Mob Beating was Crack Deal Gone Bad
So we were lied to the past few days. Monday night’s brutal beating of Samuel McClain shocked Milwaukee. Many wondered what was happening to parts of the city. Was she being taken over by barbarians? We now know McClain, father of 12, tried to get crack cocaine then claimed he was being ripped off. Then the beating took place. The victim is hardly innocent. Still, no one deserves the punishment McClain took. Those thugs who kicked and stomped on his head should be locked away for a very long time.
This shows the harm drugs can do to a community. Or does it? Maybe drugs being illegal is the problem If cocaine were legalized gangs wouldn’t be selling it on the street. You’d go to your local convenience store or bar to get your fix. Legal cocaine might have prevented the invention of crack. We know for sure its illicit status keeps it in the realm of nasty, brutal people.
I’m not totally on the “legalize drugs” bandwagon, but I’m getting closer. It’s like the decades-long approach to Fidel Castro’s Cuba: the status quo isn’t working. It’s time to try something new. The first place we can start is by legalizing marijuana and give it the same status as alcohol. If someone wants to used it to relieve pain, fine. If they just want to get high, that’s fine too. The McClain beating demonstrates the need to get drugs off the black market.
“Quarrel Over Drug Deal Led to Beating” [via Badger Blogger]
Kudos to an outstanding perspective on this horrible beating and to tying it to the original Ridiculous Unwinnable War, the War on Drugs. I happen to be fully in the legalization camp and it’s good to see more people starting to come around.
Hey, the most intense drug i’ve ever been on was nitrous, and that was in my dentist’s chair when i got my wisdom teeth pulled–and that’s not even a drug! I’ve never smoked pot, done a line, shot up, or licked a tab, but that doesn’t mean that someone who wants to shouldn’t be able to.
I actually heard someone argue once that “if drugs were legalized, the deaths from auto accidents involving impaired drivers would skyrocket.” Ridiculous. If you don’t think people are driving cars under the influence of anything other than alcohol, you’re in a fantasy world.
Drugs, by themselves, are not inherently bad. As anything in this world, it’s how they’re put to use that can be incredibly horrible. But that’s not reason enough to outlaw them.
Personal Responsibility. Let people make their own choices about whether or not they’re gonna not use, use once in awhile, or piss their life away. For conservatives obsessed with individual freedoms this should be a slam dunk.
And by the way, while we’re at it–if prostitution were legalized and heavily regulated, i’ll betcha violence and disease related to the trade would drop severely. Just throwin’ that out there.