What Orson Scott Card Has to Say About Drug Use...
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:37 am
I keep hearing that what America needs is to legalize drugs.
After all, a huge amount of our crime is funded by drug money. Let cocaine and heroine and marijuana and speed be legal, and suddenly the mob loses most of its serious income.
Not to mention the huge drop in petty crimes that addicts commit to get money for crack or weed.
The proponents of legalizing drugs invariably cite Prohibition. It failed! It was repealed! Therefore all laws trying to prohibit addictions should be repealed!
But let's look for a moment at Prohibition. Did it fail?
In one sense, no. Prohibition was the result of a massive, decades-long campaign against the liquor-swilling customs of the American male. Even though Prohibition ended up being repealed, the fact remained that the custom of tanking up every day at the saloon and coming home to beat the wife and kids had its back broken.
There are still plenty of regular drinkers, but they represent a smaller proportion of the American male population, and they consume less alcohol.
And Prohibition wasn't repealed because it failed. It was repealed because too many prominent people despised the law and flouted it openly. Because too few people insisted on rigorous enforcement of the law. Because too many people winked at violations of the law.
If those arrogant scofflaws had actually upheld the law, what might America be like? A place where drunk-driving rarely killed anybody at all. Where alcohol-fueled abuse of family members was vanishingly rare. A nation where almost no one lost days to hangovers or binges; where no one had to be fired because of alcohol; where marriages weren't destroyed by alcoholism, where children almost never had to sacrifice their childhood to take care of their drunken parents.
Here's the thing that the drug-legalizers conveniently forget: Drugs are devastatingly harmful whether they're banned or not. And if they were legalized, it is hard to imagine that the drugs themselves would not do far more damage to America than the crimes associated with drugs are doing right now.
A person on cocaine would still be unable to maintain a relationship or be reliable on a job, whether it was legal or not. A person on marijuana would still live in a haze of irresponsibility. Children whose parents were on drugs would be just as neglected as the children of alcoholics.
And even if drugs remained illegal for children, parents who were trying to teach their children not to let their lives be derailed by drugs would no longer have the law on their side. Instead, the kids would think of drugs the way they think of alcohol -- as something that is only "temporarily bad," and underage drug-taking would mean only that they were "early," not wrong.
Sane parents don't want to raise kids who become drug-taking machines, which is all that addicts function as. They want their kids to grow up to be full-fledged, responsible citizens. And they want their society to help them achieve that goal.
Furthermore, since drug-takers are parasites on society, producing next to nothing, but consuming as much as any productive citizen, our whole society would limp along, dragging these useless anchors through the bottom mud.
The drug-legalizers like to paint an idyllic picture of "harmless recreational drug use." But there is no such thing as harmless drug use. Long custom now makes it impossible to ban alcohol or smoking, but we also have long experience with the costs of unrestricted availability of substances that addict and destroy.
One thing is certain: If drugs are legalized, their use will increase vastly over what we have today. So, sure, maybe the drug kingpins will be put out of business; but the toll in broken homes, traffic accident deaths, unproductive workers, and dampened national creativity will more than take up the slack.
You want to know how to end the problem of drugs funding organized crime and provoking petty crime?
Stop tolerating drug use.
Don't leave it up to the police. If you know people who are using, then even if you don't report them, stop associating with them. When drugs are offered to you by someone, cut him off as your friend and ostracize him until he changes his ways.
The only reason drugs remain prevalent in our society is because ordinary citizens -- and, worse yet, opinion leaders -- either take part in drug use or refuse to report it when they see it.
I'm as guilty as anyone. Only once in my life was I knowingly in the same house as an illegal drug. A writer in Raleigh invited me to a party in honor of a writer who was visiting from Virginia. When I showed up, I was shown a plastic bag of something purported to be marijuana -- I wouldn't know -- and asked if I "minded."
To be sociable, I shook my head and tried to pretend that it didn't bother me.
The funny thing is, the people whom I was trying to impress with my "tolerance" were actually grossly intolerant of me. That was made plain both then and later. Drug users aren't tolerant, though they demand tolerance from others. Drug users are utterly, supremely selfish -- if it feels good to them, then they'll do it, regardless of what it might cost others, directly or indirectly.
Even if I didn't have the guts to call the police on the spot, I should have at least turned around and walked out, to show my contempt for people who flout laws designed to keep our society a decent place to live.
So the one time I actually was tested on this issue, I failed miserably.
I can only plead that I was taken by surprise. Now I would know what to do, and I would do it.
Decent Americans don't let other Americans take drugs. When we know of drug use and do nothing about it, we're part of the problem, even if we aren't taking the drugs ourselves.
These poisons hurt us all. And legalizing them will only hurt us more -- especially those of us who are trying to raise children who will grow up and become, in their own turn, responsible, productive parents.
Drugs are the enemy of every family. They're vampires that suck the life out of everyone they attack, and they especially prey on the young.
Legalizing them will only force us to remember why we made them illegal in the first place.
After all, a huge amount of our crime is funded by drug money. Let cocaine and heroine and marijuana and speed be legal, and suddenly the mob loses most of its serious income.
Not to mention the huge drop in petty crimes that addicts commit to get money for crack or weed.
The proponents of legalizing drugs invariably cite Prohibition. It failed! It was repealed! Therefore all laws trying to prohibit addictions should be repealed!
But let's look for a moment at Prohibition. Did it fail?
In one sense, no. Prohibition was the result of a massive, decades-long campaign against the liquor-swilling customs of the American male. Even though Prohibition ended up being repealed, the fact remained that the custom of tanking up every day at the saloon and coming home to beat the wife and kids had its back broken.
There are still plenty of regular drinkers, but they represent a smaller proportion of the American male population, and they consume less alcohol.
And Prohibition wasn't repealed because it failed. It was repealed because too many prominent people despised the law and flouted it openly. Because too few people insisted on rigorous enforcement of the law. Because too many people winked at violations of the law.
If those arrogant scofflaws had actually upheld the law, what might America be like? A place where drunk-driving rarely killed anybody at all. Where alcohol-fueled abuse of family members was vanishingly rare. A nation where almost no one lost days to hangovers or binges; where no one had to be fired because of alcohol; where marriages weren't destroyed by alcoholism, where children almost never had to sacrifice their childhood to take care of their drunken parents.
Here's the thing that the drug-legalizers conveniently forget: Drugs are devastatingly harmful whether they're banned or not. And if they were legalized, it is hard to imagine that the drugs themselves would not do far more damage to America than the crimes associated with drugs are doing right now.
A person on cocaine would still be unable to maintain a relationship or be reliable on a job, whether it was legal or not. A person on marijuana would still live in a haze of irresponsibility. Children whose parents were on drugs would be just as neglected as the children of alcoholics.
And even if drugs remained illegal for children, parents who were trying to teach their children not to let their lives be derailed by drugs would no longer have the law on their side. Instead, the kids would think of drugs the way they think of alcohol -- as something that is only "temporarily bad," and underage drug-taking would mean only that they were "early," not wrong.
Sane parents don't want to raise kids who become drug-taking machines, which is all that addicts function as. They want their kids to grow up to be full-fledged, responsible citizens. And they want their society to help them achieve that goal.
Furthermore, since drug-takers are parasites on society, producing next to nothing, but consuming as much as any productive citizen, our whole society would limp along, dragging these useless anchors through the bottom mud.
The drug-legalizers like to paint an idyllic picture of "harmless recreational drug use." But there is no such thing as harmless drug use. Long custom now makes it impossible to ban alcohol or smoking, but we also have long experience with the costs of unrestricted availability of substances that addict and destroy.
One thing is certain: If drugs are legalized, their use will increase vastly over what we have today. So, sure, maybe the drug kingpins will be put out of business; but the toll in broken homes, traffic accident deaths, unproductive workers, and dampened national creativity will more than take up the slack.
You want to know how to end the problem of drugs funding organized crime and provoking petty crime?
Stop tolerating drug use.
Don't leave it up to the police. If you know people who are using, then even if you don't report them, stop associating with them. When drugs are offered to you by someone, cut him off as your friend and ostracize him until he changes his ways.
The only reason drugs remain prevalent in our society is because ordinary citizens -- and, worse yet, opinion leaders -- either take part in drug use or refuse to report it when they see it.
I'm as guilty as anyone. Only once in my life was I knowingly in the same house as an illegal drug. A writer in Raleigh invited me to a party in honor of a writer who was visiting from Virginia. When I showed up, I was shown a plastic bag of something purported to be marijuana -- I wouldn't know -- and asked if I "minded."
To be sociable, I shook my head and tried to pretend that it didn't bother me.
The funny thing is, the people whom I was trying to impress with my "tolerance" were actually grossly intolerant of me. That was made plain both then and later. Drug users aren't tolerant, though they demand tolerance from others. Drug users are utterly, supremely selfish -- if it feels good to them, then they'll do it, regardless of what it might cost others, directly or indirectly.
Even if I didn't have the guts to call the police on the spot, I should have at least turned around and walked out, to show my contempt for people who flout laws designed to keep our society a decent place to live.
So the one time I actually was tested on this issue, I failed miserably.
I can only plead that I was taken by surprise. Now I would know what to do, and I would do it.
Decent Americans don't let other Americans take drugs. When we know of drug use and do nothing about it, we're part of the problem, even if we aren't taking the drugs ourselves.
These poisons hurt us all. And legalizing them will only hurt us more -- especially those of us who are trying to raise children who will grow up and become, in their own turn, responsible, productive parents.
Drugs are the enemy of every family. They're vampires that suck the life out of everyone they attack, and they especially prey on the young.
Legalizing them will only force us to remember why we made them illegal in the first place.
I got addicted you know full well. And it's because I was weak. I would have deserved to rot for being so weak-willed for giving in to drugs... ok... the drug was only Ritalin... and I had it originally for my ADD... but by the end of it's use, I couldn't do without it... I was a screwed up big time. Didn't speak to no-one, couldn't do work... Hated myself more than I can describe... a screw up. Because of Drugs. So no, I have not seen "someone you love's life ruined because of drugs." I've gone through it myself. I was messed up because I was idiotic enough to believe that I needed them... I speak from experience Ur-Vile... not out of Randomness, or childish ignorance.
But I have no sympathy for those that get addicted... just as I had none for myself.
I understand why you were a bit annoyed.
) but i would have thought that in america of all places, people are all for the rights of the individual. People should be free to do what they like without any interference from the state, eg there are v few restrictions on gun ownership, so if anywhere in the world allowed you to take drugs if you wanted, then america would be the place. In reality America has quite harsh laws for drug offenders. It seems a strange duality, don't you think? You can go into the desert or mountains, build up an arsenal of uzis and start your own cult, but you can't smoke dope (legally).