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An inexcusable offense.
All the brouhaha over Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan lately has made me nauseous. I have a very unpopular stance when it comes to drug use - I think everything should be legalized and treated as alcohol and cigarettes are now. If America is a free country, we should be free to do to our own bodies whatever we want to.
This does NOT, however, mean that driving under the influence is permissable. Once you start that car, you've moved from the realm of self into the real world, where your actions can harm others. Willingly putting others in danger is selfish to the highest degree, and I don't understand why people tolerate it as much as they do.
You wanna talk consequences? Let's do it. First DUI with any substance - alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, anything - one month in prison minimum. Second offense gets you a full year. Third gets you 5 years. And after that? Life.
If we stop putting drug users in jail for possession, there'd be space for the real dangers to society. DUI offenders belong in there far more than some flake who gets high on weekends.
Plus, we could eliminate the death penalty and just give people life in prison, which would eliminate the pricey upkeep of death row and cover the costs of keeping people in regular jail for life. Oh, and if there's space? People who talk on cell phones while driving repeatedly deserve some time as well. Ahem.
I've stated this sort of attitude before, but it bears repeating - let adult individuals do whatever they want to themselves and those who give explicit consent. Once it puts others at risk against their will, however, the penalties need to be swift and hard. That's how you ensure maximum freedoms for everyone.
This does NOT, however, mean that driving under the influence is permissable. Once you start that car, you've moved from the realm of self into the real world, where your actions can harm others. Willingly putting others in danger is selfish to the highest degree, and I don't understand why people tolerate it as much as they do.
You wanna talk consequences? Let's do it. First DUI with any substance - alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, anything - one month in prison minimum. Second offense gets you a full year. Third gets you 5 years. And after that? Life.
If we stop putting drug users in jail for possession, there'd be space for the real dangers to society. DUI offenders belong in there far more than some flake who gets high on weekends.
Plus, we could eliminate the death penalty and just give people life in prison, which would eliminate the pricey upkeep of death row and cover the costs of keeping people in regular jail for life. Oh, and if there's space? People who talk on cell phones while driving repeatedly deserve some time as well. Ahem.
I've stated this sort of attitude before, but it bears repeating - let adult individuals do whatever they want to themselves and those who give explicit consent. Once it puts others at risk against their will, however, the penalties need to be swift and hard. That's how you ensure maximum freedoms for everyone.