Descendents of early French Huguenots, the Ravenel family of South Carolina ranked among the most prominent members of the state's planter class. Arthur Ravenel, Jr. continued the Ravenel tradition of public service, serving in
the South Carolina house and senate and then in the
U.S. House of Representatives. He once referred to the NAACP as the "that organization known as the National Association for Retarded People" although he later apologized,
but only to people with mental and physical challenges. He also once called for
the military to shoot down any plane suspected of smuggling drugs. Arthur's son
Thomas Ravenel had little contact with his father after his parent's divorce, became a self-made millionaire through real estate development, narrowly missed winning the Senate seat now held by Jim DeMint, was elected South Carolina Treasurer,
was the subject of an investigation into his cocaine use (
of which he was warned by his father),
was indicted on a federal cocaine charge and resigned,
and served 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy with intent to distribute cocaine. On Saturday, Thomas Ravenel took to the pages of the Charleston Post and Courier
to call for an end to drug prohibition,
hoping the celebrity of being a former rising star in the Republican Party who went to prison will help advance his position.
posted by ND¢
on Feb 8, 2011 -
51 comments
The Portugal experiment. On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal
took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including
cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal
framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not
“legalized.” Thus, drug possession for personal
use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited,
but violations of those prohibitions are
deemed to be exclusively administrative violations
and are removed completely from the criminal
realm.... The data show that, judged by virtually every
metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework
has been a resounding success. Within this
success lie self-evident lessons that should guide
drug policy debates around the world. (
pdf of complete paper)
[more inside]
posted by caddis
on May 22, 2009 -
94 comments
National Review, Pro-Drug? I was searching for information of drug use in Vietnam and during wars in general, when I found this gem. Scroll halfway down to a very interesting pro-drug discussion between the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and Mr. William Buckley. A little dated (1990), but I never thought I'd come out of an article thinking to myself, "Maybe all drugs should be legal."
posted by geoff.
on Jun 4, 2004 -
18 comments
The Economist calls for the legalization of drugs in this editorial. Plus these
articles [per A&LD]. We are always led to believe that only fringe (read criminal and self-interested) elements favor this course...does anyone know any other "mainstream" groups/people with the nerve to publicly state their support? Or better yet, an online list of same.
posted by rushmc
on Jul 28, 2001 -
20 comments
