The only thing drug gangs fear is legalisation
Posted on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 22:29 in World View
(The Independent): To many people, the "war on drugs" sounds like a metaphor, like the "war on poverty". It is not. It is being fought with tanks and sub-machine guns and hand grenades, funded in part by your taxes, and it has killed 28,000 people under the current Mexican President alone. The death toll in Tijuana – one of the front lines of this war – is now higher than in Baghdad. Yesterday, another pile of 72 mutilated corpses was found near San Fernando – an event that no longer shocks the country.
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One of the biggest dangers
One of the biggest dangers when taking drugs recreationally (and for some drugs, almost the only danger) is of a criminal conviction that can severely limit career and travel options and set young people on a path of criminality.
The very act of decriminalising drugs will actually instantly reduce the harm they cause.
Not to mention creating tax revenue to fund healthcare and education for drug addicts; freeing up police resources, regulating drug products so they aren't full of floor polish and tranquilizers, and cutting off income for gangs and terrorists.
The "War on Drugs" is one of the most counterproductive and costly wars ever fought.
Possession of cannabis should
Possession of cannabis should be decriminalized. It's criminalization, and the resulting crime, is a foolish waste of resources (particularly) in the current economic climate.
It is obvious that
It is obvious that legalisation would be the best option for control of supply, quality control, reducing health care costs, revenue generation, freeing up police resources to tackle other crimes and to cut off the main source of income for organised crime. As a matter of behavioural economics it is a no-brainer - The Economist has been advocating for years. But the shrill middle class will not understand it and it will never happen, even though their children are doing many many drugs than their parents think they are doing.
What should be even more
What should be even more obvious is that human leadership can only do the right thing up to a point. The citizens must also do their part. In Mexico the war on drugs will never be won because it is a war of the Government against its own people. If the Government wins a good portion of the Mexican people will lose because they have chosen not to follow the laws of that country for the betterment of self over country.
Maybe its just me but it seems that in Cayman if the people were to win the government would lose because they have chosen not to follow the rules of their own country for the betterment of self over country.
Very somber but excellent
Very somber but excellent article.
Sadly, what we are seeing in the world today is nothing but the ongoing principles upon which the comfortable, advanced and civilized western world was founded.
Terror, murder, destruction, aggression, war, greed, hate etc.
As I always say; This world is ROUND - nothing disappears into oblivion.
If we think the things outlined in this post are horrid - bear a thought for the poor souls on the other side of European aggression a few winks ago. Nothing was unthinkable during their quest for minerals, precious stones, spices, sugar and cotton - Escobar, Prezzie Coke and Osama bin Laden would look like kindergarten gangsters next to those guys.
The mistake the Western power circle made was believing that they had the ability and the power to say;
"Okay, that's enough - no more violence ... time to act lawful and "civilized!"
Anyway - enough philosophy :o)
Yes, the "War of Drugs" is an absolute joke - again, as with every other "confusing" dilemma in this world - just FOLLOW THE MONEY!!
Who wins from a "WAR" on drugs?
Who stands to suffer the most if said "WAR" was to suddenly disappear.
(For some reason the ridiculous shortcomings of our local criminal legal system springs to mind - hmmm!)
*Personally, I do believe that some of the bigger nations (notably USA) are secretly planning to bring an end to the "war on drugs" and introduce more sensible measures - but first they have to remove the standing power structure on the opposing side, hence the Tivoli Gardens / Coke fiasco a few months ago. Latin America / Mexico is just proving a tad bit more of a challenge for the authorities.*
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