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IPFS News Link • Drug War

Why can’t the US legalize drugs? There’s ‘too much money in it,’ Clinton says

• Rawstory.com
 
In what will likely be seen as something of a Freudian slip by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton recently in a Mexican news interview that the United States cannot legalize drugs as a means of fighting the black market because "there is just too much money in it." Asked by Denise Maerker of Televisa what she thought of drug legalization, Clinton said it was unlikely to work. "There is just too much money in it," Clinton said. "You can legalize small amounts for possession, but those who are making so much money selling, they have to be stopped. They can’t be given an even easier road to take, because they will then find it in their interest to addict even more young people." The comments drew criticism from legalization advocates who argued her position was a misunderstanding of the situation. "Clinton's response illustrates not only the intellectual bankruptcy of the prohibitionist position but the economic ignorance of a woman who would be president," Jacob Sullum argued at Reason.com. Clinton evidently does not understand that there is so much money to be made by selling illegal drugs precisely because they are illegal. Prohibition not only enables traffickers to earn a "risk premium" that makes drug prices much higher than they would otherwise be; it delivers this highly lucrative business into the hands of criminals who, having no legal recourse, resolve disputes by spilling blood. At the Drug War Chronicle, Scott Morgan called Clinton's argument "perfectly incoherent" and argued it flew in the face of economic theory.

2 Comments in Response to

Comment by PureTrust
Entered on:

Someone might respond that, since we are receiving a benefit through Social Security, the Fed. Gov. has the right to regulate substance.

Check it out. We are not receiving a benefit. Rather, we are receiving a royal screwing in bad faith. First they take it out of our paycheck. Then they inflate the dollar so badly that we can barely live. Then, when we need SS help, they give us help that often harms more than helps (medical). And if that weren't enough, the Social Security thing that we thought was insurance really isn't. It is a contribution, like a donation, period. If Congress ever decided to stop the pitiful contribution the SS system makes to us (that's all it is, a contribution), they could do it on a moments notice.

Comment by PureTrust
Entered on:

The idea that the U.S. should legalize drugs is a scam designed to keep us all under the dictatorial thumb of the Federal Government. Why? Because drugs should not be legalized or illegalized. It is not the duty of the Federal Government to take away our freedom to personally use or not use any drugs whatsoever. Their duty is to inform us of possible results of using or not using, or abusing drugs might be. And there it should stop. The only time they should step in is when our usage of drugs threatens and/or harms other people or their property. And then, it should be a State or local thing... not the Federal Government.



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