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Internet Drug Game Could Save Lives and Money
It could be a wonderful game, with shoot-em-up segments, sim-style strategy, morbid scenes of decayed inner-city neighborhoods, jut-jawed cops and Federal agents, droopy-drawered street drug vendors, and plenty of other colorful characters. Add in politicians, TV preachers, Colombian kingpins, middle-aged parents trying to keep their kids on the straight and narrow plus a bunch of furtive teenage drug experimenters, and you'd have roles in this MUD-variant for everyone who is interested in the drug war -- from either side.
Some players' roles would be predetermined. The U.S. government's drug policy chief would obviously get the Drug Czar role. George W. Bush would play the President. Congressmen, Senators, and agency heads could also mirror their real-life selves. A few taxpayers might whine about these officials getting paid to play games, but isn't the drug war nothing but a silly game anyway? And if it must be played, shouldn't it be played in a virtual environment where keeping a non-violent drug offender in prison doesn't cost taxpayers $20,000 or more per year, and lives aren't ruined or lost?
You can even argue that this game would be the most effective anti-drug policy the government could possibly have. If, indeed, video games have the potential to turn young people into killers, then hollow-faced, chronically sick game avatar junkies constantly searching for a high "by any means necessary" should steer plenty of kids onto the straight and narrow.
There are other drug-dealing games out there, but they don't have the scope, power, and visual ingenuity it will take to wean government drug warriors (not to mention people on the lucrative "dark side" of the fight) away from the non-virtual version. "Drug Czar" needs to be truly overwhelming, a game so vast that only the government can afford to produce it and make it freely available to players all over the world.
How much would all this cost to design and set up? $10 million? $20 million? Even a billion dollars would be a trifle compared to the cost of the offline version. And if it was an Open Source project (I'm sure SourceForge would be happy to host it, especially if the government kicked in a little pocket change to help with server maintenance), I'll bet volunteers from all over the world would help with development.
But remember, U.S.government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, so this isn't going to happen unless you write your elected representatives to tell them that you understand how much fun they are having with their war on drugs, and that you don't want want to take that pleasure away from them but would like them to stop playing it in real life and move it onto the Internet, where it would be less dangerous and more fun than the current version -- and probably at least as effective.
No, the war on drugs is expensive because there's money to be made off of it by our nations politicians and their croneys. This nation has a habit of declaring "war" on the most mindless shit in order to drum up public support. Since drugs are an emotionaly charged topic they get draged up around election time every year.
Are you really this paranoid about your Government? Whilst the X-Files was fairly enjoyable to watch, it has to be remembered that it was a work of fiction, and not a documentary on the secret workings of those in power.
Drugs are an emotionally charged subject because they kill people. It's as simple as that. Guns are also an emotionally charged subject because they kill people.
Fundamentaly the Drug problem represents a choice that this country must make. The people clamor for the government to "protect" them from this menace, but how?
Quite simply by ensuring that sentances are tough enough to make people think twice. People like Rockerfeller tried, but various liberals have been attempting to thwart such valiant efforts, making the penalties disproportional to the crime.
Singapore doesn't have hardly any drug use after all. So much for those that say harsh punishments don't work.
In short, you must choose between your freedom as it currently exists, or a drug free society.
I want to be free to raise my children without having to have them exposed to drugs. Simple as that.
The point? The way to use anything is with full disclosure of all the known risks and what can be done to mitigate them. If you find the benefits (which can be completely intangible) worth the risk, and you made an informed choice to take that risk, then you should be allowed to make the choice. (It's also worth noting that you then take the responsibility for dealing with said risks, and shouldn't come whining to Daddy Government to help you if you get bitten).
That said, the comparison to tobacco isn't very relevant, since the corporate powers that be have gone far out of their way to hide the risks. Any legalization effort should be made with the understanding that FULL information be provided about the substance in question, not just marketing crap.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Dope Wars: The ultimate drug game. Buy and sell, make a profit. Nobody has to die (you can run from the police rather than shooting), and you can even play it on a Palm Pilot.
Jethro
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Reminds me of the Star Trek episode where two planets are fighting a virtual war, and the "casualties" have to report to places to be neatly killed. Would this be the same idea? Would people killed in the game have to die?
Reality has a liberal bias
Really good implimentation of SlashCode, and really good stories about the drug war at SmokeDot
Reality has a liberal bias
Nice Troll... I'll bite.
The only thing I've been doing longer than going to AA & NA meetings is UNIX. After 10 years of watching people with various rates of success deal with addiction, I can honestly say that the war on drugs is the biggest piece of BS plaguing this country today.
No amount of laws will stop addiction, no amount of police will change peoples behaviors. First of all, an addict doesn't care about the consequences too terribly much. Yeah, they don't want to go to jail, but that's more of a not getting caught issue, not doing drugs is not an option.
One of the things that you first learn when dealing with addiction is that it is a disease and the drugs and alcohol are just a symtom of the problem. This disease is a spiritual, mental and physical one, which means you can't just take an antibiotic and be better, most people wind up addicted because of underlying emotional and mental issues which they haven't dealt with, most don't even know these issues exist. Recovering from addiction is more of a path of self discovery than simply keeping off the stuff.
You essentially have to figure out how to replace the high of whatever your brand of poison was with something that is productive, be it a zen like balance in your life, your family and friends or a new hobby. Getting into a state of mind where these things are as good as drugs in your mind is really hard.
Everyone I know who doesn't completely abstain from drugs b/c of addiction does drugs every now and then. My wife would rather smoke pot than drink a beer, as would most of our friends. The idea that more people will become addicted based on the availability of drugs is absurd, unless this country is full of people who are so unbalanced, emotionally and mentally that the second they try any drug they will become a bunch of junkies.
The real problems in this country are the lack of strong social structures. You probably know everyone on Friends better than your neighbors, and that goes doubly so for their kids. Kids are expected to act like little adults (Zero tolerence and all), even though the essence of being a teenager is being able to make mistakes and fall back to a safe environment to learn from them.
And why is it that we treat everyone like this? Cause we're all so busy chasing those short term goals, like the quarterly numbers, or we're working too damn hard cause our boss is chasing them. This society breeds addicts. It sets people up with the emotional and mental problems that will cause them to fall down that path.
This country needs to look at long term goals. Think about the GDP in 10 years, what happens when our children are falling apart and dysfunctional cause we've instilled this whacked out sense of priorities and values. Even if you teach your kids differently, this is what society is putting in they're little minds.
We need to treat addiction like a disease, rather than a character flaw. Ask anyone with experience in the area, professionally or otherwise (other than law enforcement maybe) will tell you that the issue needs to be treated as a disease not as criminal activity.
Give the drug interdiction budget to the ATF. Regulate drugs like alcohol and tabacco are. After all these are drugs that are more addictive and physically damaging than most that are illegal. Provide for treatment centers and prevention programs for kids with the proceeds from sin taxes on the drugs. Americans are used to paying a lot for drugs, so the sin taxes could bring in enough cash to allow us to reduce taxes on other things.
Continue with educating children about drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. Not that they will turn them into a bunch of addicts, but how they really affect people and how to deal with problems instead of covering them up with addiction.
I don't know how we might change this country to make it less obsessed with short term productivity and more interested in long term goals, such as raising a generation who will not allow this country to fall in the manner Rome did. Otherwise we're teaching a generation to welcome the bread and circuses.
We have to move from the self sufficient frontier attitude to that of a community, a society. Understand that in order to progress we must comprimise and cooperate, not banter around arguing why everyone should follow our holier than thou principles.
Anyway... enough rambling... I don't have all the answers, but I must say that where this country is headed now is completely insane.... and I've dealt with my share of insanity. We must do something to stop this now... perhaps moving away from the war on drugs will make people less likely to give up freedom for security and get away from the us vs. them mentality that says only bad guys need to worry about laws that invade privacy.
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
If that post were in a moderated environment it would be modded to -1 for troll. It's hardly worthy of a Slashdot story.
If anything needs revamping it's the US Durg Schedules stating 'how bad' each drug is. This is a political document, fueling most of the problems in the drug war.
While I'd agree that several items on the list need to be examined (marijuana for one) and several not on the list (tobacco) should be considered in an environment not tainted by politics or economics, I'm under no illusion that drugs like cocaine, heroin, and PCP are extremely dangerous, and should be kept out of the hands of children.
Also, to everyone who's saying "Drugs kill? Funny, I'm still alive." Well, those that have died can't very well speak out, can they? It's the same game that big tobacco plays so well.
Kevin Fox
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Kevin Fox
Yes, the War on Drugs is expensive, but that's because drugs are so addictive that people can't seem to stop taking them.
The only danger is sending out the wrong message. Drugs kill, and anyone advocating their use is little better than a killer.
Let's just get this clear: drugs kill. Drugs like alcohol kill every day. We don't make alcohol illegal (thus forcing the creation of a shadowy underworld and black market), we punish those who use it irresponsibly. Is alcohol addictive? Oh yeah! Just ask anyone who's gone through alcohol DTs....
Now, what would happen if we implemented restrictions on drugs (turning your back and saying, "you can never do this" is hardly an effective restriction)? Well, look at the Netherlands. Look at Belgium.
These are countries with a crime rate that make most 4-person midwest towns seem like downtown L.A. Why? Are these deeply moral people who cannot be tempted by the evils of marajuana and psychadelic mushrooms? Nope. They are simply, creating a legal vehicle for recreational drug use. What a shock. It turns out that the Netherlands (which has allowed Marajuana in "coffee shops" since the 70s) actually has a lower cocain and heroin addiction rate than the rest of Europe as well. After all, if you can get some recreational drugs legally, why would you go off and use something that makes you a criminal?
The "advocating their use is little better than a killer" line is just a little too over-the-top. Advocating the use of ANY substance without appropriate warnings is irresponsible, but certainly not "little better than a killer".
A friend of mine once suggested (not offered) that I try raw opium. He told me the risks, and I opted out. I think he's a heck of a lot better than a killer.
The only danger is sending out the wrong message. Drugs kill, and anyone advocating their use is little better than a killer.
Now that you have that off your chest, maybe you can lean back in your chair, look at some facts, and think about things a little.
The truth is that illegal recreational drugs, by and large, don't kill. The respected British newsmagazine The Economist estimates that a commercial airline flight is more likely to kill you than a hit of Ectasy is. The same goes for the most popular illegal recreational drug, marijuana. (Don't believe me? Get an almanac and compare drug usage statistics with drug death statistics.)
Admittedly, some people do die from some street drugs. But many of them don't die from the drugs themselves; they die from poor-quality drugs or accidental overdosing, both mainly effects of the fact that the production is unregulated. The same thing regularly happens with alcohol in countries where it is illegal; some back-room brewer makes a mistake and fifty people are blind or dead. The solution isn't to ban alcohol; it's to regulate its production to make sure it's safe.
And what about all the other drugs out there, the legal ones? It's a bit hypocritical to be telling kids "drugs are bad" when schools make money selling them caffeine and chocolate and the teachers are getting their nicotine fix in the staff lounge, right next to the government-provided coffee.
Think these drugs aren't dangerous or addictive? Think again. Unlike marijuana and ecstacy, caffeine and nicotine both cause physical dependency and withdrawl symptoms when you try to quit. A quick MEDLINE search will show you far more emergency room incidents for caffeine overdoses than marijuana overdoses. And don't get me started on mouth, throat, and lung cancer rates.
This, of course, says nothing about alcohol, which the majority of Americans use on a regular basis,and for which the body count, both direct and indirect, is orders of magnitude more than illegal recreational drugs. (Don't believe me? Again, take a look at your almanac.) Should we outlaw this too? We tried outlawing it before, and gave up because it didn't work. All it did was turn a lot of respectable, productive citizens into nominal criminals and channel vast sums of money into organized crime, who used it to build criminal empires and terrorize innocents. Gosh, doesn't that sound familiar?
So if you wanna save lives, bravo. But spending billions of dollars to save the small number of people killed each year by street drugs? And "saving" them by putting them in prison for twenty-to-life? That's just silly. If saving lives is your goal, the time and money are better spent elsewhere.
Appearently, we need to create a video games and a movies about people NOT taking drugs, and we'll be all set.
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
Of course the difference is that murder has a victim.
You seem to believe (as I do) that a secondary effect of drug use is crime (that is, crime with victims, like burglary.)
My question to you is: when has legislation EVER been effective at controlling secondary effects? EVER!?
I would speculate that prohibition on drugs has caused as much secondary crime as legalization ever could. The "war on drugs" basically created gangs. It turned safe (if depressed) housing projects into battlefields.
Money currently spent on interdiction, incarceration, and prosecution could be spent on treatment and education.
What we have to face, if we ever want to improve this problem, is that the only way to make a difference is ON THE DEMAND SIDE. We can?t stop EVERY drug sale. EVERY smuggler. In the end laws and law enforcement is a waste of effort. The drug war can only be won in the hearts and minds of potential drug users.
Now that I have said all of that, let me tell you how this affects me.
I don?t use any illegal drugs. I never have. I don?t have any reason to lie about this.
The reason that I care about this is freedom. Not the freedom to use drugs (which I think we have the right to, but as I said, this is not a right I choose to exercise) but more fundamental freedoms.
Before the ?war on drugs? the police didn?t kick the doors of private citizens? doors in on a DAILY basis. There weren?t places (like airports) where simply by being there your gave up your freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. It wasn?t okay for law enforcement agencies to confiscate your property, liquidate it, and add that money to their treasuries WITHOUT DUE PROCESS.
Ask your grandparents if, when they were your age, a police officer or sheriff?s deputy could pull you over, throw all your possessions in the street and still have his job the next day if he didn?t find anything.
We are going down the road of trading freedom for safety. It seems we might end up with neither. Do you think the streets are safer than they were forty years ago?
-Peter
Pain releivers kill, and anyone advocating their use is little better than a killer.
Automobiles kill, and anyone advocating their use is little better than a killer.
Electricity kills, and anyone advocating it's use is little better than a killer.
Life kills, and anyone advocating it is little better than a killer.
Yup, no matter how you apply that argument it is dirt fucking stupid.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Actually, the negative experiences with ecstasy come when after enough exposure to it, the body's regulation of its seratonin levels becomes disrupted. This results in profound depressions and other psychological disturbances. Oh, but one guy did some drugs once and wasn't negatively affected in any way he could discern. That must mean that anyone should be able to do drugs without any negative consequences, right? I'm sure any doctor who treats drug-related illnesses would be able to give you far more information. Oh, but that's just "propaganda."
--
share and enjoy
I do not support the legalization of drugs as a whole. I laugh at the people who want to legalize marijauna on the basis hemp can be useful for other things. I don't laugh at medical research on the use of cannabis for pain relief and nausea relief. I do support the decriminalization of drugs though. We need to create a society that allows this problem to be dealt with straight on, with users able to come forward for help if they want it.
We as a society are paying for this drug war in increased costs of running prisons, increased cost in emergency room visits by people taking poison instead of "USDA" certified drugs.
I have to kind of agree with those conspiracy theorists who say that if we really wanted to end rampant drug use in this country we could, but it is politically beneficial to have a universal ethnic enemy (i.e. Drug Lords, crack dealers). I'm not that simple that I think it is completely a race issue, but I can't help wonder if tobacco was grown by Columbians instead of wealthy white Southern gentlemen, that that part of history would be different.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.
Drugs kill
Damn. I didn't know that. I should be dead by now.
Not to say that taxed products aren't on the black market somewhere, but tell me which is easier? Finding a black market dealer to buy your carton of cigarettes/bottle of Jack Daniel's/tank of gasoline or just buy it at your local Qwik-E-Mart? Obviously the latter, which is why it's an effective solution. Tax the products heavily (since drugs don't cost that much to actually produce), but not so heavily as to make it unreasonable to purchase. Once there's a smaller profit margin in it, the drug dealers will be put out of business the old fashioned capitalist way. Then use the tax money for rehab and education programs.
How were these families "torn apart"? Is it because their loved one went to jail (a pretty common occurrence, considering half of the US's prisoners are in for drug-related charges)?
Is it because they were killed in a drug-related crime (once again, all too common. Everything from robbing a store to get money for drugs, innocent bystander shootings, or gang rivalries could fall into here)?
Or is it because they overdosed (surprisingly, not all that common relatively speaking. Especially on the softer drugs such as marijuana, which make up a large percentage of drug use, or Ecstacy, which the only "overdoses" reported so far are from heat exhaustion/dehydration from dancing too long or from other chemicals that purported to be Ecstacy. The harder drugs also cause less deaths than alcohol or tobacco, both of which are legal and noone complains about tearing families apart.)?
Drugs, in most cases, do not kill. Our nation's policies on drugs, however, do kill and cause side effects that leads to killings.
I blame the media.
Virtually all anti-drug people I have ever had a conversation with will spout an endless litany of lies and half-truths. Most of this 'info' comes straight from the media and is parroted by its reporters/editors on a regular basis.
Case in point: Ecstacy. Last summer a group of four people was arrested here (Gainesville,FL) for selling Ecstacy. The DEA said that the group dealt about 10,000 doses in town over the previous year. We have about 60,000 students and as many regular folks. Every article on the bust and resulting court cases used the phrase "the deadly drug Ecstacy" over and over. Near the end of the saga, towards the bottom of one article, was the total number of deaths in Alachua county due to Ecstacy or imposters: 0. Yep, nobody has died here from Ecstacy. Many people have died in other cities, but due only to imposter drugs--which didn't exist until after Ecstacy was banned--and from intentially overdosing, which people have been known to do on alcohol or their own prescriptions.
Recently there were hearings in Washington on the "Ecstacy problem" (sounds like Germany early last century...). A couple of high-school kids gave patently false testimony about being caught in the grip and it being the worst drug, yada yada. What they said has nothing to do with reality. Sure, some people become psychologically addicted to the feeling, but these kids made it seem like crack, which the user has to score & use constantly. That is 100% impossible with Ecstacy. I've only done it twice, but have been in the company of people who, IMHO, abused the fuck out of it. Their experience was nothing even close to what the kids gave testimony to in Congress. For Congress to get a fair picture, they should have interviewed Dr. Alexander Shulgin, author of PIKHAL: A Chemical Love Story. Dr. Shulgin synthesized Ecstacy and hundreds of other drugs and tested them in his home with close friends--all with very few negative experiences. The negative experiences with any drug seem to happen when people don't respect the drug's power and fail to take account of their 'set' (mental state) and 'setting' (physical environment). Dr. Shulgin's essays on his life, his relationships, and his experiences are truly beautiful and, unlike the anti-drug propaganda, actually true!
You have been warned. The pols and the media are lying to you. Next time a bunch of thugs in body armor bust in to a home in your city armed with submachine guns and riot shotguns to bust the 'evil drug dealers', pay close attention. The cops always say that they have to out-arm the drug dealers, and the media concurs. Nevermind that the dealers are virtually always unarmed (except street-level crack dealers) and the media will report them as armed if any weapon is found, even locked up in the nightstand. When was the last time the cops got into a gun battle with dealers? Anywhere?
The sole purpose of the media is to write outrageous stories that sell newspapers (sorry Dr. Wilson...).
Ewige Blumenkraft!
Ewige Blumenkraft!