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Comment by mynameishere | Hacker News Reader

An okay story. But it seems like it's just some douche upon whom the government blew 10 million dollars (give or take) to put in a cage. I'm pretty sure those Indians can keep snowmobiling across the border with their bales of marijuana. I'm pretty sure there are still Hell's Angels who have trucking jobs.

If weed is fully legalized, maybe they'll invent some more interesting Al Capone-types to romanticize the era.

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The drug war is clearly a farce because of the focus on dealers. If there was a serious desire to reduce usage we know full well from history what "works." You very severely punish anybody caught with stuff, regardless of "intent to distribute."

You're right that the drug war is a farce, but your reasoning is wrong. Altering consciousness is never going away, even with steep penalties. All that accomplishes is making the externalities of drug law enforcement even more severe.

You're ignoring the externalities of drug usage. The question becomes whether the externalities of prohibition exceed those of junkie fuckups in your extended family and community. I'm pretty libertarian overall about this stuff but you have to be in denial to fail to notice that a large fraction of the population cannot handle their drugs and alcohol. Drug users frequently ruin families and neighborhoods.

Consider, for example, that both Trayvon and Michael Brown were high on marijuana when they made decisions that lead to their deaths and ensuing hugely expensive social disturbances. If you care to step out of your upper middle class bubble, it is not at all crazy to suggest that cannabis does in fact have huge negative externalities.

I'm all for considering externalities, your examples are terrible, especially Trayvon. It's arguable whether he did anything wrong, and it's also quite possible he wasn't high at the time[0]. Even if he was high and was aggressive once Zimmerman started following him, there are more important factors in the disturbance than how Trayvon acted.

0 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin#Coun...

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