John Stossel: Legalize Cocaine, Heroin, And Crack

ABC's John Stossel is a noted and proud libertarian (watch him interview Arianna on her new book, Right is Wrong, here), and like a true libertarian he favors the legalization of drugs, as he told a medical marijuana benefit the other night (via Page Six). But it's not just marijuana Stossel advocates legalizing; it's hard drugs as well:

The libertarian anchorman told a medical marijuana benefit the other night, "I think all of it should be legal: marijuana, cocaine, heroin and crack." The chatty, weed-loving crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs, and Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter doesn't think it's a good idea. He said although it might result in having more addicts, it's even more dangerous, in his view, to keep drugs illegal because the dealer gangs we're creating will soon be able to buy nuclear weapons.

Comments

[1will]

Sorry, but I have to disagree.
I've seen Crack Babies before and we don't need to make it any easier to make more of them. Those that want to legalize drugs want to do so for one reason, to get high. They don't care about the effects on society or future generations.
For those that want to argue about illegal drug sales funding gangs I say this. Gangs are criminal enterprises. Do you believe that when they lose drug sales after narcotics are legalized the gangbangers will take their 10th grade education down to McDonald's and happily flip burgers. Doubtful. They'll find another way to make money instead of working. Kidnapping, robbery, extortion, etc will increase as drug wars decrease. The difference will be instead of gang members killing each other, and the tragedy of that can be debated, you will have innocent people suffering.

[troykendal]

Obviously it should be legal.

[kegbot1]

Hey OK. I agree with him. So let's have a no holds barred debate between Stossel and Bill O'Reilly on this subject. Hell, I'd shell out for pay per view to see it.

[dgscol]

The fundamentals of Islamic faith lead to to a sort libertarianism. Basically, they want local control and everyone else to leave them alone. They follow their own beliefs. This leads to berkas, stoning, child molestation, etc. In America it leads to polygamy, WACO, and rancheros out West with guns, living like cowboys in an old oater. It is also the way many hilltop Asians live.

But it is a primitive culture. No taxes, no government, just God and the fresh air. You can do anything. You can just get stoned every day. Wow. What a life.

What is a amazing though, of all these cultures, hardly any of them consist of groups that habitually abuse drugs. Hardly any drink alcohol. They might have a ritualistic use of some sort of drug, and historically, this has happened. But almost everyone is smarter than John Stossel, who no doubt is only a theoretical libertartian.

When Schults hit him in the head maybe it jarred something loose. A true libertarian would have walked off and lived with it. Instead he resorted to the courts to obtain a settlement! He is a WIMP as a libertarian.

[FunkyP]

I just want to point out that most of these illegal drugs come from easily grown plants. Maybe there are a lot of people who prefer to purchase pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, but with pot decriminalized, the price would invariably come down, and growing/distributing from long distances would become economically unfeasible.
Already pot is the most profitable agricultural product of Florida and California, and that is with it being illegal to grow. Make it legal and watch Mexican imports disappear (unless you want to smoke that dirt weed)
Also, the plan would be to offer the more dangerously addictive drugs (except cigarettes and alcohol) through clinics; not supermarkets.
Cigarettes and alcohol do not deserve their lofty status as our most popular and legal drugs...they have a far more destructive effect on society than legalized and controlled narcotics! And arresting and imprisoning users has a far more pernicious and costly effect than their controlled use.

[Jason357]

I saw where medical pot was going for $400 an once. The only reason for keeping the price that high is because politicians are on the take from the dealers. Letting people grow their own would end the market overnight. It'd be $20 an once again, like in the 70's. It'd also cut the cost of healthcare, all of these anti-anxiety drugs being sold. I've always thought the war on drugs was just a scam. That's one of the key reasons I think Reagan was a crook. He's the one who militarized local police and started asset forfeiture laws, which circumvent due process.

[devadasi]

this is the first time I agree with stossel about anything. He's right on this issue. All drugs should be legalized. Prohibition didn't work and neither is the war on drugs. The conservative William F. Buckley advocated legalization as well. If drugs were legalized the crime rate would decrease by 75% at least.

[grimm]

Hey Stossel, you moron, the drug dealers ALREADY have the bomb. Just ask Ollie North.

[Hirnlego]

Nukes...libertarians will make the government so small that is will be alright to sell 'em to anyone who has cash.

[drblack]

During our other "Drug War", prohibition, people drank hard liquor and drank to excess. When prohibition ended people drank mostly beer and wine. This is why the amount of alcohol consumed when Prohibition was repealed went way up but they drank the less potent form of alcohol.
People would be more likely to use opium and drink coca tea instead of heroin and crack. When an intoxicant is illegal people binge to excess, when it is legal and freely available people use intoxicants more moderately.
There is no rational reason for any drug to be illegal.
The drug abuse most likely to damage society concerns antibiotics. people who take antibiotics to excess or don't finish them when they have an infection help create super-bugs which threaten us all

[geobushono]

Libertarians absolutely want you to be stoned, because they're gonna expect you to work for $1/hr/.
libertarians are unvarnished rightwing fascists. Their convention will be on CSPAN all weekend if you want to see the real right.

[jackdav]

"libertarians are unvarnished rightwing fascists."

Huh? Libertarians favor limited government, fascists favor a strong, centralized government. What drugs are you on?

[BlackJAC]

Go read JENNIFER GOVERNMENT sometime and say that again.

[wolfgangmo]

From what I know they favor a limit on social programs but seem to support a huge bloated military. Am I wrong on this?

[thereshope]

Yes.

[Blutus]

All the logic and good intentions in the world will not matter one little bit.

The cartels want drugs kept illegal. It's called Price Control.

They are expending BILLIONS of dollars IN AMERICA convincing people that if they are really good and nice people, they will insist the border be kept open so they can help the poor Mexicans.


BILLIONS of dollars that are channeled to ad campaigns, churches, etc. to convice people to keep the border open.



Americans need to think HARD or just submit and give in to the cartels.

You will eventually. Just like the entire border region. Cops are dead, bought off or have left and seek asylum now in America.

It's only a matter of time.

Legalze EVERYTHING for a year and the cartels would cease to exist.

But it ain't gonna happen.

[BlackJAC]

And the cartels wouldn't become legitimate businessmen because of the legalization why? They've already got the production and distribution infrastructures in place, so all that's missing is to file incorporation papers and make an IPO on Wall Street. Hell, you'd be doing them a favor by giving them permission to deposit their profits into banks rather than having to store large bricks of cash for the rats to nibble on. Coming Soon to a legislature near you: lobbyists for the cocaine and heroin industries! "Senator, imposing tariffs on imported opium is putting American heroin producers out of work!"

I found my copy of Miyamoto Musashi's THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS in the business section of my area Barnes & Noble, not the military history section. That should tell you something.

[drblack]

Drugs would be made synthetically so the cartels couldn't compete.

[BlackJAC]

What sounds like a more appetizing cheeseburger to you: one made out laboratory-fabricated synthetic protein, or one made out of corn-fed Iowa beef cattle? Or didn't you wonder why there's an organic foods section at the supermarket?

"It's called a 'Twinkie.' It's made out of things that by themselves are inedible..."
--Jon Stewart

[avraamjack]

.
Legalize everything but make people have to get it from a medical source and ensure drug treatment is available to all.
.
It could happen. People are getting fed up.
.

[TRYKER]

Don't you know that we must keep all these drug laws in order to give people a felony record? So they can't vote as a felon, can't get a good job because of this record and the "ruling upper class elite stockholders of prison industries" can be assured of a steady income from dividends as we have a permanent industry of our "prisoner class" citizen. And you sure as hell know who you are.

If we keep drug laws, we keep our police/prison state, which has added torture as its fun-time for bored thugs.
The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has 2 down and 1 to go. Prison is not liberty. The pursuit of happiness is laughably vaporous...what happiness? Our life is threatened by the poisoning of our land and waters, our air is killing us...bit by bit.
But if we seek relief from pain, which is what drives drugs and addiction...ask big pharma, yeah you need something for that, BUT you must buy it from U$.
The psychic pain of disadvantage and injustice needs relief most of all. More down trodden, more drugs, more prison fodder.
The whole thing is a giant racket and is not about govt protecting our health, its about making money from the most for the elite...by living off of the misery of poor citizens. cont--

[TonalCrow]

Have you got their number.

[drblack]

I will bet anyone 50% of all money I have and will make that if drugs are 100% legal the rate of shootings will drop 50% in 5 years.
Theft will fall, drug gangs will have to get real jobs and no longer be able to afford guns.
No one thinks that a law against murder will stop all murders why have so many stated, especially during the Reagan years , that drug laws would create a "Drug Free" America?

[geobushono]

the new gangs will be former guards, prosecutors, bailiffs, judges, lawyers, bondsmen,cops, deputies.........parasites who never really worked in their worthless lives.

[wolfgangmo]

Ummmm.

I was a guard and I did work. In fact most of us stiff were die hard left leaning labor union supporting kind of blue color guys. Of course this was in Minnesota so maybe it's different in other places.

[roccofortuna]

We need to stop protecting people from themselves. We fight so hard to defend natural selection in classrooms, yet do our best to ensure that it doesn't occur outside of them...

[bdl0715]

I have to agree with Stossel to a point. While there would likely be more addictions, you would see crime rates drop dramatically. Murders would be reduced in the US by more than 50 %. You would reduce the need for prisons and jails dramatically also. You would also put gangs out of business for the most part.

[BlackJAC]

Well, duh, there'd be a drop in the crime rate! They don't arrest people for obeying the law! If we legalized murder, we'd have a drop in the crime rate, too!

[drblack]

Your argument makes no sense. If I shoot you that affects you, if I get hooked on drugs that effects me.
The drop in theft, and murder would be at least 50%.

[BlackJAC]

And drug addiction doesn't affect your friends, family and coworkers how, exactly? Or should we assume that Amy Winehouse is merely a quirky free spirit rather than a slag heap junkie who'll probably be dead before she's 30?

This is going to come as a shock to you, but vice does come with collateral damage. It's currently 100% legal for someone to spend all his time and money on guzzling booze, but it's not going to endear him to others due to the lost productivity and basically not being a pleasure to hang around with.

[cultkicker]

I disagree with Stossel as usual. I do think medical marijuana, and hemp in general, should be lagalized. There is strong evidence that hemp oil (as opposed to hemp seed oil), is a safe and effective therapy for many different types of cancer. Hemp has so many beneficial uses for our society from paper to energy and clothing material, it should be legalized now. Only lobbying efforts by industry is keeping it illegal. There is no benefit from legalizing hard drugs for recreational use, and alot of potential harm can result. Marijuana is one thing, crack cocaine is another. I do also think cocaine and heroin have a place in our medical armentarium for pain relief however.

[DrFinkster]

"There is no benefit from legalizing hard drugs for recreational use, and alot of potential harm can result. "

But by this argument we should ban alcohol and tobacco. After all, nicotine is the most addictive drug known, and alcohol is the cause of a tremendous amount of accidents and violent behavior, as well as physical harm from chronic abuse. Are you arguing we should do that? If not, how can you argue to keep those legal while keeping all the other "hard drugs" illegal?

[DrFinkster]

Actually, cocaine is a prescription drug, on Schedule II. However, very little is prescribed, and it is only used as a local anaesthetic for ophthalmological surgery. Heroin, as I mentioned above, is completely banned, as I mentioned above, although not for any logical reason.

[wolfgangmo]

Stossel is just trying to keep his supply lines open.

[RTIII]

Most of the harm from crack, from what I can tell, comes from the criminalization part. My former landlord was a crack addict. He was rational, if ill. He didn't have a financial problem with it, but I think that many do and that's where the real trouble comes from.

While I don't have the first-hand knowledge, I suspect that this is also true of other "hard" drugs.

Further, people discount the draw to things that are illegal. Teenagers are MUCH less likely to try and do things that are harmful to them that happen to be legal than they are to do harmful things that are illegal. It's all a part of that rebellious phase that most kids go through. Give them something addictive to go for and many will fall victim, make it legal and they'll ignore it...

[kevinw]

You should not kid yourself that drugs like crack don't have adverse affects. These are strong chemicals that affect the brain and other organs. That does not mean that the use should not be decriminalized, but many of the drugs are not harmless. One of the more harmful drugs we have legalized and that is alcohol. Alcohol can damage the brain, liver and other organs. It can be fatal during withdrawl. We have been able to tolerate the dangers of this drug, without the crime associated with the price and criminal association needed to participate in the drug trade.

[BlackJAC]

Heroin's already being used in the medical community. You know it as "morphine."

[DrFinkster]

Well, almost. Heroin == diacetylmorphine. There are, of course, a fairly lengthy list of opiates, both naturally derived and wholly synthetic, that are legal with a prescription, and another lengthy list of opiates that are completely banned (Schedule I). Unfortunately the difference between the two lists is pretty arbitrary. Basically the legal list is the one that doctors want to prescribe and the other is the one they don't bother with. Those opiates on the legal-to-prescribe list are no less addictive than their Schedule I counterparts. Heroin, on Schedule I, has no good reason to be Schedule I except for its negative perception by society. It's certainly no more addictive than oxymorphone or oxycodone, and it is an inexpensive, long acting opiate painkiller.

[kevinw]

The rationale for making drugs illegal is the harm they do to the individual and the damage they do to society at large. The only drug that we have decided to allow the general society to consume is Alcohol. Alcohol is one of the more dangerous drugs. Only Alcohol, Barbiturates and Hypnotics can cause seizure and death during withdrawl. Even Heroin and Cocaine do not. How to we deal with the Alcoholic in our culture. We allow them to destroy their lives if they choose to. If you see an alcoholic on the street in the final stages of the disease, we either feel sorry for them or totally ignore them. You do not see Alcoholics breaking into peoples houses to steal all of the electronics to buy a bottle. It is cheap enough to panhandle for.

The war on drugs has forced the price of addiction to levels that require some kind of criminal activity to maintain the lifestyle. It also has made the money (the real addiction in this process) so large that it has the ability to corrupt not only police departments but entire governments as well.

Lets say that the government decided to legalize drug use for the adult population, but actually strengthened the punishment for selling or providing it to minors. Who is going to risk smuggling drugs across the border for a market that does not have that large of a disposable income?

[MSGH]

What, exactly, would drug gangs DO with nuclear weapons?