The waron drugs is a colossal failure, but like a mental patient banging his head against a wall hoping the pain will stop, we keep fighting the un-winnable war. I just googled "Would making all drugs legal be bad?" and found lots of links, this is from one...
When the drug-drenched nation (of Portugal) legalized all drugs within its borders, most critics predicted disaster. Instead drug use has plunged dramatically.
Drug related deaths fell by 50%
The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of all drugs within its borders—from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in response to the country’s spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while simultaneously worsening the country’s already shockingly high rate of hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research, told Time: “Judging by every metric, drug decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country."
Back in 2001, Portugal had the highest rate of HIV among injecting drug users in the European Union—an incredible 2,000 new cases a year, in a country with a population of just 10 million. Despite the predictable controversy the move stirred up at home and abroad, the Portuguese government felt there was no other way they could effectively quell this ballooning problem. While here in the U.S. calls for full drug decriminalization are still dismissed as something of a fringe concern, the Portuguese decided to do it, and have been quietly getting on with it now for a decade. Surprisingly, most credible reports appear to show that decriminalization has been a staggering success.
The DEA sees it a bit differently. Portugal, they say, was a disaster, with heroin and HIV rates out of control. "Portugal's addict population and the problems that go along with addiction continue to increase," the DEA maintains. "In an effort to reduce the number of addicts in the prison system, the Portuguese government has an enacted some radical policies in the last few years with the eventual decriminalization of all illicit drugs in July of 2001."
However, as Greenwald concludes: "By freeing its citizens from the fear of prosecution and imprisonment for drug usage, Portugal has dramatically improved its ability to encourage drug addicts to avail themselves of treatment. The resources that were previously devoted to prosecuting and imprisoning drug addicts are now available to provide treatment programs to addicts." Under the perfect system, treatment would also be voluntary, but as an alternative to jail, mandatory treatment save money. But for now, "the majority of EU states have rates that are double and triple the rate for post-decriminalization Portugal," Greenwald says.
The last link is "Twelve reasons why drugs should be legalized", and seems to be a well written explanation. Drug users know how to get drugs and always will. So let them, as long as they're only harming themselves, where is the problem?
The fact that drugs are illegal is the true problem.
It's a problem. But making them legal trades one set of problems in for another set of problems. Countries that have tried legalization in various ways aren't what I'd call "problem-free."
True. Legalizing takes drug gangs out of the equation, lowers crime rates, and makes addiction less of a stigma and more of a treatable health problem. Take all the unemployed police, prison guards and lawyers legalization would bring and train them to be drug counselors. Turn the empty jails into factories. Then celebrate freedom of choice.
Long Island N.Y. has over 5 million people living there, and is car-centric. The predicted warnings of heavy snow caused almost all businesses and schools to shut down today, which probably saved many lives. About ten years ago two inches of snow paralyzed N.Y.City because they weren't prepared for it (upstaters had a good laugh then).
It doesn't matter what the mayor's office does to prepare for an emergency, there will always be someone there to say they were wrong to do it.
In N.Y., Gov. Cuomo didn't want a repeat of last year when people got trapped overnight in a snowstorm on the Long Island Expressway, so he shut it and all unnecessary road travel down, which was later lifted. Politicians know to act proactively when it comes to acts of Mother Nature, or suffer the backlash of voters later.
Sprays that obscure license plates from plate readers have been illegal to use in many states for some time now, I'd say anything that obfuscates readers would fall into this category (including the black plastic dealer frames for which you can be ticketed for).
At the time, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and his rich pals created a dis-information campaign against hemp, demonizing it as a real threat to society, when in fact they themselves felt their paper companies were threatened by the possibility of hemp taking over. Today we still live under the laws created then, and are burdened by them.
Education and drug treatment is key to the drug problem, not draconian laws that jail and destroy the lives of otherwise law abiding citizens. Make all drug use legal so the cost is not prohibitive, and you will see a huge drop in crimes like burglaries and car theft and many others. Let's let Darwin's law sort out those who can't properly use them. Alcohol is a legal drug, been declared a drug by the FDA for over 30 years now. How did prohibition work out? Oh yeah, made millions for the mob and hootch runners, and didn't solve anything, later repealed. You want to be a coke/heroin/meth head? Go for it, just know how life destroying it is to you and the people around you. Want to fly a plane or drive a bus/car/taxi/ or any job that requires being sober? Be a good parent to your kids? No, of course you can't be an addict to any substance and be able to do those things. Lose your job, kids, whatever, and go live your life of addiction. The heavy drugs do own the user, this is true. That's the price to be paid for not wanting to live a decent life. But to have heavy handed laws that target citizens for personal drug use is asinine, and not productive for society. Smoke a joint, eat a brownie, shoot heroin, that's all fine. As long as no one else is affected in any negative way by your personal conduct, there's no problem except for the user.
Of course, DEA deflated themselves the footballs to distracte public from this news. *sigh*
What's with the sigh? I never suggested that anyone in a 3 letter agency purposely sent agents to deflate footballs. However when a simple news story, or whatever TV show, takes over the publics attention, it keeps said public from seeing and hearing about issues that do matter.
I defer to your knowledge, Ms. Hudson. I personally haven't enough info to make an informed decision on this Kim guy, or what is or isn't safe for use in today's online life.
Those news stories are meant to keep the public distracted from what's really going on. It's the old pickpocket/magician's trick of misdirection, watch the left hand waving about, pay no attention to the other hand slipping into your pocket.
Oh, the boot-stompers have families to feed too, and we should consider this? I've taken on some jobs that I later learned were not in line with my moral coder. I quit and did something else, wasn't that difficult.
P.S. This wasn't picked as a/. worthy story, so here it is... http://slashdot.org/submission... kim-dotcom-launches-end-to-end-encrypted-voice-chat-skype-killer
A close (not so close anymore, unfortunately) relative of mine tried feeding me that line a few years ago when I complained to her that my phone was being screwed with. "Well,", she said, "if you're not doing anything wrong...." Hearing those words from her made my blood chill. That she works for the government in a job that she won't talk about, and knew years before it was public knowledge that Skype wasn't secure enough to use, told me everything I needed to know.
Law enforcement officials found no bombs on two planes at Atlanta's main airport after authorities received what they considered credible threats, FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett said.
The threats were originally posted to Twitter by @kingZortic. At about 3:51 p.m. the account, which had earlier challenged the FBI, CIA and NSA, posted an address on the 4500 block of West Schubert Avenue in Chicago and issued another challenge to "come get me I got guns, COME AT ME."
Chicago Police went to the address listed on social media and determined that the person behind the threats did not actually reside at that address, said News Affairs Officer Bari Lemmon. Police did not find any weapons and did not arrest or detain anyone, Lemmon said.
The threats targeted Southwest Airlines Flight 2492, which arrived at Atlanta from Milwaukee, and Delta Air Lines Flight 1156, which arrived from Portland, Oregon, said Reese McCranie, a spokesman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Both planes landed safely.
Chinese Officials Vow To Fix Nation’s Crumbling Reeducation System
BEIJING—Acknowledging that its current programs are insufficient to meet the needs of a fast-paced, 21st-century population, the Chinese Ministry of Justice held a press conference Friday affirming its commitment to fixing the nation’s crumbling reeducation system.
According to government officials, the steady decline in the quality of reeducation is evidenced by the system’s serious overcrowding, dilapidated correctional facilities, and outdated propaganda materials, which have left a large percentage of China’s political prisoners unprepared for life as obedient citizens.
“We are falling well short of the reeducation needs of this country and failing a whole generation of dissidents,” said justice minister Wu Aiying, lamenting that many institutions currently rely on standardized reprogramming curriculums that haven’t been updated since the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. “We need better reeducators who know how to use modern teaching and disciplinary technologies if we want to inspire our people to become fully subservient pawns of the state.”
Slashdot Mirror
When the drug-drenched nation (of Portugal) legalized all drugs within its borders, most critics predicted disaster. Instead drug use has plunged dramatically.
Drug related deaths fell by 50%
The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of all drugs within its borders—from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in response to the country’s spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while simultaneously worsening the country’s already shockingly high rate of hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research, told Time: “Judging by every metric, drug decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country."
Back in 2001, Portugal had the highest rate of HIV among injecting drug users in the European Union—an incredible 2,000 new cases a year, in a country with a population of just 10 million. Despite the predictable controversy the move stirred up at home and abroad, the Portuguese government felt there was no other way they could effectively quell this ballooning problem. While here in the U.S. calls for full drug decriminalization are still dismissed as something of a fringe concern, the Portuguese decided to do it, and have been quietly getting on with it now for a decade. Surprisingly, most credible reports appear to show that decriminalization has been a staggering success.
The DEA sees it a bit differently. Portugal, they say, was a disaster, with heroin and HIV rates out of control. "Portugal's addict population and the problems that go along with addiction continue to increase," the DEA maintains. "In an effort to reduce the number of addicts in the prison system, the Portuguese government has an enacted some radical policies in the last few years with the eventual decriminalization of all illicit drugs in July of 2001."
However, as Greenwald concludes: "By freeing its citizens from the fear of prosecution and imprisonment for drug usage, Portugal has dramatically improved its ability to encourage drug addicts to avail themselves of treatment. The resources that were previously devoted to prosecuting and imprisoning drug addicts are now available to provide treatment programs to addicts." Under the perfect system, treatment would also be voluntary, but as an alternative to jail, mandatory treatment save money. But for now, "the majority of EU states have rates that are double and triple the rate for post-decriminalization Portugal," Greenwald says.
http://www.thefix.com/content/...
http://content.time.com/time/h...
http://www.bmstahoe.com/Drugs/
The last link is "Twelve reasons why drugs should be legalized", and seems to be a well written explanation. Drug users know how to get drugs and always will. So let them, as long as they're only harming themselves, where is the problem?
The fact that drugs are illegal is the true problem.
It's a problem. But making them legal trades one set of problems in for another set of problems. Countries that have tried legalization in various ways aren't what I'd call "problem-free."
True. Legalizing takes drug gangs out of the equation, lowers crime rates, and makes addiction less of a stigma and more of a treatable health problem. Take all the unemployed police, prison guards and lawyers legalization would bring and train them to be drug counselors. Turn the empty jails into factories. Then celebrate freedom of choice.
Never hurts to have a roadmap before you start out.
So, did the inhabitants evolve into somewhat benevolent beings of pure energy, or just underground-dwelling mega-brains that like to keep pets?
"A QUESTION!"
"For over 10,000 of your Earth years, I have awaited..., A Question..."
Long Island N.Y. has over 5 million people living there, and is car-centric. The predicted warnings of heavy snow caused almost all businesses and schools to shut down today, which probably saved many lives. About ten years ago two inches of snow paralyzed N.Y.City because they weren't prepared for it (upstaters had a good laugh then).
It doesn't matter what the mayor's office does to prepare for an emergency, there will always be someone there to say they were wrong to do it.
In N.Y., Gov. Cuomo didn't want a repeat of last year when people got trapped overnight in a snowstorm on the Long Island Expressway, so he shut it and all unnecessary road travel down, which was later lifted. Politicians know to act proactively when it comes to acts of Mother Nature, or suffer the backlash of voters later.
No, why? You need a few bucks?
Sprays that obscure license plates from plate readers have been illegal to use in many states for some time now, I'd say anything that obfuscates readers would fall into this category (including the black plastic dealer frames for which you can be ticketed for).
At the time, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and his rich pals created a dis-information campaign against hemp, demonizing it as a real threat to society, when in fact they themselves felt their paper companies were threatened by the possibility of hemp taking over. Today we still live under the laws created then, and are burdened by them.
Education and drug treatment is key to the drug problem, not draconian laws that jail and destroy the lives of otherwise law abiding citizens. Make all drug use legal so the cost is not prohibitive, and you will see a huge drop in crimes like burglaries and car theft and many others. Let's let Darwin's law sort out those who can't properly use them. Alcohol is a legal drug, been declared a drug by the FDA for over 30 years now. How did prohibition work out? Oh yeah, made millions for the mob and hootch runners, and didn't solve anything, later repealed. You want to be a coke/heroin/meth head? Go for it, just know how life destroying it is to you and the people around you. Want to fly a plane or drive a bus/car/taxi/ or any job that requires being sober? Be a good parent to your kids? No, of course you can't be an addict to any substance and be able to do those things. Lose your job, kids, whatever, and go live your life of addiction. The heavy drugs do own the user, this is true. That's the price to be paid for not wanting to live a decent life. But to have heavy handed laws that target citizens for personal drug use is asinine, and not productive for society. Smoke a joint, eat a brownie, shoot heroin, that's all fine. As long as no one else is affected in any negative way by your personal conduct, there's no problem except for the user.
Of course, DEA deflated themselves the footballs to distracte public from this news. *sigh*
What's with the sigh? I never suggested that anyone in a 3 letter agency purposely sent agents to deflate footballs. However when a simple news story, or whatever TV show, takes over the publics attention, it keeps said public from seeing and hearing about issues that do matter.
I defer to your knowledge, Ms. Hudson. I personally haven't enough info to make an informed decision on this Kim guy, or what is or isn't safe for use in today's online life.
Those news stories are meant to keep the public distracted from what's really going on. It's the old pickpocket/magician's trick of misdirection, watch the left hand waving about, pay no attention to the other hand slipping into your pocket.
Oh, the boot-stompers have families to feed too, and we should consider this? I've taken on some jobs that I later learned were not in line with my moral coder. I quit and did something else, wasn't that difficult.
The fact that drugs are illegal is the true problem.
P.S. This wasn't picked as a /. worthy story, so here it is... http://slashdot.org/submission... kim-dotcom-launches-end-to-end-encrypted-voice-chat-skype-killer
A close (not so close anymore, unfortunately) relative of mine tried feeding me that line a few years ago when I complained to her that my phone was being screwed with. "Well,", she said, "if you're not doing anything wrong...." Hearing those words from her made my blood chill. That she works for the government in a job that she won't talk about, and knew years before it was public knowledge that Skype wasn't secure enough to use, told me everything I needed to know.
I, for one, welcome our new (Cuban internet nerds) Overlords!
Well If you're Pete Townsend of The Who you can just claim (after the fact) that it's "research" you were doing, no charges brought.
Yes, I knew that when I posted it wasn't on topic exactly. Still, seems like the rest of the world doesn't agree with U.S. patent laws.
Topics: mission status, Mars, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) http://www.planetary.org/blogs...
Interesting medical patent issues arising in Inndia against the US companies.... http://timesofindia.indiatimes...
The threats were originally posted to Twitter by @kingZortic. At about 3:51 p.m. the account, which had earlier challenged the FBI, CIA and NSA, posted an address on the 4500 block of West Schubert Avenue in Chicago and issued another challenge to "come get me I got guns, COME AT ME."
Chicago Police went to the address listed on social media and determined that the person behind the threats did not actually reside at that address, said News Affairs Officer Bari Lemmon. Police did not find any weapons and did not arrest or detain anyone, Lemmon said.
The threats targeted Southwest Airlines Flight 2492, which arrived at Atlanta from Milwaukee, and Delta Air Lines Flight 1156, which arrived from Portland, Oregon, said Reese McCranie, a spokesman for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Both planes landed safely.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
Yeah, I learned to drop my email from public view. Who needs that noise? (but, BBS's were great then...)
BEIJING—Acknowledging that its current programs are insufficient to meet the needs of a fast-paced, 21st-century population, the Chinese Ministry of Justice held a press conference Friday affirming its commitment to fixing the nation’s crumbling reeducation system.
According to government officials, the steady decline in the quality of reeducation is evidenced by the system’s serious overcrowding, dilapidated correctional facilities, and outdated propaganda materials, which have left a large percentage of China’s political prisoners unprepared for life as obedient citizens.
“We are falling well short of the reeducation needs of this country and failing a whole generation of dissidents,” said justice minister Wu Aiying, lamenting that many institutions currently rely on standardized reprogramming curriculums that haven’t been updated since the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. “We need better reeducators who know how to use modern teaching and disciplinary technologies if we want to inspire our people to become fully subservient pawns of the state.”
http://www.theonion.com/articl...