“A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

For once, Lincoln got something Constitutionally right.

Prohibition codes, rules, statutes, and concepts are major under pinnings to victimless crimes.

True,True,True

Prohibition laws create crime and the government knows it. But that's how they keep the laws of enforcement in place. More enforcement equals more control. Not to mention the prison industrial complex and its lobbyists greasing the politicians. It isn't about justice...its about control.

Check out this website, LEAP.CC. It's an eye opener as to the horrors of the War On Drugs.

Prohibition doesn't work -- never did, never will. Creating a lucrative black market only keeps the bad laws in place. The War on Drugs is a multi-billion dollar industry, and creates black money for covert government operations -- the CIA has relied on drugs for their own secret deals (anybody remember Iran-Contra?) -- the Bush's have had their hands in the cocaine trade for decades (ask Noriega). Remember why natural drugs are illegal -- because they supposedly are harmful to one's health when in fact they compete with big pharma. Therefore a health problem should be addressed by medical professionals, not police and jailers. In fact, the People do not have the right to declare plants and their derivatives 'illegal' -- they may only regulate commerce (via their agents, Congress). That is why the only thing government can do is lay high taxes on imported marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc. -- otherwise a Constitutional Amendment must be agreed upon like the one that prohibited alcohol. In fact, if a plant is grown on one's private land and never leaves the boundaries of the property, inter-state commerce laws cannot and do not apply. Like every unconstitutional statute, you will need millions of dollars to challenge unlawful rules. As long as billions are being made because of drugs' illegality, it will take a courageous judge to stand up for individual rights.

Interesting since he planed to start working towards making alcohol illegal after the war mess was cleaned up. His death postponed it for 55 years. I wonder what prohibition he was referring to.

I read this quote somewhere and I wanted to see if it was real or not. The first site I went to said it was one of many misquotes attributed to Lincoln. This is the second site I've checked and after reading everyone's posts, I've come to realize that it's the principle behind the quote that matters. Not who said it.

Lincoln had the vision to see beyond the special interests that keep drug prohibition in the books of American legislation and international treaties fostered by the US. The cost to society of drug prohibition is huge, it is about time our leadership stepped forward in search for a different policy, one perhaps settling for the lesser evil but which abandons the impossible dream: decriminalization, regulation and control of today's illicit drugs. See A SILENT NIGHTMARE: The bottom line and the challenge of illicit drugs, for a throrough analysis of the drug problem.

“The best evidence available to historians shows that consumption of beverage alcohol declined dramatically under prohibition. In the early 1920s, consumption of beverage alcohol was about thirty per cent of the pre-prohibition level. Consumption grew somewhat in the last years of prohibition, as illegal supplies of liquor increased and as a new generation of Americans disregarded the law and rejected the attitude of self-sacrifice that was part of the bedrock of the prohibition movement. Nevertheless, it was a long time after repeal before consumption rates rose to their pre-prohibition levels. In that sense, prohibition ‘worked.’” -from prohibition.osu.edu

This quote was invented fairly recently and then falsely attributed to Lincoln. It's a great line, but Lincoln himself had little grasp of "the very principles upon which our government was founded."

The quote is excellent regardless of the author...