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Comment by s73ver | Hacker News Reader

"sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use?"

I don't care; that's not what's being debated here. The fact of the matter is, it's illegal, and anyone who sets up a drug marketplace today knows that. They set it up with full knowledge that they are breaking the law. If they wish to campaign to have drug laws reworked, I'm all for that and wish them the best of luck. But they're not doing that; they're setting up a marketplace with the intentions of making lots of money. They're not fighting for freedom or anything like that; they're just trying to make a quick buck.

And please don't respond with any kind of false equivalence bs. Getting high is not any kind of civil rights struggle. It's nice, but that's it. It is absolutely nothing like civil rights struggles of the past, and comparing it to such events is an extreme disrespect to those struggles and those who went through them.

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The fact of the matter is, it's illegal

So was interracial marriage for a long time. So was same sex marriage. Meanwhile, slavery and wife beating were perfectly legal at one time.

Laws are written by people. "It is illegal" is not a moral argument. It simply is not. Asserting that it is illegal completely sidesteps the question asked concerning morality.

Some laws are dumb, and civil diosobedience in the form of a mass breaking of those laws is often the best way.

> Getting high is not any kind of civil rights struggle.

You're right, it's not. At it's core it is a matter of pure, absolute personal choice and that is far more fucking important.

If I want to consume a naturally occuring substance recreationally and I'm not harming anyone, then anyone who disapproves can try to stop me clack clack.

Getting high is not any kind of civil rights struggle. It's nice, but that's it.

I think this is a logical and well reasoned attitude if you are living in an ivory tower and have never been close to an addict. People mostly become addicts in response to something bad happening in their lives.

Punishing fellow human beings for an addiction is wrong. Addicts need treatment and support not punishment.

This may not be a civil rights issue, more common sense and basic decency.

There's a difference between punishing an addict, and removing access to their provider. At this point, the conversation tends to fork into a discussion on least harm. Nevertheless, when marketplaces like AlphaBay and others are shut down, it's the operators, and sometimes the vendors, who are explicitly punished, not the addicts.

It's still not. And I am entirely in favor of getting those people help instead of locking them away.

But we're talking about those that set up the stores. They're clearly not helping any of those addicts. And they make a very conscious decision to do something that they know right now breaks the law.

>People mostly become addicts in response to something bad happening in their lives

This is absolutely untrue. It would seem that you are living in an ivory tower of your own. I won't recount anecdote, but take a look at this source[1].

1. http://theinfluence.org/do-we-overstate-the-role-trauma-play...

Slaving used to be legal, and helping them escape was illegal. Anyone who helps slaves escape set it up with the full knowledge they are breaking the law.

This is not a valid rebuttal. Slavery and selling drugs are nowhere near the same thing, and by equating the two, you do a massive disrespect to those who fought for that. Slavery is a civil rights issue; selling drugs is not.

No you are conflating that since something is illegal ergo it's wrong. The point that you're missing is that laws can be wrong and can be changed. Just because something is currently illegal does not make it wrong.

i don't see the point in respecting a law that i don't agree with

For the most part, every single person who breaks any kind of a law doesn't agree with the law they're breaking.

Then work to get it repealed. But I can't have any sympathy for you if you decide to start up a drug selling store, and then get busted for doing something you knew at the time was illegal.

i didn't ask for sympathy either. i know i'm breaking the law, i'm explaining why

Yet, this is an article about someone who did get busted for selling drugs. And people in this thread are acting like it was some kind of huge civil rights violation. It's not. He wasn't any kind of freedom fighter. He was trying to make a quick buck.

Your arguments are so baseless and outright ignorant that when I attempt to think about a counter it just makes my brain hurt.. it doesn't matter what points are brought up, you will ignore them all. Have fun being right all the time in your head.

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