Opinions - An opinion on consensual crimes? Any comments?

[gardis]

a friend of mine wrote this to give as a speech in class and wanted too see what you guys thought. Please ignore all too when they should be to etc, it did not matter too him he was the only one reading it others just heard. and sorry about some of the more lame stuff like the rapid conclusion speech had limited time =/



Consensual Crimes

Can you imagine living in a place where it was against the law to sell or eat certain foods, or interact with certain people? Many people would claim that this place is living in the middle ages, and needs to fix its priorities. Of course I feel that place would need to change some of there laws and I feel the same way about some of the laws in this country. Consensual crimes according too Peter McWilliams are crimes which one chooses to participate in, that does not physically harm the person or property of another human being that has not given there consent. For example once someone asks you if you would like to play football with them and you say yes, you have given consent. So if you were to break your arm while playing you would not be able to hold the person who asked you to play, responsible. For Football this is a widely accepted concept, however for other activities it is not. Some examples of things you as an individual consent too where you may be punished or the person who asked you too participate may be punished for are: Prostitution, Drug use/trafficking, and Gambling. There are many reasons given why these activities are illegal but I do not believe any of them have a strong enough backing too make them illegal activities.
Most of these reasons given for making something illegal has to due more with the fact that the activity is illegal in the first place. Or in other words, if the activity where legal the problem would not exist. For example, many people widely accept that cocaine and heroin should be illegal because it breaks up families due too high costs of the drug. However this high cost is created mostly because of the risk involved in smuggling the drug into the country. It is debatable that if either of these drugs where regulated the average addicts would spend no more than a few dollars in order to support there habit. Another big reason people go along with the illegality of cocaine and heroin is that it is dangerous and that you can overdose on it. What is not factored in is the fact that most overdoses are caused by people not knowing what they are getting because it is not regulated. A great example of the failure of attempting too prohibit certain things is in fact what is going on now with most illegal drugs, however one we should learn from is the prohibition of alcohol. According too film producer Kevin Booth meth is very much like the modern day moonshine that was produced due too alcohol prohibition. As it can be made at home very easily and all you need to make it are things you can buy from a local store. During Alcohol prohibition people started producing moonshine, and gang violence related too alcohol smuggling and sales where on the rise. The rapid increase of alcohol poisoning and illegal activities motivated by the illegal status of alcohol caused the government to reverse the prohibition.
Often times when watching or reading the news, topics about people being killed by drugs will come up. While this can be technically true so can the statement that a murder didn’t kill those people his gun did. Now gun control is another issue but I think it addresses media negligence quite well. Whenever there is a drug related death people are quick to blame the drug, but rarely in the case of a suicide involving knifes do you see people revolting against knives. This occurs because the average person knows very little about the safe use of illegal drugs, while the average person knows exactly how to use a knife safely. Webster defines propaganda as: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Now in order for people to believe things such as prostitution is a crime there must be a way to make them believe it without showing much real proof. This is where real propaganda comes into play real propaganda will play at your emotional thoughts rather than your rational thoughts. For example when most people think of prostitutes they think of drugged out desperate women who will do anything for money. One of the easiest ways to identify propaganda is how they attach your children. It is very common for someone too attach children too prostitution or drug use as a scare tactic. No parent out there after seeing one of those pictures of meth use before and after would not fear for there child. Again according too award winning author Peter McWilliams true education says: Here are the possible rewards; here are the potential risks; here's how to maximize the rewards and minimize the risks; you make the choice. Now he insists that we are living in a world full of propaganda rather than teaching, a great example he gives is the commercial I am sure everyone here has seen. The egg commercial, This is your brain this is your brain on drugs and then the egg is boiled on a frying pan. Thinking of that commercial it neglects the entire principle of education. It is not informing us of the real dangers of drugs, it is just flat out saying drug use is bad do not do it. Back when I was in high school I used to be in cross country and track. Both of these sports I took to the extreme running 10 miles a day on average without worrying that I would ever get injured. Now too my surprise I ended up messing up something in my foot that I just ignored and it ultimately ended up with me pulling a more major muscle in my foot. After this I had a very hard time walking let alone running. So I soon quit, and looking back on it makes me wonder if something like running which is believed to be healthy yet it can cause great agony or even disability should be legal? Now this may seem ridiculous and of course I don’t think running should be illegal, but to me running is more physically dangerous than the illegal consensual activities I have talked about. In conclusion I hope many of you will never say something is wrong due too the fact that it is illegal after all in Normal, Illinois it is illegal to make faces at dogs and in Peoria, Illinois it is a illegal too have a basketball hoop installed on a driveway.