Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big_Bird]

For those who've been following the dreadful events in Suffolk (5 women murdered in just 10 days) you may be aware that there is new discussion about how drugs can pull people into a life of prostitution, and that perhaps we should be looking at new ways of coping with drug use.

I think the government needs to seriously overhaul drug laws and spend more resources on helping people cope with their habits, if they can not successfully quit. It's unfortunate enough to be a drug addict without also finding yourself living on society's fringes as a prostitute or house burglar. Shouldn't we be finding ways of helping addicts live as normal lives as possible?

[SPINOZA]

CRUSH PROHIBITION! Prohibition is by far the largest cause of crime. Worldwide, annual drug profits are in excess of 400 billion dollars. This is 80 percent of total criminal turnover.

CRUSH PROHIBITION! public safety is endangered by armed gangs fighting over turf. In western cities, 80 percent of petty crime is related to drugs.

CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY PROHIBITION! Massive amounts of tax-payers' money are wasted fighting the crime that prohibition itself creates. In the United States, 15 billion dollars are fed into the federal drug control budget annually, and the total costs of property damage, police work and incarceration are a multiple of this amount.

SMASH PROHIBITION! Prohibition causes social and personal harm on a worldwide scale. Illegality, combined with addiction and sky-high black market prices, guarantees criminality and social decay.

BURN PROHIBITION! Prohibition doesn't have any of its intended effects. Crime rates soar, the number of drug users increases, and the health problem is made worse. Mmany police commissioners now are in favour of controlled provision of heroin by the state.

FLUSH PROHIBITION DOWN THE PAN! Moral standards are declining because of prohibition. Drug use and possession places ordinary people outside the law, which may cause disrespect for the rules and moral standards society wants to set. In Western societies, 80 percent of all crime is related to prohibition. If we are really concerned about morality, we must first remove the cause of all this crime - prohibition.

GIVE PROHIBITION A MISS! The 'drug scourge' is a hoax. The actual health problem which prohibition is supposed to solve is minor in comparison to other health problems. Mind you, I do not propose banning smoking and alcohol. Banning cigarettes would quadruple their existing cost on the black market.

Prohibition? Just say no. Kick the habit.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)

[jmbran11]

I agree with the last guy. Drug policies drive a lot crime upwards, not just prostitution. After all, there were plenty of hookers before crack. It's easy, quick money. I mean easy because it doesn't require a degree or references, not because it wouldn't be difficult.

In the U.S. the "war on drugs" has warped an entire generation and created a whole culture of street crime and an industrial prison system. Personally, I'd rather see it decriminalized and treated. But, people have been so conditioned that drugs are evil and perpetrator should be punished, despite all evidence that we have utterly failed to even slow down the rate of drug use and all the innocent people who have been caught in the crossfire.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Come now. A murderer is targeting prostitutes, and the villain for causing all this is drugs? Nice priorities, guys. How about trying to help the women who are falling into prostitution? How about trying to make their work safer? How about trying to catch the guy, Sherlocks?

Drugs cause problems, yes. But it's ridiculous to say that jailing a dorm student with a spliff is somehow connected with stopping Jack the Ripper II. For even these cheesy tabloids it's poor journalism.

Ken:>

[Wangja]

Americans ought to know well that prohibition fails.

Legalise it, control and tax it.

[Big_Bird]

[Big_Bird]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

[Big_Bird]

[Big_Bird]

Well drugs may well have played a direct role after all:

[SPINOZA]

Oh dear, no juicy prohibitionist conservative crap for me to rip into. I find it very hard to believe everyone in the CE forum is an antiprohibitionist.

Anyway, that the British state (the police no less) are giving prostitutes in the Ipswich area heroin substitutes and even, I've heard, money to purchase heroin on the black market (in order to deter further criminality and to promote safety) is very bad news for prohibition.

Eliminating the black market almost completely by making heroin (and other popular substances) legal - as a possible next step - seems overly optimistic however.

The reason addictive drugs will never be legalized (I'm guessing) is that public knowledge and education about drugs is very poor at kindest. Were the public to be educated as to these drugs actual potential for harm, every kid in Britain will go out and score some gear, knowing (a) they're unlikely to die (since all heroin deaths result from inattention, delay, due to fear of criminal repercussions), (b) they're definitely not going to incur any lasting harm, and (c) they're definitely not going to get immediately hooked. Drugs are anecdotally "every parent's worst nightmare". Fear of the big H, even amongst the younger generation currently in universities, is so immense that there exists deliberate unwillingness to listen to the truth, thus there will never be any pressure to legalize smack unless a government does it against public will. Fear of the Big H exists, of course, because its strict prohibition combined with addiction and black market expense, has caused sociological and health problems of immense proportions.

This is one issue - maybe there are more - where if one opposes the antiprohibitionist argument, one absolutely hasn't got a clue.

But - since the CE forum is full of staunch antiprohibitionists - I'm preaching to the converted!

[mnhnhyouh]

Another anti-prohibitionist here. I think, however, that only the safest alternatives for up, down and sideways should be made legal. I think that amphetamines have a lot more negative side effects than cocaine, so if you legalized and regulated cocaine, there would be no need to do the same for amphetamine.

But the current prohibition is not working, and is corrupting the three powers, legislative, judicial and enforcement.

If these substances were legalized and put under government control, like alcohol, the price could be reduced to half its current level, and the profits would be orders of magnitude higher than the money currently spent on education/treatment.

Then we could get some real money into these programs, and also save lots on law enforcement....

The only way you could lose here is if the use of these substances increased in a way that was not at the expense of alcohol use.

Most police I have talked to, and those who I have heard in the media would much prefer to deal with somebody high on marijuana or herion than alcohol....

h

[SPINOZA]

Excellent post, Mr Unpronouncable

We should also add that the USA has the worst possible combination: legal guns, illegal drugs. The reverse is the best possible combination in terms of general safety and the common good.

I too concentrate on heroin (particularly, but also.....) cocaine and the latter's derivative 'crack'.

Control of these substances should definitely be removed from the black market.

However, I'm at a loss to explain my belief that crystal meth should not be legalized. This is a weakness in my overall argument, although doesn't affect the truth of heroin needing to become legal. I just despise this substance. I've never used it and never will, but it just sounds absolutely terrible for one's health, whereas there is no evidence whatsoever that heroin (other than the possibility of untreated overdose) shortens life expectancy or is significantly detrimental to health. The latter is a revelation to most people, which is indicative of a stupidity so monstrous, given that heroin is metabolized back into its parent (morphine) when ingested and morphine is used all over the world as a painkiller (heroin too in many countries).

[igotthisguitar]

[SPINOZA]

I don't quite understand the relevance of those links, IGTG. Seemed like a buncha bible-bashin'....

Anyway....