During the 1980s, talk show host Gene Burns was on WRKO in Boston. Now he is on KGO in San Francisco, and I’m glad the station provides podcasts of his show. When he was in Boston, Gene gave a possible solution to overcrowded prisons, and for people who had a problem with the death penalty. He suggested that perhaps convicted murderers and other people proven to be dangerous to society should be “exiled” out of the country, and shipped to an island way out to sea. “The Gene Burns Island,” as some callers would name it.
We can transport people convicted of murder, as well as those convicted of other heinous crimes that don’t even cause someone’s death but in which the individual has shown oneself to be a danger to others, to an island way out of contact with any mainlands. They can make do with whatever natural resources the island offers, they can do whatever they want there, whatever they want with each other, or to each other. They can make a new society and be civilized or be barbarians and hurt or kill one another. They can eat each other, I don’t care. And if people don’t like the idea of being shipped off to that island, then it really is their decision whether or not to commit crimes against others’ persons or property. This will also include people who choose to drink or take other drugs and drive or do other things that require full attention, and be responsible for all consequences for their decisions. If you don’t want to take the risk of drunk driving causing someone else’s death or injury, in which case you’ll be sent to the Gene Burns Island, then don’t take that risk, don’t drink and drive. This might be a good compromise for people who oppose a state-imposed, state-perpetrated death penalty, and people who are fed up with such high taxation to cover the costs of prisons. It would definitely apply to those kids in New Hampshire who allegedly slashed a lady to death in her home this year.
The island would require no guards, no administrators, etc. We could use Google satellite photo technology to make sure the “inmates” don’t make a homemade bomb or ICBMs, or make a boat of some kind to escape. A plane would be dispatched to thwart any attempts of those actions.
This one's good enough.
Another positive step towards reducing prison populations and reducing the rate of violent crime is ending the “War on Drugs,” and requiring people to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Ending the drug war would end the “black market” in drugs, dramatically reduce the prices of drugs, take away incentives for pushers to push the drugs to get people hooked that results in many people robbing others to get high amounts of cash to pay for the espensive drugs that are expensive because of the “War on Drugs.” It is exactly the same situation as “Prohibition” in the 1920s. Ending the “War on Drugs” will also end a lot of the corruption in politics, local police and federal agencies. It will greatly reduce the incentives that Mexican and South American “drug lords” and drug producers have to be in the business they’re in, which will reduce the constant threats against Americans especially in the border states, and may even affect the drug trade in Afghanistan that the US government propped up with its intrusions there.
I do have a comment on efforts to legalize marijuana specifically. It seems to me that pro-legalizers’ use of the “medical marijuana” issue to legalize that cancerous and immunosuppressant substance is for disingenuous reasons. Many advocates just want it legal so they can use that stuff without fear of being arrested. I suspect that some people want it legal for medical reasons because “marijuana usage is cool.” No drugs should be made illegal by the state. If you want to inhale burning, cancerous garbage into your lungs and destroy important brain functioning and your immune system and cause other physical problems, that’s your choice. Any doctor who prescribes something that dangerous to someone who is already ill is a bad doctor. (I won’t say that he or she should have the medical license withdrawn because I oppose state-issued licensure. My doctor is just as incompetent with or without a medical license.)
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One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under prosecution of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as lives are flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. When Eve ate the apple, she knew a good apple, and an evil prohibition. Canadian Marc Emery is being extradited to prison for selling seeds that American farmers use to reduce U. S. demand for Mexican pot.
Only on the authority of a clause about interstate commerce does the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnate Al Capone, endanger homeland security, and throw good money after bad. Administration fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment.
Nixon passed the CSA on the false assurance that the Schafer Commission would later justify criminalizing his enemies. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period. Drug juries exclude bleeding hearts.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. John Doe’s free exercise of religious liberty may include entheogen sacraments to mediate communion with his maker.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law must hold that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.