New York Governor Cuomo in a recent interview stated that New York is ripe to legalize recreational drugs (https://nypost.com/2020/11/05/gov-cuomo-says-2021-is-ripe-for-legalizing-pot-in-new-york/). His focus was almost completely on the financial benefits this would provide to NY coffers through taxation dollars going to the government, sufficient he thought to finance much of the left’s billion dollar programs. His complete attention was to the oodles of tax dollars the government would derive from the sale, purchase and usage of recreational drugs by New York citizens. To this extent, I imagined the Governor sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair, and dreaming of the billions of tax dollars NY would haul in, rubbing his hands together, and cackling. He was talking about the New York State Government Drug Mafia, taking its “cut” for actually drugging NY citizens, drugging our families. If you are not appalled, you must be a Democrat. It almost sounded like a meeting of the “five families” in The Godfather to split up the drug profits (you remember Barzini said “after all, we are not Communists…,” probably not true in this case of Democrat Governors figuring out how to profit from their citizens’ drug addiction).
There has always been a deep divide politically regarding the effect of drugs on our citizenry, at least for the past 70 years, and probably longer. Those on the left have always been tolerant of drugs, particularly now and in the 60s and 70s (possibly a baby boomer effect), and those on the right bitterly opposed to them, and much of the difference is ideological regarding the effects of certain drugs on people in general, the overwhelming criminal implications of violating laws against use of certain drugs, and the enormous financial implications of the drug “industry”, which should be read as “governmental drug mafia”, essentially akin to organized crime benefitting from the addiction, physical or otherwise, to the effects of drug use, and the downward spiral of most users “needing” to keep buying.
I won’t get into statistics or such arguments. Personal observations and personal aversion to drugs has informed my thinking about the effects on American society, and has affected my conclusions. The stats are there to find.
I was opposed to many of the legalization laws, in particular recreational marijuana (THE gateway drug – those “studies” which are not convinced marijuana is a gateway drug always rely on alcohol and smoking as also “gateway” substances, but the difference is glaring – alcohol and smoking are not illegal, and once someone has used an illegal “drug”, they are far more likely to wander down that rabbit hole to other illegal substances), which have spread like wildfire throughout the US, and the general recent reality that the left has induced a numbness to the effects of drug use in light of the overwhelming support among voters, particularly younger voters. The left is also in love with the notion that since many drugs are no longer illegal, arrests for use or sale have been all but stopped.
Estimates you might find for NY’s taxes on drug sales, including franchise fees and taxes and taxes on sales, range from $300 million to more than $1 billion yearly.
Just think of it. All you need to do is sacrifice your children and their families, give them over to pot, let them freely use it, and/or sell it, and many of NY’s financial problems will be over! It reminds me of the organized crime structure, and of the cops taking bribes, other law enforcement taking bribes to look the other way, and here now, we have the government itself taking its 20% cut of the drug trade. The Great New York State Drug Cartel. That will be the name of New York from now on. Just another cartel, using organized drug sales to enrich the State and fill its coffers. Anyone who has had family swallowed whole by drugs knows the dangers inherent in these policies and should find this repugnant.
It should come as no surprise the Democratic Party will raise money by drugging you and your kids, and profiting from that.
Personally, I find it disgusting in so many ways, it is hard to articulate how deeply disturbing this trend is. Drugs are no less dangerous now than they have been all along, the only thing that changed was the liberal government’s greed and avarice, and willingness to play the Devil, and entice our youth into participating in this deadly game and generate cash. This is no better than the thug on the street corner selling pot or worse. Not one single bit better. Cuomo, Mafia Drug Lord. It fits the Governor perfectly.
Strait Talk by Lee Longhwa 