In the sane world
Selling soap? Peddling parsley? You could go to jail as a Drug War prisoner.
What this rampage of lawmaking eventually leads to are articles like these:
Wilkes-Barre, PA – A 38-year old man was arrested for possession of soap because he hoped to sell it to unsuspecting addicts as cocaine. He was, the newspaper article stated, charged with “intentional possession of a controlled substance – namely soap in lieu of crack cocaine – with intent to deliver.”
Port St. Lucie, FL – A 15-year-old boy was arrested on his way to play a trick on his friend. He intended to show the friend a Baggie of oregano but tell him it was pot. The kid was actually arrested “on a charge of possession of a counterfeit controlled substance with the intent to deliver.”
Flagler County, FL – Two 10-year-old girls were arrested for possession of fake drugs for bringing a bag of parsley to school and pretending it was marijuana.
Kingston, NH – Three men caught in a drug sting operation trying to sell grocery store mushrooms colored blue with food coloring to make them look like magic psilocybin shrooms were charged with sale of a narcotic drug and theft by deception, even though the store-bought fungi weren’t the least bit hallucinogenic or illegal.
Muscatine, IA – A couple was arrested for selling fake “ice methamphetamine” to an undercover cop. They are charged with “delivery of a simulated controlled substance.” The actual substance wasn’t identified.
In a libertarian society there would be no illegal drugs so people would be arrested only for the crime of defrauding their unsuspecting customers. But in any actually sane society soap is not soap-in-lieu-of-crack-cocaine. If that was the case, we all have bars of crack cocaine sitting in the crack dishes next to our bathtubs and sinks right now. In the sane world, soap is soap and cocaine is cocaine. Parsley is not fake marijuana, it’s parsley. A mushroom is either hallucinogenic or it isn’t. Meth is meth is meth. It can’t be both fake and meth.</em>
Ah, if only we lived in a sane world. Probably wouldn’t have to do so many drugs, for one thing.