A truly free person....

Oh yes since I smoked pot in my life Im clearly too stupid to listen to anything anyone has to say. I guess graduating Magna Cum Laude, starting a career as a software engineer, and buying my house on my own were just crazy flukes brought about by stoner luck!

Anyway now that the stupid (*)(*)(*)(*) has been addressed they key to rehab is to have the money raised primarily through drug taxes. The only problem I see is our fantastic government representitives seeing drug taxes as a great source of revenue and taxing them to the point where the black market once again makes sense. Look at smokes. It's already 6.50 a back vs under 3 dollars a decade ago. Obama was talking today about adding another dollar on top of that to fund preschools because he knows smokers are social pariahs and he can tax them with little objection. Never mind the fact that most smokers are poor and guess who would get hit harder with a dollar a day tax.

 

If they are running aroundnstealing stuff then put them in jail. If they are minding their own business then who cares what they are on. The point is that drug use itself should not be a crime; it's your body, do what you want with it. With that said you should still be held responsible for your actions.

 

A truly free person would concoct that substance themselves instead of depending on a crime syndicate to deliver unto them their high.

 

Curious: Where would one find a 'gaggle of meth-heads' to observe?

 

They're not hard to find.

 

...and as long as the use (procurement, usage, effects, waste) of that substance does not negatively impact anyone else, I agree with you. 'Freedom' includes the freedom of a person to become an abject failure at life. If one does so through his own actions, and of his own volition, he should be willing to deal with the consequences without burdening others. A truly free person can also choose to reject all personal responsibility to care for himself, and instead become wholly dependent upon the charity of others for his subsistence. Again, a personal choice that I can agree with, as long as that choice does not negatively impact others.

 

Forget substances, there's no such thing as a truly free person.

 

It's a circular paradox to be sure. If somebody thinks they are free by putting addictive substances in their body, their kidding themselves. Drugs enslave people, body and soul, and destroy their lives, their health, AND their freedom. You're right that nobody is truly free, but the most free among us are those who practice self restraint and act responsibly.

 

That crime syndicate was created by the US Government. No war on drugs, legit businesses (who settle disputes with lawyers in lieu of bullets) will deliver the product.

 

Legit businesses can be crime syndicates as well. Make it legal to grow your own, a felony to sell any, and no smoking in public and I will support your little Mary Jane legalization wants. I will even allow you shrooms since they are naturally occurring. Anything more than that, and you might as well talk to the hand..

 

Of course God made an error in liberally scattering plants like marijuana throughout the planet.

Probably just there as a test, huh.

Aside from that there are 'drugs' which have been used since well before Jesus was miraculously* conceived to bring about a direct connection to alternative realities/God/spirit and which generally tend to cause enlightenment, so we get to find out fun things like the sole cause of our enslavement is what we believe and not what we imbibe.

* Miracles are fictional conditions.

 

Who the hell do you think you are? What gives you dominion over my body?

 

Ok. Fair enough. I won't support legalization of pot either. Who the hell am I? Now part of the ruling class oppressing your mellow I suppose.

 

I will not comply. Come and get me. Make sure you're WELL armed.

 

Well, I will tell Harry Reid the Chinese are interested in your property and his son could benefit from the deal, and he will take care of the rest. In the meantime, the patent for marijuana belongs to the US government. I am guessing they could get bigger fines out of the intellectual property violations than the drug laws anyway.

 

I don't think God anticipated people would be so stupid as to roll up plants in paper, light it on fire and suck the smoke into their lungs. I don't think he can be blamed for stupidity.

 

Not quite so omnipotent after all, then.

I mean if a Godly creation like yourself can see problems with His creation which He hadn't anticipated it tends to suggest incompetence or at least the absence of awareness about what it is He's created.

Isn't "I don't think God anticipated..." a statement to the effect that you're more knowledgeable about God's creation than God Himself?

What if, in fact, you are God?

 

I'm not God, but I do have some amazing powers. For instance, I can ignore anyone on this forum and I have a strict policy of putting all God haters on permanent ignore to ameliorate my experience here.

Bye bye!

 

Ah.

Fear.

Oh well.

 

No disagreement from me on that score, but it seems there are millions of people around the globe who think ingesting some sort of mind-altering substance is a 'freeing' experience.

 

OMG, it's like you're in my head!

 

And if I point out that any form of restraint, self imposed or otherwise, is yet another form of enslavement does that change anything for you?

 

Restraint = Enslavement? I dunno. Restraint for the sole purpose of restraint is probably a form of enslavement if that's what you mean.

 

Demonstrative moral vacancy.