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Show National Enterprise , May 5, 1976 Page Eleven Government Spendthrifts Retail sales up, car sales up, construction activity up, GNP up, stock market up. . . Why amidst till the rosey economic announcements is business capital expansion still lagging behind? Interest rates arent bad at least easier to live with than they were a year ago this time. Yet businessmen are still wary to commit funds when theyre not sure recovery will falter before they use even existing capacity. And for what other reason do they invest but to tie down profits that are worth the effort and risk of undertaking the enterprise? Have you looked at the proposed budget for 1976? When businessmen contemplate how little profit is left after paying the tab for what all those government goodies are going to cost, not much incentive remains to expand. Fortune reports this month the nations top 500 companies saw profits plunge 13 percent in 1975; the One Answer: largest decline in 17 years. When government tightens its belt, private enterprise will have the incentive to spend. Listen Buster , what makes you think youre in business to make money for yourself? What would happen if the government started giving away free automobiles? SimpleDetroit would go out of business. Well then, what would happen if we started giving away free heroin? Wouldnt that put the drug pushers out of business? I have a feeling we are spending .a lot of money in this country trying to solve a problem that could "be better attacked with a different approach. To see what is wrong with our present approach one simply has to see how impossible the task is. How in the world do you search every suitcase, every car, every plane, every boat, etc. entering the country? The answer is that we cant afford to. From time to time the agents stumble upon a large shipment of narcotics, but by and large, most of it must get through. When they do intercept a large shipment nothing much happens. The person arrested can easily be replaced by another Narcotics person willing to take the big risk for 'a large payoff. is really aren't expensive to produce, so no real damage done to the big men at the top. So I have a plan. Its simple and I believe it would work. Let's take the rrofit out of drugs. Simple as that. Nothing could hurt the drug pusher more than to take the profit out of selling his product. I propose that we start a nation-w'id- e program of giving free narcotics to people who can prove that they are on drugs as they want already. We should give them a free shot as often it. In short, as much as they want as often as they want it. We should also give these people three meals a day and a place to sleep. I can just hear Americans asking why we should support the bums like this. The answer, of course, is that we already are. Paid any insurance lately? Crime is exploding and a lot of it is simply to support a drug habit. .Would it work? Put yourself in the position of the drug user. That wont be easy because its hard to imagine the craving how lethargic these they seem to have. Also, its hard to realize were on if people are after they have had a shot. However, you do is get off your bed drugs, the last thing" you would want to and go break in a home. Hard to believe, but true. I ve been on heroin raids with police. These are not energetic and leave the world people. They would love to take drugs alone. But we dont let them. We force them to steal your T.V. no-kno- ck in order to pay for. their habit. Lets change all that. Lets tell the drug user that he no longer has to steal. Lets tell the young girl she no longer has to sell her body. They can have it all for free. For us it will be a bargain. Here is exactly how it will work: Any person who can show through urine analysis that he or she is on drugs can visit a state clinic as often as they want hnd get a shot. No lectures - no police record. They can live in the clinic if they want. They can come and go as they wish. I say that the person must first be a user to get shots. Im not sure that that is necessary. If a person really wants to take narcotics, he will have no problem finding a pusher to get him The Prince Column by John Prince started. that he can have all the narcotics he wants for free. We also tell him that if we ever catch him giving So, we tell the user or selling drugs he will go to jail. The first offense carries a one year sentence. During that year we tell him every day that he must not sell or give away drugs, but he can have all he wants for free. If we catch him selling drugs a second time he goes to prison for life. So dont you see what we have done? We have taken all the profit out of drugs. Anyone who gets hooked can get all they want for free. Who will pay for anything they can get free? We have also increased the penalty for pushing. Im not sure this would work, but I think it would. Contrary to popular opinion this goes far beyond anything England tried. The program does make sense in terms of human motivation. It decreases the dollars to be made in selling narcotics to our children and it increases the risk. Also, it is important to remember that the shot will be given to the person directly. They ivill not be allowed to take the narcotics home. I think the program could have a dramatic effect! Naturally the drug pushers would be against it. And they would give campaign money to politicians who would come out against the program. And, of course, opposition would sound good. Who dares be in favor of free narcotics? But dont you have a feeling that we could hurt the drug pusher as quickly as we could hurt Detroit? If we only had the courage to try. Prince, Langheinrich, & Greer |