I've been reading the story about Debbie Calitz and comments on the story. So, this woman was arrested for marijuana and magic mushrooms. Harmless drugs that are only illegal because of very out-dated apartheid laws. Under apartheid porn was illegal, mixed marriage was illegal and so was abortion.
You cannot equate the two drugs she was arrested for with any hard drugs like heroin or cocaine or meth. Nobody has ever died from marijuana, not one death ever. I have no idea if people have died from magic mushrooms - possibly if they were stupid and ate poisonous ones that they thought were hallucinogenic.
Marijuana is rapidly becoming legal in America. It has been decriminalised in many European countries and as a result police and the judicial system are able to focus on more important things. In Portugal all drugs are legal - guess what? The use of drugs went down. I think chemical drugs are dangerous and, like cigarettes, they are designed to be addictive.
Let's look at two completely legal substances that do kill people: alcohol and cigarettes. Cigarettes will kill the smoker, while alcohol can cause the deaths of many. It is responsible for a lot of domestic violence, lethal car accidents. Ask anyone who grew up with an alcoholic at home and they will tell you how unbelievably awful it was. Speak to someone who had a parent who smoked pot and they probably didn't even know about it.
So, why are those things legal? Tell you why - tax.
If weed and mushrooms were legal and people were growing their own (which they do anyway) how would they be taxed on it? Well, seems the Americans are coming up with a plan that they think will work. When they do, hey - we have a great new export crop, providing we legalise too.
So, if this government legalised just those two substances, imagine how much more police and judicial system effort could actually go into real crime? The awful drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers and, yes, the politicians who steal from us and lie to us every day.
I am not interested in being part of a movement like those marijuana couple folk - that's absurd. If I want to smoke pot or have a shroom trip once in a while that does not define me as a person. I am not interested at all in that sub-culture where all you are is the substance. Icky, indeed.
But, back to where I started, these are apartheid era laws. If you think the other ones that have been abolished should have stayed, then hey - sorry people - you are in need of some help.
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