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| The War onDrugs? |
| Illicit drugs are harmful and we must continue to prosucute this war for the greater good. |
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23% |
[ 9 ] |
| Illicit Drugs are harmful to the health of every individual so we must prevent them from using them for their own good. |
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0% |
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| End it; enough lives have been lost in this futile exercise, though I don't condone drug use myself. |
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38% |
[ 15 ] |
| Dude, I've got the munchies!!! |
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38% |
[ 15 ] |
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| Total Votes : 39 |
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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 Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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Bob Barr in the HuffPo for those oof you interested.
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As both a U.S. Attorney and Member of Congress, I defended drug prohibition. But it has become increasingly clear to me, after much study, that our current strategy has not worked and will not work. The other candidates for president prefer not to address this issue, but ignoring the failure of existing policy exhibits both a poverty of thought and an absence of political courage. The federal government must turn the decision on drug policy back to the states and the citizens themselves.
My change in perspective might shock some people, but leadership requires a willingness to assess evidence and recognize when a strategy is not working. We are paying far too high a price for today's failed policy to continue it simply because it has always been done that way.
It is obvious that, like Prohibition's effort to eradicate alcohol usage, drug prohibition has not succeeded. Despite enormous law enforcement efforts -- including the dedicated service of many thousands of professional men and women -- the government has not halted drug use. Indeed, the problem is worse today than in 1972, when Richard Nixon first coined the phrase "War on Drugs." |
More...
Also, Obama picked drug war hawk Joe Biden as his running mate. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| I think most drugs should be legalized. In the meantime, I don't do any because I don't want my money going to the kind of vicious criminal syndicates destroying Mexico and making life difficult in other countries. People who do do drugs should face up to where their money goes. |
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Jandar
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Hater Depot wrote: |
| I think most drugs should be legalized. In the meantime, I don't do any because I don't want my money going to the kind of vicious criminal syndicates destroying Mexico and making life difficult in other countries. People who do do drugs should face up to where their money goes. |
Same thing could be said for gas and oil. |
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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This is just nuts! More than 7,000 related murders in Mexico related to the drug trade this year. More than 1000 deaths in the past 48 days. Not a single one of these people had to die.
El Universal |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| ^I saw that video a long while ago. The only conclusion I mad is why not medical marijuana? At least from what I remember. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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Koveras
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:13 am Post subject: |
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Two fascinating books:
1. The Chemical Muse by Hillman. It's about the widespread use of entheogenic drugs in classical Greece and Rome (and just about everywhere else).
2. Drug Warriors and Their Prey by Miller. Uses the drug war as a case study to show how the US is a police state. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:32 pm Post subject: |
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Hit Men Kill Mexican Hero's Family:
More than a dozen hit men carrying AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles burst into a house in eastern Mexico around midnight Monday, gunning down several relatives of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo, the 30-year-old who was hailed as a national hero last week after being killed in a battle that left drug lord Arturo Beltr�n Leyva dead. Mr. Angulo's mother, aunt, a sister and a brother were killed in the attack Tuesday.
Another sister was badly wounded and remained in critical condition, according to Rafael Gonz�lez, the attorney general of Tabasco, the Gulf Coast state where the shootings took place. |
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126149866534701603.html |
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thecount
Joined: 10 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 3:24 am Post subject: |
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As a libertarian, I have a had a hard time reconciling my heart with my head on this one.
Normally, I am of the opinion that if it is not going to unreasonably inconvenience other people, that you should be able to do whatever you want.
However, after some searching, and dealing with my own personal frustration of knowing people caught in a spiral they desperately tried - and failed - to escape, there has to be something more.
I think I have found it.
The distinction lies in the nature of addiction - at which point does an addict stop exercising his free will?
The legalization of Marijuana and other drugs that have not proven to be chemically addictive past a certain tolerance or level should be done.
However, substances that are proven to be highly addictive -and this would go beyond drugs to include such things as pain pills and cigarettes- would be intensely regulated.
A non-smoker myself, I have fought for smoker's rights my entire life, as I perceived them as being unfairly targeted and scapegoated (which they are). Cancer is not my concern; if someone wishes to smoke a nicotine-free cigarette that would somehow cause lung cancer twice as fast, I would have no problems. However, I feel that highly addictive substances should be the ones with controls.
Does that make sense to anyone else? |
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:26 am Post subject: |
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| Just stop throwing people in jail. |
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Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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| thecount wrote: |
| Does that make sense to anyone else? |
Yes, I think so. Marijuana and ecstacy are benign enough to be on open sale. And drugs such as heroin should be heavily regulated so that those chronically-addicted can get a cheap and legal fix, yet ensuring those who casually (or for the first time) use the drug are prevented from doing so thanks to the unavailability of it on the black market. Seems straightforwardly do-able to me. |
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Seems straightforwardly do-able to me. |
Nice prose  |
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thecount
Joined: 10 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Sergio Stefanuto wrote: |
| thecount wrote: |
| Does that make sense to anyone else? |
...And drugs such as heroin should be heavily regulated so that those chronically-addicted can get a cheap and legal fix... |
I just don't know where I stand on addiction. Even if the drug were not harmful at all...say, if it was not even a drug, but strawberries.
If there were highly addictive strawberries, I don't know if I'd want to make them legal. They don't pose a threat to anyone's health, they don't impair the senses in any of the traditional senses...but addiction basically holds the user hostage. Perhaps there's no other way - perhaps government regulation would allow for identification and intervention. I don't know.
I just really don't like the general idea of the government controlling a substance I am addicted to. In my paranoia, I can see all sorts of horrible potential outcomes. |
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UknowsI
Joined: 16 Apr 2009
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| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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| In my opinion, legalization is a way to try to solve the problem after it has gotten out of hand. I would much prefer if it never came to the stage where legalization was necessary. So I hope they keep on the strict rules in Korea, Japan and Singapore. Drugs doesn't do much good, and if we could magically remove them all, then that would have been fine with me. I don't really know the situation in the US well, so maybe it's appropriate there. |
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