Play 322: Political Suicide

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17
JAY, 17

VINCENT
I don’t get why everyone’s so opposed to legalizing drugs.

JAY
I agree. I mean, pot’s no worse than alcohol.

VINCENT
Yeah. I don’t just mean pot though.

JAY
What, like heroin?

VINCENT
Yeah.

JAY
I don’t know, I think heroin’s pretty fucked up.

VINCENT
So do I.

(Beat.)

JAY
But you’re pro legalizing it?

VINCENT
Yeah.

JAY
Isn’t that a little contradictory.

VINCENT
Not at all.

JAY
How?

VINCENT
It being illegal doesn’t accomplish anything.

JAY
Yeah it does.

VINCENT
How?

JAY
Well, I’m sure more people would do it if it was legal.

VINCENT
That’s not really true. I mean, look at prohibition. Did it work at all to stop people from drinking?

JAY
Not really.

VINCENT
Exactly. All it did was waste government money and police attention, and cause a rise in organized crime, and violence as a result of it.

JAY
I guess that’s true.

VINCENT
Same thing with drugs. It wastes an unbelievable amount of government money. Like in federal prisons, over half the people there are for drug related issues.

JAY
That many?

VINCENT
Yeah. And that’s a couple million people at fifty thousand dollars a year.

JAY
Wow.

VINCENT
Yeah. And it leads to all kinds of gangs and violence.

JAY
True.

(Beat.)

VINCENT
And the problem is you can’t bring up drugs politically.

JAY
Yeah, it’s political suicide.

VINCENT
Because everyone assumes you’re saying that drugs are okay, which is not at all the point of legalization. I don’t think anyone is really arguing that heroin is good for your health.

JAY
Anyone sane at least.

(Pause.)

JAY
But drugs still fuck people up.

VINCENT
Agreed. They could use all that money from trying to stop people from getting drugs, which is a lost cause, to get people rehab.

JAY
True.

VINCENT
And that actually might work.

(Beat.)

Plus, if you have a criminal record for having been busted for drugs, it makes it impossible to get a good job. And if you’re working in a shitty job for shitty wages, what do you think you’ll turn to to distract you from it all?

JAY
Yeah.

(Beat.)

VINCENT
Which brings up the entire point of how fucked the jail system is…

JAY
I think you can save that lecture for another time.

(Vincent laughs.)

VINCENT
Yeah, I’ve used up my soap-box time for the day.

JAY
Indeed.

(Blackout.)