Former GOP state house Rep. Toby Nixon (he was from Kirkland and the 45th legislative district) gets today’s “Comment of the Day” for outlining the costs of the drug war.
Hit it Toby:
2. Toby Nixon says:
You can’t stop the calculation at just the savings on incarceration. Consider the young people who are blocked from getting student loans because of drug possession convictions, who spend the rest of their lives in jobs below their level of capability and productivity; who can’t get housing, who end up on public assistance, etc., because they used a drug that is far less dangerous (from a medical standpoint) than alcohol. Consider all the money spent on drug law enforcement other than incarceration. Think of all the collateral damage from drug prohibition — the turf wars among drug dealers, gangs, and organizations. Think of the intrusion on our personal liberties — limitations on cash transfers, no-knock warrants, having to provide photo ID to get cold medicine, aircraft surveillance for heat signatures, etc. Think of the impact of ridiculous civil asset forfeiture laws on innocent property owners. Think of the waste of natural resources and the environmental impacts because we’re restricted from using hemp for all of its various uses and forced to use trees or other less appropriate alternatives. Think of the environmental impacts and danger to visitors because marijuana ends up being cultivated on public land instead of on private farmland. Think of the danger to our families because drugs are being manufacturered in private homes instead of industrial areas. I could go on and on.
The cost to society of drug prohibition is far more than just the cost of incarceration, and many of these costs do impact on government budgets, directly or indirectly.
11/30/2009 at 3:36 pm
Nixon, who works at Microsoft, lost his seat—now held by Democrat (and drug law reform advocate) Roger Goodman, when he ran for the state senate in 2006. Democrat Eric Oemig beat Nixon in that race and is currently the state senator from the 45th
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If only politicians (and police chiefs) would not wait until they’ve left office to publicly admit the obvious…
@1,
Score another comment of the day to T. Chen.
I wish he’d been as realistic and non-ideological about other issues when he was in office. But this is certainly welcome.
I probably shouldn’t reply to a thread complimenting me by defending myself, but T. Chen’s email calls out for a response.
I never concealed my position on drug prohibition while in the legislature, and in fact sponsored more bills regarding the subject than has my professional anti-drug-prohibition successor. See, for example, HB 3171, HJM 4033, and HJM 4037 from my last term.
But then again, I didn’t have a Speaker of the House threatening to defund my campaign if I ran such bills.
The issue, sarah68, is that I am consistent in wanting smaller government and less intrusion in all aspects of our lives, not picking and choosing where I want government to interfere and impose the majority’s preferences and where I do not. Conservatives are all too happy to have government try to control our personal lives, and liberals too anxious to have government control how we spend our money and run our businesses; I want neither.
I suppose it can be considered unrealistic and idealogical to want to actually preserve (or restore at this point in history) the individual liberty that our Founding Fathers fought so hard to establish and protect, but we’re all allowed to dream, aren’t we?
But, Mr. Nixon, apparently you didn’t feel it excessively “governmental” to have municipalities slamming down hard on encampments of homeless people, who were hurting no one. It seems that you DID pick and choose.
It’s off topic, but my position on tent cities is plain, Sarah: homeless encampments should not be hosted on public property, and hosts of encampments should be required to internalize the externalities.
There are many things we as a society can do to help the temporarily homeless get back on their feet, including relaxing regulations that make housing so expensive, reforming the way shelters are operated, making it easier to obtain the basic things needed to find and hold a job such as valid identification, and providing help in the way of counseling and medications. Tent cities as practiced in King County are not the way to do it; they’re not about “solving” homelessness or helping people get back on their feet, but about making a political statement and enabling the choice of tent-dwelling as a permanent lifestyle.
Meanwhile, Roger Goodman the longtime advocate of drug law reform. What’s he up to these days? Why aren’t we hearing more from him on this?
Never mind comment of the day, try comment of the year. It takes real guts to propose changing our drug laws, even though it is a rather logical, sensible position. Kudos to you, Mr. Nixon. I hope you will continue your work in this area, perhaps teaming up with like minded folks, like travel writer Rick Steves, who has been very active in this area. I believe this issue is finally starting to get the attention it deserves (after years of inaction and stupid stereotyping).
It is of a comman goal of people to find a way to undo things like the War and the drug proglems we face as a Nation, but it would seem that to many people would just complain and have not one thing to write to build on …so here is my little input.,
I wish to be allowed to share this concept with you,the people United States Of America.
From the date of September 11, 2001 I have watched this Nation slowly die and this war has taken on a thought, a concept, that makes me feel unsafe.
I asked the big what if and why, and this is it, ” Why do the people of the United States Of America grow weaker because of a dollar and the Arabic Drug Empire grows stronger to the point that now another 40,000 men and women of the United States Military is leaving for the war, why was there a hands off policy, that will not allow the destruction of these poppy fields ?”
The people we are at war with seek the death of every last man, woman and child in the world in order so that their chosen few can re-populate the world.
These people such as this looked for bio- war fare within the shipment of their drugs to full fill the laws of their god.
This is so hard for my mind to understand that, why ? comes to me all the time.
Join Us in the International Boycott Of The Arabic Drug Empire
Henry Massingale
FASC CONCEPTS
for main page click on this link below
http://www.fascmovement.mysite.com or look for page1 american dream on google.com