TAXES - & Utopias

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Rick Brooks
>
> On 11/22/05, Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> >
> > On 11/22/05, terrierkeeper wrote:
> > (...)
> > > The reason all of them are banned is because they create harm
and
> > > society has had to pay for them. Before that they were quite
legal.
> > > Cocain, Morphine, opiates, heroin before the twentieth century
they
> > > were all uite legal and readily available.
> >
> > Alcohol probably creates much more harm than all those drugs
combined
> > and it is not banned. Why?
> >
> > > Back in High School One of my classmates who was something of a
> > > distant friend died of one of those poisons.
> > (...)
> >
> > You probably also heard of classmates (and relatives, and
> > acquaintances, etc) dying of car accidents. Occasionally, people
also
> > die slipping on the wet floor of the bathroom and hitting the sink
> > with their heads. Should we then forbid cars and sinks?
> >
> > Alcohol is not banned because the almight government gets a cut
in tax
> money.
>

I haven't. But I have read that a large chunk of felons in today's
prisons have histories of sexual molestation.

Certainly in the future when communities are established in the L4
and L5 regions a strong code of conduct will have to be established
and since there will be a premium on prison space harsh punishments
for deviation from the code.

> I have seen the claim made that over half the people in US prisons
are there
> due to alcohol reducing or removing their inhibitions. So alcohol
wastes a
> good share of our tax money. As well as contributing to human
misery.