It is amazing how absurd things can be shown to be when you take a step back and just look at the essence of what is happening in any given situation. I had an epiphany of sorts on just that sort of thing some time ago when watching a program on television about law enforcement.
On the show, they were discussing how there was a new, higher-quality marijuana plant that was being sold, and all the "problems" that came with it, and then they showed a real raid on a house that was growing it. Apparently they found it for the heat lamps.
I watched them go over the "booty" of the police raid, they showed the room with hundreds of marijuana plants in the basement. They then discussed all the "drug paraphenelia" and so forth, basically using all sorts of fancy police terms, and then it hit me - despite all their fancy terminology and SWAT gear, what this really was about was that they were arresting a bunch of people (probably sending them away for decades) for GROWING PLANTS. That's it. That was their crime. They were GROWING PLANTS. Then it just hit me how fraking absurd that really was. It wasn't like I was all for the drug war before this - I wasn't - I was a pretty strong libertarian by then - but just the patent absurdity of it all hit me.
This all came back to me today after I saw this article (h/t Ed Brayton) detailing how college students were raided by police with guns drawn for growing tomato plants after a heat lamp was found in a closet and a resident was reported to have been acting "nervous" and someone thought they smelled marijuana and so that was enough to send in the SWAT team with guns drawn. And this happens all over the place. Much like the war on terror, the war on drugs has led to police abuses and destruction of civil liberties. And it is all so freaking absurd at its core.
Thankfully, there are some sane police that are intimately familiar with the bullshit of the drug war and now are for legalization, but I somehow doubt pandering politicians will ever listen.
Reminder
12 years ago
2 comments:
The "war on drugs" is even more absurd, poorly defined, poorly executed and misguided than the "war on terror" and that's really saying something. Europe seems to be coming around to a more sensible drug policy. I'm sure Canada would be a lot farther along if it wouldn't damage our relations with the US so much. I'd like to extend a plea to all Americans to end this silly war, for our sake if not your own. Oh, and tell the DEA to stay the fuck out of my country please, free Marc Emery!
It will probably never end here. That's the sad truth.
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