Central Planning and Irresponsibility

I wrote this over three years ago regarding today’s youth, central planning and dependence in America, and I’m reposting it now.

Government Central Planners and the Irresponsibility and Misery They Have Wrought

February 20, 2012

Two related issues are in the news. I must comment. One is the argument over Herr Obama’s dictatorial birth control mandate of employers, including religious and educational institutions. The other issue comes from the article in the New York Times that out-of-wedlock births are at an all-time high.

The moral, social and cultural decline of America that includes the destruction of the family unit is largely a result of State intrusions and infiltration into private relationships, associations and contracts.

The “Sexual Revolution” was never any such “revolution,” but an excuse to live a lifestyle of self-centered immediate gratification at the expense of personal responsibility and the suppression of the natural desire to have offspring. It was also at the expense of sacrificing the natural ability to provide emotional comfort, warmth and personal security for the offspring toward their own growth and development.

What is the largest contributor to such societal decay in America? As with everything else, it’s the State and the social collectivists whose desire it has been to stamp out individualism with their social and economic policies that can be described as “Keynesian,” the policies of immediate gratification, rent-seeking, parasitism and debts, at the expense of others and at the expense of future planning and future generations.

Governments — federal, state and local — have largely taken over everything in the past 150 years, the education of America’s youth, medical care, banking and finance, and people’s hard-earned retirement funding and the will to save from an early age toward one’s retirement. You name it, the government has seized control over it.

What needs to be done is stop encouraging the youth to be irresponsible with their sexuality as well as with their money they earn or acquire. Many people who think they are “liberal” are really just believing in irresponsibility. Children and teens need to be encouraged to practice abstinence. “But that’s not realistic,” some people say. No, only short-sighted and immediate gratification-oriented people think that’s unrealistic. Children and teens are too young to handle the emotional aspects of sexual relations with others. (Weren’t there some studies that concluded that many women whose sex lives in their marriages were unsatisfying had begun to be sexually active at too early an age?)

And also, our culture has developed into one that discourages boys from becoming men. Now we have “zero tolerance,” and “no playing on the playground because you might hurt yourself” rules, families who do not require a boy who got his girlfriend pregnant to get a job to support the child, and helicopter moms following their boys to college. And the girls are being raised to be sluts now, wearing skimpy, revealing little articles of clothing that their parents buy them. If I had a teenage girl at this time and she were wearing something like that, I’d say, “you’re not going out in that, are you?” and no, she would NOT be going out in that. And she wouldn’t risk getting pregnant and either having a baby at such a young age or having an abortion, because, with the “not under my roof” policy, she would know that if that ever happened she’s out of the house and on her own. Good luck, kid.

There are other aspects of this trend of irresponsibility and dependence on government. The youth need to be encouraged to work part-time during their high school years (abolishing all labor laws including “child labor” and minimum wage laws would help them do that). They should also be encouraged to turn that part-time into full-time work after high school graduation, given what a scam college is these days. It would be helpful if the government would repeal the income tax and capital gains taxes as well as Social Security and all other withholding confiscations. These repeals would effect in the biggest expansion of the U.S. economy ever, and millions of new, real jobs would be created for those high school graduates. They should be encouraged to work full-time and take college courses at night or online toward eventually getting an undergraduate degree.

The youth also need to be encouraged to save — put something aside each week and do not take from that savings — toward their retirement so they don’t have to be dependent on a government retirement scheme that won’t be there when they actually do retire. So the government is taking money from them in its promise to provide for their retirement — that’s a fraudulent promise, and the taking is nothing but theft. It is just something you have to deal with in life, until the necessary decentralization process takes place following the collapse that will occur because Leviathan eventually kills off so many of the actual producers that there are no longer any more producers in the society from whom to siphon the wealth that will soon be non-existent.

Also, this idea of employers having to provide health insurance, pensions, etc. — that’s all a bunch of garbage. YOU should provide your own health insurance and retirements, not employers and not governments. This scheme of dependence on employers for those extras in life is another scam that has put America (and Europe) into as much moral hazard as has the aforementioned cultural and social permissiveness.

Now, regarding Herr Obama’s forcing employers to provide birth control against their will, that is a crime. It is yet another of the many crimes that government commits against the people in its intrusions into private contracts amongst the people. Such dictates are aggressions and trespasses, and should be treated as such. The contract is between the employer and the employee, and the terms of the contract are between those parties and not for anyone else to intrude upon. Who the hell is some government bureaucrat to force you to provide ANYTHING to your employees that you don’t want to provide? Such a government bureaucrat is nothing but a fascist and a dictator (hence, “Herr Obama”).

And ladies, if you want to get the birth control pill — regardless of the cancers it might cause you — YOU pay for it! Just as if you want an arthritis pill (even though fish oil would probably be better for you), YOU pay for it! Stop being such dependent babies and do things for yourselves, for crying out loud! (“I am woman, hear me roar, I am strong, I am invincible”? No, not if you’re a dependent schlep you’re not.) Our whole society now is one in which everyone demands that everyone else pay for everything they want in life. I compare that to the men who get their girlfriends pregnant but don’t stay around to actually be a man and raise the child. Have your pleasure but make other people pay for the consequences is the new American way.

So, last week Laura Ingraham interviewed Tiananmen Square heroine Chai Ling, who spoke about the mandatory abortions in China. Please, don’t get me started on the central planning that has distorted their population and what would otherwise have been a natural, unplanned “distribution” of their people. The imbecilic Chinese bureaucrats with their huge ghost cities throughout China, with skyscrapers loaded with vacant condo apartments that no one can afford to buy. And their mandatory abortions and child murders, especially their daughter murders. A truly sick society. And all because of what their selfish, authoritarian rulers desire for control and central planning and the human misery and disaster they have wrought.

There are not enough women in China for all the men there because of the millions and millions of little girls who have been slaughtered in the name of central planning population control. Hey, Planned Parenthood: Are we next?

More News and Commentary

Jacob Hornberger on Hitler, Mussolini, Khrushchev, and Trump.

Simon Jenkins says, Here we go again, the drumbeat for sending troops back to Iraq has begun.

Bob Unruh describes two more constitutional rights the U.S. government is trying to destroy (besides the 1st and 2nd Amendments).

Justin Raimondo on imperial America.

Peter Frankopan with an article on declassified CIA documents revealing how disastrous the U.S. government’s post-9/11 plans really were.

Eric Margolis on the terror of Chinese paper.

David Stockman comments on the central bankers’ malodorous war on savers.

Alex Newman on the Bulgarian communist and UNESCO boss who might lead the UN.

Karen De Coster says the war on cholesterol is too profitable to give up.

And Butler Shaffer on the corruption of language.

The Racism Industry Is Another Part of Our Fascist, Degenerate Culture

Vester Flanagan, the black murderer of two white TV news journalists, was clearly an anti-white racist. To point that out seems to be a very politically incorrect thing to do. And then there is all the black against white violent crime, which mainstream news media try their best to cover up. According to this Infowars article, a white woman was punched and stomped upon by two black people in Milwaukee, but the attack was stopped by a black passerby. The article mentions that the “Black Lives Matter” movement has a lot of popularity in Milwaukee, but it is being taken to the extreme now. We have already seen how ignoramus activists express being offended when someone says “all lives matter.” What they mean is, “white lives don’t matter” (and it doesn’t matter if someone kills a white person). The article also mentions that “a black person is 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa,” and that nationally, in 2012 “blacks committed 560,600 acts of violence (excluding homicide) against whites, and whites committed 99,403 acts of violence (excluding homicide) against blacks.” Mainstream media kooks don’t want their readers or viewers to know the truth about what’s happening in America.

If “liberals” and “progressives” are unable or unwilling to tell the truth about violence and hatred in America on all sides, then they are not “liberal.” They are just plain dishonest and hypocritical, in my view. Vester Flanagan was brainwashed by the every-problem-is-caused-by-racism industry, in which he really believed that just about every other word uttered at his workplace was “racist” or “anti-homosexual.” The political correctness fascists all over America have combined their anti-speech, pro-silence agenda with the revenge industry who wants to target white people because of the actions of white slave owners 200 years ago. Also (and I’m sure some people may not like the comparison), Flanagan was an extreme version of the lesbian couple who persecuted a Christian couple for refusing to involuntarily do extra labor to serve them. The lesbian couple (and many of their narcissistic ilk) were obviously a less aggressive, LGBT version of Vester Flanagan. They nevertheless did use aggression to exact revenge, however. The lesbian couple used the aggression of the State to inflict their extortion and harassment criminality against the Christian couple.

And all this really is connected. It is a natural result of “civil rights” laws which go beyond merely public or government-run functions such as buses, parks and schools, and instead violate private property, privately-owned businesses, and intrude into private associations and contracts. Now all those people of “special,” protected status can claim harm by anyone, and use the armed power of the State to force others to associate with them, force others to do extra labor to serve them, etc. And all this societal dysfunction, incivility, and miscommunication are the natural results of the war on freedom of speech and freedom of thought and conscience, as well. We now have millions of Americans who are brainwashed into believing that saying some little word or phrase, no matter how innocent or harmless, in the presence of certain thin-skinned others is considered to be an act of aggression. The intolerant activists call it “microaggression,” as crazy and irrational as that sounds. And now we have the activists brainwashing the younger people to think collectively, and blame all white people for the actions of some white people, and not only that, but some white people from a century or two ago. And it seems to me the brainwashed younger ones are being encouraged to act on such racial ignorance and hatred. I actually think that the white limousine liberals who waste billions of dollars donating to idiots like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, really believe that today’s white victims of black violence actually deserve it. I’ve seen too many videos of interviews now of Ivy League professors defending the racial revenge agenda, as well as the sicko cultural degenerate stuff.

Ron Paul: End the Fed, the Sooner the Better

“Settled Law”

Ryan McMaken writes about the idea of “settled law.”

The Immorality of Socialist Immigration Controls

Future of Freedom Foundation President Jacob Hornberger and Citadel economics professor Richard Ebeling discuss the immorality and impracticality of socialist immigration controls.

Back to School

Rebecca Terrell with an article on how the crazed environmental activists and bureaucrats are drying up California.

Ron Paul comments on the market crash and what should be done.

Alex Newman says there is an uprising against Rhode Island schools’ HPV vaccine mandate.

Laurence Vance on the Republicans’ Planned Parenthood hypocrisy.

Justin Raimondo comments on China and the return of the “Yellow Peril.”

Walter Williams discusses the problem with government-protected monopolies.

Mac Slavo discusses the Fort Bragg troops training for domestic emergency.

Jacob Hornberger reviews Scott McPherson’s new book, Freedom and Security: The Second Amendment and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Scott McPherson discusses the Constitution and the Second Amendment.

Brion McClanahan on secession for the North.

Joseph Salerno on why government hates cash.

Philip Giraldi discusses how Turkey plays the war on terror

Infowars with an article on radical Islamists taking over France.

Robert Murphy asks, How many people can planet Earth sustain?

Mark Tovey on hostages and the right to pay ransom.

And William Anderson analyzes the escalation of totalitarianism in America.

Bernard Haitink and the Brahms Symphony No. 4

I hope that people who have investments in stocks aren’t too nervous about what’s going on now. I’m glad I don’t live in China. Anyway, it’s time to post a classical music performance to take our minds off things. While the Brahms Symphony No. 4 is in the “serious-sounding” key of e minor, it is still beautiful music. And this is a great performance from 2011 by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by the then-82-year-old Bernard Haitink. He is now 86 and is scheduled to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra next April after he turns 87. (I’m all for longevity.)

Richard Ney and the Rigged Stock Market

Regarding my post yesterday in which I wrote that the stock market is “rigged,” and that I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, I have previously linked to a post by David Kramer which included an article by Michael Templain on Richard Ney’s assertion that the stock market is rigged. According to the Wikipedia entry on Richard Ney, Ney wrote three books attempting to expose the manipulation by stock market “specialists” to, as Templain put it, “fatten upon the innocence and ignorance of the small investor.” The three books are The Wall Street Jungle from 1970, The Wall Street Gang, 1974, and Making It in the Market, 1975. While those books no longer seemed to be available just a few years ago, they do seem to be available now. That’s probably because more and more people are catching on to the scam that Wall Street is.

In the post by David Kramer, Templain quotes from Richard Ney’s book The Wall Street Gang:

Studying the transactions in each stock, I became immediately conscious that, on too many occasion to be a coincidence, a stock would advance from its morning low and then, often during the afternoon, would show an up-tick of a half-point or more on a large block of anywhere from 1,500 to 5,000 or more shares. This transaction seemed to herald a transformation in what was taking place, for immediately thereafter the stock would begin to drop like Newton’s apple. Before I could find out what caused this, another question presented itself: What caused the same thing to happen at the low point in that stock’s decline? For it was also apparent that a block of stock of the same size often appeared on a down-tick of a half-point or more, after which the stock quickly rallied. Together these two facts seemed to give a stock’s pattern continuity. At the end of several days of investigation, I discovered that these transactions at the top and bottom of a stock’s price pattern were for the specialist’s own account. … Clod that I was, I had at last recognized that, although the study of human nature may not be fashionable among economists, it is never out of season.

Also in that article, the revolving door of Wall Street and FedGov is mentioned. There is a reason why people now jokingly refer to “Government Sachs,” although it is no joke. Incidentally, here is a more recent article on the insider trading going on involving former Federal Reserve employees. (I agree with Ron Paul, who says, “End the Fed.” Decentralization and privatization are the true “corrections” that would resolve many of America’s ills.)

Here are two hours out of a four-hour 1970 interview of Richard Ney by Jerry Williams. (From JerryWilliams.org. The other two hours of the interview aren’t available there.) Clicking the link opens a new Media Player window. I have posted these interviews in the past.

http://www.jerrywilliams.org/audio/WBZ/wbz36.m3u

http://www.jerrywilliams.org/audio/WBZ/wbz18.m3u

And finally, from the Kramer post, a quote from Richard Ney’s book, The Wall Street Jungle, “Ney’s Small Investor Trading Recommendations”:

1. Do not buy the acknowledged leader in a field. Buy the number 2 or 3 company. These companies are more likely to be subject to bull raids by the specialists (1Ney, 298).
2. “Nothing puzzles me more than an investor’s willingness to pay more than fifty dollars a share for stocks. Buy low priced stocks. It’s percentages you’re after and you’ll get them in these stocks in a bull market” (1Ney, 298).
3. Invest only in stocks listed on the NYSE.
4. Do not buy secondary offerings from your broker.
5. Buy only stocks whose prices have fallen at least 35 to 50 percent.
6. “The rule, ‘Cut your losses and let your profits ride,’ was invented by a broker” (1Ney, 298).
7. The average investor need not worry about tax brackets, so do not hesitate to sell at a profit. “A short-term gain is better than a long-term loss” (1Ney, 299).
8. Own your stock. Do not use margin.
9. Do not sell short.
10. Do not allow your stock to be borrowed (via a margin account; M.T.)
11. Credit balances should be immediately transferred to your bank.
12. Do not leave your stock with your broker in street name.
13. Invest only in growth oriented, not income, stocks.
14. 4 to 5 stocks in a portfolio is plenty.
15. Make arrangements with your bank to receive your stock.
16. If there has been a major advance from the summer lows, look for the public to begin selling 6 months hence.
17. Big block sales at the end of a run-up (usually marked by heavy volume) marks the imminent decline in price.
18. Look for bull raids in May, up from the April 15th tax low.
19. Never enter stop or limit orders.
20. If you are interested in a stock, learn its specialist’s habits.
21. Stocks that are ideal for bull raids are those that decline as close as possible to an angle of 45 degrees.

“The Free Market versus the Bureaucratic State”

Richard Ebeling has an excellent analysis of the free market versus the bureaucratic state. He makes some very good points contrasting the two kinds of systems. In my view, we currently live in a bureaucratic state system, with the concepts of private property and free markets merely a facade, as I referenced in my previous post. The current stock market crashing is not because of “free markets” which don’t really exist in the U.S., but because of the intrusions of the bureaucratic state, because of the intrusions of the central planners and bureaucrat-directed central banking. The stock market is rigged, in any event. I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, unless I were already very rich. Wall Street really is just another branch of the federal government, as far as I’m concerned. If Americans really want to recover from this crash as well as from the 2008-09 “recession,” and from the eventual collapse, then it might finally be a good time to acknowledge that forced central planning is a criminal enterprise and involuntary taxation really is theft and thus criminal. Put an end to ALL criminal governmental intrusions into private economic matters and trades, and restore … the free market. The actual “free market” is part of freedom, as opposed to the criminality of politicians enslaving the masses. That sucks, in my view.

Against American Freedom: Anti-Free Trader Trump Attracts the Emotional Nationalists

It appears that both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are attracting very large crowds for their campaign appearances. Sanders appeals to the welfare-state worshipers and to the masses’ envy of the success of the producers and entrepreneurs, and Trump appeals to the anti-immigrant, anti-foreigner crowd, and to the economic protectionist nationalists. While I have already addressed some of the problems with the Bernie Sanders phenomenon, I would like to address the emotionalism and cognitive dissonance with Trump and his supporters. And I do mean emotionalism, certainly not reason and rationality.

It seems now that even the most seemingly sensible people are turned on by Trump’s collectivist and nationalist rhetoric. And that is what the anti-immigrant, economic protectionism stuff comes from. Whatever happened to individual liberty, private property, the right to keep and bear arms, free trade and commerce, and the rule of law? No, nationalists and collectivists don’t believe in those principles.

First there is the moral and ethical case for private property and against the idea of public property which is the basis for restricting foreigners from coming to America.

The collectivists who flock to Donald Trump see the whole territory as one big property, commonly owned by the “citizens” of the U.S. And when foreigners enter the territory without the permission of central planners in Washington, they are “breaking into” the country, or are “invaders.” No, when someone breaks into your own actual home, that is an invader and a trespasser.

“But the territory is our home, the unauthorized foreigner is breaking into our national home, as we are all one big family. They are invading public property, owned by us, the public.” No, there is no such thing as “public property,” because what is considered to be public property isn’t owned by the people. Is it owned by the government? Maybe by legislative law but certainly not morally. In the true ethical and moral sense, the parts of the territory that are not privately owned are merely unowned.

Now, if people want to fantasize that the whole territory is one big property that unauthorized foreigners are breaking into, they can do that. But they would have to accept that if the whole collective population owns the whole territory, then they collectively own everything and everyone within the whole territory. So if you allow a collective, or its representative government (that only a small percentage of the population approves of in its governance anyway!) to usurp ownership of the whole territory, then there is no longer any private property. There is no longer any individual liberty, no freedom of self-ownership, no peace. What we have had in America since especially the “Civil War” is this: the covetous and envious will do what they can to exploit the centralized governing agency to plunder the supposedly privately owned property and wealth of everyone else within the territory.

And such a collectivist way of living not only usurps private property and liberty from those living within the territory, empowering the bureaucratic rulers to take full ownership of the people’s lives and labor, but also assuming ownership of the lives of those living outside the territory as well. The anti-private property nationalists are empowering their rulers to arrest peaceful and honest businessmen for hiring someone from outside the territory, and detaining innocent foreigners who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families and are merely selling their labor to those businessmen who want to best serve the consumers.

All human beings, regardless of where they were born or live, have a right to freedom of movement and freedom of travel and the right to sell their labor to whomever is a willing trader, as long as one does not trespass on private property. “Anything that’s peaceful,” as Leonard E. Read would say.

But the collectivists and nationalists don’t understand that, or they just disagree with it. And notice how they whine and complain about certain immigrants coming to the U.S. for welfare and free stuff, but they never seem to propose anything to take away such an incentive. The only real and effective way to take away the negative welfare incentive is to get rid of the welfare state entirely.

The reason for this isn’t just to weed out the “bad” immigrants from the hard workers. The reason to abolish all government welfare and redistribution of wealth is because it exists on an immoral and in fact criminal means of implementation: theft! I know, some people like to rationalize the act of bureaucrats stealing from the workers and producers of society as a form of payment for government services, but it is involuntary. It is as involuntary as is the mugging victim handing over his wallet to the robber. It is nothing but theft. But we never, EVER hear the anti-foreigner anti-immigrant crowd suggest this, because many of them benefit from the theft as well. Rationalizing Social Security’s forced wealth confiscation and redistributive handouts still will never erase its underlying enabler: theft and the threat of government violence toward innocents. And the politicians such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz never suggest eliminating socialism and the welfare state because they are afraid of losing votes.

And another aspect that the nationalists yell about is the criminal element among the immigrants, even though you have a much bigger chance of being raped, robbed or murdered by an American criminal than a non-American immigrant criminal. Many people now understand that the government’s security, whether it’s local police or immigration enforcement, won’t protect you from criminals. The primary responsibility of your protection is yours. That is one reason why human beings, with their natural right to self-defense and self-preservation which preexist the formation of any government, have a right to keep and bear arms. Sadly, even conservatives and many NRA members implicitly promote the idea that people have a government-granted privilege to keep and bear arms, and that government bureaucrats should be empowered, as they are now, to determine how many arms one may legally possess, what kinds of arms one may or may not have, and so on. I think that Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers organization has addressed that issue very well. In other words, especially if you live near the U.S. southern border, you have a right to have any damn means of self-protection you feel is necessary. But does Donald Trump ever bring these things up? No, Trump and his ilk want a more powerful government, more heavily armed police, and having a more tightly sealed government border, and so on. That definitely helped the people of Soviet Union, East Germany, and North Korea, for sure. And now, of course, the U.S. has a bureaucratic Berlin Wall toward keeping the American people in.

And Trump and his fellow nationalists are against free trade, and instead support government protectionism, which ultimately means government-imposed restrictions on the right of American consumers and businesses to trade with others, in and outside the country, as they see fit. But does Trump ever criticize the regulatory police state that drives away the businesses he wants to force to stay in the U.S.? Why the hell do you think they are moving out of the country? So, rather than imposing un-American restrictions on Americans, it would be more honest and more practical to instead dismantle the regulatory police state, let the consumers and the businessmen have their freedom once again, like the entrepreneurs and industrialists of the 19th Century whose innovations and productivity raised the standard of living of just about ALL the people of society including those at the bottom, more than any government bureaucrat (or government bureaucrat wannabe such as Donald Trump) could ever do!

News and Commentary

Robert Murphy explains why decentralized planning is superior to bureaucracy and socialism.

Stephen Walt on why neocons are never right.

Butler Shaffer says that not just Bernie Sanders, but all the presidential candidates are “socialists.”

David Boaz with an article on Donald Trump’s love of eminent domain.

Dominick Armentano points out economic ignorance on the left and the right.

Bill Sardi asks, Will supplement makers now have free speech?

David Gordon on Cass Sunstein and “libertarian” paternalism.

Mark Crovelli asks, May I please plan for the future now, Grandma Yellen?

And Ryan McMaken asks, Can the states seize control of federal lands?

The Wacky World of Vaccine Fascism

A lot of people are influenced by the exaggerations of vaccines preventing disease that they demonize the opponents of mandatory vaccines. The extremists among the pro-vaccine crowd remind me of the climate change fanatics who believe in their god of global warming, and want to throw “deniers” in jail.

Dr. Lee Hieb has this well-researched, informative article on the ethics of forced vaccines. Bill Sardi had this article with good reasons not to vaccinate your kids. And Dr. Julian Whitaker points out that too many vaccines are given to kids at too young an age. 40 doses by age 6?

I have previously linked to this article on former Merck employee Brandy Vaughan who now speaks out against forced vaccinations, because of the toxins in many of these vaccines which are actually making people sick. And the vaccine industry such as Merck are exempt from liability lawsuits. Here is a recent interview of Vaughan regarding her involvement in opposing the California forced vaccine law SB 277, which is really the first step toward making vaccines mandatory for adults now, regardless of their harmful effects.

Some More News and Commentary

Karen De Coster with a post on why vaccine “herd immunity” is a myth.

Reason magazine with a post on the decline in America’s freedom ranking, from #17 last year to #20 now. (So much for “American Exceptionalism.”)

Walter Williams has more on today’s academic fascism.

John Whitehead promotes jury nullification.

Tom Woods promotes the Ron Paul Curriculum for homeschoolers. (And a Happy 80th to Ron Paul, by the way.)

Robert Wenzel examines Donald Trump’s immigration plan.

Andrew Napolitano writes about the deceptions of Hillary Clinton.

James Bovard on Eric Holder’s Leviathan-loving legacy.

And Joseph Stromberg suggests America could be a neo-British Empire.

Why Christians Should Not Support the War on Drugs

Laurence Vance provides a convincing argument for Christians to discontinue their support for the war on drugs.