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Terahertz Scanners See Inside Sealed Packages
opticsorg writes "Japanese scientists have demonstrated a system that detects the presence of illicit drugs that are concealed within an envelope. Tests to date have shown that the imaging system can successfully detect and identify a range of substances including ecstasy (MDMA) and methamphetamine. The researchers are now working with companies to develop a mail screening system that could suit use in post offices and airports."
I wonder how this system would work on detecting a complex biological powder, such as Anthrax spores.
What communities are "Drug free" (other than those that are completly cut off from the outside world)?
Several decades? People having been doing drugs for a shit load longer than decades... try 100s if not 1000s of years!
I don't see how idiotic drug policy is inseprable from race... please enlighten us-
One of the best responses ever to this topic was penned by Senator Jim Inhoffe (R - OK). A constituent sent him a post card with no name, but a return address on it that said, "Legalize drugs." He had a staffer go down to the Senate gift shop and buy a postcard. He simply wrote "No." on it, signed it, and had it sent to the return address.
"Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
Try since before we even started thinking. We've been eating random stuff that fell into our hands since we had hands, I would imagine. As soon as the brain was developped enough to be able to remember that eating X makes you feel like Y, where Y was some pleasurable state, we started "doing drugs".
And how do you define drugs anyway! As the dude himself put it:
"If you're against biochemical assistance where do you draw the line? Nicotine? Alcohol? Penicillin? Vitamins? Conventional sacremental substance?" - Timothy Leary (The Politics of Ecstacy)
Daniel
Carpe Diem
attempting to gain the upper hand through technology is even stupider.
Especially if they can't scan every letter. The trivial work around is to mail letters with no return address from a random postal dropbox knowing that only some fraction of them will be intercepted. Given the price markup for illegal drugs, the losses are probably tolerable. Legalizing drugs would collapse the high mark-up, making both the scanning system and the way around it moot.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
yes... because we all know that no one underage ever gets cigarettes or alcohol. That method works like a charm.
Your cyncism -- or perhaps naivete -- is amazing.
This isn't a good comparison for the simple reason that no one is really trying to prevent kids from getting access to tobacco and alcohol, and the penalties for doing so are very, very light. If the laws regarding sale of tobacco and alcohol to minors were enforced with anything like the vigor applied to less dangerous illegal drugs, I am confident that the trade would drop off very sharply. If the average apathetic convenience store clerk or unscrupulous convenience store owner knew that one violation would lead to total forfeiture of all personal assets and 30 years to life -- as it can with possession of marijuana with intent to sell in some jurisdictions -- then you could bet your bottom dollar those clerks would check every ID and not sell a pack of cigarettes with a wink and a nod.
Frankly, I think it's worth doing and worth far more emphasis than minor problems like illegal drug abuse, which kill fewer people in a century than legal alcohol and tobacco kill in a month.
Of course, that would only make sense if the government and the conservative anti-drug factions were really interested in public health and not using their phony drug war (like their phony terrorism war) to expand the role of state terror in minimizing dissent and maximizing profit.
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