Letter: Stuck With Our Drug Laws
Don E. Paydon
July 17, 2009
Times Argus (Barre, VT)
In regards to your July 13 letter to the editor, "It's time to legalize pot": While I do agree with Mr. Hoyt, that it is time to stop creating criminals out of hard-working and in many cases, professional men and women, with the Feds war on drugs, i.e. "pot," boy, this government seems to always have to have a war with someone, any way.
The fact of the matter is, they are making far more money with their confiscations and forfeitures, than they ever could by legalizing pot. Yes, capitalism rears its ugly head once again.
It was about 10 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in essence that while these confiscations and forfeitures may be illegal under the excessive fines clause of the U.S. Constitution, it would cost the federal corporation (did I say that?) untold millions to pay back the cash and property they gleaned by this nefarious activity.
So, here we have on one hand the Feds don't have to pay back ill-gotten gains, but John Q Public must pay back to the federal government any illegally gotten cash (strange).
Then, we have many attorneys who would have to spearhead such a fight, who have political aspirations, and such a political hot potato as the legalization of pot could be aspiration smashing, even though, some of these legal eagles are puffing away in back rooms, and the ones doing the smashing are lighting their pipes.
No, I'm afraid for the time being, society will have to endure the time-honored speakeasy method of acquiring this natural occurring substance. |
