WASHINGTON, DC -- Republicans want to cut off your arm or leg if you use drugs. They want to quarantine you so you won't "infect" others. And they want to lock you in jail for life -- a jail sentence that's tougher than what convicted murderers get.
Those are just some of the "frantic and bizarre" anti-drug measures being proposed by Republicans around the country, the Libertarian Party noted today -- and shows just how barbaric politicians are willing to get to win the War on Drugs.
"Politicians have tried spending their way to victory and jailing their way to victory in the futile, 25-year-old War on Drugs," said Steve Dasbach, national chairman of the Libertarian Party. "Now they're so desperate that they are willing to amputate their way to victory."
Here is some of the legislation proposed by Republicans over the past few months:
The problem with these proposals -- besides the fact that they're barbaric and unconstitutional -- is that, if implemented, they could lead to an America where one-third of the adult population is surgically tortured, or sent to jail for life, said Dasbach.
"Over 72.4 million Americans, or 34% of all adults, have used illicit drugs, according to the latest report from the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration," he noted. "And 22.6 million people have used them in the last year alone.
"Imagine an America where 72 million citizens had been brutalized with the loss of a limb, or thrown in jail for life, or dragged off to abandoned military bases and quarantined like lepers -- simply for the crime of smoking marijuana," Dasbach said. "That's the kind of America that these drug warriors say they want."
These new anti-drug proposals have Libertarians questioning the mental stability of the politicians who advocate them, said Dasbach.
"What could possess otherwise sane, educated adults to try to incarcerate, quarantine, and amputate their way to victory?" he asked. "It's called drug war hysteria -- and it's spreading among politicians like wildfire."
What's the cause of this affliction? It's obvious, said Dasbach: Drug prohibition has failed, but politicians refuse to admit it.
"President Nixon launched the drug war 25 years ago," he said. "And after hundreds of billions of dollars wasted and millions of Americans incarcerated, the government stubbornly insists that there's a light at the end of the drug war tunnel."
But clearly, these new frantic and bizarre legislative proposals are a symptom of failure, not a sign of success, Dasbach said.
"The only cure for this disease, and the only way to protect individuals from the barbarism of politicians, is to end drug prohibition," he said. "No American should be put in jeopardy of life - -- or limb -- simply because politicians insist on waging an unwinnable war on 72 million Americans."