In 1992, Jim Gray, a conservative judge in conservative Orange County, California, held a press conference during which he recommended that we rethink our drug laws. Back then, it took a great deal of courage to suggest that the war on drugs was a failed policy. Today, more and more Americans are coming to the realization that prohibition’s costs—whether measured in lives and liberties lost or dollars wasted—far exceed any possible or claimed benefits. Reason.tv’s Paul Feine interviewed Gray about drug policy and the prospects for reform. The interview was shot by Alex Manning and edited by Hawk Jensen. Judge Jim Gray is the author of Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs.
Could all this “dust up” over mandatory vaccinations, mandating mask wearing… no testing for antibodies to determine “natural immunity ” .. failure of the current administration to order adequate supplies of various “stuff” deemed necessary to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus – which has mostly failed miserably… the lack of monoclonal antibodies … because they were not ordered by the current administration.
Could all this bring into focus what legal right the federal/state bureaucracies have to force citizens to take certain vaccinations and/or prohibit people from taking certain categories of medications approved by our FDA – as being safe for human use. Could this COVID-19 pandemic potentially force the change of the Federal/State bureaucracies’ policies on all drug use and/or abuse. After all the two drugs that contribute to the deaths of abt 550,000/yr of US citizens is Alcohol & Nicotine… are PERFECTLY LEGAL SUBSTANCES/DRUGS…. they are not MEDICATIONS… there is a difference between a medication and a drug.
That is abt 7-8 times the people killed in 2021 by the use/abuse of illegal controlled substances… which everyone is screaming from the roof tops about. When did some deaths become socially acceptable and others are demonized… could the big difference be the healthy tax revenue stream that goes to the Feds & states… that comes from those two legal drugs – Alcohol & Nicotine ?
could the CONVERSATION BE CHANGING ?
Filed under: General Problems
I was hoping the unjust suffering of legitimate, incurable severe pain patients would slip easily into this argument, but the press has a cash cow with corona, viewership is up for that, and doctors have been cowed. We are alone still. But thank for our strong advocated, Ron Chapman and sympathetic doctors of medicine. Too bad most of those that want to be associated with the effort to recover the opiates are inactive.
*thanks for our strong advocates…