Chicagoan lengths to fight drug use

Trying to reduce drug use throughout the city, the Chicago City council proposed a measure to ban small plastic baggies less than 2″ x 2″. The logic goes that these bags are used to distribute controlled substances, and so they should be illegalized to impede drug transactions. Furthermore these bags often contain drug residue, which poses a hazard to children who might find the bags.

First of all, when did it become ok to restrict access to a storage medium? As the article rightfully points out, this type of bag is often used to hold buttons, jewelry, or other small items. Who is to say that they are only for drugs? Tom Fruin, an artist has in fact collected so many of these bags as to assemble a quilt!

The argument that drug residue poses a risk to inquisitive children who lick the inside of bags holds some water, but then I’ve got to ask - What about all those cigarette butts on the ground? There’s nothing stopping a three year old from picking up and lighting up a half used cigarette, or joint for that matter.

Just thought I’d bring attention to this excellent example of Poo-litics.

The next imperialist Latin American drug war?

The US and Mexico are in negotiations regarding a major expansion of the drug war in Mexico. This conflict already receives aid and support from the US, but now we’re talking big dollars - half a billion per year (or 1.2 billion here). That’s about the same we spend on Colombia, which is a great success story by any absurd government measurement standards.

Let’s privatize all wars… including the drug war

Noting the recent success of warfare privatization (a great documentary on warfare privatization - Iraq in Fragments, can be found here) in Iraq, leaders at the Pentagon have taken a clue, and now are researching the possibility of privatizing the [modern] War on Drugs, proudly begun by Nixon in 1971.

With a possible $15billion contract, who can resist the allure of arresting marihuana-smoking youth, detaining suspicious foreign nationals, and breaking down doors without warrants?  But really, why should we stop at the US? - already American military and private units are slash-and-burning through the South American rain forest, assisting questionable leaders with money and weapons, and are dropping chemicals on foreign agricultural zones.

Ahhhh, it’s beautiful