Posted on 10/22/2011 1:39:00 PM PDT by 4buttons
70 minute VIDEO- Former President of Mexico Vincente Fox speaks on ending the drug war.
(Excerpt) Read more at cato.org ...
What would likely happen, if you did legalize it and regulate it, like you do alcohol, is that users would learn to moderate their level of usage.
Will their be some stupids, who will abuse it? Yes, but probably no real greater numbers that already abuse alcohol.
Yes, bring out the troops and declare all out war and martial law. They can get it done under one year if they want to.
I take it you've never been in cartel controlled areas of Mexico. Indeed, the cartels are in the alcohol and tobacco distribution business - two of the largest confiscation of untaxed tobacco products occurred along the Mexican border as entire containerloads of counterfeit cigarettes bearing fake tobacco tax stamps were intercepted, bound for the highest taxed areas of the United States.
And I honestly wouldn't trust any popular hard liquor in cartel areas unless it was a rather unusual brand/flavor. In some parts of Laredo, it is shocking that the cartel moonshine hasn't killed anyone.
The problem isn't what is and what isn't legal, it is the corruption that gave birth to the cartels. And they will constantly expand their influence and hold over cartel controlled territories until they are exterminated.
If the price drops low enough, the incentive to risk one’s life and freedom for a couple of tokes also correspondingly drops.
“Make it legal to have massive coca fields near the border, and those fields will be under the armed control of the cartels, and nothing will have changed. Make it legal for huge marijuana plantations, and again, they’ll simply be armed cartel camps.”
Couple of minor points: Hate to invest in “massive coca fields” in northern Mexico, it won’t grow there; my drug lord would probably torture me thouroughly before killing me for suggesting such a waste of money.
Unlike oil, with legal status, America could become self-sufficient in pot or opium poppies almost overnight! No more dinero to cartels, terrorists or anyone abroad. I am reliably told that the finest quality pot in the world is grown here in the USA, some indoors, some in National Forests, never underestimate the ingenuity of the American entrepanuer!
More serious note: Elliot Ness did not end the alcohol-related violence and corruption spawned by Prohibition: the end of Prohibition did. Yeah, Ness took down Capone (on tax charges, not rum-running) after a two year effort and three more as bad or worse immediately jumped in. The ultimate speak-easy consumer probably never noticed the difference.
The criminality of drugs is EXACTLY what grew the cartels, and without that flow of illegal money they will wither away or shift to other businesses, possibly less lethal ones, as did American gangsters.
I want a shred of evidence the “War on Drugs” does anything save fatten the wrong pockets. Cocaine and heroin are cheaper, purer, and more available today than in 1980. Meth-heads can get their stuff more easily than I can get psuedophedrin in allergy season. Legalization will not result in any significant increase in use: ANYONE who wants ANYTHING can get it now.
No one would be desperate enough to take desomorphine if heroin was available.
My point is valid. Black markets simply can't compete with well-regulated legal markets. Why is that simple truth so hard for people to admit?
So how much tax will there be on the virginity of a nine year old girl? What regulations do you propose for cockfighting? Human slavery? Let me guess, all that magically goes away when drugs are made legal and well regulated?
I'll have to remember that if I happen to walk into one of the anti-personnel mines found in the Angeles forest less than five miles from my home in California, which for all intents and purposes has legalized marijuana cultivation.
Don't you mean the Mexican drug cartels who have grow sites in the Angeles forest near Los Angeles, the hills above San Mateo, the tribal lands near Seattle....
I don’t think Mexico should be legalized.
And here's one for you... When we lift the regulations on fat in our foods and smoking in private establishments, how long before laws against child prostitution are lifted?
kingu: I'll have to remember that if I happen to walk into one of the anti-personnel mines found in the Angeles forest less than five miles from my home in California, which for all intents and purposes has legalized marijuana cultivation.
I've never heard of such a thing around distilleries or tobacco fields. Now I wonder why that is?
Legalize theft today.
/sarc
Al Capone would've been a small time Brooklyn hood, BUT, thanks to "I know what's best for you..." DEMOCRATS, he bought and ran Chicago, because of the Federal price supports that Prohibition provided.
It's a sad fact of life, that some people are gonna get stoned. Can't stop it, can't control it, can't convince 'em otherwise.
Prohibition has always been the Great Societal Cureall. If we just get rid of booze, guns, drugs, DDT, Alare, Carbon Dioxide, corporations, private income, then the whole world will be rainbows and unicorns with piles of Skittles every 20 feet...
The War on Drugs has trashed the Constitution, with the WoD being used to justify 90% of the legal violations. Search and seizure, RICO laws, confiscation of property, limits on how much cash you can possess, SWAT teams, thousands slaughtered by an out of control policing system. AND, we are LOSING!
Can you honestly justify ANY of this?
You cannot separate those two things. They cannot just wreak themselves only.
Idea I floated a couple of days ago:
Problem:
The libs want to cut the Medicare budget and institute “death panels”. So, despite the fact that Grandma paid into Medicare her entire life, the government says that fighting to save her from cancer costs toooo much. So they want to put her in hospice and pump morphine into her until she croaks.
My creative idea:
Instead of putting Grandma into a hospice, put drug addicts into a hospice. When somebody gets busted for possession of heroin, cocaine, meth, etc., the Judge gives them a choice. They can go to jail, they can sign up for rehab, or they can go to an Addict Hospice. At the Addict Hospice they will be provided with hot meals, a bunk, and ALL OF THE DRUGS THEY WANT...FOR FREE. If the addict gets sober enough, we let them out to work at jobs. However, they don’t have to work. The addicts can just do drugs until they croak. Vasectomies/tubal ligations are mandatory so we don’t end up with a bunch of crack babies in the foster system.
Advantages:
1. Takes the profit out of drug smuggling, dealing, etc. Boohoo for the cartels, Afganis, crooked pols, et al.
2. Get the addicts off the street. Theft and other crime will drop. Hookers will disappear. STD rates will decline.
3. The addicts have no incentive to try and get others hooked in order to sell to them. Overall addiction rates drop.
4. Drugs are still illegal, except in the Addict Hospice. This is a compromise between maximum freedom and the safety of the community.
5. Providing meals and free drugs is MUCH CHEAPER than policing, prosecuting, incarcerating, etc. Police can put more resources into murder, white collar crime, etc.
6. All addicts have a DNR order (Do Not Resuscitate), just like Grandma.
I believe in freedom and free enterprise. If someone wants to consume alcohol or heroin until they die, I say, “Let ‘em”. Just so they are separated from society for the safety of the rest of us.
Bottom line: Instead of drugging Grandma to death, against her will, give the drugs to the people who have no interest in living beyond getting high.
Stupid is Forever...
1. Do you think theft should be a) a federal crime, or b) remain legal?
2. Where, in your opinion, does the Constitution delegate power to Congress to impose national marijuana prohibition?
The Chinese tried to control opium use. They killed everyone they caught with opium. Is that what you have in mind? Did it stop the Opium trade? No.
If it makes you feel any better, I understand WHY some people don't want it to end. Too many people, government agencies, local police departments, social workers, NEED to keep drugs illegal, because otherwise they'd be out of a job. The "IT's For The Children!!!" is pure COW droppings. It's so all these "warriors," who KNOW they are wasting their time, don't have to go out and have to learn how to do a real job.
I’ve done a lot of thinking on this legalization issue. First let me say that I don’t abuse drugs now and wouldn’t if they were legalized. I also don’t refrain from using drugs because they’re illegal.
As to legalization, I can see how it would be easy to legalize marijuana, but what about prescription drugs like oxycontin? That would kind of negate the logic behind the whole prescription requirements. Or meth, which is usually a toxic witches brew. I doubt the FDA would approve it.
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