With the World's Highest Drug Use Rates, U.S. Fraudulent Drug Policy Is Fully Exposed

“…it's striking that the lifetime marijuana use rate in the U.S. (42.4 percent) is more than twice as high as the rate in the Netherlands (19.8 percent), despite the latter country's famously (or notoriously, depending on your perspective) tolerant cannabis policies. The difference for lifetime cocaine use is even bigger: The U.S. rate (16.2 percent) is eight times the Dutch rate (1.9 percent).”

Rest of Article Here

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

42.4 percent? I wouldn't have thought it was nearly high. Does that number really indicate pot-smokers in America?

Everybody smokes weed, i'd bet that that number is a lot higher.

I agree that marijuana should be legalised. The sheer prevalence of its use and the amount of crime (scofflaw and organised) that it generates is comparable to the Prohibition era with its ban on alcohol. Marijuana's bad effects are about equivalent to the effects of alcohol and tobacco (minus the carcinogens) combined, and both of those are legal. To a certain extent, there are a few more soft drugs that might fit into that category.

Unfortunately, there are also some hard drugs, including cocaine, which are just too nasty to be legalised. They are too addictive, and have too many negative effects. One advantage of legalising soft drugs would be the diversion of resources to go after the supply of harder drugs. You could probably even tax them fairly heftily and still reduce the price significantly from the illegal price levels.

I admit I smoked some when I was around 16 or 17, and I don't see it as any more or less dangerous than smoking a Cigar while drinking a Rum & Coke, both of which I now occasionally do.

Normally though, I don't drink or smoke, but I feel that, just like Prohibition, the so called "War on Drugs" simply put a LOT of people in jail and achieved no real results. This "Prohibition" just like the last one, needs to be repealed.

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http://www.nosocialism.com
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America is not a Socialist country, this is why the only democrats who ever win, are democrats who SOUND like Republicans (Hello Bill Clinton - "Low taxes, Free Trade, Welfare Reform, Era of Big Government Over" - Sounds Republican - Hello Barrack Obama - "My Tax Cut is Bigger than yours, Your Health Care Plan is Big Government, Parents need to take responsibility for their kids schooling]").

decriminalize and it will further impair our nation's economy
legal pills that are used instead of the illegal (but preferred) drugs will no longer sell well. can't undermine our pharmacological industry
and we will have a huge surplus of empty jail cells. with easy arrests no longer being possible the police will have to go after real criminals and the arrest rate will fall off appreciably. would not want to undermine those private contractors which own the prisons we are now filling with drug users
and think of those poor lawyers, who will have to start earning their money representing actual criminals. you want the army of attorneys to go hungry?
judges and district attorneys would no longer be able kick cases without public outcry because they would no longer be able to claim the court system is too crowded. they may have to actually prosecute real criminals
c'mon people, do not put our country at risk by doing the smart thing ... we passed that point years ago

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Quote:

"I like to watch the news, because I don't like people very much and when you watch the news ... if you ever had an idea that people were really terrible, you could watch the news and know that you're right."

Frank Zappa

The War on Drugs is bringing illegal drug use to a screeching halt. Just say No.


E.Pluribus Unum

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E.Pluribus Unum

People of power have NO good will and people of good will have NO power.

If you think Education is Expensive try Ignorance.

Its weak too speak and blame somebody else when you destroy yourself.

I'm glad that you feel that way, but if you vote for McCain (or Obama for that matter), the war on drugs will only continue as is.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

It doesn't matter how nasty the drug is. PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK! When the state prohibits something, in effect, it is saying to the criminal element, "Here is something that we've decided not to control. We are also going to spend billions to try and eliminate it. This will drive its price way up so you criminals can make a fortune."

Here are the problems. Here are the parts of the drug industry who will oppose legalization.

Part 1. The growth and distribution industry i.e. the criminals. They will be financially destroyed. Nothing is more lucrative than illegal drugs. What do they do with the huge infrastructure they have developed.

Part 2. The enforcement industry. They will have to find other jobs.

Part 3. The incarceration industry. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. They lose billions and what to do with the buildings?

Part 4. The corrupt officials who profit from the drug industry. Probably a pretty large group.

Part 5. People who believe so strongly that it is wrong that they are unable to appreciate or don't care about the consequences of prohibition. People who believe that every transgression must be punished.

There are probably other groups that I don't know about.

From a 1998 report~

Holland has decriminalized drugs and tried harm reduction. Since the softening of drug policy there, shootings have increased 40%, robberies 62%, and car thefts 62%. This experiment which was meant to decrease organized crime has resulted in an increase in organized crime families from 3 in 1988 to 93 today.

and

The Dutch have not raised one dollar in tax revenue from drug sales, and drug violators account for 50 percent of the Dutch prison population, a higher proportion than in the United States. The Netherlands is the most crime-prone nation in Europe and most drug addicts live on state welfare payments and by committing crimes. Nationwide, the number of reported crimes increased to 1.3 million in 1992 from. 812,000 in 1981. Faced with public disgust at home over soaring drug related crime and pressure from other European Community countries to strengthen drug laws, Dutch authorities are implementing an aggressive program to reduce drug-linked crimes and disturbances and show new teeth in combatting illegal drug sales. Eberhard van der Laan, leader Of the Social Democrats in the Amsterdam City Council says, "People are absolutely fed up with all the troubles caused by drug addicts - car windows broken, noise, whole streets almost given up to the drug problem." Legalization advocates claim that marijuana use in Netherlands has not increased since the laws were liberalized, but the number of Amsterdam drug cafes rose from 30 to over 300 in one decade. They also fail to note that daily marijuana use by U.S. youth has declined by 75 percent.