Highlights

-U.S. Supreme Court ruled Dec 15th_03 that proximity is probable cause in drug cases.

-This frees police to arrest anyone found near drugs even if they are not in possession of drugs.

-The vote was unanimously in opposition to civil liberties and in support of police tactics.

-This decision stems from a case out of 1999 in Baltimore, when a car containing three occupants was pulled over by a county Police Officer; the car contained money and crack cocaine. All three occupants denied owning the money or the crack; as a result all three were arrested. Basically a policy of arresting everyone until someone confesses.

-the Court’s decision “means that, in such cases involving drugs, officers may now err on the side of arresting the innocent without violating the Constitution.”

Originally posted by witchlinblue
Basically a policy of arresting everyone until someone confesses.

-the Court’s decision “means that, in such cases involving drugs, officers may now err on the side of arresting the innocent without violating the Constitution.”

THIS is why I am against the drug war. Because it hurts way too many innocent people. This is why I think we should still legalize it.
However, after learning how many of you pointed out how dangerous that could be for addicts, I just came up with a pretty good idea of how to legalize yet not endanger addicts.

The solution is to have a national "do not call list". That is every single addict who feels they have a problem they canot control and risk dying from it were it to be legalized should have their name on this list as MANDATORY.

Thereby, any and all dealers who do not check ID or are simply careless, reckless and disregards who is on the list whould be penalized for attempted murder, because they are contributing to possible overdose, and selling to a known addict, which is attempted murder anyway.

That should take care of it. That way NO addict will come in danger.

Also the second option is to have it regulated such as gun laws. That is, you don't need a Dr. prescription to get it, but you at least have to show you have no prior record of being an addict, nor have any potential, before you can get a permit to purchase.

One of these is a good idea. Which one do you like better?
I feel very strongly something needs to stop the gross injustice created by prohibition, yet have learned the concern about not putting addicts at danger, and this idea would take care of it, don't you think? What do you think?

Im just wondering about the cost of upkeeping something like this, and also not all addicts are in the system at all so they cant be tracked. And if it is legalized then fewer and fewer addicts will then be documented somewhere which leaves big holes in the checking ID theory. The other thing is that if you are buy drugs then you have a problem or at least if you are buying hard drugs for your own use and wouldnt it still be attempted murder then according to what you say, because whether the addict thinks he has a problem or not he is still buying a drug that can kill him/her. But like a gun store, the seller is not responsible for a gun bought legally that ends up killing someone. Some people die the very first time they use a hard drug, I saw it happen with my own eyes.
As far as the second theory, I believe that everyone has a potential to be an addict if they were taking the 'right' drug on a regular basis, and even not on a regular basis. Most of the hard drugs make changes in the brain and/or body that are partly responsible for the addiction, so if you do crack for example, you are an addict pretty darn fast whether you think you are or not, whether you on do it Saturday nights, you are still a crack addict. Im not sure about your ideas but its great you are brain storming over it, and I suggest you keep thinking about some ideas because you just may come up with the perfect one.

I definitely don't agree with arresting everyone in the vicinity that drugs are found. Let's just build more and more prisons and have tax payers pay for it. Not my idea of a good thing.
Like Witchlin said, drugs are a whole different thing. Meaning, most people (I didn't say all) can drink alcohol and not have a problem with it. Most can go out on a weekend night and have a good time without it becoming a problem. MOST.
When you are talking about heroin and crack and all the other hard core drugs out there, that is not the case. Most addicts thought the same thing when they first started using....that they could do it "socially" and be ok. That is definitely not the case. So, if we legalize it, we are basically saying that drugs are ok, and they won't kill you. That is not the case either.
Margare, I give you credit girl. You have really thought about this, and honestly, I hear where you're coming from. I can see that you are against addicts going to prison and you are trying to come up with a way to stop that from happening. I applaud your efforts. You are coming up with ideas that I am not.
I just wish I could agree with them, I really do! It would make life so much better if we would stop locking up addicts. I just don't think that putting the drugs in front of them legally is the answer. Just my opinion of course, as usual. :)

Okay, but consider it this way. People say addiction is a disease...blah, blah, blah...but its not really if you think about it. Parkinsons is a disease, Diabetes is a disease. Doing drugs in the first place or doing ENOUGH drugs to get addicted to them, thats a CHIOCE. That you MAKE. People need to learn to take responsibility for themselves. If your life is out of control, you let it get that way. Now, I'm not knocking people who use drugs at all...I've been there, done it all...but I always kept it in moderation. And I'm responsible enough to say when I've hit a point in my life that those days are over. I smoked crack for 6 months, did dope for 2 years. But I'm sobbing somewhere about how life did me wrong. I realized I wasn't doing anything productive & stopped. Look at Amsterdam, drugs are legal there and there violent crime rate is something like 0.06%, last I read ours is 14%. There your free to make descisions for yourself.... You can get herion on prescription. You want to be a junkie, thats your choice to make. You want to slowly kill yourself or hurt yourself, fine. Thats yoyr choice. But don't rob my house or kill me while your trying to mug me, to get it.

Right now my boyfriend has been upstate CT for 14 months. For a bogus drug charge. They were going to sentence him 10 years, suspended after 5!! Can you imagine. For extasy and acid. Not even really hard stuff. Luckily we found loophole because it was a non violent crime he only got 3....hopefully he'll be home march 7th. But do you know that the day we were getting sentenced there was a kid there who held his college classroom up at GUNPOINT and shot at 2 students. He got sentence 3 years. So, this lunatic is less of a threat to society. I just LOVE the priorities we have in this country.

Legalize them? OMG, that would be disasterous!! What, they have to be of legal age to purchase then? Just like ciggarrettes? Let me say, I had NO idea then when I started smoking ciggs I "could" or "would" get addicted. NOR did I have a clue that when I used any other drug HARD or not that the same would happen. Absolutely it's a choice to "try" a drug......it's NOT a choice to be addicted. Addicts, when they first began, began on a "social" level....feels good let's do it again, and again, and again. Eventually, the consequences are then ADDICTION. By then IT'S TOO LATE!! Nobody knows who will be an addict and who can be a "social" user. Either one can DIE immediately or in the long run from using drugs!! When I met my husband he was by all means an addict, that at the time was just socially using. Eventually it progressed (as it did in the past) to an everyday thing. Eventually, the bright idea of "manufacturing" came to mind and that got COMPLETELY out of control. Want to know what I heard "This will benefit us, Stacy!" The papers stated that this "ring" had the potential of netting a million dollars! HA! Yeah right, if the people involved weren't addicts themselves and used more then they sold!! What I saw in profit was my car being reposessed, my house payment NOT getting paid, my electricity bill reaching $1000 b4 they finally shut me off, no diapers for my newborn, no food in the house, etc., etc. THOSE WERE MY BENEFITS!! I watched a beautiful man, loving, caring, respectful, wonderful father, change his WHOLE attitude and personality and THOUGHT process while using drugs. Unfortunately while using drugs one can NOT think like everyday people who are clean. Thus causing them to make decisions that can ruin the rest of their lives. Eventually, it becomes a lifestyle. So bad as to they "NEED" it the same as "normal" people NEED food and water!! This IS a disease!! And one that KILLS!! Legalizing it is ONLY going to kill more people!! Just my oppinion!!

Stacy