than smoking or any more or less detrimental to your decision making skills than alcohol.
2. Illegal drugs impair your judgement. You make decisions every day of your life. If you choose to take illegal drugs - you start to make decisions that do not make sense. This is the same effect drinking alcohol can have - even though alcohol is legal. Perhaps one of the worst ways to die, would be through making a bad choice while your mind is impaired - and perhaps thinking that you can fly and running off the top of a tall building. [It has been done before, and probably will happen again in the future - and no some people don't need debilitated judgement to jump off of building roof tops, at present I am going to assume you are not one of those]
3. Illegal drugs can make you a slave. We pride ourselves on being able to control our destiny. But once you take illegal drugs that are addictive in quality - you hand over that control to other people. These other people will probably make you do things that you would not normally do. Or they may simply restrict your freedom by taking your free money that you could buy things you like or do fun things on vacation - and make you buy more drugs with it.
4. Illegal drugs can make you dead. There is not much to say here - except that the ultimate in restriction of freedom - is death.
5. Illegal drugs impact the people you love as much as they impact yourself. As an individual - you have a responsiblity to everyone that devotes time and effort to your life. If you should perish because of illegal drugs - you take all the time and effort people spent in raising you - and you make it worthless. Your death will almost certainly do irreparable damage - especially in this form - to those who love you the most - your parents. Even if taking illegal drugs does not result in death - the more you become a slave to drugs - themore damage it causes people you care about.

There are probably many more reasons why you should not take illegal drugs. I leave out the legal obligations and going to jail. I find that facing a court and going to jail is rarely an effective deterrent for people to not do things that are wrong. People have to understand why something is wrong - and agree with the reasoning of why a thing is wrong - for them to not do something.

You have to look at something as simple as speeding to understand this. People in general do not believe that speeding is wrong. They perfectly understand that it is against the law. They understand that they could go to jail or lose their license or in the worst case - harm other people by speeding.

We do it anyway? Why? Because we do not truly believe that it is wrong. And most people perhaps think of it the way I do - that speeding in and of itself is not wrong - but speeding and doing something else is wrong. Like speeding and driving erratically. Speeding and doing it in heavy traffic.

And the net result is that you can make it illegal - but pulling people over for speeding only results in a little money in certain organizations pockets - a general feeling of oppression by people in general - and no more safety for people in general than if the law did not exist.

I believe speeding can cause accidents. But only under certain circumstances. If someone gets in to an accident and speeding was the cause - then they should be punished for that. But punishing people for speeding - when there was no accident - is like punishing people for a crime they have not committed yet.

And that is what the government has done. They have made common criminals of the average person - by making something illegal that few people actually believe is wrong. The mechanism for doing this is by making something that will POSSIBLY cause an accident a crime.

And really, if you want to make things a crime that can POSSIBLY cause a crime - you can go as far down the road as you want. Why not make owning a car that can POSSIBLY exceed the speed limit illegal? This would force people that own existing cars to have to sell them and buy new cars - and certainly punish the poor more than the rich.

And do not think for a second that the existing laws do not punish the poor more than the rich.

Simply look at it this way - if a poor person gets fined $100 and earns $24,000 a year - that is .4 percent of their annual income. The same ticket happens to a rich person - who earns $150,000 a year - and that is .06 percent of their income.

So, any fines delivered against people - to be economically fair, need to be based on a percentage of annual income. Especially, when in New Jersey at present - we have additional charges applied if the number of points on your license exceeds a certain amount.

Anyway, I think I have wandered a bit off course on this essay - so I will close it for now by saying - do not become a slave and take illegal drugs. Do what you can to make this a more fair world and understand that making something against the law - simply is not an effective way for stopping specific human behavior.

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