Google Search

Monday, July 11, 2011

Bathing in Irresponsibility

by Richard Shwartzman

To borrow from Neville Chamberlain, there is peace in our time here in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett on June 23 signed into law a bill that bans bath salts, thereby saving us from self-responsibility.

The Keystone state is now the 21st state in the country to have a law prohibiting the possession or sale of these products that have been legally sold in head shops and tobacco and convenience stores for about $10.

The bath salts in question are synthetic drugs, and reports make these things sound like the second coming of LSD, or maybe they?re just reflecting the same fear-mongering, authoritarian attitude over drug use as was prevalent from the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan eras to the Clinton, Bush, and Obama eras.

?If left unchecked, synthetic drugs could have developed into the most dangerous drug crisis since methamphetamine labs found their way into our state,? the governor reportedly said when signing the measure.

These particular bath salts ?can cause delusional, violent behavior,? the report said. That sounds a lot like the bogus, bad-trip propaganda stories about acid.

Delivering or intending to deliver the salts carries a five-year prison term and a $15,000 fine. Possession brings a one-year sentence and a $5,000 fine. As if our prisons aren?t already overcrowded or court system clogged.

What the bill really does is prolong an already failed drug policy, a policy of militarized police waging a war on reason and liberty. It?s another war without end ? as is the war on terror ? one that can never be won.

...Continued


Latest Commentary
- The Private Fireworks Show Of My Dreams
- Independence Day Propaganda
- Innovations in Technology | Jeffrey A. Tucker
- Show Love to the Merchant Class
- Conspiracies
- Fireworks: Taxpayer Money, Up in Smoke
- The Grand Holiday
- The Impossibility of Limited Government and the Prospects for a Second American Revolution

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill


View the original article here