“Illicit drug use is a form of domestic terrorism to some extent,” Wilmington, Massachusetts Police Chief Michael Begonis said today. “It is preying on folks who are more susceptible and who need a better life. And it’s something that we need to deal with head on.” Like hell, writes Mike Riggs at Reason.com. (via @radleybalko)

  • Grahamers2002

    I wonder how many other police chiefs haven’t even taken Crim Law 101?  At a minimum, someone needs to help this lost soul look up the meanings of malum in se and malum prohibitum.

  • janusnode

    WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. DRUGS ARE TERRORISM.

  • Chuck

    “Drugs are terrorism … kinda … sorta … I think.  People who use drugs need better lives …  maybe in prison, where they can’t scare anybody anymore.  I dunno.  Maybe”

    • Ipo

      Oh, I missed those quotation marks and just started yelling at you. =]

  • llamahunter

    broken link to reason.com.  Looks like there’s an extra <a href= in the HTML.

    • http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin

      derp, fixing

  • foobar

    He’s right, to a point. It’s not “terr’sm,” of course, but that’s just the current social conservative catch all term for “thing I don’t like” a la speeding is communism. Drug dealing is extortionate and victimizing.

    The solution that both of these asshats are trying so hard to ignore is legalized drugs as well as a civilized, universal health care system (including mental health) and a guaranteed minimum income.

    • aikimoe

      Well, one of the asshats has the power and the resources to imprison people and shoot those who resist, while the other just has an opinion.

    • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

      Do you consider bottle (alcohol) shops extortionate and victimizing? What about fast food stores?

      Don’t get me wrong some drug dealers are extortionate and victimising. Other people are simply buying in bulk at wholesale prices and selling in smaller quantities at retail prices to people that are well aware of the system, and the affects drugs are having. My weed dealer/good friend falls into the later category.

    • Ipo

       Terrorism scares the living bejeezus out of everybody. 
      If it doesn’t induce utter terror it is probably misnamed. 

  • robdobbs

    So if I apply his logic to actual terror spreading terrorists it should still make a certain amount of sense yes? Let’s try it: 

    The 9/11 attackers are… ”preying on folks who are more susceptible and who need a better life.”Nope, doesn’t really work. At all. 

  • DaHoss

    He is a simpleton. This is how they approach problems.

  • Rotwang

    In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a lot of money to be had in fighting “terrorism”.  He’s making the war on drugs into another revenue stream.

    • TWX

       I thought that the “War on Drugs” already was a revenue stream…

      Doesn’t he know that crossing the streams is bad?

      • Wade Sims

        Well unless you’re crossing the streams to increase the protonic energy to such an extent that you can close the door-rift to the Gozer’s temple and banish Gozer the Gozerian back to its dimension.  After all, Gozer is really a terrorist, you know, because it is preying on folks who are… uh.. more susceptible and who need a, um, better life…

        Well shit, it doesn’t work there either! 

        Edit: tag trouble

    • That_Anonymous_Coward

      Or trying to explain why he should be able to take Federal cash doled out to him for fighting terrorism and using it to fund his anti-drug work.

    • stovedoor

      You’ve got it backward. By combining the War On Terror with the War On Drugs, he can dramatically reduce expenses caused by duplication of effort. We need more thrifty-minded officials like Michael Begonis.

      After this, they’ll merge with the War On Poverty and start saving some serious cash.

      • Ipo

         Cool concept. 
        Parking violation terrorism. 

  • Will Bueche

    This from the state that though that LiteBrites were domestic terrorism.

    • wysinwyg

       MA cops are known for their physical prowess.

  • TWX

    Automobile manufacturers are terrorists!  They kill 30,000 people every year!

  • RJ

    Maybe if Chief Wiggum there would fire up a joint every now and again, his life would get a little better. But maybe that’s just the reefer madness talking.

  • strangefriend

    I, for one, congratulate our Boing Boing masters for the new site look.

    What?

    No, I am not trying to hijack the thread . . .

    • dolo54

      Yes, it loads faster and looks nice and clean!

  • http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

    Count on it. Also, race mixing is communism

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/4007789879_9e5f3acffb.jpg 

    • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

      Has anyone else noticed that clicking the images in the comments now brings up a popup with an equally small scaled version of the image clicked? Thankfully there is an ‘original’ button here which opens a new tab, but it’s a shame its a two click process.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        They’re working on it. I already complained.

  • Bottlekid

    “It is preying on folks who are more susceptible and who need a better life…” 
    Maybe he was thinking of State run Lotteries and Casinos.

  • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

    ““It is preying on folks who are more susceptible and who need a better life. ”

    I assume, of course, that hunting down, imprisoning, and hobbling with a permanent police record, these same susceptible people in need of a better life is somehow not terrorism?

  • Boundegar

    Drug abuse is like terrorism, in that both can be used to frighten white people into voting Republican.

  • bnschlz

    Probably feeling his War On Drugs money is being threatened by these newer shinier existential threats

  • Brainspore

    Also, jaywalking is a form of genocide.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      I got a jaywalking citation once near the Grand Lake in Oakland. Of course, I was walking down the middle of the road wearing a sandwich board calling for the overthrow of the US government.

  • Daemonworks

    Anyone in his position that unclear on the concept should be immediately fired for gross incompetance

    • Antinous / Moderator

      I believe that the conventional way to deal with this level of idiocy is to talk them into running for office.

  • Eric Schiller

    When someone says something that proves clearly they don’t understand their job or their language, they should be fired and sent back to school.

  • http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

    Laundromats are communism to some extent. 

  • benher

    Who, even the most clairvoyant among us, could EVER have imagined that once the executive branches 9-11 Power Plays took hold, and the Patriot Act was signed into law, that these laws would be reinterpreted to herd the rest of us like cattle? 

    Welcome to the US’s wet dream – a veritable Neo China where each and every personal and economic freedom evaporates at the will of our overseers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002042736154 Ah El

    YAY! They’ll finally do something to make peoples lifes better! Right? Right? Please tell  me that’s what they’re thinking of as solution…

  • kevin_hunt

    Considering the fact that marijuana has never killed anyone due to overdose or adverse drug reaction in 5,000 years, and the Mexican cartels exist because of the war on drugs (50,000 deaths in 6 years), I think it’s safe to say who the terrorist really are.   

    We legalized alcohol and the bootleggers stopped shooting citizens with tommy guns.

    Is that really so hard for Chief Big-one-over-on-us to understand?

  • Guest

    deleted