The Drug War

[Confederate Kahanist]

What do you guys think of this:

[Secularbeliever]

His points are largely correct.  The profits that drug dealers make are due to the risks they take to deliver a criminally banned substance.  However, I think that drug use is an awful thing.  I think I have a reasonable solution.

Legalize drug use for adults but have a death penalty for selling drugs to minors with wide enforcement.  Very few people take up drug use in their 20s or 30s so if drugs can successfully be kept out of the hands of minors they will dry up as a market which can be above ground for the remaining addicts.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Why legalize anything? The drug economy exists because there is little or no real legal threat with teeth to most dealers. We have lost the "drug war" for the same reason we lost Vietnam. There was no will to win.

Does Singapore have a drug problem?

Execute a couple dozen low-level pushers AND bigger ones too on national television and tell me we'll still have a drug problem after that.

[Secularbeliever]

We have not waged a low level war on drugs.  We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars and are currently incarcerating tens if not hundreds of thousands of people for drug offenses. We have invaded the privacy of millions of honest citizens.  While I would have no problem executing drug dealers as they currently exist, especially those who sell to minors, you might have noticed that the death penalty is fading away not growing.

In the early 70s Governor Rockefeller, in New York, had passed and signed draconian drug laws with life sentences for minor dealers of lesser drugs.  Most drug dealers end up in prison or dead from other drug dealers at a relatively young age as it is now and that does not deter them.

If you were serious about stopping drug dealing the most effective method would be to squeeze the demand side not the supply side.  There are enough recreational users of drugs who might stop using if the penalties were severe enough.  As a society I don't think we are willing to do that.

[Tag-MehirTzedek]

 The root is not the drugs, its society itself that is problematic. The drugs and drug use are the symptoms of a decaying society. And making penalties and regulations won't solve the problems (as we see) and only add other problems as well (as pointed out in the video).

[Dr. Dan]

Here's the problem with legalizing drugs. The reason why so many people like to use it is simply because it is illegal.  Once you take the fun out of it by legalizing it, then they will turn to other more evil things which are illegal.

Tag is right..society is F-ed up.  Need to fix the moral decay in such a way that rebellious people will find it to be cool to be righteous.

[Secularbeliever]

Here's the problem with legalizing drugs. The reason why so many people like to use it is simply because it is illegal.  Once you take the fun out of it by legalizing it, then they will turn to other more evil things which are illegal.

Tag is right..society is F-ed up.  Need to fix the moral decay in such a way that rebellious people will find it to be cool to be righteous.

Very interesting, but convoluted, approach to the issue.  So you think drugs act as a safety valve to keep people who would otherwise cause more trouble too stoned and lethargic to do so?  That is similar in thinking to people (largely Black) who used to claim (maybe they still do) that drugs are used to keep the Black people from rising up against the power structure.  An offshoot of that was the theory that the CIA was behind the crack epidemic.

[Dr. Dan]

Very interesting, but convoluted, approach to the issue.  So you think drugs act as a safety valve to keep people who would otherwise cause more trouble too stoned and lethargic to do so?  That is similar in thinking to people (largely Black) who used to claim (maybe they still do) that drugs are used to keep the Black people from rising up against the power structure.  An offshoot of that was the theory that the CIA was behind the crack epidemic.

No, I think that drugs are things that are done by young people at first because they think it's cool..and the reason why they think it's cool is because the bad kids are doing it to go against the rules.  Now you take those rules away, they will turn to worse and more dangerous things.

Why do adults do it?  It can start out with when they were kids and they continued, but I'm sure a lot of adults start with pot, for example, also due to peer pressure. ("Yeh, I'm an adult. I can control myself. Let me try something I never had a chance to do when I was younger.")  Again, it's that attitude of, "If I don't get caught, it won't hurt me or hurt anyone."

Furthermore, many adults may start to abuse drugs because of troubles that are taking place in life whether it is nervousness, anxiety, broken heartedness, shyness in public places etc.  Again this stems from peer pressure and the absence of Gd and faith in one's life.  There is this notion that human beings feel they are entitled to everything.  Nobody is entitled to anything.  Even with hard work, there is no guarantee to get the result one is looking for.  However, with hard work, the odds are in one's favor. Self-esteem, faith, and Gd..and then a network of good friends and family will help keep someone away from the falsities that drugs cause in one's behavior and mind.

[Chai]

North Korea also has a 0 drug problem lol.

This "war on drugs" is a new thing in history mainly because of the new man made drugs out there. marijuana would not even be considered a gate way drug to heroin before heroin was synthesized !.or coke , meth , pills etc.

[White Israelite]

Axl Rose does make a good point about the drug issue in Singapore not existing and essentially they have been so successful in creating a culture that literally fears breaking the law (to the point of going to jail for spitting on a sidewalk).

The other issues, we can look back far enough where Al Capone became successful in Chicago because Alcohol was illegal and this pushed for violent mafias to take advantage of the bootlegging and created a whole criminal industry, some will say that by legalizing alcohol, it reduced the mafia influence but you still see the effects of the various DUI's, alcohol related deaths, and the other issues that Alcohol has created. So while the mafias and cartels cease to exist, the issues from that drug continue to exist.

Now for the war on drugs, by legalizing Marijuana or other drugs, you may end up killing off the supply of that specific drug but then you have to take into account the issues that would be caused with those hard drugs legalized. I smoke cigars occasionally, and maybe once a year will drink 2 glasses of rum and that's about it, but there are serious considerations as well that by legalizing the drugs, then they will likely be regulated or taxed and that isn't going to end illegal distribution of the drugs.

Look at the pharmaceutical industry, the drugs are regulated and there is no shortage of illegal steroids floating around, Canadian pharmacies, and oxycodone or prozac floating around on the streets for $80.00 a pill.

As for my personal view on drugs, I think hemp makes a great material for clothing and rope but I honestly rather not take a position on this, but I see no benefit to legalizing drugs, unfortunately in the case of making drugs illegal as well, it's not necessarily done in an effort to keep people safe, but moreso for profit both from corrupt government and the cartels. The drug industry is a dirty industry and a lot of people have lost their lives due to the psychotic drug cartels. When the economy is so bad that the only way to save it is by running a meth lab out of your house, we know that this country is in deep [censored].

[Maimonides]

Why legalize anything? The drug economy exists because there is little or no real legal threat with teeth to most dealers. We have lost the "drug war" for the same reason we lost Vietnam. There was no will to win.

Does Singapore have a drug problem?

Execute a couple dozen low-level pushers AND bigger ones too on national television and tell me we'll still have a drug problem after that.

The U.S. government is right now HELPING grow the drugs and ship it to the U.S. by protecting drug growers in Afghanistan. It is insane that our taxpayer dollars are helping bring the drugs, and then we are arresting people for purchasing those very same drugs.



As for executing people, the Supreme Court basically has interpreted the 8th Amendment to only allow the death penalty for homicide crimes.

It is simple economics for the most part. If something is in demand it will be sold, so we have to determine how much we are willing to do in order to stop it. Frankly, drug abuse (not drug selling) should be treated as social problem like alcoholism, and not a criminal problem.

As for drug sellers on the streets, if drugs were legalized like alcohol they would be put out of business.

The fact is the drug war has never been about stopping drugs. Instead it has been used by the government to chip away at our constitutional rights, and give the state more power over our lives.

[Deer Man 420]

The U.S. government is right now HELPING grow the drugs and ship it to the U.S. by protecting drug growers in Afghanistan. It is insane that our taxpayer dollars are helping bring the drugs, and then we are arresting people for purchasing those very same drugs.



As for executing people, the Supreme Court basically has interpreted the 8th Amendment to only allow the death penalty for homicide crimes.

It is simple economics for the most part. If something is in demand it will be sold, so we have to determine how much we are willing to do in order to stop it. Frankly, drug abuse (not drug selling) should be treated as social problem like alcoholism, and not a criminal problem.

As for drug sellers on the streets, if drugs were legalized like alcohol they would be put out of business.

The fact is the drug war has never been about stopping drugs. Instead it has been used by the government to chip away at our constitutional rights, and give the state more power over our lives.

Great post, i think only marijuana should be legal only for medicinal purposes. The CIA probally sells the heroin / opium from afganistan to the USA dealers.

[Secularbeliever]

Great post, i think only marijuana should be legal only for medicinal purposes. The CIA probally sells the heroin / opium from afganistan to the USA dealers.<<

Medical marijuana as it exists in California is a sick joke.  Unscrupulous Doctors will give a medical card to anyone who pays their fee, which is as little as $50.  The kid I mentioned in the other thread got a card and then died of a drug overdose.  The guy who gave him a medical card deserves to be put in prison, or alone in a room with his parents for ten minutes.  This kid went to rehab as an alternative to 3 years in prison.  Any Doctor with a shread of integrity would have told this kid, the last thing he needed was marijuana.

[t_h_j]

Great post, i think only marijuana should be legal only for medicinal purposes. The CIA probally sells the heroin / opium from afganistan to the USA dealers.<<

Medical marijuana as it exists in California is a sick joke.  Unscrupulous Doctors will give a medical card to anyone who pays their fee, which is as little as $50.  The kid I mentioned in the other thread got a card and then died of a drug overdose.  The guy who gave him a medical card deserves to be put in prison, or alone in a room with his parents for ten minutes.  This kid went to rehab as an alternative to 3 years in prison.  Any Doctor with a shread of integrity would have told this kid, the last thing he needed was marijuana.

you're saying a kid died from a marijuana overdose?

[Secularbeliever]

No I am saying a non scumbag Doctor would have told him to stay away from drugs not prostituted himself and his license for the $50 or $100 he got for the card.