CRAIGforCONGRESS
Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

 

 

 

Bringing LIBERTY to Capitol Hill -- 2008
OZARKS VIRTUAL TOWN HALL
Saturday Morning, March 1, 2008, 10:30am

A Discussion of The President's Saturday Morning Radio Address

Click here to listen to a replay of the March 1, 2008 Ozarks Virtual Town Hall

Notes and Summary of the President's Address -- "The War on Drugs"

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today, my Administration is releasing our 2008 National Drug Control Strategy. This report lays out the methods we are using to combat drug abuse in America. And it highlights the hopeful progress we're making in the fight against addiction.

How the President Differs from the American vision of "Liberty Under God":

  1. The President forgets the doctrine of "Enumerated Powers": that the only powers possessed by the federal government are those enumerated in the Constitution. "We the People" did not delegate powers to conduct a "war on drugs" to the federal government.
    1. Imagine: federal agents raiding the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson, who grew a now-illegal substance called "hemp." This is not what the Framers of the Constitution intended
    2. Compare: the war on alcohol: "prohibition"
      1. required a Constitutional Amendment
      2. No such amendment was made to conduct a war on drugs
      3. If such an amendment had been made, it should be repealed, just like the 18th Amendment was repealed, and for the same reasons.
  2. The President forgets that we must first be a nation "Under God."
    1. His last paragraph hints at the idea.
    2. The idea would be much more powerful if the government publicly abandoned the "war on drugs" -- it would elevate intoxication from a mere "crime" (malum prohibitum) to a "sin" (malum in se). It would say that intoxication is not just a sin against the government, but a sin against God.
      1. "Dozer makes it. It's good for two things, degreasing engines and killing brain cells." (The Matrix)

President Bush's
Saturday Morning Radio Address

Another Perspective:
"Liberty Under God"
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today, my Administration is releasing our 2008 National Drug Control Strategy. This report lays out the methods we are using to combat drug abuse in America. And it highlights the hopeful progress we're making in the fight against addiction. Bush violates his oath of office by doing this. He is not following the Constitution, nor the best insights of America's Founding Fathers.
 When I took office in 2001, our country was facing a troubling rate of drug abuse, particularly among young people. Throughout America, young men and women saw their dreams disrupted by the destructive cycle of addiction. So I committed our Nation to an ambitious goal: In 2002, we began efforts to cut drug use among young people by 25 percent over five years. The Constitution does not give the federal government responsibility over drug abuse. The federal government is not the best institution in our society to cure drug addiction. Not all drug use is abuse.

When All Drugs Were Legal....There Wasn't a Drugs Problem
 Our strategy has three key elements. First, we are working to disrupt the supply of drugs by strengthening law enforcement and partnering with other countries to keep drugs out of the United States. Second, we're working to reduce the demand for drugs through prevention and education programs. And third, we're providing treatment options for those who've fallen prey to addiction. Addicts are afraid to seek help openly for fear of being sent to prison for 20 years. Government is the biggest obstacle to treatment. Treatment options are usually reserved for the children of politicians.
 These efforts have produced measurable results. Since 2001, the rate of youth drug abuse has dropped by 24 percent. Young people's use of marijuana is down by 25 percent. Their use of Ecstasy has dropped by more than 50 percent. And their use of methamphetamine has declined by 64 percent. Overall, an estimated 860,000 fewer young people in America are using drugs today than when we began these efforts. Abortion is also down. Many crimes are down. Correlating these trends with government action, rather than broader cultural and social changes would be nearly impossible.
 Our drug control strategy will continue all three elements of this successful approach. It will also target a growing problem -- the abuse of prescription drugs by youth. Unfortunately, many young Americans do not understand how dangerous abusing medication can be. And in recent years, the number of Americans who have died from prescription drug overdoses has increased. The Government-operated education monopoly prohibits the teaching of ideas that kept America from becoming "pot-head" and "dopers" in past generations. School children who are taught that human beings are no different than cockroaches are more likely to escape the frustrations of life with drugs than are those who are confident and self-assured, knowing that our rights are the product of loving and intelligent design, and that there is great hope for the future. These are the "self-evident truths" of the Declaration of Independence.
 One of the factors behind this trend is the growing availability of highly addictive prescription drugs online. The Internet has brought about tremendous benefits for those who cannot easily get to a pharmacy in person. However, it has also created an opportunity for unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists to profit from addiction. Government licensing of doctors short-circuits the more effective monitoring systems of the Free Market. Licensing protects unscrupulous doctors from competition.
 One victim of such a doctor was Ryan Haight. The young man from California was only 18 when he overdosed on pain killers that were illegally prescribed over the Internet. With only a few clicks of the mouse, Ryan was able to get a prescription from a doctor he had never met and have the pills sent to his front door. The doctor who wrote Ryan's prescription had previously served time in prison for illegally dispensing controlled substances. This is a problem of the government's creation. Government requires prescriptions, and determines who can write them. Ryan lacked parental oversight because both of his parents had to work in order to pay the government's taxes to fund the "war on drugs."
 We need to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. So I'm asking Congress to work with my Administration to put an end to the illegal sale of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet. By working together to meet this goal, we can ensure a safer future for our children. Less government will bring a better future for our children. Children were safer a century ago when government was smaller and there was no "war on drugs."
 Government action is only one part of the solution to the problem of drug abuse. Others in our society have an important role to play as well. People in the entertainment and sports industries serve as role models to millions of young Americans, and that comes with the responsibility to dispel the notion that drug abuse is glamorous and free of consequences. Teachers, pastors, and parents also have an obligation to help young people develop the character and self-respect to resist drugs. The Federal Government will continue to do its part to keep our young people safe, and I urge all Americans to do the same. Our children deserve nothing less. Government is not a part of the solution. It should not be involved in this area. The role of parents, teachers, and pastors is the definition solution, as America's Founding Fathers would agree. They strongly believed that "Religion and morality are necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind" The federal government makes it illegal for teaches to do the very thing the Framers of the Constitution prescribed to give children "character and self-respect."
 Thank you for listening.  

Additional Resources:

White House Denials:

    PDF Link 2008 National Drug Control Policy (PDF, 6.73MB, 79 pages)

Kevin Craig's platform:

Communicating with Government and Media

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John Adams once wrote that the American Revolution began in 1761, when Massachusetts attorney James Otis began legal challenges to the Writs of Assistance. He lost the case, but "American independence," Adams wrote, "was then and there born." Now do the math. That means it took 15 years to convince the rest of America to declare Independence (1776). Then another seven years of war was required before a Peace Treaty was signed (1783), and then six years before the Constitution was finally ratified (1789). That's almost 30 years. (And Jefferson said we shouldn't go 20 years without another rebellion!) How can we hope to convince Americans to fight for principles they were never taught in government schools? We need to be in this battle for the long term. "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty."

The Democrat Party Radio Address:

This week, Indiana Congressman Joe Donnelly delivered the Democratic Radio Address, describing efforts to achieve "energy independence and energy security."

Democrats want government to take your money and "invest" it in trendy but unprofitable energy alternatives, like wind, solar, ethanol, etc. If these were genuinely profitable energy sources ("profitable" means efficient, not wasteful), the Free Market would move into these energy sources.

Libertarian Resources:

Click here for a replay of this edition of the Ozarks Virtual Town Hall