Willie sorry to hear about your brother..

Free speech is a wonderful thing. We need to excercise it occasionally.
I have held, at one time or another, all the views expressed so far. As long as we can have honest debate and discussion with mutual respect, it will stimulate our minds and clarify our own views. This type of honest dialogue is sorely missing in the political arena today.

You can't beat the yard as a melting pot, long may it stay the same!!

Well, I wasn't going to chime in due to the nature of the subject, and the (sometimes) strongly conflicting views, but I do know that we are all family here, and even when we GREATLY disagree with one another, when it's all said and done, we can hug one another, and THEN take out the blades for some fun.

My view on a couple of things.

Drugs being legalized is a bad idea to me. I will say that there is not a drug out there that does not have medical benefits, when used in a responsible manner,(ie, under a doctor's close observation) however, due to the highly addictive nature of the illegal narcotics, people can not be left to monitor their own use, due to an obvious conflict of interest. Now, if by some means, you are able to control your consumption to the point of said drug not interfereing with your daily productive life, great, however I am afraid that you are in the minority, and since recreational drug use is not necessary for life on this planet, the minority is not large enough to justify legalization of drugs. Due to this being a subject of welfare, the steps go as such: Drug endulgence leads to addiction, addiction leads to unemployment, unemployment leads to poverty, poverty leads to crime, and crime, well that is what we do not want. Now again, I am sure there are cases where this little equation does not fit, however those are far and few between.
I will say for disclosure purposes that I have never done many things in my life, of which are: drugs of any type, never smoked anything, and never taken a sip of alcohol, well unless Nyquil counts. So I have never been drunk, or had a buzz, and never been high to any extent. This is what is right for me, and my choice alone. I would never tell anyone that they can not do those things when they keep to themselves. However, when your choice to do any of those things directly affects me or my family, (ie, stealing from me, driving drunk and hitting me and my family head on.) then yes, you obviously need to be controlled.

As for welfare, I believe that if you need me to give you my hard earned money in return for nothing, then you better be doing everything you can to get to a point where you do not need my money any longer. This means not having a 50inch plasma tv, no satellite tv with 500 channels, no eating out in resturants, no buying $150.00 shoes, no getting drunk or doing drugs, no further manufacturing of children, etc. Now you think that sounds harsh, and no fun? I agree, but then you are not paying for it. You want to do those things? GREAT!!! Get a job and then NO ONE can tell you what to do with your money. If I can go and get a second job to pay for the things that my family enjoys, then so can anyone else. The only times I think that someone can be exempt from this is if you have a child that MUST be taken care of constantly, or a spouse. If you are incapable physically of working, again, I really do not mind putting a few cents a month towards making your life a little easier, but being on welfare simply because it is the easiest way to sit on your butt and do nothing, you are a waste of human flesh.

Ok I feel better now, I spoke my mind. Again, I may not agree with everyone and their views, but it is good to see what someone else has to say, if nothing more than to make a better judgement call on your owns views. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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I like freedom. That does not mean that I have a "right" to live off the work of others. Freedom is hard. I think most people want somebody to tell them how to live and what to do. Not me. I decided a long time ago that a life of drugs and alcohol abuse was not going to bring me happiness. I saw the results of such behavior all around me. I still have vices. I'm addicted to cigarettes. It was a bad choice. I could have chosen heroin or crack in my pursuit of happiness. That would have been even worse. I'd like to live a few more years, but I'd prefer to have a normal or even short life as a free man than to live forever as a slave. I usually will come down on the side of personal freedom and responsibility over putting up with a bunch of rules promulgated by compulsive control freaks and know it alls. I probably would have quit smoking years ago if the anti-smoking Nazis didn't pi** me off so much. We have so many stinking laws on the books now, I'm probably breaking some of them right now. I think Patrick Henry summed it up best, "Give me liberty or give me death". Or the State Motto of New Hampshire, "Live free or die". BTW, I think the State motto of Georgia has been changed to "ZERO TOLERANCE".

Paul, this idea would require effective control and the US Goverment cannot do much right except spend our money. Here, for years and years, we paid women to have more and more children out of wedlock. The more irresponsible you were, the bigger the check you received. Now, our prisons are full of these folks, but they do get free healthcare, color TV, health club facilities, a bed in which to sleep and a roof over their head.

We have porus borders here, and we cannot and/or will not control them. To me, this should be a pretty simple task. If healthcare were free, it would not be long before the taxpayers would be providing "free" healthcare to every illegal with a pulse. They already get education breaks that U.S. citizens don't get. Soon, the minority of citizens will be supporting the majority of the citizens. Like another poster said, I worked very hard to EARN what I have. To get my college degree, I went to night school for 12 years. I earned my professional CFP designation and I have worked for seventeen years to build my business. I have been given nothing!!! While I was doing this and for centuries previous, others were whining and looking for excuses not to succeed and looking for a handout. These folks need to learn their actions had and have consequences.

If the "wealthy" are to support the lazy, let's start in Hollywood with Barbara Streisand, George Clooney, Ted Danson, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Robins and all the other whack jobs who's hearts bleed constantly.

Better yet, let's divide the country in two. Everyone who feels all citizens have a right to everything without working for anything must move to that half of the country. Maybe these folks can have the western half of the US. That would save the Hollywood left and the yogurt and grannola crowd from having to move. We can call it Freeland. The residents of Freeland who work, can pay all the taxes they want to support their lazy, non-working brethren.

The other half will be occupied by the industrious among us. We will work, marry, have children with our spouse, support our own families, educate our children and continue building the economic system that made America the country it is. We will pay our fair share of taxes to enable government to do the job it supposed to do, according to the Constitution. Some concepts huh? We can call this country Successland or Getoffyourdeadassorstarveland.

My bet is that Freeland will not last very long. It can't.

Okay, I feel better.

Paul, my anger and this tirade is not directed at you. It's the political season here and blood is running hot on both sides.

Now THAT is a great rant, Willie. I love it.

i disagree.unfortunately i know a lot about the drug culture.i was surrounded by drug use when i was younger.ive seen drugs used and sold.it doesnt matter if they are illegal or not.it is un-stoppable.it is the devils candy.

between the money to be made and peoples desire to escape reality no amount of law enforcement or punishment will stop the epidemic.these people cant help them selves,they want to quit but cant.

so whether legal or illegal,nothing can be done.period.
drug use will not increase or decrease if made legal because the the drugs and the money to be made is stronger than the law itself.

think of how many LEO's whether local,state or fed. would not be needed if drugs where irradicatedlaw enforcement needs drugs which is one reason they will never leave.they cry about all the money spent on the war on drugs,but all that money goes to some level of LE.

dont forget,drugs could never tax the healthcare system as much as cigarettes
do and have.

i am very sorry to hear about your brother.
that is why drugs are the work of the devil.i watched a girl i knew die recently.
absolutely beautiful,syracuse univ. psychology major from a some what wealthy home.she eventualy overdosed.she had deamons she couldnt handle.she had everything going for her,met the wrong people,used poor judgement,got hoohed and died.she was 26.

Bill - sorry to hear about your brother. I'm also against the legalization of drugs. Its bad enough that we lose thousands of innocent people every year due to Drunk Drivers - imagine how many more intoxicated individuals would take the wheel if drugs were no longer "taboo."

I knew a girl that OD'd and died on Meth about 7 years ago when she was 17 - I went to high school with her and we were friends when we were little. She was without a doubt the most beautiful girl in school - and now she's dead.

How long would the international drug trade last if there was very little profit in it? How long would junkies and crackheads last if drugs were cheap and easily available. There would be no money from drugs to support terrorism. All the junkies and crackheads would be dead in 5 years. Responsible recreational drug users wouldn't be clogging up the prison system. The only problem I see is what would we do with all of the out of work lawyers and prison work force?