[Perry: US troops could aid Mexico's drug fight]. Perry is an idiot. Spend even more money we don't have, kill more US soldiers, and push Mexico closer to a full scale revolution all to fight a failed drug war that could be resolved with the stroke of a pen. Does anyone really want a guy who thinks like that running this country?
tnb
Showing posts with label drugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drugs. Show all posts
6.02.2011
War on Drugs
BBC News - Global war on drugs 'has failed' say former leaders
The War on Drugs is the greatest government failure of my lifetime.
tnb
The War on Drugs is the greatest government failure of my lifetime.
tnb
5.14.2011
Drugs
GinAndTaco's, one of my favorite sites, thinks the drug war is about getting the bottom 20% of society out of the way. Now, I agree that the drug laws in this country are stupid and that the bottom 20% are generally the most imprisoned group but the claim that drug laws exist as a way for the elite class to handle the bottom 20% seems pretty far out there to me.
I see our drug laws more as regulation left over from a more, puritan, innocent, less-educated time when people really thought drugs were bad and making them illegal would really benefit society. Sure, there were people who saw the laws as a path to power and money and pushed for them but generally, to the masses, I think drugs laws sounded like something that would work, solve a problem they could see.
Today, we see the effects of those laws. We see that the problems of prohibition, the organized crime, corruption, and violence on a global scale, are worse for society than the individual drug use itself. Yet the drug laws remain, kept in place by greed of the current players and the ineffectiveness of our national government. Law enforcement, state and local governments, the legal profession, the beer, wine, liquor, pharmaceutical industries, and the drug cartels themselves would lose billions if the drug laws were repealed so they all lobby, in their own way, to scare people to keep the laws in place.
I think we'll only change our approach to drug use when the understanding that "anti-drug laws are more dangerous than individual drug-use" comes to main street USA. That may be a while but we are getting closer, the fall of Mexico may be the tipping point.
A few Links:
The [GinAndTacos on Drugs] post. A great site, be sure to look around a little.
How much we're spending in the War-On_drugs [War on Drugs Clock]
States and law enforcement making money on drugs: [Indiana] [Indiana 2]
Mexico, failed state: [Mexico 1] [Mexico 2]
The United States of America has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 of national population (as of 2009), the highest in the world.[3] In comparison, Russia has the second highest 577 per 100,000, Canada has 117 per 100,000, and China has 120 per 100,000.[3] While Americans only represent about 5 percent of the world’s population, one-quarter of the entire worlds inmates are incarcerated in the United States.[4] [Encarceration rate - Wikipedia]
tnb.
I see our drug laws more as regulation left over from a more, puritan, innocent, less-educated time when people really thought drugs were bad and making them illegal would really benefit society. Sure, there were people who saw the laws as a path to power and money and pushed for them but generally, to the masses, I think drugs laws sounded like something that would work, solve a problem they could see.
Today, we see the effects of those laws. We see that the problems of prohibition, the organized crime, corruption, and violence on a global scale, are worse for society than the individual drug use itself. Yet the drug laws remain, kept in place by greed of the current players and the ineffectiveness of our national government. Law enforcement, state and local governments, the legal profession, the beer, wine, liquor, pharmaceutical industries, and the drug cartels themselves would lose billions if the drug laws were repealed so they all lobby, in their own way, to scare people to keep the laws in place.
I think we'll only change our approach to drug use when the understanding that "anti-drug laws are more dangerous than individual drug-use" comes to main street USA. That may be a while but we are getting closer, the fall of Mexico may be the tipping point.
A few Links:
The [GinAndTacos on Drugs] post. A great site, be sure to look around a little.
How much we're spending in the War-On_drugs [War on Drugs Clock]
States and law enforcement making money on drugs: [Indiana] [Indiana 2]
Mexico, failed state: [Mexico 1] [Mexico 2]
The United States of America has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 of national population (as of 2009), the highest in the world.[3] In comparison, Russia has the second highest 577 per 100,000, Canada has 117 per 100,000, and China has 120 per 100,000.[3] While Americans only represent about 5 percent of the world’s population, one-quarter of the entire worlds inmates are incarcerated in the United States.[4] [Encarceration rate - Wikipedia]
tnb.
4.03.2011
Drugs
Naked capitalism: Wachovia drug money
A company can process billions in drug money but someone selling 50$ worth of pot on the street would be in jail.
Our laws should focus more on actually sending someone to jail when corporations break the law. If this had been a private business or individual, the owner would be in jail and the business would be gone but a big corporation just pays a fine and goes back to business as usual.
tnb
A company can process billions in drug money but someone selling 50$ worth of pot on the street would be in jail.
Our laws should focus more on actually sending someone to jail when corporations break the law. If this had been a private business or individual, the owner would be in jail and the business would be gone but a big corporation just pays a fine and goes back to business as usual.
tnb
9.19.2010
Drugs: Booze vs. Pot
It's not "drugs" they care about. It whose drug.
You can be high as a kite on the job on legal pain killers or other mind bending legal prescription drugs, you can raise your kid with Ridlin or high-caffeine, sugar laden drinks, you can destroy yourself with alcohol, fat/chemical laden foods or the bible but if you smoked a joint last night and it shows up in your pee today, you're in deep shit.
Let corporate America have control of the Pot market and it would be legal tomorrow.
Political Irony › Booze vs. Pot
You can be high as a kite on the job on legal pain killers or other mind bending legal prescription drugs, you can raise your kid with Ridlin or high-caffeine, sugar laden drinks, you can destroy yourself with alcohol, fat/chemical laden foods or the bible but if you smoked a joint last night and it shows up in your pee today, you're in deep shit.
Let corporate America have control of the Pot market and it would be legal tomorrow.
Political Irony › Booze vs. Pot
9.17.2010
NAFTA vs Mexico
NAFTA was bad for the Mexican people too? You'd have never know that if you listened only to the US Media.
US drones prowl Mexico bicentennial
Free trade, fenced people
Many recent migrants had been farmers prior to NAFTA, when heavily subsidised US agricultural products flooded the Mexican market, destroying their livelihoods.
By 2004, ten years after the agreement was signed, 1.3 million farm jobs had disappeared in Mexico, according to a study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"Operation Gate Keeper [an earlier phase of border militarisation] was launched in 1994 when NAFTA went into effect and I don’t think that was coincidental," Boyce said.
"If you look at the impacts of NAFTA on the majority of people, especially on the demographics who are crossing the border, the arguments for NAFTA have been demonstrably unfounded."
Perhaps, the most lucrative legacy of NAFTA has been the expansion of the drug trade. And the drug gangs are following the basic premises of free trade style capitalism to their logical conclusion: buy low, sell high, make profit, and eliminate your competitors.
US drones prowl Mexico bicentennial
8.31.2010
Mexico Captures Top Drug Trafficker
NPR was playing this story like it was a big win for Mexico and the US drug war but I'd guess there are plenty of lower-level cartel members ready to move into this newly-opened position.
Mexico captures top drug trafficker - Americas - Al Jazeera English
The drug cartels will be around as long as there is demand and drugs are illegal. The demand isn't going away so the only answer is to decriminalize the product. Legalization of the product would turn the drug cartels into legitimate businesses with their turf protected by laws rather than guns and violence.
Mexico captures top drug trafficker - Americas - Al Jazeera English
The drug cartels will be around as long as there is demand and drugs are illegal. The demand isn't going away so the only answer is to decriminalize the product. Legalization of the product would turn the drug cartels into legitimate businesses with their turf protected by laws rather than guns and violence.
1.10.2010
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