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From: preece@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Re: Re: drugs and criminals (unc.588 - (nf)
Message-ID: <2927@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Sep-83 23:49:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2927
Posted: Wed Sep 21 23:49:00 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Sep-83 02:42:26 EDT
Lines: 29

#R:unc:-588500:uicsl:4300068:000:1291
uicsl!preece    Sep 21 07:37:00 1983

	Tim, you're offending a lot of people on the net when you
	refer to drug dealers as "criminals"!  I'm not a libertarian
	myself, but according to the principles those members of our
	community believe-- and love to preach to the rest of us--
	drug dealers are just honest businessmen, unfairly res-
	trained by government from making a profit.
----------
I would hope we could all agree that a criminal is someone who violates
a law, whether one agrees with that law or not. One can be a criminal as
a matter of conscience. One can believe that a law should be different.
But the definition of criminal is pretty narrow. You can be an honest
businessman and still be a criminal. 

The whole point of tim's position was that by making drug dealers
criminals you put different pressures on them and on the way they
operate that make their trade less open and less trustworthy and that as
a result those who have experience in that kind of business, the group
normally thought of as gangsters or organized crime, are the best
equipped, trained, and capitalized to become drug dealers.

I'm sure the author of the nore knew what tim meant and was just poking
him for sloppy presentation, but in this case tim's use was right. So look
before you poke.

scott preece
pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece