Language

Burden of proof

Submitted February 9, 2005 - 8:48 pm by Bill Conroy
What happens now? All those questions you raise are now relevant under prohibition.

Lock 'em up and throw away the key, or let them rot in their own desparation on the streets. Is that the answer? Why should the burden of proof be on those who favor ending prohibition?

Why don't the prohibitionists have the burden of proof in defending the mess that's been created under their rules?

By the way, how do we handle the issues you raise in the case of legalized, mass-marketed drugs, such as alcohol, tobacco, coffee and presciption pills?

Should we prohibit all those products as well with the mistaken notion that will somehow make things better? Should we go back to circa 1920s and the days of Al Capone, and politicians on the bootleggers' payrolls, and Valentine's Day massacres ... wait, isn't that kind of where we are already at?

No, I don't agree that anyone has to prove ending prohibition is a utopia; we just have to show that it will be an improvement over maintaining prohibition. If it stems the AIDs crisis in some small way, then that is an improvement. If we hinder the further development of a massive prison-industrial complex, then that is an improvement. If we create better addiction-treatment services that allow people to come forward for help without fear of reprisal, then that is an improvement, and on and on....

As I see it, all the problems you suggest must be solved in the wake of ending prohibition are with us now, and need addressing, even if prohibition continues ....

You can continue to consider yourself a pragmatist on this matter, but then you also have to accept the pragmatic reality that prohibition didn't work in the 1920s, and there is little evidence that it is working today, a century later.

Sometimes, pragmatism takes a while to sink in.

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