A Mad World

[poliphilo]

Our society locks people up just for possessing drugs. It can't be right.

Why do we do it? It's a 20th century aberration. In the 19th century you could buy opium over the counter. Most of the great Victorians were sozzled or high most of the time. People were sorry and/or disapproving of the hopeless addicts, but they didn't consider them criminals.

To punish someone for having a rock in his pocket (for his own use, dammit- I'm thinking Gil Scott Heron)- that's barbaric.

A generation or two down the road people will look back in disbelief. It'll shock them the way we're shocked at Jim Crow or the Magdalen laundries. They'll think, "how could they be so cruel?"

Comments

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i've actually been meaning to write a post about this... the irony about all this uproar over drugs is, everyone's on drugs. in the US anyway. "partnership for a drug free america"? half this country is on prozac, ritalin, claratin, lipitor, nexium, lithium, viagra, procrit, whatever. people would rather pop pills than actually exercise, talk to their kids, or change their diet. and then we point the finger at people who smoke pot and talk about their "drug problems" and their laziness and their morals.