Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 21:18:49 CST
From: <U58563@uicvm.uic.edu>
Message-ID: <95087.211849U58563@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Golden Field Guide of Drug Ad Hominems

[ANTI]:
1) "If you use drugs, and you want them legalized, you are simply trying to
justify your own immoral behavior.  You are putting your own interests before
those of anyone else!  Drugs have distorted your judgment and made it
impossible for you to see the truth!*"
2) "If you don't use drugs, and you want them legalized, then clearly you have
no idea of what you're talking about!  You don't know what it is like to suffer
the effects of withdrawal, how can you be so cruel!"
3) "If you use drugs or have used drugs, and want them to be illegal, clearly
you have seen the error of your ways!  Perhaps you learned from a bad
experience; perhaps you are still fighting your addiction; perhaps you still
haven't broken away and are under their spell, but at least you have come to
understand what a danger they are!"
4) "If you have never used drugs, and you think they should be illegal, you are
a good, moral, upstanding citizen!  You have nothing to be ashamed of for
obeying the law!  The fact that you have been able to keep away from drugs is
proof that others should be able to also!"

[PRO]:

1) "If you use drugs, and you want them to be legal, this simply indicates that
you are taking advantage of the rights you know you should have, and having fun
in the process.  You know for yourself that drugs can be used safely and
responsibly!*"
2) "If you don't use drugs, and you want them to be legal, it shows that even
an impartial observer can recognize the benefits of legalization!"
3) "If you use drugs, and you want them to be illegal, this just means that you
had some bad experience with drugs.  You shouldn't try to make it a bad trip
for everyone!  Besides, you're probably just saying that for the parole board
or because it sounds good at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.*"
4) "If you don't use drugs, and you want them to be illegal, it means that you
are a hopeless "square" who doesn't think for himself and doesn't know what he
is missing!  No doubt you have been misinformed by media hype.*

* indicates potentially valid arguments:

[ANTI] #1:  If a person gets a pleasurable drug and takes it in a setting
promoting a particular political cause, the potential exists that they could be
"conditioned" to support that cause, whatever it is.  [x-ref:  Hassan i Sabbah]

[PRO] #1, #4:  If the mass media portrays falsehood as fact (and this is known
and admitted by all sides), then arguments concerning falsehood of a person's
references/background are valid.  But better directed to specific points.

[PRO] #3:  Clearly the most damaging and important.  The greatest "crime" a
person can commit in this country (as measured by length of punishment) is to
speak his mind openly and honestly before a judge, or to have some word of such
speech come back to a parole board, etc.  The most important thing a convict
must remember is that from the moment the jury says "guilty" he is GUILTY, no
matter what he did, even if he was in another state at the time, and that he
must ACT guilty, or else he will be sent up for ever.  The definition of TRUTH
by the state, rather than by actualities, is the central lesson of the legal
process.