Thread: Ex-Mexico president calls for legalizing drugs

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Originally Posted by TheOstrich

I greatly respect your opinions, but disagree. Our own people (American entrepreneurs) would be manufacturing and selling the marijuana and possibly other drugs...probably in special stores (as you have liquor stores, perhaps you would have "drug" stores). (actually, that's kinda funny!)

The Mexican drug cartels would be largely out of business in the USA; they would still be in business in Mexico and in countries where drugs are illegal. Of course, they may switch over into human smuggling exclusively in the USA (even more than they are now) which obviously isn't good.

In Afghanistan, we had the opportunity to stamp-out opium/heroin production, but we didn't do it, because unfortunately their economy relies on opium production. If we had taken a hard-line and destroyed the opium, it would have driven even more Afghanis against the United States. So we didn't go after it, but one could argue that our population is suffering for that decision, as more and more heroin infiltrates our country from Afghanistan.

I think that drugs and prostitution are two areas where the government should just stay out of the way. In the case of drugs, try to educate the public to the dangers of them, and find ways to treat people, instead of locking them up, which turns users into felons and ruins their lives even more. By fighting the illegal drugs, we actually create young drug dealers in low-income neighborhoods who kill each other and kill innocent people with stray bullets. If drugs were legalized, people wouldn't kill one another over them...you would still have theft/burglaries because desperate people need money to buy drugs...but you wouldn't have the indiscriminant violence that plagues so many of our cities.

And in the case of marijuana, you don't have many car accidents relating to marijuana smoking, but you have many car accidents caused by the abuse of alcohol (which is a legal product). Marijuana is actually less dangerous than hard alcohol, yet one is legal, while the other remains illegal.

That's the point of view that I'm presenting, although I'm undoubtedly in the minority.

Ostrich

"you don't have many car accidents relating to mariguana smoking" .....maybe, but you do have Amtrak accidents (and that's plural) - check the records.

Chemical dependency users don't control the drug, the drug controls the user.

If this country isn't careful with its laissez-faire attitude toward drugs, including mariiguana, it could come to an end with a solution similar to that of China. Remember how Mao took care of Chinas drug problem. If the powers that be, who are sympathetic to who the monster Mao was, have their way and ever take permanent hold of this Republic, it won't be pretty. Think it can't happen? Be careful what you wish for.

Perhaps we should make nicotine cigarettes, alcohol, and guns illegal, following the logic that we should keep marijuana, cocaine, meth, etc illegal. Cigarettes, alcohol, and guns kill many, many people in our country each year.

Of course I'm being cynical (above), but throwing massive amounts of money and resources at the drug war is not the answer. It is not something that you can stop, like illegal immigration. You have to get at the root cause of the problem. The root cause is the user themselves. They have obvious psychological and self-esteem problems which forces them to use the drugs in the first place. Some of them use the drugs recreationally as well. You have to figure out a way to keep people from using them in the first place. Once you do, the market will begin to dry-up.

Our federal government over the past 30 years or more has thrown massive amounts of money into public education, and the schools are worse today than they were 30 years ago. They've dedicated unprecedented resources against illegal drugs, and the problems simply escalate.

And while I sympathize with going after drug kingpins, why would you want to go after drug users, and ultimately throw them into jail? Making felons out of them only escalates their problems. How are we as a society supposed to turn them around and make them productive citizens when they can't get a job because they've done jail or possibly prison time for their addictions?

There are no simple solutions. If you destroy the Mexican drug cartel, another drug cartel will take its place. As long as there is demand, there will be someone to supply that demand. Our borders should be secured against illegal immigration, illegal drugs, and for that matter, illegal cargo of any type (counterfeit goods, for example). But when it comes to drugs, like any addiction, you must do more than secure the borders and go after drug dealers/kingpins. The law-enforcement approach has never worked, nor will it ever.

Ostrich