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Harry Browne is a former Libertarian candidate for President (is that an oxymoron? it should be), who has his head screwed on.
He has penned an important article this week, although he takes some time to get into his stride. The gist: that government prohibition of opiates and other psychotropics is the cause of drug-related crime, and that social disorder resulting from "drug abuse" pre WWI was insignificant (certainly as compared with today).
Seldom a truer word spoken; the link in Browne's story (to advertising and other materials from pre-Prohibition days) is a hoot, although it's lamentably slow-loading. Sadly, the images are in a format that results in large files, but do please bear with it.... it's entertaining and informative to see just how unabashed promotional materials were. The fact that the Pope gave a Gold Medal to Vin Mariani is just another indication of its widespread social acceptability.
I don't use psychotropics, but it's high time that there was a public outcry about the poor bastards who end up in the slot as a result of some harmless mind-altering. Humans like to alter their minds, and there's no amount of government Nannyism that will change that.
No doubt just about everybody can think of several politicians who would benefit from a mind-altering injection. For most of them, an injection straight into the brain of 150-200 grains of brass-jacketed lead, travelling at 830mps would do the trick.
