A Tale of Two Drugs

Jan 27, 2011   //   by Nicholas HootoncloseAuthor: Nicholas Hooton Name: Nicholas Hooton
Site: http://nicholashooton.com
About: Nicholas Hooton is an editor and strategist for Utah Liberty Alliance.See Authors Posts (85)   //   Commentary  //  1 Comment   //   318 words   //   Permalink   //     //   Tweet

I was not surprised to read today that the statewide ban on “spice” (synthetic cannabis) had no problem passing the Utah House.

“This sends a clear message to the citizens of this state that we are protecting their health,” Rep. Gage Froerer said of the legislation.

Aww, isn’t that sweet? They’re looking out for our health.

But wait, what’s this? On the same day, I read that the House is thinking of doing away with alcohol license quotas “to encourage business growth and economic development.”

Translation: there’s no money in spice and no one in the legislature gives a damn about your health.

A team of researchers recently created a classification of drugs to determine which are the most dangerous, not just on the individual level, but to society as well. Does it come as any surprise that alcohol easily takes the #1 slot, or that tobacco ranked higher than marijuana?

Dangerous Drugs (click for larger version)

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it here: if you ever want to make a legislator speechless, ask them why they want to ban spice, and when they say anything about health or safety, ask them if they’re planning to ban alcohol. Their resulting silence will prove that the spice ban is the result of an absence of a powerful spice industry manipulating government. Alcohol provides tax revenue, plain and simple. Spice does not. That’s it. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.

1 Comment

• 
  N. Hooton January 27, 2011 at 6:52 pm

  Related:

  “In state prisons, 21 percent of inmates in prison for violent crimes were under the influence of alcohol–and no other substance–when they committed their crime; in contrast, at the time of their crimes, only three percent of violent offenders were under the influence of cocaine or crack alone, only one percent under the influence of heroin alone.”

  [Source]

  Reply