Thursday 21 July 2005

Prohibition finds new victims

The 'high profile sporting stars' and celebrities that were caught up in the latest drug hoohah and whom we dare not name just go to show that the main problem involved with drug use is not the harm of the drugs themselves but the criminalisation involved with their use.

Robert Downey Jr for example never caused his employers a problem with his drug use, except that that he kept getting arrested for buying drugs. As Judge James P. Gray said of Downey's 2001 conviction,
How is actor Robert Downey Jr.'s problem with drug abuse any different than Betty Ford's problem with alcohol abuse? Why is it appropriate to send Robert Downey Jr. to jail but send Betty Ford to treatment? Shouldn't drug users who cause harm to others raise different questions, and answers, than users such as Downey who do not harm anyone but themselves?
NZ's 'high profile sporting stars' and celebrities will probably now face similar problems to Downey and to poor old Simon Poelman. I was about to start a lengthy blog rant on all this when it came to my attention that James Gribble had already done the job. Highly recommended.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know why you support social metaphysicians. That is what these people are. They abound in my circles, and do this to maintain the facade of their 'high class' lifestyles in the eyes of others. They are pathetic and they disgust me. I support their prosecution. Maybe you have not had any family member affected by drugs and the maggots who feed off human weakness. I have.

Anonymous said...

"I thought Downey trashed his hotel room during one of his binges?"

That was Johny Depp long time ago. Now the guy has completely sobered up. A much more lovelier and grounded person, I must say.

Anonymous said...

Drugs will do you in. Badly.

There is some degree of scale concerning their effects, but marijuana, heroin, cocaine etc. will do you in.

Alcohol will do you in sure, but because of its lesser effects, it takes a more chronic application to do you in.

That is why certain drugs are outlawed. Because fo their proven harmful effects. As to your comment regarding Downey Jnr and the implications his drug use had on his job, you are wrong. He never turned up to work on time, he forgot his lines and he often fell asleep. That is what alerted his bosses and police in the first place.

That is what drugs do.

All the metaphysical and philosophical spin one puts against the law does nothing. The reality is that drugs will do you in.