Run for the (Other) Border

So Mexico's not going to legalize drugs after all. On Tuesday, David Soares - the DA for Albany County, New York - warned Canadians not to get cocky, and to keep their fairest-in-the-hemisphere drug laws intact.

"My advice to Canada is stay as completely far away from U.S. drug law policy as possible," said David Soares … Lawmakers in America lack the willpower to reform drug laws despite their ineffectiveness at curbing drug use and crime because "reform is scary," he said.

Bill Weld running on the Libertarian ticket, a DA blasting the drug war … does the Free State Project maybe want to give New York another look?

Comments

[Bob Dobalina]

Heh. You should see my paycheck. I keep less than half of what I make, thanks to NYS and NYC.

This city is being kept alive at the teet of Wall Street, and it amazes me that the place has yet to collapse under its own weight.

This city is also the best possible place for an LVT. Any time middle class people find a way to make more money, the landed class finds a way to strip it away.

[MP]

Bill Weld running on the Libertarian ticket, a DA blasting the drug war ... does the Free State Project maybe want to give New York another look?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Do you need to have Bill Weld get 3% of the vote and the DA to get his pink slip to be fully reminded of NY's enternal battle with MA and CA to be the most statist state in the country?

[Matt Naylor]

HA! I did some hard time in Rochester NY during college. The only thing that grows well in that cold, swampy landscape seems to be government. And, accordingly, government's appatite for taxes in all forms, income, sales, property, nussiance traffic & parking tickets, permits, fees, & fines. There is a real fear in New York State of people operating in the absense of regulations, codes and rules. I live in Philadelphia, hardly a candidate for the "Free State Project" but Philly is not even in the same league as NY.

Oddly, I had a Criminal Justice Professor, who is a former ADA, and current criminal defense lawyer, in Rochester, who preached Libertarian Drug Policy (without calling it Libertarian) as the only solution to most criminal and social ills. He touted leagalization of [i]everything[/i] from pot up through and including crack cocaine, so long as it was consumed in private, while the person was not a threat to anyone else.

I think he's the reason I researched this whole Libertarian idea in the first place.

[Jared]

Wasn't NY dead last in best places to start a buisness?

God bless NY's public school system. I remember in elementary school having to attend a "love show". It was like a pep rally the school put on for people of all races and creeds.

Anyways, even though NYC keeps UPNY afloat with cash, I wonder if its liberal pull doesn't hurt the area.

[A. Nony Moose]

I don't think we threatened Mexico with anything. I think we just let them know that if they did it, every American user of controlled substances with the means and will to do so would be moving there. And Mexicans hate Americans more than they love drugs.

Mexicans loathe even the idea of gringos moving to Mexico; they have a hatred of all foreigners that would make Pat Buchanan's nads shrivel, and if you go to a MECHA rally and replace the word "Chicano" with "white" and the language from Spanish to English, they sound just like the fucking KKK.

[Mr. F. Le Mur]

David Soares
A little research on him seems to show some anomalies: a DA with a conscience, and a Dem against the WOD. If he can be considered a "semi-major" politician, I'll have to retract what I said about only Reps opposing the WOD.

[Rick H.]

Mexicans loathe even the idea of gringos moving to Mexico; they have a hatred of all foreigners that would make Pat Buchanan's nads shrivel, and if you go to a MECHA rally and replace the word "Chicano" with "white" and the language from Spanish to English, they sound just like the fucking KKK.

As a sometime visitor to Mexico City, this has not been my experience at all. Yeah, there's a fierce nationalist streak which can be annoying, but I found Mexicano friends and acquaintances to be some of the most welcoming, friendly and open people one could hope to meet. And I am a skinny white guy with a shaved head who speaks very little espanol. Then again, I don't hang around MECHA rallies, whatever those are, so maybe I'm just not looking for that kind of trouble.

[John]

It is hard to legalize drugs in just one place. Amsterdam is a good example. As a reward for their enlightened drug laws, the Dutch are inundated with every looser on earth. The Dutch if I am not mistaken have made it a crime for anyone not a resident to use drugs there to try to clean the mess up.

I think at some level the real drug warriers if they were honest withthemselves would admit how stupid this whole thing has gotten. Ultimately, drugs have a way of working themselves out. Most people are not suicidal and the truely harmful drugs will harm enough people that only the dumbest of the population will use them and those folks are using drugs now. The more shrill the drug warriers become the more I think they are inwardly starting to suspect what a fraud the whole thing is. I really don't think it can go on forever as it is. I think in 20 years or so we will have much different drug laws than we have today. It will change when regular people who don't use drugs finally get tired of spending money to jail those who do. I think that moment may be closer than a lot of people think.

[norman]

This is quite something...

Immigration rally coverage from across the country

[John]

The pain killer facination just kills me. Some people live in horrible pain and the only way to alieviate it is to take major league painkillers. Addiction and the side effects are still better than the pain. I don't know if Rush was one of those people, but to go after people with chronic pain who take painkillers is truely evil.

[the other Mark]

He also must continue treatment for his acknowledged addiction to painkillers and he cannot own a gun.

So Rush is a felon now? It's clearly unjust for him to be made one, but it is somewhat satisfying to see a drug war booster hoist by his own petard.

[happyjuggler0]

Mark Naylor,

Use a forward and backward ">" instead of "]" and you'll get the italics you were looking for.

[happyjuggler0]

Or use b instead of i to get boldface type.

[Ruthless]

Throughout the world, Buffalo Bob Dubya is pulling the strings of a lot of Howdy Doody's, but I didn't think Vincente Fox was one.
Vincente could whip Dubya's ass with one hand tied behind his back.

[John]

Ruthless,

Vincente is a racist corrupt piece shit product of the piece of shit Mexican political system. He probably could kick Bush's ass, but only because he is a thug.

The Other Mark,

I haven't listened to Rush in a long time, but I don't remember him being much of a drug warrior or really saying much of anything about drugs on his show. People who do listen to him frequently, feel free to correct me, but I don't think he ever has said to much about drugs one way or another. Perhaps we know why.

[the other Mark]

John,

I haven't listened to him in quite some time either. I have a vagueish memory of reading a quote by him to the effect that drug dealers should be executed.

A quick Google search brings up this. Take it for what it's worth.

[Larry A]

As a sometime visitor to Mexico City, this has not been my experience at all. Yeah, there's a fierce nationalist streak which can be annoying, but I found Mexicano friends and acquaintances to be some of the most welcoming, friendly and open people one could hope to meet.

OTOH you probably weren't down there to get wasted and barf all over the streets.

[Jim Walsh]

For the record, Rush has enthusiastically endorsed the War On Drugs on several occasions over the years.

Fer Chrissakes, he's a protege of Bill Bennett - what does that tell you...

[M']

I wouldn't support a war on drugs even if every human stopped using illicit drugs entirely as a result of it. Some here have said in the past that they would if it did work. I just don't understand that one.

Who else in Mexico would have not supported legalization? Is there an incentive for the drug cartels to keep drugs illegal there? They certainly could be a threat to Senor Fox.