tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7838969.post6247570564379275332..comments2023-10-05T01:28:59.704+11:00Comments on Kings Cross Times: More on the Don Weathurburn and Wayne Hall opinion pieceThe Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827285775130578187noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7838969.post-54994776802389381562010-10-05T17:22:48.003+11:002010-10-05T17:22:48.003+11:00You are correct, Dr Jane. Your characterisation of...You are correct, Dr Jane. Your characterisation of prohibitionists as avowing 'harm maximisation' explains their opposition to 'harm minimisation'.<br /><br />In fact Don Weatherburn once wrote a similar opinion piece in the SMH effectively arguing that we have to inflict harm to prevent harm. <br /><br />That oxymoron is a lot like robbing people to make them rich or killing people that they might live.The Editorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16827285775130578187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7838969.post-915074241116664962010-09-24T20:52:21.994+10:002010-09-24T20:52:21.994+10:00Weathurburn & Hall write; "It's a sad...Weathurburn & Hall write; "It's a sad fact that many dependent drug users only seek treatment when the personal and financial cost of continued drug use gets too high. The financial cost is attributable in large part to prohibition."<br /><br />So is Weatherburn's implication that if I never experience any negative consequences from my drug use, the state must use it's powers to inflict suffering on me, so that I will seek "treatment"?<br /><br />Let's call it "Harm Maximisation". <br /><br />"At DEA, our mission is to fight drug trafficking in order to make drug abuse the most expensive, unpleasant, risky, and disreputable form of recreation a person could have".<br />- Donnie Marshall, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)<br /><br />Hardly anyone remembers that between 1926 and 1933 the US Federal Govt deliberately poisoned industrial alcohol to "prevent" diversion. At least 10,000 drinkers died as a result;<br />http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/pagenum/all/#p2 <br /><br />Dr Jane.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com