2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #231 "HARM REDUCTION"

       According to President Nixon’s Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, back during the Nixon Administration the choice was made to pursue an incarceration approach to drug problems instead of one involving treatment, even though they knew that treatment worked and incarceration did not.  Why was this done?  Because Nixon anticipated that the political benefits he would reap in being perceived as being “tough,” and fighting against something that could not fight back, would be significant.  And, again according to Keindienst, the actual political benefits were far greater than anyone anticipated.  But we all have been saddled with many tragic results from that choice ever since that time.

         Of course, the presence of mind-altering and sometimes addicting drugs in our society brings harms.  But reasonable estimates are that the drug usage itself brings only about 10 percent of those harms.  The other 90 percent comes from the drug money.  In addition, since no society has ever been without some of these substances, except maybe the Eskimos because they couldn’t grow anything, we should recognize as adults that harms will result from the presence of those drugs – and invoke a policy to reduce those harms.   Think of it this way: we can’t even keep these drugs out of our prisons, so how can we expect to keep them out of our communities?  (Charles Manson was transferred from one California state prison to another because he was found to be selling drugs from his prison cell – and he was in solitary confinement!)  And since, as stated above, one of the approaches that works is drug treatment, which also includes overdose prevention and care and needle exchange programs, those approaches should be emphasized.  (The old saying is that dead addicts can’t recover.)  Of course, this approach includes enforcement through some incarceration for those whose addictions push them into criminal conduct, such as driving under the influence, burglaries to get money to purchase drugs, etc.  So please use your Liberty and actions to help us steer away from the mindless incarceration of drug users we have followed since the Nixon Administration.

Quote for the week:  “And remember the truth that once was spoken: to love another person is to see the face of God.”  (From the musical Les Miserables)

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #194 "MEDICAL INSURANCE: WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT?"

     As we all have seen, over the last few decades the costs of medical care have quadrupled in the United States as a percentage of our GDP.  How and why has this happened?  That is an easy question to answer, because as the costs have become less transparent, they have risen – enormously.  And how has this come about?  It began during World War II, when the wages that employers could pay their employees was frozen.  So how could employers entice more skilled and able employees to work for them if they couldn’t increase their salaries?  The answer was to offer the employees benefits like medical insurance that were in addition to their wages.  And this situation was compounded again under President Nixon’s system of wage and price controls.  So now, as we know, a large percentage of employees have their health insurance paid for by their employers. 

     How has that raised prices?  Again an easy question to answer.  Today, for example, if people covered by health insurance see their doctor about a knee problem and the doctor asks them if they want to have an MRI, what goes through the patients’ minds?  ”Well, I have health insurance, and the co-pay for me will only be about $30, so why not?  I might as well get the best.”  But if those patients actually paid their own money for the MRI, what would they be asking?  “Okay doc, what will the MRI show us and how much will it cost?”  But unfortunately today cost is not even a factor, to the extent that most of the time not even the doctors know what the cost is.  So that is how the costs have skyrocketed.  How can we bring them down?  Bring in Liberty, which will have patients pay for their own healthcare.  That will not only make the patients larger partners with their doctors in their own healthcare, but it will bring in competition back into healthcare which will, in turn, bring costs back down.  How can this be done?  It’s not that hard.  Just bring in a system of medical savings accounts for those of us who can take care of our own medical needs, and combine it with a system of vouchers on s sliding scale that will address the medical needs of those who are not so financially secure.  And we will discuss this approach next week.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Sign on the wall I say in a dining room at a lodge I stayed at in the Boundary Waters area between Minnesota and the Canadian border that was 30 miles away by canoe from the nearest competitor: “Two choices for dinner: take it or leave it.”

Like everyone else there, I took it.

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.