Obama pumping another $130 mil into the war on drugs...

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm not advocating the legalization of all drugs for everybody, by the way. But anyway, I'd be curious to know how many people died worldwide in drug crime related incidents that happened only because the drug trade is illegal? I don't have a lot of faith in prohibition.

Nor do I. This is clearly a case of idiocy on the part of this Administration.

I'm unsure whether I would support legalizing stuff like meth or heroin. The libertarian part of me thinks that if people are stupid enough to get addicted, that's their business. The fact that addiction usually brings property crime in its wake causes me to think that legalizing those drugs is not in society's interest.

I was simply taking issue with the idea that ODs happen less than deaths on drug raids, is all.

Why should it be assumed that the best way to deal with those deaths is to keep the drugs illegal? Other countries have had better results regarding drug addiction as a public health issue rather than a crime.

Who is assuming what, here? It appears you're assuming I'm mounting an argument in favor of continued prohibition. I'm not, as noted above.

[JimC]

Yeah, sure, some drugs do kill people, but I'd wager that cops on raids kill just about as many.

I favor legalizing some drugs, but almost 27,000 people died of drug overdoses in America in 2007, albeit most from prescription-drug ODs. Still, you sure you want to wager about deaths on police raids? Cocaine and heroin alone accounted for 8,000 deaths that year.

I'm not advocating the legalization of all drugs for everybody, by the way. But anyway, I'd be curious to know how many people died worldwide in drug crime related incidents that happened only because the drug trade is illegal? I don't have a lot of faith in prohibition.

A reasonable start would be to decriminalise possession and growing of small quantities of cannabis...

And, of course, the home distillation of gin, by people with science degrees wearing cardigans...

[Audley Strange]

The alcohol, tobacco and security lobbies will never allow recreational drugs to be legal. All it takes is one junior casualty story now and again along with the "drugs ruin lives" mantra for it to be political suicide.

[Coito ergo sum]

What troubles me about this... I think it's beyond hypocrisy. I think it's something to do with class. A lot of people have accused Obama of class warfare, but in the wrong direction. I believe this is Obama chortling with Jimmy Fallon about lower class people. Do we believe, even for a second, that if Obama had been busted for marijuana -- under the laws that he condones -- would his life have been better? If Obama had been caught with the marijuana that he says he uses, and 'maybe a little blow'... if he had been busted under his laws, he would have done hard f*cking time. And if he had done time in prison, time in federal prison, time for his 'weed' and 'a little blow,' he would not be President of the United States of America. He would not have gone to his fancy-a** college, he would not have sold books that sold millions and millions of copies and made millions and millions of dollars, he would not have a beautiful, smart wife, he would not have a great job. He would have been in f*cking prison, and it's not a god damn joke. People who smoke marijuana must be set free. It is insane to lock people up.

- Penn Jillette http://nation.foxnews.com/penn-jillette ... eed-tirade

[Svartalf]

Legalisation, this idea has Wall Street written all over it? Is the $130 million going to be used for start-ups or will they just buy a stake in one of the big cartels and use the remainder for brand advertising?

I'm tellin' ya, if teh gummit gets in on the ground floor of the legal pot bizness, they be in like Flynn wit da global economy. Sheee...fuck dem Chinamans. They'll be owing us, 'fore long. An' we'll be all Chinese-eyed in the meantime.

Imagine they liberalize private use of opiates... you'll never want to leave Afghanistan, and will go back to Vietnam to stay.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I have a problem with the "industrial" side of drugs, and for good reason. I don't like it that men can hand someone a million dollars to look the other way and then bust a teenager's kneecaps because he failed to come up with $100 he owed them.

[Svartalf]

Yeah, sure, some drugs do kill people, but I'd wager that cops on raids kill just about as many.

I favor legalizing some drugs, but almost 27,000 people died of drug overdoses in America in 2007, albeit most from prescription-drug ODs. Still, you sure you want to wager about deaths on police raids? Cocaine and heroin alone accounted for 8,000 deaths that year.

I'm not advocating the legalization of all drugs for everybody, by the way. But anyway, I'd be curious to know how many people died worldwide in drug crime related incidents that happened only because the drug trade is illegal? I don't have a lot of faith in prohibition.

Would be far fewer deaths if they were legal and you could get standardized product... There've been ODs because the poor sods had unwittingly gotten very pure Heroin, and injected themselves the usual dose like when they had stuff that was half lactose.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

And education. I've seen guys die shooting China White, which is supposed to be smoked.

[Svartalf]

I suspect that even if there was very strong evidence that legalisation (or extreme liberaliaation) would result in fewer social problems related to drugs, fewer deaths and other positive outcomes, it would be politically suicidal to publicly propose that. Here in the UK a few public people have ended up ruining their careers proposing it.

the voter is a conservative moron, you have to reform violently and early in your term so that by the time you run for reelection, your stances have become the norm.

[JimC]

I suspect that even if there was very strong evidence that legalisation (or extreme liberaliaation) would result in fewer social problems related to drugs, fewer deaths and other positive outcomes, it would be politically suicidal to publicly propose that. Here in the UK a few public people have ended up ruining their careers proposing it.

the voter is a conservative moron, you have to reform violently and early in your term so that by the time you run for reelection, your stances have become the norm.

Or arrange for whatever your equivalent is of the Reichstag to be burnt down...

[Svartalf]

preferably with the MPs inside.

[Tero]

I favor legalizing some drugs, but almost 27,000 people died of drug overdoses in America in 2007, albeit most from prescription-drug ODs. Still, you sure you want to wager about deaths on police raids? Cocaine and heroin alone accounted for 8,000 deaths that year.

[/quote]
Wow, this is a good plan, what other program removes that many people off the books?