A key argument used by people who want drug prohibition repealed is that it is the laws against drug use, not drug use itself, that are most detrimental to society. I have always maintained this is simply false, drug users are a burden on any community whether drugs are legal or not. Here is yet another story that wouldn’t have changed if drugs were legal, and society would still be on the hook for the the expense these two users incur:
PANAMA CITY BEACH — Their baby’s skull had been fractured by a nail, but instead of getting help, John Paul Huskey and Jessica Huskey kept on doing meth, according to law enforcement documents released Thursday.
Investigators believe the baby’s skull was fractured Tuesday night after John Paul Huskey, 28, jumped on a chair and the chair broke apart, sending a nail into the 18-month-old’s head. But instead of calling for help to come to their Beech Drive apartment, the Huskeys wrapped their baby’s head in duct tape and continued to use meth, officials said.
The baby did not receive medical attention until Wednesday morning, when John Paul Huskey called 911 from a cell phone in Calhoun County. Capt. Jimmy Stanford said Jessica Huskey, 25, awoke Wednesday morning to find her baby “not doing well†and “turning colors.†Jessica Huskey then began to call friends and family members for help, including her husband, John Paul Huskey, who was in Calhoun County for an unknown reason, Stanford said.
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John Paul Huskey is charged with aggravated child abuse, possession of meth, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also is charged with dealing in stolen property. According to a complaint affidavit, he stole a $425 iPod Touch out of a car in July and tried to pawn it Sept. 16.
But wait! Even now some legalization advocate is ready to type out a comment saying if only drugs were legal these idiots wouldn’t have been scared to call 911! Then this would only be a story about … a tweaker fracturing his child’s skull while his wife sat by getting high in a house full of cocaine, methamphetamine, and of course, marijuana. The state would still need to take the children from the unfit parents and yet again drug use costs society as we pay for the medical care and now upkeep of the users’ children. And drug legalization will not change that.
This couple will still steal and deal to get drug money if we legalize, they will still get high in front of their children, and they will still be unfit parents if drugs are legal. Why are we pretending any different?
Rob Taylor,
You Wrote,
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This couple will still steal and deal to get drug money if we legalize, they will still get high in front of their children and they will still be unfit parents if drugs are legal. Why are we pretending any different?
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I don’t know, but I think a lot of it has to do with wishful thinking.
This story is horrible. But I don’t see the point: how are you defending drug prohibition if you think legal/not legal would make no difference in this case? How was this situation made any better by prohibition?
Because prohibition allows us to take kids from their tweaker parents prior to their skulls being fractured. The real point was that legalization wouldn’t have stopped this and many advocates claim all the crime and mayhem associated with drugs is due to prohibition, which it is not. But if we repeal prohibition there are thousands of children with addict parents who will technically be allowed to stay with their parents because there is nothing illegal going on.
I dunno Rob. I think that carelessly fracturing a kid’s skull and then not treating it will probably still be illegal when the drug war ends.
But pot smokers will still have their children so the skull fractures will happen. With drugs illegal drug users who would do these things often lose their children prior to anything truly dangerous happening.