© 1997-TEOTWAKI - Chuckles the Sane,  Sui Juris.  All rights reserved.

Well, it isn't exactly a War on Weed, because you can't properly have a war with a plant--people would laugh at you and call you an arse.  The rationalizations behind declaring and engaging in war on a species of plant are just plain harebrained.  A war is carried out on people, by people.  A war is a group of individuals doing their flat best to kill another group of people, usually for religious, philosophical or political reasons, but often for fun and profit.  The "War on Drugs" as carried out by governments large and small everywhere, is a heapin' helpin' of profit and politics veiled under a thin gravy of religious or philosophical correctness.  It is a scam of epic proportions and organized crime at its governmental best.

It is sick that a moneymaking scam such as drug prohibition actually works.  It rubs reason the wrong way, and lends further support to the notion that most people are dumber than hell most of the time. 

It works like this:  A small group of individuals arbitrarily convenes and compiles a list of naturally occurring and hugely popular recreational substances to be banned from use by other people, on the premise that the substances are potentially harmful to the individual or morally threatening to the public at large.  Failure to obey the arbitrary rules carries a penalty of property seizure, financial ruin, public humiliation, violent arrest, incarceration in a grubby cage with treacherous criminals and, quite often, being riddled ragged with bullet holes by a special task force in one's own home--all much more damaging than anything that smoking pot can summon.  Getting high a dozen times a day and carrying on as a productive and happy pothead is markedly better than being convicted of the same and consequently forced into involuntary servitude in a prison (or murdered by the police)-- but the former is a crime and the latter standard practice.  The plot thickens with the knowledge that the entire operation is financed with funds extorted by the same threat or application of force, and from the same people being seized, ruined and murdered.  Along the way, first-rate public relations gurus convince the poor saps that they are living in absolute freedom and that it is all for their own good.

Throughout history, groups of powerful people or extraordinarily charismatic individuals have claimed special wisdom or right to rule the masses.  Throughout history, the masses have been only too happy to comply in exchange for professed security and a continual influx of news.  The approach comes in a variety of flavors, but the scam pans out the same every time.  Whether perpetrated in the guise of a so-called "Royal Family," the specific mandate of a god, or a so-called "Government of the People (by the people, even)," it always comes down to a small group claiming a monopoly on the application of physical force to compel the majority of individuals to conform to the group's set of rules and support them financially.  The so-called "leaders" provide no actual goods or service and charge whatever they want for the superficial service.  They secure a geographic area with violence or the threat of violence, and thereafter control the everyday lives of the inhabitants of the area for a non-negotiable fee.  On a small scale it is called racketeering and extortion, and is universally considered criminal in nature.  On a larger scale, it is called government and is irrationally reckoned necessary by droves of misguided people.  It's not bad work if you can choke your conscience enough to sleep at night.  A good many politicians turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the stress and live with the guilt.

For a group or individual to claim the privilege to control the actions of another is preposterous and would be met with active resistance by most any creature other than a human.  If you tried to stop a strange dog from licking his balls, he would probably take your hand off at the elbow and gnaw a bit on your face in protest.  If you tried to cavity search a skunk in the manner familiar to those Nazis calling themselves Customs Agents, it would slather you in special stank-sauce before you could hike up its tail to poke around.  But humans, having the gift of language, are quick to submit to whatever injunction a person with a uniform or title chooses to proclaim, because we are conditioned to believe a uniform or title represents "authority," and must be obeyed.

Every creature has the right to self-defense, but man is fairly unique in his refusal to exercise it.  When a person claiming jurisdiction over your body creates a "regulation" and insists that you obey, under threat of force, you are under de facto assault.  If the regulated activity is considered criminal in nature, you are being coerced into behaving a certain way, under threat of violence.  When stripped of all pleasantries, this "government by force" is essentially the same as Mama saying "if you hurt yourself, I'm whooping your ass but good...and I'm taking your allowance for my trouble, regardless."

If civilization is defined by our domestication and subservience to the whims of our fellow man, then I say to hell with it, it isn't worth the trade-off.  A civilized society should be one where people let other people alone, and differences of opinion don't result in bloody altercations.  No man has the right to tell you what to do with your body.  No man has the right to compel you to think or behave a certain way unless his own life, liberty or property is directly at stake.  In that circumstance, it is self-defense and justified.  There is no defense involved in the draconian system of drug enforcement; the government is the aggressor in the violent stalking of the perpetrators of "victimless crimes."  The very notion of a "victimless crime" is oxymoronic and cannot be.  If there is no injured party, there can be no crime.  

No person can have more natural rights than any other, and a right cannot be taken or given--it just is.  Any allegation to the contrary is a fraud and somebody is getting the shaft.  The belief in varying scales of "human rights" is the root of racism, bigotry and government.  In each case, a group of people considers itself the ruling class and asserts the claim with physical force, or the threat thereof. 

Each person has is a choice to either wrangle with reason and ponder things out for himself, or to blindly obey those he believes more qualified than himself to conduct his affairs.

You are either your own master, or someone else's slave in this world.

There are no other options.

Don't beg for your rights, seize them.