Wednesday, May 21, 2008

John Stossel: A Junkie's Best Friend


Everyone's Favorite Liberatarian Giving His Publicist Agita
Page Six has the scoop on 20/20 loudmouth John Stossel jumping on the legalize-drugs bandwagon.
Not that he wants us and him to become a nation of crackheads, or so he says. Instead, Stossel (couldn't he just go back to doing consumer exposes?), says it's a way to strike back at the drug gangs and cartels before they branch out from heroin to something flashier, like procure nuclear weapons.
You know, the next logical step.
Maybe this is just his way of trying to get hip with a younger demographic. Apparently, getting his own Facebook page wasn't enough.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Stossel has opposed the drug war for a long time. It's a sensible position. Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s and 30s, and it doesn't work now.

It seems you disagree. Maybe you could provide some detailed analysis as to why the current drug war is different from alcohol prohibition.

I'll get you started. Prohibition fueled gangs like the one run by Al Capone. The drug war? Yep.

Prohibition led to tainted alcohol on the market, causing blindness and death. Drug war? Yep.

Prohibition corrupted cops. Yeah, that one too.

Prohibition increased violent crime. Check.

Looking forward to your response.

Steve Gosset said...

Since this is primarily a blog devoted to media criticism, I don't want to turn this into a debate about drug policy.
Suffice to say, I wouldn't go as far as Stossel or you advocate.
I would, though, like to see an overhaul of the Rockefeller drug laws, and more resources nationwide devoted to treating addicts whose time is better spent in rehab rather than behind bars. If you can reduce the demand for the drugs, that's one way to diminish the dealers and cartels.
What I was most reacting to was Stossel trying to set up his dominoes and assert that the Bloods and the Crips, not to mention the Colombiansd are looking to branch out into nuclear weapons as the next logical step in their business model.