While I agree with the author that the war on drugs has been a complete failure from day one, his insinuation that this should be the most important issue in this election is just silly.
the U.S. has approximately four times the per capita level of cocaine use of a broad selection of countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Spain, Israel, Lebanon, South Africa, China, Japan, Mexico, and Colombia. Differing regimes of cannabis decriminalization have been instituted by Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Portugal, which latter country, even nine years after decriminalization, has among the lowest cannabis-use levels in the European Union.
And:
The result is a virtual civil war in Mexico, where 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence in the last four years, five times the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last nine years.
28,000 people killed in Mexico as an economic consequence of US incompetence and inability to deal with its own mess is really not that forgivable. First, do no harm…
Maybe Mexico should start commercially growing marijuana in very large quantities and then randomly catapulting it across the border so that all the drug gangs get exported to the US side of the border and the US actually has to clean up its own mess.
28,000 people killed in Mexico as an economic consequence of US incompetence and inability to deal with its own mess is really not that forgivable. First, do no harm…
While US drug law is a contributing factor, keep in mind it is Mexico’s responsibility to deal with Mexican crime and they have considerable resources for dealing with the problem. Don’t blame Mexico’s considerable faults on bad US law.
Prison is a big business in the USA, and ties in nicely with this article over on American Spectator “America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution”.
This is government money (our paid taxes) used to arrest people and then incarcerate them in for-profit prisons paid for with, you guessed it, our paid taxes.
Many people are getting very rich thanks to our nation’s drug policy.
As an aside, I find it amusing that I’m seeing localized (that is, based on my location IP info) ads on the NRO against Ken Buck (he’s the republican candidate for senator in Colorado of which I’m a resident currently). He wants to end our right to elect senators (that is, he favors repeal of the 17th Amendment). Given that I too favor ending our right to elect senators (though I have higher priorities, of course, as I imagine Mr. Buck has), the ad isn’t working for me.
Mr. Buck probably is advertising elsewhere, but the internet ad presence is definitely against him. I do wonder how much money is being burned in this campaign.
If Bob, Jim, or any of the other resident trolls and shills are undercover republican operatives, could you bump this information up the chain?
While US drug law is a contributing factor, keep in mind it is Mexico’s responsibility to deal with Mexican crime and they have considerable resources for dealing with the problem. Don’t blame Mexico’s considerable faults on bad US law.
Yes Mexico has problems enough so the US greatly contributing to them via its comprehensive grassroots sponsorship of drugs and official declaration of illegality that greatly increases the market price, creating almost all the demand for the drug violence industry, I think deserves considerable blame. What proportion of those 28,000 deaths would have occurred in the absence of US demand for the war of drugs? What proportion of those deaths would have occurred if Mexico had instead served that US drug demand in an official commercial manner?
I am not really much in favor of drugs myself, but I do have serious issues with making someone else pay for it. I suppose this is the new American way – personal responsibility be damed, blame Mexico and get them to do the dieing to stop US illegal drug consumerism.
People deride the oil industry for all the profits it reaps. All the while the hotel industry pulls in far more profits. Prison are hotels with tenants forced to lay over.
I’ve read arguments that the main reason Babs Boxer is doing so well against Carly Fiorina in the California Senate race polls is Prop 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on the ballot. Apparently it has generated considerable enthusiasm among a group of Democrats who would otherwise not make it through the “likely voter” screen.
What will be interesting is whether, in fact, the potheads turn out next Tuesday. I’m kind of mildly inclined to be doubtful, because anyone in that situation is probably not greatly concerned about legalization. I mean, he’d like it, but he’s probably not all that worried about the law as it stands, since he’s toking anyway. I’d think the biggest constituency for Prop 19 would be conservatives who would smoke dope but don’t, because they’re the kind of people who don’t do things if they’re illegal — either imbued with some strange strong respect for the law, or fearful of the consequences.
California is always in the vanguard when it comes to strange new experiments in democracy. There was the argument that Prop 8 (the no-gay-marriage initiative) passed in part because of the strong surge of black and Hispanic voters (who tend to be passionately anti-gay-marriage) because BO was on the ballot. Strange bedfellows indeed.
What will be interesting is whether, in fact, the potheads turn out next Tuesday. I’m kind of mildly inclined to be doubtful, because anyone in that situation is probably not greatly concerned about legalization. I mean, he’d like it, but he’s probably not all that worried about the law as it stands, since he’s toking anyway. I’d think the biggest constituency for Prop 19 would be conservatives who would smoke dope but don’t, because they’re the kind of people who don’t do things if they’re illegal — either imbued with some strange strong respect for the law, or fearful of the consequences.
I think turnout among the pothead crowd will increase for one simple reason. They’re collectively looking for some legitimacy even if the lifestyle doesn’t change. I doubt it’ll be very profound, because well, a bunch of them collectively aren’t so good at figuring out how to be somewhere even given a twelve hour window.
While I agree with the author that the war on drugs has been a complete failure from day one, his insinuation that this should be the most important issue in this election is just silly.
the U.S. has approximately four times the per capita level of cocaine use of a broad selection of countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Spain, Israel, Lebanon, South Africa, China, Japan, Mexico, and Colombia. Differing regimes of cannabis decriminalization have been instituted by Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Portugal, which latter country, even nine years after decriminalization, has among the lowest cannabis-use levels in the European Union.
And:
The result is a virtual civil war in Mexico, where 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence in the last four years, five times the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last nine years.
28,000 people killed in Mexico as an economic consequence of US incompetence and inability to deal with its own mess is really not that forgivable. First, do no harm…
Maybe Mexico should start commercially growing marijuana in very large quantities and then randomly catapulting it across the border so that all the drug gangs get exported to the US side of the border and the US actually has to clean up its own mess.
28,000 people killed in Mexico as an economic consequence of US incompetence and inability to deal with its own mess is really not that forgivable. First, do no harm…
While US drug law is a contributing factor, keep in mind it is Mexico’s responsibility to deal with Mexican crime and they have considerable resources for dealing with the problem. Don’t blame Mexico’s considerable faults on bad US law.
Prison is a big business in the USA, and ties in nicely with this article over on American Spectator “America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution”.
This is government money (our paid taxes) used to arrest people and then incarcerate them in for-profit prisons paid for with, you guessed it, our paid taxes.
Many people are getting very rich thanks to our nation’s drug policy.
As an aside, I find it amusing that I’m seeing localized (that is, based on my location IP info) ads on the NRO against Ken Buck (he’s the republican candidate for senator in Colorado of which I’m a resident currently). He wants to end our right to elect senators (that is, he favors repeal of the 17th Amendment). Given that I too favor ending our right to elect senators (though I have higher priorities, of course, as I imagine Mr. Buck has), the ad isn’t working for me.
Mr. Buck probably is advertising elsewhere, but the internet ad presence is definitely against him. I do wonder how much money is being burned in this campaign.
If Bob, Jim, or any of the other resident trolls and shills are undercover republican operatives, could you bump this information up the chain?
While US drug law is a contributing factor, keep in mind it is Mexico’s responsibility to deal with Mexican crime and they have considerable resources for dealing with the problem. Don’t blame Mexico’s considerable faults on bad US law.
Yes Mexico has problems enough so the US greatly contributing to them via its comprehensive grassroots sponsorship of drugs and official declaration of illegality that greatly increases the market price, creating almost all the demand for the drug violence industry, I think deserves considerable blame. What proportion of those 28,000 deaths would have occurred in the absence of US demand for the war of drugs? What proportion of those deaths would have occurred if Mexico had instead served that US drug demand in an official commercial manner?
I am not really much in favor of drugs myself, but I do have serious issues with making someone else pay for it. I suppose this is the new American way – personal responsibility be damed, blame Mexico and get them to do the dieing to stop US illegal drug consumerism.
People deride the oil industry for all the profits it reaps. All the while the hotel industry pulls in far more profits. Prison are hotels with tenants forced to lay over.
I’ve read arguments that the main reason Babs Boxer is doing so well against Carly Fiorina in the California Senate race polls is Prop 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on the ballot. Apparently it has generated considerable enthusiasm among a group of Democrats who would otherwise not make it through the “likely voter” screen.
What will be interesting is whether, in fact, the potheads turn out next Tuesday. I’m kind of mildly inclined to be doubtful, because anyone in that situation is probably not greatly concerned about legalization. I mean, he’d like it, but he’s probably not all that worried about the law as it stands, since he’s toking anyway. I’d think the biggest constituency for Prop 19 would be conservatives who would smoke dope but don’t, because they’re the kind of people who don’t do things if they’re illegal — either imbued with some strange strong respect for the law, or fearful of the consequences.
California is always in the vanguard when it comes to strange new experiments in democracy. There was the argument that Prop 8 (the no-gay-marriage initiative) passed in part because of the strong surge of black and Hispanic voters (who tend to be passionately anti-gay-marriage) because BO was on the ballot. Strange bedfellows indeed.
What will be interesting is whether, in fact, the potheads turn out next Tuesday. I’m kind of mildly inclined to be doubtful, because anyone in that situation is probably not greatly concerned about legalization. I mean, he’d like it, but he’s probably not all that worried about the law as it stands, since he’s toking anyway. I’d think the biggest constituency for Prop 19 would be conservatives who would smoke dope but don’t, because they’re the kind of people who don’t do things if they’re illegal — either imbued with some strange strong respect for the law, or fearful of the consequences.
I think turnout among the pothead crowd will increase for one simple reason. They’re collectively looking for some legitimacy even if the lifestyle doesn’t change. I doubt it’ll be very profound, because well, a bunch of them collectively aren’t so good at figuring out how to be somewhere even given a twelve hour window.