We need to legalize all drugs NOW to end the drug war in Mexico,

[apples and oranges]

the United States, and other places around the world. Pre-school children in Mexico shouldn't have to hide under their desks to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of feuding drug lords.

I don't use drugs and I have a poor impression of people who do, but it's time for all drugs to be legalized so that we can free up the prisons and violent crime surrounding the illegal drug trade. A lot of innocent people are dying. We have an obligation to change something before things get worse.

Teacher praised for calming students during shootout



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43218814#43218814

[theophilus]

1. I wish we would do this. I am afraid that too much money is being made

by too many powerful people in the U.S. The American people seem to agree that we should waste billions so that people who enjoy smoking mj, etc. can't "get away with it". Maybe when thousands/millions of Americans start lacking food and shelter because of our wasteful "war" spending things will change. I hope we get way ahead of the curve. This needs to be trumpeted but the corporate media will not do the job.

[sharesunited]

2. Several points of disagreement.

1. You can seize contraband without depriving people of liberty. Lower the stakes.

2. Do you envision over-the-counter sale of all prescription drugs presently stored behind the glass at the CVS and the Walgreen's?

3. This ought to be a war on guns and ammo. One which does not experiment with the deliberate placement of guns and ammo in the hands of killers to monitor how arms flow.

[LynneSin]

4. I would have to agree - for some drugs it would better to decriminalize it

There should be punishment for using it and stronger punishment for being caught with high quanities of it (AKA - distribution/sales). But putting users in jail only makes the problem worse. The money we are spending to house non-violent criminals in our jails could be better used to help fund rehabilitation programs to clean these people up.

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. I think that would intensify the violence, frankly. nt

[Fumesucker]

5. Absolutely..

Why just the other day I witnessed a running gun battle with automatic weapons between a Budweiser truck and a Coors truck..

[Dreamer Tatum]

15. So the cartels will just shrug their shoulders and close up shop?

I doubt that.

The only way the cartels will vanish is if drugs become as freely available as groceries. Otherwise they maintain their incentive to bring their product to market, by any means necessary.

[Fumesucker]

16. So, when was the last gun battle between alcohol distributors _you_ saw?

Alcohol is very nearly as freely available to adults as groceries in the USA and there is for all practical purposes no violence associated with its distribution.

Make it that way for other psychoactive substances and you will get the same results, why fight over it when you can go to the convenience store and buy some safely and legally.

[palmtree guy]

23. nope

cartels are into waaayyyy more than just drugs

[The Midway Rebel]

6. Yeah, because that is exactly happened in Portugal when they leagalized drugs.

Oh wait. That didn't happen.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization

[apples and oranges]

19. Decriminalization vs full legalization

It's interesting that decriminalization alone brought down crime in Portugal. At this point, I don't think a simple decriminalization would stop the violence associated with drugs in the US and Mexico. Due to demand, the drug dealers would still have an incentive to be violent.

[The Midway Rebel]

22. Incentive, maybe.

Without cash, they'd be without the means.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. I think you think wrong.

The cartels are fighting over what is not quite, but nearly, a monopoly on an illicit product. If people could grow their own without facing jail, tens of thousands would. There are millions of pot smokers who don't particularly fear being caught with a bag, but who would never dare try raising their own because of the automatic implication that they are growing to sell, meaning a lot more than a fine. The fact is, most people buy from just other people. As you go into higher quantities those 'other people' have increasing contact with criminals for whom the drugs is only one aspect of their criminal activities. Legalize pot and the big supplier won't be the cartel boss, but the farmers' market.

As for harder drugs, when pot was decriminalized in Holland the hard drug use actually declined - people didn't have to deal with criminal dealers to get pot.

The drug cartels would stop their wars, just as the mafia stopped its booze wars once alcohol was legalized. When's the last time you heard of the CEO of Jack Daniels setting up a hit on Absolut?

So WHY, exactly, do you think the violence would increase?

[JonLP24]

11. The primary reason there is violence

is because the business is underground.

[slackmaster]

8. Ineffective solution to a problem that is not even ours

I say decriminalize drug use because it's the right thing to do.

[Fumesucker]

9. Alcohol was "decriminalized" during Prohibition..

There were no laws against private consumption or possession of alcohol, only against sales, manufacture and importation.

And yet Al Capone became infamous.

[slackmaster]

12. Now it's heavily regulated, but we still have bootleggers, moonshiners, and rum-runners

I support legalization for personal, private cultivation and use of any species of plant.

[Fumesucker]

13. When was the last time you heard of a shootout between alcohol distributors?

Legal or illegal..

Not to mention that not everyone has a plot of ground they can grow plants on, lots of people live in apartments and other places with no access to anything resembling a garden.

[RainDog]

20. you are speaking the truth, fumesucker

prohibition creates the violent trade and the profits that fuel it.

if drug addiction is treated as a health problem and those who are addicted have access to clean needles, cheap product AND treatment programs - Portugal demonstrates that the use of addictive drugs decreases.

some people have successfully used cannabis to wean themselves from addictive but legal pain killers, as well.

It is most cost effective to treat addiction and the drugs behind them as a health issue rather than one of punishment - and in the case of prohibition itself, yes, we also have an example of the violence that is the RESULT not the cause of alcohol prohibition.

When people have access to things without resorting to illegal purveyors, they will chose a legal means. We have proof of this.

[Marblehead]

10. banks make

huge profits laundering drug money, private prisons make huge profits incarcerating pot heads, it's a win win.

[JVS]

14. Bring on the laudanum!

[Cannikin]

17. In my experience, nothing in politics happens "now" except war.

[Fumesucker]

25. TARP Proposed on Sept 19, 2008, enacted Oct 3, 2008

That's as close to "now" as you're likely to get in politics..

[pitohui]

18. this argument makes no sense at all..."think of the children..." and SURRENDER???

why would legalizing drugs in the united states have any impact on the drug war in mexico? if anything, it would make it more important than ever to establish your own family as the one that will control the flow of drugs -- this may in fact be what we're seeing now, some cartel WILL be controlling the pot trade when it's de facto legalized

moscow now has more billionaires than any country in the world, the few evil doers who positioned themselves wisely own everything, and the general population has lost 7 years off their life expectancy since 1989

"legalizing" capitalism didn't make it less deadly, indeed, it made it more so

sometimes when you're in a shooting war, "SURRENDER" is NOT the best option or even an option that exists if you give a fuck about the people being victimized

what people seem to miss is that there are more legal drugs in america than at any time in human existence, you would think every druggie and junkie in the country would have OD'd long ago on all the percocet and oxycotin floating around, but they just keep on keeping on, and being able to get their drugs legally, as they often do, hasn't done fuck-all to stop the drug wars around here, beer is completely legal, it's cheap as hell in any walmart, and yet the stupid-ass junkies insist on smoking crack

legalization won't help those children, there may or may not be other benefits to legalization, but right now i'm not seeing what they are

the countries that are not fighting drug wars are the countries that just execute the damn dealers with no questions, not many kids being shot in drive-bys in singapore

[The Midway Rebel]

21. So you are suggesting prohibition works?

So you are against 'surrender'. Does that mean you think we should escalate the war on drugs?

"why would legalizing drugs in the united states have any impact on the drug war in mexico?"

Is this a serious question? If so, here is your answer:

http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/29/in-the-drug-war-drugs-are-winn

[Fumesucker]

24. As you say, beer is readily available in the stores..

And yet we don't see any violence with respect to alcohol distribution despite the fact that alcohol is one of the most violence inducing drugs there is strictly due to its psychopharmalogical effects. The vernacular is replete with phrases that recognize this fact, barroom brawl, ten feet tall and bulletproof, don't listen to him it's the liquor talking, mean drunk and so on.

When was the last time you saw a drive-by shooting by an alcohol distributor against another alcohol distributor?

Is Singapore *really* the model you think the USA should follow?