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The U.S. War On Drugs May Soon Run Into A Problem...
- Thread starter paulitician
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Contumacious
Radical Freedom
It is really a shame when banana republics have to remind DC and SCOTUS that Americans have a NINTH AMENDMENT right to self medicate.
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Revisionist History by nutjob Ron Paul backers. The cartels have put a strangle hold on the advancement of the Mexican economy. An economy that has the LARGEST growing middle class in the world percentwise. Mexico could be on the path to becoming a first world industrialized nation in a decade or two. They are emerging. However, Calderon RIGHTFUL saw the Cartels as the biggest obstacle. He wisely took the fight to them and Mexico is better off because of it. Of course Guatamala is complaining. Taking responsiblty for their armpit economy is not in the leftist playbook. I guarantee Nicaragua and Venezuela are the other two!
Let them legalize drugs, that is their choice. America doesn't have to go along with it and they can still fight the war on drugs. Personally I believe weed should be legal, but it hard to say coke, herion (which is important from Asia not Latin America), meth (made in the US), shorms (US made), LSD (US made) etc should be legal.
Weed does come from Latin America, but it's primarily a stateside made substances. Coke is the only one that is primarily imported from Latin America. A case can be made for it's legalizations, but cases are also strong to fight it's legalization.
I digress. Ron Paul supports are conspiracy nutjobs that are worst than leftist in they naive beliefs!
The mexican cartels have taken over 60,000 dealers and users off the streets permanently. The only thing wrong with those numbers is they happened in mexico and not in the US. Hopefully that will change. There is no reason why American bars should be deprived of having the heads of users rolling around their floors.
BlindBoo
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Yep that alcohol tax sure automatically made a black market for moonshine huh?
Opps no, I forgot it was the other way around. It was the banning of alcohol that created the Black Market.
Also your recent crime post also defies logic. Whenever a liquor store gets robbed it's because of alcoholics?
Which Cartel do you support?
Wry Catcher
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #167
Maybe not. If done with care, the decriminalizing of certain drugs within our borders may make sense.
Consider first the fiscal impact of the war on drugs failure in terms of law enforcement (police, probation, parole, the courts, the prosecutors and the pubic defenders); in terms of medical costs (OD's, diseases transmitted by infected needles, drug addicted infants, STD's and other disease transmitted to the general population such as TB); in terms of crime (petty theft, burglary of homes and autos, grand theft person/robbery); and the cost of providing social services to the children of drug addled parents (foster care, special education, etc.).
Might it not be better to decriminalize the more popularly abused drugs to the end users for free? Drugs produced by government labs and dispensed by clinics which provide counseling and support groups under medical supervision?
Already several states have recognized the costs to enforce MJ laws in the face of its popularity has become fruitless, and harms otherwise productive people with a drug conviction. If the FEDs would simply remove MJ from the DOJ Schedule I, each state would have the ability to control MJ as they decide with the ability to increase revenue currently going to the black market and organized crime.
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BlindBoo
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Un-American, who openly advocates the murder of US Citizens simply and solely because they enjoy non-government approved substances for recreational purposes.
"...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
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NoNukes
Gold Member
They are being realistic because prohibition does not work.
Mad_Cabbie
Gold Member
- Banned
- #170
Portugal's drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons
LISBON, Portugal – These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community — mothers push baby strollers, men smoke outside cafés, buses chug up and down the cobbled main street.
Ten years ago, the Lisbon neighbourhood was a hell-hole, a "drug supermarket" where some 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneak into a hillside honeycomb of derelict housing to shoot up. In dark, stinking corners, addicts — some with maggots squirming under track marks — staggered between the occasional corpse, scavenging used, bloody needles.
At that time, Portugal, like the junkies of Casal Ventoso, had hit rock bottom: An estimated 100,000 people — an astonishing 1 percent of its population — were addicted to illegal drugs. So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a ground-breaking law in 2000.
Now, the United States, which has waged a 40-year, $1 trillion war on drugs, is looking for answers in tiny Portugal, which is reaping the benefits of what once looked like a dangerous gamble. White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske visited Portugal in September to learn about its drug reforms, and other countries — including Norway, Denmark, Australia and Peru — have taken interest, too.
"The disasters that were predicted by critics didn't happen," said University of Kent professor Alex Stevens, who has studied Portugal's program. "The answer was simple: Provide treatment."
Drugs in Portugal are still illegal. But here's what Portugal did: It changed the law so that users are sent to counselling and sometimes treatment instead of criminal courts and prison. The switch from drugs as a criminal issue to a public health one was aimed at preventing users from going underground.
Other European countries treat drugs as a public health problem, too, but Portugal stands out as the only one that has written that approach into law. The result: More people tried drugs, but fewer ended up addicted.
Here's what happened between 2000 and 2008:
— There were small increases in illicit drug use among adults, but decreases for adolescents and problem users such as drug addicts and prisoners.
— Drug-related court cases dropped 66 percent.
— Drug-related HIV cases dropped 75 percent. In 2002, 49 percent of people with AIDS were addicts; by 2008 that number fell to 28 percent.
— The number of regular users held steady at less than 3 percent of the population for marijuana and less than 0.3 percent for heroin and cocaine — figures that show decriminalization brought no surge in drug use.
— The number of people treated for drug addiction rose 20 percent from 2001 to 2008.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, one of the chief architects of the new drug strategy, says he was inspired partly by his own experience of helping his brother beat an addiction.
"It was a very hard change to make at the time because the drug issue involves lots of prejudices," he said. "You just need to rid yourselves of prejudice and take an intelligent approach."
Officials have not yet worked out the cost of the program, but they expect no increase in spending, since most of the money was diverted from the justice system to the public health service.
In Portugal today, outreach health workers provide addicts with fresh needles, swabs, little dishes to cook up the injectable mixture, disinfectant and condoms. But anyone caught with even a small amount of drugs is automatically sent to what is known as a Dissuasion Committee for counselling. The committees include legal experts, psychologists and social workers.
Portugal's drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons | Fox News
LISBON, Portugal – These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community — mothers push baby strollers, men smoke outside cafés, buses chug up and down the cobbled main street.
Ten years ago, the Lisbon neighbourhood was a hell-hole, a "drug supermarket" where some 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneak into a hillside honeycomb of derelict housing to shoot up. In dark, stinking corners, addicts — some with maggots squirming under track marks — staggered between the occasional corpse, scavenging used, bloody needles.
At that time, Portugal, like the junkies of Casal Ventoso, had hit rock bottom: An estimated 100,000 people — an astonishing 1 percent of its population — were addicted to illegal drugs. So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a ground-breaking law in 2000.
Now, the United States, which has waged a 40-year, $1 trillion war on drugs, is looking for answers in tiny Portugal, which is reaping the benefits of what once looked like a dangerous gamble. White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske visited Portugal in September to learn about its drug reforms, and other countries — including Norway, Denmark, Australia and Peru — have taken interest, too.
"The disasters that were predicted by critics didn't happen," said University of Kent professor Alex Stevens, who has studied Portugal's program. "The answer was simple: Provide treatment."
Drugs in Portugal are still illegal. But here's what Portugal did: It changed the law so that users are sent to counselling and sometimes treatment instead of criminal courts and prison. The switch from drugs as a criminal issue to a public health one was aimed at preventing users from going underground.
Other European countries treat drugs as a public health problem, too, but Portugal stands out as the only one that has written that approach into law. The result: More people tried drugs, but fewer ended up addicted.
Here's what happened between 2000 and 2008:
— There were small increases in illicit drug use among adults, but decreases for adolescents and problem users such as drug addicts and prisoners.
— Drug-related court cases dropped 66 percent.
— Drug-related HIV cases dropped 75 percent. In 2002, 49 percent of people with AIDS were addicts; by 2008 that number fell to 28 percent.
— The number of regular users held steady at less than 3 percent of the population for marijuana and less than 0.3 percent for heroin and cocaine — figures that show decriminalization brought no surge in drug use.
— The number of people treated for drug addiction rose 20 percent from 2001 to 2008.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, one of the chief architects of the new drug strategy, says he was inspired partly by his own experience of helping his brother beat an addiction.
"It was a very hard change to make at the time because the drug issue involves lots of prejudices," he said. "You just need to rid yourselves of prejudice and take an intelligent approach."
Officials have not yet worked out the cost of the program, but they expect no increase in spending, since most of the money was diverted from the justice system to the public health service.
In Portugal today, outreach health workers provide addicts with fresh needles, swabs, little dishes to cook up the injectable mixture, disinfectant and condoms. But anyone caught with even a small amount of drugs is automatically sent to what is known as a Dissuasion Committee for counselling. The committees include legal experts, psychologists and social workers.
Portugal's drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons | Fox News
NoNukes
Gold Member
Ending the war on drugs would save a lot of money, not to mention the amount of money made if you legalized and taxed drugs.
Wry Catcher
Diamond Member
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- #172
The more katzndogz posts the more I think s/he is or wants to be a card carrying member of the Neo Nazi Party, or suffers an Antisocial personality disorder which at least needs to be ruled out.
BlindBoo
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Either way, he/she is sick and should seek help.
Borillar
Platinum Member
They should put an end to the "War on (some) Drugs" here in the US. It has been an abject failure. It has just created enormous police state agencies like the DEA, and infringes upon our freedom. Just legalize drugs and deal with addiction as a medical issue - just like alcohol.
KevinWestern
Hello
When it comes to Marijuana specifically, I like to use the phrase "the juice isn't worth the squeeze". That sums up practically everything.
We spend billions of dollars a year, lock up millions of non-violent offenders, and direct $'s and business to illegal cartels with ruthless bosses and for what? Because we want to make it slightly more difficult for people to purchase marijuana? Lol. Is that all we gain?
60% of adults still use marijuana.
Question is do we want them buying from violent criminals via an underground system, or would we rather them buy from hardworking Americans who grow within the US.
We spend billions of dollars a year, lock up millions of non-violent offenders, and direct $'s and business to illegal cartels with ruthless bosses and for what? Because we want to make it slightly more difficult for people to purchase marijuana? Lol. Is that all we gain?
60% of adults still use marijuana.
Question is do we want them buying from violent criminals via an underground system, or would we rather them buy from hardworking Americans who grow within the US.
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paulitician
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It's not our call on what crops other Nations want to grow. Our Military should not be used to go to foreign Nations to burn crops. It's one of the reasons the Afghan War has become such a miserable mess. We took our eye off the ball there. Our Soldiers should not be used in that fashion. Sovereign Nations can do as they see fit. If we want to keep Drugs out of our own Nation, than so be it. There are ways to do that. But that being said, we do need to find other more modern & humane ways of dealing with this issue. Non-violent Drug users don't belong in Prisons along side brutal murderers, rapists, and child molesters. Treatment is the more logical way to go. Our Justice System just needs to catch up with the times. The old way just isn't the right way.
Vox
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Vox
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you guys are simply idiots, which for you, being leftards, is not surprising.
The style she is posting is called grotesque.
Look it up in the dictionary
BlindBoo
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you guys are simply idiots, which for you, being leftards, is not surprising.
The style she is posting is called grotesque.
Look it up in the dictionary
Whatever you say rabbit-writie.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo]What A Maroon! - YouTube[/ame]
Mad_Cabbie
Gold Member
- Banned
- #180
you guys are simply idiots, which for you, being leftards, is not surprising.
The style she is posting is called grotesque.
Look it up in the dictionary
How about get back on topic? This is a very good subject and you are ruining this discussion for everyone.
Thanks.
I think that the war on drugs was a huge mistake - the only remorse that people seem to have is that we weren't tougher on it. Like that ever worked in the first place.
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