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"When an officer, without
reasonable suspicion or probable cause, approaches an individual, the
individual Justice Harlan explained that although a police officer (like every other citizen) is free to address questions to persons standing on the street, the pedestrian is free to disregard the police inquiry and move on. Id. at 32-33 (Harlan, J., concurring) ("the person addressed [by a police officer] has an equal right to ignore his interrogator and walk away"). Justice White also emphasized that a pedestrian is under no obligation to cooperate with the police. A person approached by the police has the right to avoid a police encounter and the right to leave the scene. Id. at 34 (White, J., concurring) ("Absent special circumstances, the person approached [by an officer] may not be detained or frisked but may refuse to cooperate and go on his way")
Feedom requires that government allow us the right to take personal risks and do adventurous things . Government should provide safety information and set up the rules to protect others from our adventures, but not restrict our risk taking behavior. We also have a right to quality and purity information about the drugs we take. This lack of information causes most overdoses. Don’t allow the state to make you feel guilty for conduct that doesn't harm others. Remember…… Some like to sit and watch a waterfall…….. Others want to go over it in a barrel Teach sensible use, warn of abuse, suggest abstinenance as valid choice teach users to identify and react to signs of increased dependence. All of us explore altered states in some form during our life (include: intentional dizziness, adrenalin and endorphin induced states also caffeine, meditation and day dreaming). Drugs, legal illegal and internally produced are "short-cuts" to many of the states meditation or the directed mind can achieve of its' own accord. As with most short-cuts there is increased risk.
By dwelling only on the increased risks and the
irresponsible folly of the few, accurate information required to
responsibly legislate drug use is denied the public.
By
arresting
responsible adult users, a great penalty is inflicted The
main policy goal should be to minimize the aggregate societal damage
associated with drug use
"Fanaticism," says Santayana, "consists of redoubling your efforts when you have lost sight of your aim." An old Alcoholics Anonymous adage defines insanity as "continuing to do the same thing and expecting to get a different result."
Between them, these two aphorisms define
the condition of U.S. drug policy and the public debate about it.
Sting operations and other new
crime-fighting tools that Congress authorized come with few protections
against overzealous federal agents and prosecutors, said Bennet L. Gershman,
a former New York state prosecutor and a law professor at Pace
University of New York.
"There's really no significant restraint on federal law enforcement
power" Some
80 million Americans -- about a quarter of the population -- have used
marijuana, and
yet not many baby boomers moved on to mainlining.
"The Great Pot
Experiment
produced millions of conventional, productive, upstanding citizens, plus
a few journalists, " Michael Kinsley once wrote.
If that's an exaggeration, it's no more so than
Califano's thesis that marijuana sends people down the road to cocaine
addiction. Califano also claims that cigarettes and alcohol are gateway drugs, but he doesn't take the step that should follow, given his logic: that smoking and drinking cause marijuana use.. |
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