Legalize it, y'all?

May 16, 2003 2:25 PM

The Citypaper, sort of the Fox News of Nashville newspapers, ran an editorial today advocating the partial legalization of drugs and prostitution in Nashville. Could such an idea ever be sold in the Buckle of the Bible Belt?
posted by mikrophon (20 comments total)

Sold? Doubtful. Probably the first time the idea's been floated.
posted by scarabic at 2:31 PM on May 16, 2003

Makes perfect sense to me.
posted by rocketman at 2:34 PM on May 16, 2003

(I mean first time it's been floated there)

I just hope they don't wind up in San Francisco's situation. These activities are not legal here, but they are very leniently prosecuted, if at all. This allows the illicit trade to run rampant, without allowing entreprenuers to clean it up, or city/state agencies to regulate it.
posted by scarabic at 2:38 PM on May 16, 2003

Well, it worked well Zurich......
posted by SweetJesus at 2:44 PM on May 16, 2003

Well, it worked well Zurich......

Injecting herion and cocaine into your bloodstream, legally, in a park in Zurich is not quite the same as smoking marijuana in Nashville.

Or, maybe it is.
posted by four panels at 3:00 PM on May 16, 2003

How many buckles does the Bible Belt have, anyway? Just do a quick google. Everybody's gotta be the buckle. Sheesh!
posted by furiousthought at 3:08 PM on May 16, 2003

Injecting heroin and cocaine into your bloodstream, legally, in a park in Zurich is not quite the same as smoking marijuana in Nashville.

Direct quote from the article: ...Designate some land that will not be productive for any other activity, fence it in, and let anyone who needs a one-night stand or heroin fix head on over....

I'm all for pot legalization. I'm in NORML and a local chapter of HOPE (same thing as Students for Sensible Drug Policy, pretty much), but I've heard way too many awful stories from my father, who's been working with serious, hardcore addicts for years, to be all up for legalized heroin.

There's a HUGE difference between heroin and pot.
posted by SweetJesus at 3:16 PM on May 16, 2003

According to the TV commercials, which must be true, pot leads directly to heroin, as well as pregnancy, fast-food drive-thru accidents, etc. I used to live near Nashville, in one of the eyeholes of the Belt, and this idea won't go beyond the CityPaper's ink.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 3:51 PM on May 16, 2003

Two words..
HELL. NO.

And no administration would propose it or allow it. It would be political suicide, no matter HOW MUCH SENSE it makes.
posted by aacheson at 4:07 PM on May 16, 2003

Didn't work in MN under Ventura. He didn't propose legislation I think, just mentioned favoring it in an interview while governor.
posted by infowar at 4:38 PM on May 16, 2003

Gary Johnson in New Mexico favored it as well. Unfortunatley, he's no longer in office.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 4:46 PM on May 16, 2003

When states talk about legalizing dope the feds remind them it won't be tolerated at the federal level. Hell, when Canada talks about it, the feds get upset.

I was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago and the legal sale and use of pot seems to be working. It was very strange to legally buy some pot and keep it out in the open in my hotel room.
posted by birdherder at 5:10 PM on May 16, 2003

This would be the Nashville that begat Willie Nelson?

Riiiight, the idea's never been floated around there before!
posted by five fresh fish at 5:49 PM on May 16, 2003

Both issues are very interesting, particularly the sex one because obviously sooner or later anyone will be interested in sex, while the same is not necessarily true for drugs.

Prostitution is so old and sex is so naturally and deeply rooted in human brain demand for prostitutes (males & females) are unlikely to never end.

The real problem, I believe, is the exploitation of prostitutes and the exploitation of sex as a neverending source of money.

Expecially the slave conditions in which prostitutes often live ( they don't see but a miserable fraction of the income of their work and they often can't quit the business, so becoming slaves)

I believe everybody should be allowed to sell sexual pleasure, but nobody should be ever forced to do so.

At the end it seems to me the biggest problem related to sex is the damned shame that doesn't always naturally occur in people when talking about sex. It seems to be a leftover of a thousand years of ignorance and misinformation, often , I believe, fueled by people who make profits out of shame (see pimps, pornographers,religious fanatics,some politician). By trying to remove shame from sex and by constant education on the risks of unsafe sex (just one out of 2,280,000 links) the forced prostitution problem could be minimized.
posted by elpapacito at 6:35 PM on May 16, 2003

Tulsa, OK is the buckle of the bible belt. 3 letters; O R U.
posted by password at 2:22 AM on May 17, 2003

Actually, prosititution was legal in Nashville during the Civil War (just watched a program on this on the History Channel); when Union soldiers were posted in Nashville, the influx of prostitutes got to be so much that they loaded 150 of the women onto the steamboat Idahoe. But no city would let them unload and they came back to Nashville.

So the army commanders decided it would be better to regulate the prostitution they couldn't prevent.

I think it's this program -- More Sex in the Civil War. Of course, this barely counts as 1) this was only during the Civil War and 2) it was promulgated by Yankees.
posted by meep at 4:18 AM on May 17, 2003

Despite the Bush notions of states' right, the govt can coherce through the power of the purse and national laws any laws locals might deem worthy of passing.
posted by Postroad at 5:57 AM on May 17, 2003

This would be the Nashville that begat Willie Nelson?

Actually, Willie is a Texas boy, but he still comes by to visit from time to time.
posted by mikrophon at 1:38 PM on May 17, 2003

Yah, but I double-checked: Willie got his big start in Nashville. Or so's I read.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:55 PM on May 17, 2003

I'm sorry, but what was that steamboat's name? Idahoe? Is that like the punchline?

Nashville is kind of dirty when it comes to sex stuff, but drugs will never be made legal anywhere in Tennessee.
posted by monkeyman at 6:15 AM on May 19, 2003