Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has made good on his promise to begin his effort to “decriminalize all drug use” step by step with the introduction of several bills at the start of the new legislative session.
Senate Bill 57 creates “safe injection sites” where drug addicts can use illicit drugs under medical supervision. Senate Bill 73 lowers the criminal penalties on users and dealers of heroin, opiates or opium derivatives, salts, cannabis, phencyclidine (PCP), and other dangerous drugs.
Still promised, but not yet introduced, is a bill Wiener says will legalize all psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms.
Wiener insists America’s war on drugs has not only failed to eliminate illegal drug use and addiction, but drug criminalization is racist because drug laws disproportionately harm “black and brown communities” by increasing their incarceration rates.
But for others, who admit the country’s efforts to curb the use of harmful drugs via law enforcement hasn’t solved the problem, legalizing deadly drugs defies logic. This is especially baffling in California, where state legislators pride themselves on banning products and services that are much less dangerous.
Wiener says SB 73 will end mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for many drug offenses, but he only talks about the users and addicts who will not be required to go to jail for possession.
Yet the text also removes minimum sentencing for “possessing for sale,” “forging or altering prescriptions,” and “agreeing to sell or transport” hard drugs.
Full story at California Press.
My wife and I made the decision last year to leave California because of the government’s mismanagement of the state. We don’t yet have a date, but we’re actively investigating different places to go. News articles such as these make us think it’s better to leave sooner than later.
There are times when I think I left California prematurely but this news (expected sooner or later by the way) confirms I did the right thing. I do miss the weather, however. It’s blazing hot in the summer in Arizona but for now, it’s a bit more civilized. I wonder how soon real estate prices in CA will begin to plummet.
I am a different “Anon.” I, too, would love to leave California! Good for you!
Steve-A lot of us are thinking the same way.I have been a resident for 67yrs.and am just about ready to move on.
Steve and John– I once talked to an older, retired married couple, who decided to move to Denton, Nebraska, and help out at the FSSP seminary there. The man ended up getting a job at the seminary, and they were very happy! Also, there are many nice places in Texas and the South, trying to strongly preserve Christianity, and Pro-Life, Pro-Family values. Maybe living near EWTN in Alabama, would be a good idea. There are also lots of devoted Christian Pro-Life, Pro-Family Republicans, in the state of Texas, who are thinking of ways that Texas might be a little more independent– but not leaving the Union– to preserve their good Christian beliefs and values, including Pro-Life and Pro-Family values.
Anon,
Thank you for suggesting the South, especially Texas.
Texas is a great state! Lots of good jobs, and a lower cost of living, too. There are some radical Democrat liberals. especially in East Texas, and in the Austin area— and in parts of the big cities, and always, in and around universities, sadly. However, there are also many devout Catholic and Protestant Christians, with strong Pro-Life and Pro-Family values! There is a large ethnic mix, too– Anglos, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, Jews, Muslims, etc.– just like California. 40 Days for Life is based in College Station,Texas. Abby Johnson lives and works in Pro-Life activism, in Texas, too– her famous “Unplanned” true life story occurred in Bryan, Texas. And there are some strong, traditional Catholic churches, monasteries, convents, and schools– the University of Dallas, a Catholic school, has a good reputation of upholding our Faith and Morals. Bishop Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, is a very dedicated, excellent, orthodox Catholic bishop, too. Plus, there some FSSP and similar churches, if you like the old Latin Mass. No place in today’s world is perfect, there are problems everywhere. But Texas and the South may have some good things to offer.
It’s racist to say that a law regulating chemicals is racist. We’ve also lost the War on Poverty, which began about the same time as the War on Drugs, about half a century ago. Should we give up on the War on Poverty and just accept that many live in poverty? I don’t think so. We may need to change strategies and tactics, in both wars, to find successes where we’ve previously failed.
Mark my words, Democrat governance is social suicide. Get ready for drug use and associated crimes to skyrocket in California; oh, but they won’t be crimes. You’ll still suffer the consequences of criminal behavior, but you won’t be able to call the police to help you because it will be legal to steal from you and assault you. It would be racist to expect people to treat you with respect and to respect your property, you see. I’m getting ready to leave California. Have to find a solidly red state where Democrats haven’t already infected the place and probably won’t for the rest of my life.
The Church is falling apart. America is falling apart. What is there for people of faith to cling to?
Just today I watched an informative news segment about the homeless and crime problems. They detailed and showed how it is not a housing problem, but rather totally a drug problem.
I have come to a conclusion that liberalism is a mental illness.
That is what I have always thought, Anonymous! Liberal radicals are all mentally sick. Lost their brains, and lost their good, common sense! And refuse to grow up and face responsibility and reality, on everything in life.
Don’t do it.
Americans are not very smart about the extreme dangers of drugs, especially for the young and vulnerable. They will simply all end up dead. That’s all. No future. More and more crime, violence, broken homes, more hideous accidents and car wrecks, more job loss, homelessness, mental illness, and poverty, more evil and filth in a society all gone terribly wrong! And lots more kids rushed to the hospital ERs, ending up dead, finally– due to dope! How about the poor “drug babies,” born very ill, deformed, and dope-addicted?? With mommies too sick, dope-addicted, and irresponsible, to care for them?? Anyone care about that?? Many of them are Black, or other races. China had a severe dope (opium) problem from the 7th century all the way up to the 1950s, when the Chinese Communists claimed that they finally conquered it! They used nasty disciplinary tactics, to get rid of their dope problems! Sorry– that’s what it takes! The leftist hippies hated cancer-causing cigarettes for some reason, and succeeded in nearly getting rid of that in society– great! Tobacco is a vice, and a cancerous evil. Now, California leftist hippie lawmakers– get going on a project to eradicate dope, you immature fools!
This is the same creep who likes to dress up in leather, with a leash and collar is it not ?
Believe it is. His constituency includes the Castro.
Yes– he is very gay, and leads the “gay lifestyle.”
Well…it’s a logical outcome of an ideology that has no consideration for kids because the adherents of it have either sterilized themselves or live in sterile relationships…
There is a pervasive hatred of humanity that comes from progressives.
So let’s just not have jails anymore. Or courts. Or police. Or laws. Or government.
There are prison abolitionists.
I am old enough to remember what life was like in California and the USA before the “drug culture” became entrenched. Remember how drug use was going to make life better and help people to be happy and free? The exact opposite has happened. Look at our country and society! By all standards our lives have gotten worse not better. Other countries (China and Mexico) are flooding our country with illicit drugs, making money off of our stupidity and laughing about our demise. Legalizing more drugs is just a bad idea!
RRW,
Regretfully, your right. The left has had a suicidal complex which is now observable in sharp relief.
Amazingly it took only 12 years for the fed to see what a catastrophe Alcohol Prohibition was. 50 years on, with the cure worse than the disease, we persist in our retarded War on Drug Addicts.
Hymie,
You can’t equate alcohol with LSD. Once has relatively minor effects and is deeply rooted in Western civilization, for better or for worse. The other radically affects the mind and is a new-comer to civilization.
Is there any substance that you think the government should control?
But I can equate the bad results of Alcohol Prohibition and Drug Prohibition, indeed the latter exceeds the former.
Hymie, Americans of today need to think deeper and very responsibly, as mature adults, about the terrible scourge of dope. God never meant for kids to ingest horrible chemicals that mutilate, destroy and kill. Getting deliberately drunk, and taking dope not for medicinal purposes, is highly dangerous, destructive to mind and body– and is a sin! Kids need to grow up, learn respomsibility, learn how to responsibly deal with life, accept responsible limits, engage in healthy forms of recreation and relaxation, and make a good life, with lots of maturity. Plus– you must not marry an addict, and bear children with one– a horror beyond belief– babies born dope-addicted, are a terrible, terrible tragedy. Dope addicts need to be mandated by law, to be removed from our streets and family homes, and made to stay in treatment centers– for their own good, and the good of society. Dope addiction is the reason behind most homelessness, and lots of crimes committed. Dope addicts lose their morals, commit crimes, and many also sell evil dope to others, getting them cruelly addicted for money– and end up in prison. Lots of children today, have a filthy, dangerous, criminal daddy or mommy– in prison. Horrific. About one out of every three Americans today, have criminal records– we now have a very broken, lawless, violent, immoral, immature, irresponsible society. America needs to grow up, get tough on irresponsibility, sin and crime, and do better.
Alcohol is a chemical that requires control in a society. When someone gets drunk (abuse of alcohol) they experience alcohol poisoning, which adversely affects their brain and body– and can also kill you. According to the NIH, alcohol-caused deaths are the third leading preventable cause of deaths in the U.S. The Number One cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. is tobacco, and Number Two is poor diet and physical inactivity. In 1968, there were over 5,000 deaths due to drugs, in the U.S.– but nearly 20 years later, in 2017, that figure rose to over 70,000 deaths due to drugs in our country. Looks like the NIH had better get tough, and get going with good, effective programs, to improve Americans’ health– and put an end to drug use, as well as alcohol abuse, tobacco, poor diet, and unhealthy lifestyles, in this country.
So, The War on Grub? Dessert Storm? Abolish the NIH and strike a blow for Freedom.
Gentlemen,
If the goal is to do more harm than good, we’re doing it.