Category: Freedom

Related to personal freedom within the context of a public society

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LIFE Believes

  1. LIFE believes in the ability of people to find the solutions they need in their community, and we will support them by giving them local control and a direct distribution of Income Taxes.
  2. LIFE believes that society is based on a citizen contract, a promise between citizens to provide a basic standard of life to everyone.
  3. LIFE believes that a resilient society is a sustainable society, and that the future is to de-centralise government and empower communities to build their own capacity and self-reliance.
  4. LIFE believes that we cannot have a future worth living if we do not respect the freedom of the individual, and understand the incredibly important value of diversity, specialists of all kinds and all the contributions of every citizen.
  5. LIFE believes that our future must be built on the best parts of the industrial, technological and information revolutions, and we will seek to leverage science, engineering and technology to create a better world that generates less waste and more joy.

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Drug Criminalisation: All Cons

Has the “drug war” been a success and should we continue it? You decide…

The pernicious, hidden effects of drug criminalisation:

  • erodes the privacy boundary, thence respect for public space 
  • criminalises pursuit of fun and millions of otherwise law abiding citizens, eroding respect for the law
  • excuses the creation of a police state, wire tapping (87% of 2012 wire taps in USA) and racial profiling
  • criminalises poverty and misery
  • feeds the industrial prison business 
  • promotes moralism as if it were a virtue
  • draws arbitrary distinctions between substances that harms the reputation of the law

 

The obvious effects:

  • increases criminal opportunity for theft, violence and smuggling 
  • sends money to criminal gangs, enabling other more serious crimes
  • reduces access to rehabilitation and education
  • increases corruption
  • destabilises producing countries
  • lost government revenues 
  • increases danger due to lack of quality controls
  • enables the introduction of untested, dangerous new substances

 

And that’s before even mentioning:

  • wastes police and prison resources
  • crowds the judicial system with non-violent, otherwise civil citizens
  • no correlation between amount of resources spent on the ‘drug war’ and the rate of drug use