If we did this, what happens to all the people employed in the drug war business (agents, prisons, weapons, etc)? Jobs, jobs, jobs will be lost!
In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.
A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government’s war on drugs summed up recently what he’s learned from his long career: “This war is not winnable.”
[...]
Growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials say—at least privately—that the biggest step in hurting the business operations of Mexican cartels would be simply to legalize their main product: marijuana. Long the world’s most popular illegal drug, marijuana accounts for more than half the revenues of Mexican cartels.“Economically, there is no argument or solution other than legalization, at least of marijuana,” said the top Mexican official matter-of-factly. The official said such a move would likely shift marijuana production entirely to places like California, where the drug can be grown more efficiently and closer to consumers. “Mexico’s objective should be to make the U.S. self-sufficient in marijuana,” he added with a grin.
[...]
If the war on drugs has failed, analysts say it is partly because it has been waged almost entirely as a la w-and-order issue, without understanding of how cartels work as a business.For instance, U.S. anti-drug policy inadvertently helped Mexican gangs gain power.
Gangs gaining power from trafficing in banned goods, huh, sounds like prohibition era results.
How about programs like intervention and jobs (real jobs, not pelosi jobs) to help curb demand?
Nah!!
“real jobs, not pelosi jobs”
hey parrot, whats the difference?
Let’s curb demand for beer, wine, and the hard stuff too!
Or, make the punishment a response to a crime (drunken driving is a good model). Load up on all the crap you want, at home, but don’t even think about leaving your residence else you’ll face large fines and jail time for public intoxication.
At this point, anyone who drives after having even one drink is inviting legal problems. Have an accident after one drink, even if it wasn’t your fault, and you’ll have a hard time. If the insurance companies started refusing to pay for your loss, because of one drink or hit, I bet some people would soon be without a car.
Criminalize neglect of responsibilities, not of substances.
The problem arose when the government tried to equate pot with heroin meth, and barbiturates. They were just not taken seriously after that.
If the implications of this weren’t so serious it would be an SNL skit for government stupidity. We’ve been though prohibition before and all it did was give rise to the gangsters. Now we’ve got the drug cartels.
I have an idea, decriminalize drugs but, how about the old english laws of death for pretty much everything, and make it retroactive. It should make the environmental groups happy fewer people less consumption of resources. It would make conservatives happy as they get the death penalty debate decided. Democrats are happy as health care costs decrease, and fewer folks in prison. Fewer poor people so rich folks are happy. Everybody gets their legal drugs, as long as you don’t get caught. See I solved all the problems over less than one beer. Oh and poor houses too.
Nice simple solution just like ending prohibition eliminated all the problems caused by alcohol. Probably won’t be able to smoke pot in a public place though.
I reluctantly accede to the growth of hemp and its sell. It’s use should follow the same rules as tobacco and alcohol.
If I were a company I still most likely wouldn’t hire you. It doesn’t do much for the little gray cells.
While Mexico is at it, a country with strong gun control laws, how are the cartel’s getting US manufactured automatic weaponry? That policy obviously failed, so why not make weapon ownership in Mexico entirely legal?
Legalizing drugs is okay with me but that is not going to get rid of gangs and crime. They won’t just go “okay, you win, we’ll go get jobs”. They will turn to even more violent crime like kidnapping.
Other things, like how we conduct trials and run our prisons, will have to change to end the criminal gangs.
How do communities/cities work in Mexico? Are the police in charge, and the populace lives in fear of everyone? Are their community organizations that protect the individual?
There’s no simple answer for Social problems.
How drug decriminalizations is working well in Holland and Portugal (which are countries with a strong social security and a peaceful, small population) but might not work at all in Mexico (a country with a whole lot more social insecurity and human rights problems).
Same thing with Public Health care, and how the European model, working perfectly in France and Scandinavian Countries, might not work at all in the States (unless people are willingly prepared to pay more taxes)
It is – of course – absolute bull.
The REAL reason for wanting to legalise it is because the various Treasuries can see all this money sloshing about and they can’t tax it.
Come on! It’s not too difficult to limit drugs, do it at source. Soldiers in Afghanistan are walking past field after field of poppies. Where on earth do the authorities think THAT product is going? A real, and by that I mean an unrestricted war on plantations by the US and Mexico as well as on dealers would severely restrict supply – surely that is as obvious as it is possible to be. Armies of soldiers from both sides would (if properly led, not restricted by ‘social’ concerns or political shenanigans) produce a huge reduction. Further, any person caught with drugs is dealt with in several ways, detained, forced into treatment, compulsory tested for long periods of time for abuse etc. The problem, as in so many cases is the inadequacies those charged with dealing with it. Be rather different if they were less job secure.
The obvious and inevitable answer to the problem is the destruction of the US Dollar. No money, no drugs. No gangs selling drugs. No commerce in addictive drugs. And the Mexicans will start going home! Prostitution will become rampant even what used to be middle class communities. Unfortunately, so will burglary, robbery and kidnapping.
The president and his political party are working on this solution….
The question is: Will our politicians give up the bribes from illegal marijuana for the safety of the public? The answer has consistently been NO!, but they are desperate for new funding they can put on the books instead of in their pockets. They are on the horns of a dilemma and will, obviously take the easiest way out.
#5 I agree. Governments thus brought the administration of justice into disrepute.
I don’t think there can be major change in the USA until the people who enforce the laws are convinced that they don’t make the laws. The obvious way to do that would be a change in the leadership of the drug enforcement agencies. Until then, it’s all just talk–or worse.
#15
“No dollar no drugs…”?!?!? WTF
Do You think there’s only one currency in the world?
Oh! you’re really saying: “devalue American economy and the troubles evaporate, but new ones arise.”
BULL!
There’s just one way to a better society: promote the people. Give them value. Either by education or by culture. And for that you need a rich economy.
There are problems with the plan though. First, the idea that these criminal gangs will just vanish if you take away their cash cow is ridiculous. They’ll move on to greener pastures and keep being the same old violent criminal gangs we hate and loathe. Second, no matter what Mexico does, there’s always another drug market somewhere, you’d have to legalize drugs worldwide, not just pot but *ALL* drugs, in order to have any beneficial effects and that’s insane. Third, someone said that ending prohibition ended all alcohol-related problems and that’s plainly untrue. Alcohol and alcoholism are still major problems in our culture, ask the thousands of people killed in drunk-driving accidents every year and the billions spent on alcoholic treatment programs. Just making something legal doesn’t make it safe.
#19 Legalized pot would be a “gateway” to legalization of all drugs? Less incarceration for hard drug users probably, but not legalization.
The government posited that pot is deadly dangerous. I don’t think anyone really believes that anymore.
I just can’t imagine a “Legalize Crack\Smack” movement, but lets try: …Toothless people with severe skin problems marching on government buildings to demand the ability to use…
…Doctors explaining to depressed people how to properly construct a crack pipe or to excited people how to prepare a syringe…
… Crack brownies and Heroin handicrafts(made from real poppy stems)…
Just too silly!