Thursday, March 30, 2006

Immigration and the War on [Some] Drugs

It would be hard to imagine how the government could create a more flammable social crisis. America's Statue of Liberty holds our country out as a place that welcomes the poor and invites the homeless to come through the golden door and breathe free of oppressive governments and poverty. When they get here, they are told that they cannot get a job unless they are able to produce more than the "minimum wage," combined with all the other expenses withheld from employers by the federal government. And of course, before they can get a job, they must (in theory) be legal, which means having the proper response when the federal authorities say to the immigrants, in that great, time-honored, noble American way, "You're papers, please."

In short, immigrants looking for work are denied work.

Then the federal government makes the manufacture and sales of drugs illegal, turning everything over to organized criminal syndicates, jacking up the profits, and enticing the unemployed to find lucrative employment in organized crime.

Much of the problem associated with illegal immigrants is in fact caused by the government's War on [some] Drugs.

Let's remember how unconstitutional the War on [some] Drugs is.

Nearly 100 years ago, the Religious Right of the day concluded that Alcohol was the problem, and that our borders should be closed to alcohol. Back then the Constitution was respected more than it is today, so proponents of alcohol prohibition graciously admitted that "We the People" had not delegated any power to the federal government to criminalize alcohol. Prohibitionists sought therefore to amend the U.S. Constitution, something that had only been done 17 times in the previous 130 years.

They got their amendment, and they also got increased deaths from "bathtub gin," and created organized crime, because non-criminal elements were prohibited from meeting the nation's demand for alcohol. Organized crime and bootleg liquor turned out to be a cure worse than the disease, and so the Constitution was amended once again, this time to repeal the previous amendment.

The Constitution did not give the federal government authority to regulate alcohol, nor does it give the federal government power to regulate marijuana or other drugs. The power wasn't there in the early 20th century, and it isn't there now, because nobody even bothered to try to
amend the Constitution in order to conduct the War on [some] Drugs. Prohibiting the sale of drugs is as unconstitutional as prohibiting the sale of alcohol. And it's just as bad for society.

And the illegal aliens who were invited by the Statue of Liberty to enter, have been blocked from working at above-ground jobs, and have found their way into the criminal underground.

1 comment:

David Schantz said...

Several years ago I read a book (I wish I could remember the name of it) that was co-authored by a former mafia hit man that was in the witness protection program. He claims that the people that work the hardest to prevent drugs from being legalized are lobbyist that were hired by the mafia. If this is true we're a little off when we call it the governments War on Drugs. Well maybe not.

God Bless America, God Save The Republic.