This is unrelated to most of the discussion or maybe it isn't, but, I just pulled out a substantial amount of cash on my lunch break to pay a contractor. I won't be meeting him until this evening. This is the only time in my life that I can remember where I've thought I could use a gun, besides for sport. It makes sense to me why drug dealers and law breakers want them. You have to protect your stacks. During that drive from the bank back to work where I can get it locked away safely all I could think about was, "I'd probably fucking kill someone if they tried to take this from me". That's a scary thought to have. IDK
Now, imagine if you made so little and had so little that you felt that way about $100. Welcome to America's violent crime problem.
That's not correct. When I was a kid you could (and I did) buy cigarettes from vending machines. Stores had them at the counters, not locked away. And of course they were much much cheaper (even after accounting for inflation). barfo
So then the age restriction laws which were in place since 1939, at latest, didn't make a difference... Gotcha.
There should be no effort required to prevent yourself from restricting the rights of law abiding citizens... I'm not even sure how this tweet makes any sense...
That's right, laws don't make a difference! We should just eliminate laws and let the invisible hand of the market solve all of our problems. I don't actually understand what point you are trying to make. Obviously lots of things made a difference, including multiple laws. barfo
Well every state had age laws since 1939. Yet you're saying when you were a kid you could apparently buy cigarettes. My point is that people didn't stop smoking because of a law prohibiting it, they stopped smoking because they were educated on the risks and because of that education it became socially less acceptable to put others at risk. The point is prohibition isn't effective. Education and social solutions are far more effective and far less damaging to society.
Well, in the case of cigarettes, there were later laws passed that would have made it - had I somehow still been a kid - much harder for me to get cigarettes. I was brave enough to buy a pack from a vending machine when no one was around, but those don't exist anymore, due to laws. I wasn't brave enough to pay an adult to buy them for me as a pre-teen, or to steal them. The reasons why people smoke less today include the factors you mentioned, but they also include the higher prices, better addiction treatments, and the more limited availability to kids. Cigarettes have not been prohibited - at least not recently in this country - so we don't have data on whether that would be effective or not. barfo
Actually in the case of cigarettes what changed was that someone actually started enforcing the laws. Well known fact that if you can stop a kid from starting smoking before 18 the chances of him ever becoming a smoker is greatly reduced. Funny how that works. Back to reading the thread. I will bow out again.
Did prohibition on weed work? Did prohibition on alcohol work? Has prohibition on drugs worked? We have plenty of data showing that prohibition is more harmful than it is good. I'm not opposed to laws preventing targeting children or dangerous people in marketing. Or at least allowing companies to be sued for targeting kids or dangerous people. I'm fine with restrictions on dangerous business practices.
Education is the best way to do that. Much like the abortion debate. Marijuana, alcohol, drugs in general. Prohibition doesn't work. It's far more damaging than education and treatment.
